Art Cross

Art Cross

Nation:	United States
Automobile world championship
First start:	Indianapolis 500 1952
Last start:	Indianapolis 500 1955
Constructors
1952 Ray T Brady 1953 Bessie Lee Paoli 1954 Ed Walsh 1955 Murrell Belanger
statistics
World Cup balance:	World Cup tenth ( 1953 )
Starts Victories Poles SR 4th - - -
World Cup points :	8th
Podiums :	1
Leadership laps :	32 over 129.736 km

Arthur "Art" Cross (born January 24, 1918 in Jersey City , New Jersey , † April 15, 2005 in LaPorte , Indiana ) was an American racing driver .

The beginnings

When he turned 18, Art Cross decided to buy a midget car . He and a few of his friends improvised a racetrack in a rarely used parking lot. A few months later they were watched by a racing team owner who after a while invited them to take part in a race in Long Island . Art was chosen to drive the vehicle. This is how his racing career began, which took him to all the racetracks in what was then the USA.

For most of his midget career he drove cars for Roscoe "Pappy" Hough. Hough owned five of these little racing cars, which earned his racing team the name "five little pigs". Most of the time they drove six or seven nights a week.

The worldwar

In 1941 his career was interrupted by the Second World War. He spent the next three years in various theaters of war in Europe. He was wounded in the Battle of Bulge and then awarded the " Purple Heart ".

After his return, Cross started racing again pretty quickly. He started again with the Midget Cars and became more and more successful. Almost regularly he was first or second in the races. His salary soon rose from $ 15 a week to $ 30.

The marriage

After a race in Patterson , a mutual acquaintance introduced him to Margaret, his future wife. Allegedly he said to her at the first meeting: "You look like the girl I want to marry." ("You look like the girl I want to marry."). The two married on April 11, 1946 and had two daughters and a son.

The stock cars

During the late 1940s, stock car racing became increasingly popular in the United States. Cross also took part in these races with his colleagues from the Midget scene. However, he complained several times that the stock car drivers did not value the “midget guys” very highly. For this reason, Cross and others were deliberately kicked out of the races through collisions and accidents. In 1949 he gave up this type of race and moved with his family to LaPorte County , Indiana.

Formula 1 and the Indianapolis 500 mile race

On one of the few days on which he did not drive his own races, he attended the 35th Indianapolis 500 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway . While watching the race, he is said to have said to himself: “I can do that too.” That happened in May 1951, a year later he drove the Indy 500. A friend gave him the opportunity to test laps in Carl Scarborough's car to drive. It was just under 1 mile / hour. slower than Scarborough and therefore could not leave a lasting impression. However, Scarborough caused an accident while training and crashed into the boundary wall. Cross spoke to the racing team owner about his own driving skills in this corner, got the cockpit and qualified 20th this year.

Cross finished the race in fifth and was voted "Rookie of the Year" and entered the "Speedways Hall of Fame" (Hall of Fame for the best Indy riders). In 1953 he drove a Springfield Welding Special owned by the only female racing team owner, Bessie Paoli. Cross started on the fourth row and finished second behind his friend Bill Vukovich .

In his third race in Indianapolis, Cross started in a Bardahl Special by Ed Walsh. He started the race from 27th on the grid and when Vukovich took his second win in a row, Cross finished 11th and even led for eight laps. In the same year he drove in the Champ Car Series in Darlington and Milwaukee , where he was 5th and 6th.

The last race

In his fourth and final Indy participation, he led 24 laps until he broke after a wave in the engine and threw him back hopelessly, so that he only finished 168 laps and gave up the race. Three months later he drove in Milwaukee and led the race to a spin. After restarting the race, which is still common today, he fought his way back to first position until he ran out of gas. His mechanics had put a canister with a gallon of gasoline in his car for this case, but he was unable to refuel himself while driving and had to pit. Despite this unusual course of the race, he still came in fourth.

After this race he ended his career. According to rumors, because his friend Vukovich had died a year earlier, but he is said to have said that he could no longer cope with the separation from his family.

statistics

Indy 500 results

year	Start number	begin	Agony (km / h)	Result	Round	guide	failure
1952	44	DNQ
	33	20th	216.083	5	200	0
1953	33	DNQ
	16	12	220,959	2	200	0
1954	6th	DNQ
	45	27	223.148	11 5	120	8th	Handover to Parsons
1955	99	24	223.277	17th	168	24	Lathe operator

Legend
colour	abbreviation	meaning
gold	-	victory
silver	-	2nd place
bronze	-	3rd place
green	-	Placement in the points
blue	-	Classified outside the point ranks
violet	DNF	Race not finished (did not finish)
	NC	not classified
red	DNQ	did not qualify
	DNPQ	failed in pre-qualification (did not pre-qualify)
black	DSQ	disqualified
White	DNS	not at the start (did not start)
	WD	withdrawn
Light Blue	PO	only participated in the training (practiced only)
	TD	Friday test driver
without	DNP	did not participate in the training (did not practice)
	INJ	injured or sick
	EX	excluded
	DNA	did not arrive
	C.	Race canceled
		no participation in the World Cup
other	P / bold	Pole position
	SR / italic	Fastest race lap
	*	not at the finish, but counted due to the distance covered
	()	Streak results
	underlined	Leader in the overall standings

literature

• Rick Popely, L. Spencer Riggs: Indianapolis 500 Chronicle. Publications International Ltd., Lincolnwood IL 1998, ISBN 0-7853-2798-3 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} Motorsport - website: Indy 500 racer Art Cross passed away. From: www.motorsport.com , April 16, 2005, accessed June 6, 2013 .