Indianapolis 500 1958

 Indianapolis 500 1958

Racing data
4th of 11 races in the 1958 World Automobile Championship
Surname:	42th International 500-Mile Sweepstakes
Date:	May 30, 1958
Place:	Indianapolis , USA
Course:	Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Length:	805 km in 200 laps of 4.025 km
Weather:	sunny, dry
Pole position
Driver:	Dick Rathmann	Watson-Offenhauser
Time:	min
Fastest lap
Driver:	Tony Bettenhausen	Epperly-Offenhauser
Time:	1: 02.3 min
Podium
First:	Jimmy Bryan	Epperly-Offenhauser
Second:	George Amick	Epperly-Offenhauser
Third:	Johnny Boyd	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser

The 42nd Indianapolis 500 1958 took place on May 30, 1958 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway near Indianapolis and was the fourth race of the 1958 World Automobile Championship and the second race of the 1958 USAC season .

Reports

background

Epperly-Offenhauser - Winner Jimmy Bryan's car

The Indianapolis 500 was part of the 1958 automobile world championship, but was viewed as a deletion by the European teams. In contrast to the previous year, the race did not take place immediately before another Grand Prix, but this time the Dutch Grand Prix in 1958 was only four days before the Indianapolis 500, which again meant that the teams did not have the time to participate in the race. Only Juan Manuel Fangio tried to qualify, but broke off this attempt after a few training drives because he could not reach the required speed with his car. As in previous years, the race counted for the drivers 'championship, points for the constructors' championship were not awarded.

Many teams continued to rely on Kurti's Kraft Wagen, as well as Kuzma , but also the chassis from Watson and Epperly were used by various teams. Offenhauser aggregates were the preferred engines, only two cars drove with Novi . With Johnnie Parsons , a former winner took part in the race. The winner of the Indianapolis 500 in 1957 , Sam Hanks had retired and took the role of the pace car driver in the Indianapolis 500 in 1958. Among the many debutants in the field was AJ Foyt , who became a multiple winner of the Indianapolis 500 and USAC championships in the decades that followed.

training

To determine the starting grid, four time trial competitions were held on four different days, with the first time trial determining the first 17 positions. The Watson cars dominated and formed the front row with three vehicles. Ed Elisian on Watson set a new lap record and stayed in pole position for a long time during the day before Dick Rathmann outbid him. He did not beat the fastest lap time of Elisian, but the average lap time of four timed laps counted, and Rathmann was slightly better there. Rathmann thus achieved the only Formula 1 pole position of his career, Jimmy Reece completed the front row.

Three Kurtis Kraft Wagen qualified for the second row, Bob Veith qualified ahead of Pat O'Connor and Parsons, and Jimmy Bryan started on row three ahead of Johnny Boyd and Tony Bettenhausen . Bryan and Bettenhausen were the best placed Epperly drivers in the field, Boyd also drove a Kurtis Kraft car. Foyt finished twelfth on the grid in his first Indianapolis 500, while the best driver with a Novimotor was Paul Russo in 14th.

On the second day of the time trial the positions were determined from 18th place, Eddie Sachs was the fastest and achieved a time that would have been enough for seventh place on the first day. On the third day of the time trial, a starting place was still available, which Bill Cheesbourg secured.

run

As in the previous year, the start-up procedure caused a lot of confusion. The vehicles drove out of the pit lane one after the other and should line up behind the pace car within one lap in order to get the speed for the flying start in a further lap. This procedure failed again, the three leaders drove away from the pace car and the field, drove an entire lap at racing speed and caught up again at the end of the field. The pace car came into the pits on schedule after the next lap, Hanks assumed the field was in the right order. But then the race was not released and another lead-in lap followed. Hanks hit the track again, caught the field and the race could finally be released. In order to prevent further confusion from the new start procedure, they returned to the classic introductory round a year later.

The flying start went off without any problems at the beginning, after the first corner Dick Rathmann led ahead of Elisian and Reece, in the same order as the starting grid. At the end of the back straight, just before turn three, Elisian skid in his car and triggered a chain reaction. It hit Rathmann's leading car first, both vehicles hit the boundary wall and then crossed the route. The entire field had to pass the two collided cars, causing a mass crash with 15 cars involved. Jerry Unser , who drove his first Indianapolis 500 race, collided with Paul Goldsmith , got on and flew over the boundary wall. He sustained serious injuries to his shoulder, but survived the accident. Nevertheless, this was his last participation in the Indianapolis 500, a year later he died while training for the Indianapolis 500 in 1959 from the consequences of burn injuries that he sustained in another serious accident.

