The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-05-09
TONY WINS BUT COURAGE HONORS ARE EVEN SAYS JO
Henry Rides
Track Again
But Scribe Takes 1t Easy
to Inspect and Praise
Rebuilt Curves.
BY HENRY McLEMORE

Il liz AOAOW wiz -bSGh lilC Gll NY
a first ride around the Indian
apolis Speedway is dead. So is the
cheerful little bug of mechanic
who helped shove my $50 pounds
down into the seat that was built
for more lithesome chassis. Both
Ernie Triplett and Spider Matlock
went the way they expected-a skid.
a crazy spin, and then over the wall.
I took my second ride around the
two-and-a-h alf-mile saucer yester-
Gay, and it was quite a bit different
from the. one in 1888. On that first
ride, with Ernie cunning the little
red Miller to the foorboard, we came
down the straightawayS at 40 or
- tier, to dive into the turns with
the tires screaming, and my heart in
my mouth.
Nothing like that yesterday. I
drove my own car, sedan number
v with a luggage rack, golf bags in
the back, and road maps scattered
over the floor. I took it easy, for I
wasn't looking for thrills, but rather
for concrete evidence that Capt. Ed
Gle Rickenbacker and Pop" Myers,
the Speedway operators, had not
been kidding when they said recent
improvements had made their track
the safest high speed racing course
in the world.
T STUDIED the first tu1n partic-
L ularly, for 1 remembered it from
1888 as a heller" When I hit it
with Triplett it was narrow, slick,
bumpy, and guarded on the right
by retaining wall which, if hit,
tended only to act as sort of lethal
springboard which sent the car
hurtling off the track into the trees.
I'll never forget the big hole in
the middle of the turn, just in front
of the grandstand. Triplett hit it
at top speed and thought I was
with the angels. 1 was thrown clear
of the seat, and my head poked up
above the wind screen, where the
wind dashed the goggles off my eyes
and nearly blew my eyeballs through
my head. That bump is gone now,
and all it's :ittle brothers and sisters.
The turn is as smooth as sur
faced highway. and guarding its
top is a wall whose concrete and
inlaid steel ribs are guaranteed to
withstand a ton or more of rocket
ing steel.
DUT most important, the turn is
- wider by so feet or more. Cars
will be able to come through four
or five abreast at the next Memorial
Day race. They used to have to
come through almost single file.
The extra width is at the bottom of
the turn, and affords an ideal place
for an out-of control car to spin
until it gets over its dizzy spell. In
the pasta wild car had nowhere
to spin but on the track proper,
and a majority of the fatalities and
Injuries were the result of crashes
between it and a car coming up
from behind.
All the turns have been provided
with this spinning room," but it
was the first turn which needed it
the most. For the nightmare of the
Speedway officials, for "a long time,
has been the possibility of a jam
on the first curve. on the first lap
of the race. Thirty or more cars
hammer into the curve together at
the start of the race, and on mar
row track an accident to the lead
ing cars would have led to a fiend-
ish pileup. Now if a pace-setting
car gets in trouble, the driver can
duck into the spinning room" and
keep the roaring road clear.
The most dangerous thing at the
Speedway now is the press box, a
triple decked pagoda article which
should have been condemned years
ago, intellectually and otherwise.
THE safety measures at the
l. Speedway have created two
schools of thought. One school be-
lieves that with the danger went the
thrills. The other maintains that
there was nothing thrilling about
seeing man catapulted out of his
car to violent death.
I lean toward the second school.
I always shuddered when the yellow
flag was broken out, and the am
bulance played its wailing theme
song. Moreover, the smoothing out
of the track should increase the
speed, and that's what I like in my
racing-speed and more speed.