The Waterbury Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1917-1946, 1935-05-31
rain AIDED KELLY
PETTLLO VICTORY
in 5OO-MILE RACE
Wilbur Shaw Made Flying
Finish for Second;
Weatherly Killed
BY HENRY McLEMoRE
United Press stan Correspondent

49, 1870 Nf>rAANANAA
Indianapolis. May S1-(UP)---
Kelly Petillo, who learned his driv-
ing behind the wheel Of a fruit
truck in Los Angeles. today isn't
worrying any more about where
his spare automobile parts are
coming from.
He had $4,000 and the prospect
Of a great deal more before the
next Indianapolis 500-mile speed
way race rolls around. Kelly to.
day was the king of American
drivers. winner of the 1885 classic,
He won it with a car that his %
rivals still insist was held together
with piano wire, a bit of Irvine
from the corner grocery, and o
couple of rolls of adhesive tape
But he won 1t just the same, and
in hours 2S minutes at the swift
est average the race ever saw
106.264 miles per hour.
Came to Life
Eight days ago you wouldn't
have bet nickel against the $780,
600 that he won for first prize,
$2,060 for lap prizes and the rest
for accessory prizes, because Kel-
ly's automobile was spread all over
one of the turns that cost Clay
Weatherly, the "a year old Illinois
driver, his life in yesterdays race.
Weatherly was the fourth casualty
of this years race, and the
~. l. To -
Many of Kelly's rivals knew he
had the fastest job in the race, but
neither they nor the record crowd
Of $4,000 ever expected 1t would
last SO 0miles. But Kelly hung of
the pace for the first 240 miles,
letting his arch-rival from Cali
fornia, Rex Mays, burn up the
track. Then when Mays went out
with a broken spring shackle OH
the 9Sth lap Petillo, who had never
been worse than fourth. shot into
the lead and held it to the finish.
"Brcak" for Kelly
Sixty miles from home, a sprink-
ling of rain wet the track, causing
the officials to slow the field for
IS miles to IS miles an hour. The
shower did not let up until Kelly
was only 25 miles from home.
Wilbur Shaw and Wild Bill Cum
mings, last years winner, who laid
back and figured to make their
great bid in the stretch, were as
completely stymied by the weather
as Petillo was aided. After the
rain, when he saw he could not
overtake Petillo, Shaw concentrat-
ed on beating Cummings out for
the $4,000 second prize. Even so,
he finished only 35 seconds behind
the winner, the better part of a lap
back, while Cummings was a full
FIVE miles in Kelly's wake.
OF the original SO starters, only
Is were on the track at the finish.
Death Car
Weatherly came to grief in the
first rs miles. Coming out of the
northwest turn and heading into
the mile long straightaway in front
of the huge grandstands, the car,
a comber black Miller that cost
the life of Johnny Harmon in the
practice runs week ago, got out
of the "a year old drivers control,
smacked the protective wall and
rocketed through the wooden fence
into the infield in full view of tens
of thousands of spectators. AS
the car crumpled in heap,
Weatherly and his mechanic, Ed
win Bradburn of Los Angeles.
were tossed clear. Weatherly was
dead of fractured skull and Brad
burn today lies in a hospital here,
desperately injured. He suffered
several fractured vertebrate in the
middle section of his spine, but
hope for his recovery was increased
by the fact that he showed no
signs of paralysis.