Irish Luck

George Francis Patrick Flaherty was riding his Irish luck. Rolling out for the Indianapolis 500-mile Memorial Day auto race, he wore a jaunty shamrock on his helmet, and he didn't give a tinker's dam for the auto racers' superstition that green is the devil's own color on the track. With his John Zink Special, almost an exact copy of last year's winner, 30-year-old Pat Flaherty had already spun through his trial heats fast enough to set a one-lap record: 146.056 m.p.h. In the big test itself, freckle-faced Flaherty, a truant from his Chicago taproom, felt sure that he had "the horses" to outrun his competitors. The trick was to stay in front of trouble.

It was quite a trick. The "Big Spin in the Brickyard" has always been a race with disaster, and this year was no exception. With only 50 miles behind him, Veteran Paul Russo, pushing the only V-8 engine in the pack (a supercharged Winfield that can turn up to 8,000 r.p.m.), pushed a little too hard. The wicked acceleration of his Novi Vespa Special spun a tire loose on its rim, the valve stem tore, and the resulting blowout sent the racer careening into the south wall. The Novi exploded in a great, greasy ball of flame, but Russo walked away. Behind him, four cars (out of 33 entered) swirled into a slow-motion mixup.

Terrible Strain. Tires were the toughest problem. They were inflated to a rock-hard 60 Ibs. (until this year competitors had settled for a relatively soft 40 Ibs.), and to make matters worse, the track's new blacktop surface seemed especially abrasive. Every time there was an accident, the yellow caution lights went on, warning drivers to hold their positions. During the unregulated moments when the track was clear, drivers roared to top speed. So the long grind degenerated into a series of lopes and sprints.

All the while Flaherty stayed out in front, where he had installed himself on the 76th lap (of 200). Behind him, Bob Sweikert, last year's winner, blew a tire after 325 miles, bounced off a wall and rolled to the pits on his rim; he never made up his lost time. Another car, its brakes locked, spun into the pits, caromed off a competitor and hit a mechanic. Tires kept popping, and the yellow lights flared; three drivers, two pit crew members and two spectators were injured.

Easy Ride. Like every other driver except Russo, Pat Flaherty rode behind a four-cylinder Meyer-Drake Offenhauser engine that whined up to 6,000 r.p.m. as it put out about 350 h.p. But his engineer and pit chief, A. J. Watson, had planned for the problems of the hopped-up track. The Zink Special had been shaved down four inches in width, its side panels fabricated from magnesium to reduce weight. Its tires, as a result, had an easy ride. Flaherty needed only two pit stops, averaged 128.49 m.p.h. for the 500 miles. Most important of all, his luck lasted. He swept past the checkered finish flag only 22 seconds ahead of Veteran Sam Hanks. And as he rode through one extra "insurance" lap, his throttle linkage snapped. Minutes earlier, the accident would have cost him the race.

As Pat Flaherty well knew, the "500" is always like that. All goes well for the man in front; the boys in the back ride with trouble. By getting in front and staying there, Driver Flaherty got the $93,819 winner's purse, including $19,050 in lap prizes--the juiciest reward of any Memorial Day drive.

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