Sport: Wall Smackers

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Of all U. S. sporting events, the annual 500-mile auto race at Indianapolis draws the largest crowds. On Memorial Day each year 140,000 to 168,000 people jam-pack the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to watch 33 cars roar round & round a two-and-a-half-mile, brick-&-asphalt oval. What thousands of spectators come to see are thrilling crackups. Last week, the thrill-thirsty got all that they came for.

On the 108th lap, when the race had settled down into a monotonous roar, Driver Bob Swanson, whizzing around a turn, skidded on the oil-spattered bricks. Droning behind him at 120 m.p.h. were Floyd Roberts, last year's winner, and Chet Miller, who finished third last year. The three cars collided.

Swanson hurtled through the air as his car turned turtle, went up in flames. Roberts, clinging to his wheel, rolled over & over & over—and finally over the outside wall. Miller was thrown into the infield as his car went into a spin, ripped through the inside fence and landed wheels-up close to the screaming crowd. Two women, standing atop a truck, were felled by flying wood. Above the din of the motors, ambulance sirens shrieked. The two spectators and three wall smackers were rushed to a hospital. A half-hour later, when the race was nearing its end, loudspeakers announced that Floyd Roberts had died of a brain concussion—the 34th fatality in 27 races at the Indianapolis Speedway.

Soon the crowd forgot about Roberts. Wildly they cheered dapper, mustachioed Wilbur Shaw, an Indianapolis garage mechanic, as the checkered flag of victory dipped over his car at the finish line. Driving a 350-h.p., made-in-Italy Maserati, Wilbur Shaw had traveled the 500 miles in 4 hr., 20 min., 47.41 sec.—for an average speed of 115.035 m.p.h. (no record).