O'Connor, who was still in pole position last year, collided with Reece's car in the accident on the first lap and flew several meters through the air. The car landed upside down on the track and went up in flames, according to medical experts, O'Connor died immediately of a broken neck and was the first fatally injured Formula 1 driver in the 1958 automobile season. As a result of the accident, various events began To implement urgently needed safety precautions, a year later roll bars were required on the cars, and the drivers had to wear helmets to prevent fatal injuries, as with O'Connor. The audience was informed of O'Connor's death during the race and many left the circuit in shock. Many drivers continued the race later, for Elisian, Unser, Rathmann, Len Sutton , Bob Veith and Art Bisch the race was over. Elisian, who was primarily responsible for the accident, was withdrawn from the racing license after the race, but this decision was reversed a few days later. But Elisian did not survive this very dangerous time in motorsport either, 15 months later he burned himself in an accident. The race was driven by the necessary clean-up and recovery operations for the first 18 laps under yellow flags.

The field then consisted of those drivers who survived the starting pile-up unscathed. Bryan was leading ahead of Sachs and Bettenhausen when the race was released again. Together with George Amick , the lead changed regularly between these drivers afterwards, 14 changes in leadership were observed in the first half of the race. There were also two more retirements, Jack Turner retired on lap 21 with a defective fuel pump, Chuck Weyant had an accident on lap 38, which triggered a second caution period. On lap 52 Johnny Thomson retired with a defective steering, Sachs, Billy Garrett , Rodger Ward , Shorty Templeman , and Russo followed in the next laps with technical defects.

The lead was decided in the second half of the race between Bryan and Boyd, and Amick was also within striking distance. When Boyd made a pit stop on lap 126, he lost the lead for the rest of the race and dropped several places. Byran had the advantage that his pit crew needed less time for pit stops than other teams and thus gained time. He then retained the lead and won the Indianapolis 500 in 1958, his only Formula 1 victory. He won the race in the same car that Hanks had driven a year earlier. Amick, in his first Indianapolis 500, made up ground on the leader towards the end of the race, but was instructed by his team to secure second place and not take any chances. With this strategy he missed a possible Indianapolis 500 victory in his career, because a year later Amick had a fatal accident in a race in Daytona.

There were still three retirements in the final stages of the race, Dempsey Wilson retired with a defective clutch pedal, Foyt and Bob Christie spun off the track. Previously, Mike Magill was asked by his team to end the race, with only 13 vehicles reaching the finish. Boyd completed the podium, Bettenhausen and Jim Rathmann the point placements. As in the previous year, the Epperly cars scored a one-two, something that rarely happens in the Indianapolis 500. The fastest race lap was set by Bettenhausen.

In the drivers' standings, the winner Bryan was in third place after the race, level with Maurice Trintignant , but none of the drivers in this race took part in any other Grand Prix of the 1958 World Cup.

Registration list

The entry list only shows the vehicles that have passed the qualification.

