Indy 500 & Billy Vukovich

Billy Vukovich 1947

Vukovich won Indy in 1953, 54 --
crashed and died in 1955

In retrospect, auto racing is a strange sport to follow on radio -- but the Indy 500 on Memorial Day as a Big Deal when I was growing up in Pasadena in the late 40s, early 50s, something dad listened to religiously, the radio volume turned up, zoom zoom zoom! and the announcers barely audible over the engine racket. And this for a few hours. Dad was a big fan of the original Billy Vukovich, first following him on midgets, later the bigger Indy cars. As a kid, my brother would "play Billy Vukovich," racing his tricycle around the neighborhood.