The Curse Of The Indy 500

On May 30, 1958, thousands of racing fans poured into the infield at dawn to claim the best seats of the Indianapolis 500, unaware that they were going to witness one of the most notorious wrecks in racing history. Seconds after the green flag, a game of chicken spiraled out of control into a fiery 16-car pile-up that claimed the life of 29-year-old Indiana native and rising star Pat O'Connor. The other drivers escaped death, but the tragic 1958 Indy 500 seemed to leave its mark on them: the surviving drivers were hounded by accidents and terrible crashes, and most would die at tracks around the country. But the tragedy also prompted new regulations and safety precautions like roll bars that would ultimately save hundreds of lives. In The Curse of Indy 500: 1958's Tragic Legacy, veteran sportswriter Stan Sutton profiles the ill-fated race and the careers of the drivers involved, highlighting their lives in the dangerous world of auto racing.

As a pit reporter for ABC Sports, Jack Arute has become one of the most recognizable faces of the Indianapolis 500. From his initial fear of approaching A.J. Foyt in the garage as a cu reporter to watching Danica Patrick rewrite the role of women in motorsports when she became the first woman to lead a lap in the 89th running of the race, ?Jackie? has seen it all. He now relates all of his greatest, funniest, and most meaningful stories in Jack Arute's Tales from the Indy 500.

What’s it like to race across the blacktop of the nation’s most famous track? How does it feel to smash into a concrete wall while going over 200 miles per hour? This exciting, humorous, and poignant collection of tales takes readers inside the most thrilling race in America. Newly updated, Tales from the Indianapolis 500 captures horrific collisions and sweet victories from drivers past and present. With the 100th race approaching, the excitement and history of the Indy 500 will be on the mind of every racing fan. Author and renowned broadcaster Jack Arute exposes readers to a fast-paced world of high-speed thrills and unbelievable wipeouts. Beginning with his first encounter at the iconic race, along with stories from racing legends like Ray Harroun, and memorable races stretching up to the present day, Arute captures an entire culture of its own. NASCAR fans, whether young or old, will revel in the chance to experience the Indy 500 from within these pages. There’s no doubt readers will feel like they’re actually there! Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Sports Publishing imprint, is proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in sports—books about baseball, pro football, college football, pro and college basketball, hockey, or soccer, we have a book about your sport or your team. In addition to books on popular team sports, we also publish books for a wide variety of athletes and sports enthusiasts, including books on running, cycling, horseback riding, swimming, tennis, martial arts, golf, camping, hiking, aviation, boating, and so much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to publishing books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked by other publishers and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

One hundred years ago, 40 cars lined up for the first Indianapolis 500. We are still waiting to find out who won. The Indy 500 was created to showcase the controversial new sport of automobile racing, which was sweeping the country. Daring young men were driving automobiles at the astonishing speed of 75 miles per hour, testing themselves and their vehicles. With no seat belts, hard helmets or roll bars, the dangers were enormous. When the Indianapolis Motor Speedway opened in 1909, seven people were killed, some of them spectators. Oil-slicked surfaces, clouds of smoke, exploding tires, and flying grit all made driving extremely hazardous, especially with the open-cockpit, windshield-less vehicles. Bookmakers offered bets not only on who might win but who might survive. But this book is about more than a race--it is the story of America at the dawn of the automobile age, a country in love with speed, danger, and spectacle.--From publisher description.

This title explores the legends and lore behind the billy goat, the Bambino, and other suspicious phenomena in the world of sports. The title also features informative sidebars, a glossary, and further resources. SportsZone is an imprint of Abdo Publishing Company.

The Indianapolis Speedway Race is the most exciting one of all, held on the largest track in America, with the most in-attendance fans, and the largest TV audience of any sporting event anywhere, anytime. It is a dangerous, challenging race that is the most important one of all to win for the drivers. If you win at Indy, your future is assured. You are famous. You will get sponsors and you will be paid to advertise products. An Indy winner is set for life in this sport. Fans know this, and cheer on their favorite drivers. But this race is dangerous, and many drivers have lost their lives attempting to win at Indy. They seem somehow to go "over the line" at Indy, as Rick Mears does in this book, in an effort to win. Real fans want them to try harder and harder to win, but real fans don't want any driver or spectator to be hurt, or worse. So real fans cheer when Mears goes high into dangerous territory on the track, rather than low where the risk is less. Every fan should see this race in person at least once.

"Just before high noon on May 30th, 1964, the Indy 500 stopped for the first time in history. Seven cars had crashed in a fiery accident, killing two drivers, and threatening the very future of the 500. In this tight, fast-paced narrative, Art Garner expertly reconstructs the events, circumstances, and fatal decisions leading up to the sport's blackest day. Recalling a bygone era when drivers lived hard, raced hard, and at times died hard, Black Noon takes readers back to the last race won by a front-engined roadster, to before the switch from gasoline to methanol, to tell one of the great untold stories in sports. Informed by his extensive interviews including six of the seven surviving drivers, Garner brings to life the greatest names in racing - A.J. Foyt, Dan Gurney, Parnelli Jones, Bobby Unser, and Johnny Rutherford - focusing on Eddie Sachs and Dave MacDonald, the two very different drivers whose lives accelerated toward the same catastrophic end that day. Publishing for the 50th anniversary of this iconic event, Black Noon remembers the race that changed everything and the men that heralded the Golden Age of Indy car racing"--

In a nation that worships the automobile for the freedom, style, and status that it confers, the Indianapolis 500, run on or near Memorial Day eighty-seven times, is an annual rite of passage celebrating Americans' love affair with speed. Indy recounts the drivers (677 men and 3 women) who have gone to Indianapolis in the past ninety-five years to live their dreams, staking their lives on the outcome. It highlights the faces in the crowd: hardworking Americans, tinhorn celebrities, hookers, movie stars, gate-crashers, and five American presidents. Terry Reed focuses his narrative on the track's four quarter-mile-long turns, each the site of triumphs (including those of such multiple winners as Billy Vukovich, A. J. Foyt, and Helio Castroneves); grisly deaths (at least sixty-six, including three unrelated men of the same unusual last name who died in the same turn but in different decades); and bizarre heroics (like the sans souci French driver who downed champagne throughout the 1913 Indy 500 and still won). Reed also examines Indy's confluence of racing and aeronautics (World War I flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker once owned the track) and the impact upon the event of such forces as segregation, gender politics, food, fads, publicity stunts, world-class partying, and tasteless pop culture. Indy takes readers on an entertaining, full-throttle ride through the history of one of the world's most famous races and one of America's most hallowed rituals. It is the definitive account of the crown jewel of American motorsports.

Traces the story of gangster Michael Joseph Boyle, describing his activities as a corrupt leader of Chicago's most powerful union, his friendly relationship with Al Capone, and the controversial events surrounding the 1937 Vanderbilt Cup competition.

This book started as a self-serving exercise to personally organize the major details and interesting facts of each Indianapolis 500 over the hundred-plus-year history of the greatest race in the world. For many of us passionate racing fans who have attended a multitude of 500s, there is a tendency for the details of the races to (somewhat) blend together. I hope this book will help to provide clarity in this regard as well as educate. During high school, many of us chose to use CliffsNotes to assist in the education process. This book is somewhat patterned after that concept. It falls somewhere between Donald Davidson and Rick Schaffer—the best and by far the most detailed book on the history of the Indianapolis 500—and a multitude of pictorial books with limited information. I hope it will prove to be an easy read with entertaining and educational information.