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
George Salih	01	Jimmy Bryan	Epperly	Offenhauser 4.5 L4	F.
Lindsey Hopkins	02	Jim Rathmann	Epperly	Offenhauser 4.5 L4	F.
Chapman S. Root	04th	Pat O'Connor	Kurtis Kraft 500G	Offenhauser 4.5 L4	F.
Ellen McKinney Zinc	05	Ed Elisian	Watson	Offenhauser 4.5 L4	F.
Racing Associates	07th	Johnny Thomson	Kurti's power	Offenhauser 4.5 L4	F.
Roger Wolcott	08th	Rodger Ward	Lesovsky	Offenhauser 4.5 L4	F.
Robert M. Bowes II	09	Johnny Boyd	Kurtis Kraft 500G	Offenhauser 4.5 L4	F.
	14th	Bob Veith
Novi Racing Corp.	15th	Paul Russo	Kurtis Kraft 500F	Novi 3.0 L8C	F.
	54	Bill Cheesbourg
John Zink	16	Jimmy Reece	Watson	Offenhauser 4.5 L4	F.
	44	Jud Larson
Lysle Greenman	19th	Johnnie Tolan	Kuzma	Offenhauser 4.5 L4	F.
Joseph Massaglia Jr.	25th	Jack Turner	Lesovsky	Offenhauser 4.5 L4	F.
Bob Estes	26th	Don Freeland	Phillips	Offenhauser 4.5 L4	F.
Dean Van Lines	29	AJ Foyt	Kuzma	Offenhauser 4.5 L4	F.
Henry Yunik	31	Paul Goldsmith	Kurtis Kraft 500G	Offenhauser 4.5 L4	F.
Cars Inc.	33	Tony Bettenhausen	Epperly	Offenhauser 4.5 L4	F.
HA Chapman	43	Billy Garrett	Kurtis Kraft 500G	Offenhauser 4.5 L4	F.
Fred Gerhardt	45	Johnnie Parsons	Kurti's power	Offenhauser 4.5 L4	F.
Pat Clancy	52	Al basement	Kurtis Kraft 500G2	Offenhauser 4.5 L4	F.
HH Johnson	57	Art Bish	Kuzma	Offenhauser 4.5 L4	F.
Bob Sorenson	59	Dempsey Wilson	Kuzma	Offenhauser 4.5 L4	F.
JS Donaldson	61	Eddie Johnson	Kurtis Kraft 500G	Offenhauser 4.5 L4	F.
Federal Auto Associates	65	Bob Christie	Kurtis Kraft 500C	Offenhauser 4.5 L4	F.
Jim Robbins	68	Len Sutton	Kurtis Kraft 500G	Offenhauser 4.5 L4	F.
George Walther Jr.	77	Mike Magill	Kurtis Kraft 500G	Offenhauser 4.5 L4	F.
Kalamazoo Sports Inc.	83	Shorty Templeman	Kurtis Kraft 500D	Offenhauser 4.5 L4	F.
	97	Dick Rathmann	Watson
Peter Schmidt	88	Eddie Sachs	Kuzma	Offenhauser 4.5 L4	F.
Harry Dunn	89	Chuck Weyant	Thin	Offenhauser 4.5 L4	F.
Roy McKay	92	Jerry Unser	Kurtis Kraft 500G	Offenhauser 4.5 L4	F.
Norman C. Demler	99	George Amick	Epperly	Offenhauser 4.5 L4	F.

Classifications

Starting grid

Item	driver	constructor	time	Ø speed	begin
01	Dick Rathmann	Watson-Offenhauser	1: 01.66	235.00 km / h	01
02	Ed Elisian	Watson-Offenhauser	1: 01.68	234.92 km / h	02
03	Jimmy Reece	Watson-Offenhauser	1: 01.85	234.28 km / h	03
04th	Bob Veith	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	1: 02.12	233.26 km / h	04th
05	Pat O'Connor	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	1: 02.15	233.15 km / h	05
06th	Johnnie Parsons	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	1: 02.21	232.92 km / h	06th
07th	Jimmy Bryan	Epperly-Offenhauser	1: 02.42	232.14 km / h	07th
08th	Johnny Boyd	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	1: 02.49	231.88 km / h	08th
09	Tony Bettenhausen	Epperly-Offenhauser	1: 02.54	231.69 km / h	09
10	Jack Turner	Lesovsky-Offenhauser	1: 02.75	230.92 km / h	10
11	Rodger Ward	Lesovsky-Offenhauser	1: 02.82	230.66 km / h	11
12	AJ Foyt	Kuzma-Offenhauser	1: 02.88	230.44 km / h	12
13	Don Freeland	Phillips-Offenhauser	1: 02.92	230.29 km / h	13
14th	Paul Russo	Kurtis Kraft-Novi	1: 02.96	230.15 km / h	14th
15th	Billy Garrett	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	1: 03.04	229.85 km / h	15th
16	Paul Goldsmith	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	1: 03.05	229.82 km / h	16
17th	Bob Christie	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	1: 03.27	229.02 km / h	17th
18th	Eddie Sachs	Kuzma-Offenhauser	1: 02.22	232.88 km / h	18th
19th	Jud Larson	Watson-Offenhauser	1: 02.71	231.06 km / h	19th
20th	Jim Rathmann	Epperly-Offenhauser	1: 02.87	230.48 km / h	20th
21st	Al basement	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	1: 02.97	230.11 km / h	21st
22nd	Johnny Thomson	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	1: 02.98	230.07 km / h	22nd
23	Shorty Templeman	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	1: 03.02	229.93 km / h	23
24	Jerry Unser	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	1: 03.05	229.82 km / h	24
25th	George Amick	Epperly-Offenhauser	1: 03.07	229.74 km / h	25th
26th	Eddie Johnson	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	1: 03.08	229.71 km / h	26th
27	Len Sutton	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	1: 03.09	229.67 km / h	27
28	Art Bish	Kuzma-Offenhauser	1: 03.10	229.64 km / h	28
29	Chuck Weyant	Dunn-Offenhauser	1: 03.11	229.60 km / h	29
30th	Johnnie Tolan	Kuzma-Offenhauser	1: 03.24	229.13 km / h	30th
31	Mike Magill	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	1: 03.26	229.05 km / h	31
32	Dempsey Wilson	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	1: 07.03	216.17 km / h	32
33	Bill Cheesbourg	Kurtis Kraft-Novi	1: 03.14	229.49 km / h	33

