“I had just the kind of race I had planned. My idea was to start cautiously and gradually speed up. I’ve been racing at Indianapolis since 1926 – ran second once, third once, and last year drove relief for Louie Schneider, who won. I knew that a lot of cars would crack up or drop out with mechanical trouble, so I figured on going carefully and keeping between the walls until the field was narrowed down.

At the start I was right beside a boy from the dirt tracks who had never driven Indianapolis before. I deliberately dropped behind on the first and second laps to see how he handled the car, and it was lucky I did because he went into a spin and hit the wall.

I had every confidence in my Studebaker…I’m 41 years old and no chicken, but my Studebaker handled so easily I could have driven it 1500 miles instead of 500. I had a little racing special a few years ago that wore me out at 200 miles. Like Cliff Bergere’s car (the #22 Studebaker Special), #37 used only two quarts of oil for the full distance.”

About this Exhibition

Check out our series of articles about Studebaker at the Brickyard!  This series is based upon a Museum exhibition featured in 2012.