Neck gator worn by Indy car driver John Mahler during the 1979-1980 season
name: label: user
content: Mahler, John
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: Nomex neck gator worn by Indy car driver John Mahler during the 1979-1980 season. The nomex neck gator is white and covers the neck area in between the driver's helmet and his suit. Mahler was a driver for Leonard W. Miller's Vanguard Racing, Inc. in 1972 and a team mate to Vanguard's African American driver, Benny Scott. Mahler, a white driver, competed in the 1972 Indianapolis 500 as the driver for Vanguard Inc. making Vanguard the first African American owned team to enter a car in the Indianapolis 500. Vanguard Racing Inc. would reorganize as Black American Racers Inc., an African American auto racing team founded in 1973 by Leonard W. Miller, Wendell Scott, Ron Hines and Malcolm Durham, who were members of the Black American Racers Association (BARA). The goal of BARA was to organize African-American drivers, mechanics, engineers, crew members and owners in stock car, open wheel and drag racing, and pave the way for greater success for African Americans in motor sports.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
topic: label: name of sport
content: auto racing
label: level of sport
content: Professional
label: web subject
content: African American
setName: label: See more items in
content: Culture and the Arts: Sport and Leisure
label: See more items in
content: Sports & Leisure
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2016.0353.05
label: accession number
content: 2016.0353
label: catalog number
content: 2016.0353.05
objectType: label: Object Name
content: neck gator
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: fabric, cotton (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: fabric, nomex (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 11 in x 12 in; 27.94 cm x 30.48 cm