run

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap	Failure reason
01	Jimmy Bryan	Epperly-Offenhauser	200		3: 44: 13.8	07th
02	George Amick	Epperly-Offenhauser	200		+ 27.6	25th
03	Johnny Boyd	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	200		+1: 10.0	08th
04th	Tony Bettenhausen	Epperly-Offenhauser	200		+1: 34.8	09	1: 02.3
05	Jim Rathmann	Epperly-Offenhauser	200		+1: 35.62	20th
06th	Jimmy Reece	Watson-Offenhauser	200		+ 2: 17.0	03
07th	Don Freeland	Phillips-Offenhauser	200		+ 2: 21.1	13
08th	Jud Larson	Watson-Offenhauser	200		+ 5: 34.0	19th
09	Eddie Johnson	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	200		+ 6: 15.8	26th
10	Bill Cheesbourg	Kurtis Kraft-Novi	200		+ 8: 03.6	33
11	Al basement	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	200		+ 9: 14.2	21st
12	Johnnie Tolan	Kuzma-Offenhauser	200		+ 9: 52.2	30th
14th	Bob Christie	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	189		DNF	17th
15th	Dempsey Wilson	Kuzma-Offenhauser	151		DNF	32
16	AJ Foyt	Kuzma-Offenhauser	148		DNF	12		Lathe operator
17th	Mike Magill	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	136		DNF	31		waved out
18th	Paul Russo	Kurtis Kraft-Novi	122		DNF	14th		cooler
19th	Shorty Templeman	kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	116		DNF	23		Brakes
20th	Rodger Ward	Lesovsky-Offenhauser	93		DNF	11		Fuel pump
21st	Billy Garrett	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	80		DNF	15th		Camshaft drive
22nd	Eddie Sachs	Kuzma-Offenhauser	68		DNF	18th		universal joint
23	Johnny Thomson	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	52		DNF	22nd		steering
24	Chuck Weyant	Dunn-Offenhauser	38		DNF	29		accident
25th	Jack Turner	Lesovsky-Offenhauser	21st		DNF	10		Fuel pump
26th	Bob Veith	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	01		DNF	04th		accident
27	Ed Elisian	Watson-Offenhauser	00		DNF	02		accident
28	Jerry Unser	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	00		DNF	24		accident
29	Dick Rathmann	Watson-Offenhauser	00		DNF	01		accident
30th	Paul Goldsmith	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	00		DNF	16		accident
31	Len Sutton	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	00		DNF	27		accident
32	Pat O'Connor	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	00		DNF	05		deadly accident
33	Art Bish	Kuzma-Offenhauser	00		DNF	28		accident

World Cup stand after the race

The first five of the race got 8, 6, 4, 3, 2 points. The driver with the fastest race lap received an additional 1 point. Only the five best results from eight races counted.

Driver ranking

Item driver constructor Points 01  Stirling Moss Cooper-Climax / Vanwall 17th 02  Luigi Musso Ferrari 12 03  Maurice Trintignant Cooper-Climax 8th 04th  Jimmy Bryan Epperly-Offenhauser 8th 05  Harry Schell BRM 8th 06th  Mike Hawthorn Ferrari 7th 07th  George Amick Epperly-Offenhauser 6th 08th  Jean Behra Maserati / BRM 6th 09  Peter Collins Ferrari 4th

Item driver constructor Points 10  Johnny Boyd Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser 4th 11  Juan Manuel Fangio Maserati 4th 12  Tony Bettenhausen Epperly-Offenhauser 4th 13  Jack Brabham Cooper-Climax 3 14th  Roy Salvadori Cooper-Climax 3 15th  Jim Rathmann Epperly-Offenhauser 2

Constructors' championship

Item constructor Points 01  Cooper-Climax 19th 02  Ferrari 14th 03  Vanwall 8th 04th  BRM 8th 05  Maserati 3

Web links

Commons : Indianapolis 500 1958  - Collection of Images, Videos, and Audio Files

• Photos at f1-facts.com
• The 42nd Indianapolis 500-1958 at youtube.com
• O'Connor death overshadows Bryan's win at en.espnf1.com