A year of endings and beginnings.
1956 marked a new era in auto racing. The American Automobile Association (AAA), which had sanctioned racing in the United Staes since 1903, announced at the end of 1955 that they would no longer run the sport.
AAA decide that they had had enough after 1955, which saw three drivers – Mike Nazaruk, Manny Ayullo, and Bill Vukovich- killed on track in May, and the deaths in non-championship events of Jerry Hoyt and Jack McGrath.
Speedway owner Tony Hulman created the United States Auto Club (USAC), which would serve as the sanctioning body of championship open wheel racing fora little more than 40 years.
The old Pagoda would witness its final race after a 30- year reign as the focal structure at the track. The old guard of pre-World War II drivers was dwindling, although some had a few more years left.
Heavy rains put the chances of running the race on May 30 in doubt, but brilliant work by groundskeeper Clarence Cagle and his crew got the track ready for the scheduled day.
The race itself was a chaotic affair with seven incidents between laps 21 and 160. Despite the carnage 19 cars were still running at the finish. The front row of Pat Flaherty, Jim Rathmann, and Pat O’Connor all led laps.
Flaherty took the lead for on lap 76 and was never caught.
Flaherty made Indianapolis 500 appearances off and on. 1955 and 1956 were the only consecutive years in which he ran the race. He was injured severely in a race in August but survived. He would not return to the speedway until 1959, his final 500. One of the fortunate drivers of the era, Flaherty died in 2002 at age 76.
The Pagoda was razed about a month following the 40th running of the 500, and its replacement was the rather pedestrian steel and glass master control tower, a non-descript square typical of architecture of the time. The tower was replaced by the current pagoda in the early 2000s.
1957 would also see a wall separating the pits from the race track, and the modern pit lane began to take shape. The modern era had begun.
Notes
Flaherty’s driving career at Indy had some unusual characteristics. He drove in five races, but only two consecutively as noted above. He finished 10th in 1950 and 1955. In all five races Flaherty finished within two positions of where he started.
Flaherty replaced 1955 winner Bob Sweikert, who had left the Zink team earlier in the year.
Trepidation for the 1956 race was high after the previous year. The post-race headline in the Indianapolis Star read “Flaherty Wins As Death Shuns Wreck Strewn 500.”
While the race was going on, in Fresno, California, the family of 1953 and 1954 500 winner Bill Vukovich unveiled a memorial.
The Pit Window by Mike Silver 