Crazy Indy 500 stories: Quiz

The user who answered the question right could ask the next question and so on.

The first question: What have Joie Chitwood and Cory Witherill in common?

Both Native Americans?

yes you are right

Chitwood: Cherokee

Witherill: Navajo

It's your turn.

What have Jim Hurtubise and the Chevrolet Corvair got in common?

They both drove the 6 wheeler.

1.The beginning

--1959 being the year of their debut: on 19 September, 1959 Jim Hurtubise competed in his first USAC race [Indy Hoosier on the 1-mile dirt Indiana State Fairgrounds oval]; on 2 October, 1959 Chevrolet Corvair was launched to the public.

--1960 being the first year of Indianapolis International Motor Sweepstakes for Jim Hurtubise; 1960 being the first model year for Chevrolet Corvair.

2.The essence

-- eccentric conception in view of engine placement: all cars for the Indy 500 went rear engine, while Jim Hurtubise continued to use the front-engined Mallard-Offenhauser 67 FE; similarly Chevrolet Corvair was the only American designed mass-produced passenger car to feature a rear-mounted, moreover an air-cooled engine, while at the American market this was a time of domination of front-engined muscle cars.

-- Jim Hurtubise has become the last driver who raced (1968) and attempted to race (1979) in the Indy Sweepstakes a car with front-mounted engine; Chevrolet Corvair has become the last American passenger car fitted with an air-cooled engine.

-- as a joke there was no engine where it should had been: a remarkable story happened in 1972, when a cowling of Hurtubise's Miller High Life Special was removed, but instead of the engine everyone saw five chilled cases of beer! Almost the same is with Chevrolet Corvair: if somebody goes to the front of the car and tries to open the hood as usual, some amazement may be seen!

3.The decline

--   for Hurtubise there was no successful attemts to qualify for Indy 500 the front-engined Mallard since 1968. The same 1968 for Chevrolet Corvair was the last complete year of its production.

Ingenious but not what I was looking for! There is a one word answer.

Clue: Wurlitzer

Message from AAA-Eagle:

Hello there! Are you talking about the oversteer in that question?

Answer: No.

Edited by Rupertlt1, 27 February 2014 - 14:25.

E.B. - keep digging!

I don't need googling to know that Herk was from (North) Tonawanda/New York, but I have no idea what a Chevrolet Corvair is or was, and I always thought Wurlitzer was a musical instrument! However, the reason for my post is to say that Joie Chitwood was NOT a "Native American" - I thought that was well known by now!!

We've got there: Jim Hurtubise was from (North) Tonawanda, NY; the Chevrolet Corvair engine was made there - the glorious air-cooled flat-six - and they still make Chevrolet engines there to this day. (Wurlitzer also had a factory there.) Who is next?

Go ahead E.B.

Not Paul Tracy?

I don't need googling to know that Herk was from (North) Tonawanda/New York, but I have no idea what a Chevrolet Corvair is or was, and I always thought Wurlitzer was a musical instrument! However, the reason for my post is to say that Joie Chitwood was NOT a "Native American" - I thought that was well known by now!!

He was half Native American I read...
 

He was half Native American I read...
 

Read where? What sources? No, not at all, no Native American blood in him at all.

He was born George Rice Chitwood in Denison, Texas, on the same day that the Titanic sank in 1912. His parents had struggled as Texas farmers and wound up in Joplin, Missouri, where Chitwood's father wheeled a taxi, the first of several moves before he abandoned his family. George, as he was still known, joined the Navy and once mustered out, apprenticed at a Topeka, Kansas, shop that serviced several local race cars. He got his first drive in 1935.

 

Not long after, he was the beneficiary of a life-altering happenstance, being discovered by Al Sweeney, an advance man and talent scout for J. Alex Sloan, then the biggest promoter of fairgrounds racing in the Midwest. Sloan, who died in 1937, was known for putting on staged or "hippodrome" races, so after getting some seat time, Chitwood migrated east to Indiana and genuine competition. There, another press agent gave him a new name, Joie Chitwood, evidently by mistake. It stuck.

 

So did an idea to promote Chitwood as a full-blooded Cherokee, which he wasn't--outdoor work had deeply tanned him.

 

John Boling was of Native American descent - it's only him and Witherill.

So bar the fact they started the Indy 500 and they are both American, Chitwood and Witherill have nothing obvious in common.

Edited by Richard Jenkins, 27 February 2014 - 21:42.

Ok, thanks.

Who was apparently 2nd on one occasion (I say apparently because of the seeming lack of accurate record keeping), yet within a few years was regularly claiming in writing to have actually been 1st?

Mario Andretti 1981 ?

Who was apparently 2nd on one occasion (I say apparently because of the seeming lack of accurate record keeping), yet within a few years was regularly claiming in writing to have actually been 1st?

The Great Jimmy in 1966

In case you mean Ralph Mulford in 1911, here is what I read: "...Smilin’ Ralph remained silent.  In 1961, asked whether he was robbed, he responded, “Mr Harroun was a fine gentleman…  a Champion driver and a very great development engineer…  I wouldn’t want him to suffer any embarrassment, nor (IMS).  They have publicly credited me with leading the race and each year send me something as a remembrance… to let me know I have not been forgotten.”  That “something” may well have been a set of commemorative cocktail glasses, but Mulford’s comments say much about his character and his love of racing"

What have Jim Hurtubise and the Chevrolet Corvair got in common?

We've got there: Jim Hurtubise was from (North) Tonawanda, NY; the Chevrolet Corvair engine was made there - the glorious air-cooled flat-six - and they still make Chevrolet engines there to this day. (Wurlitzer also had a factory there.) Who is next?

Well, IMHO this pair of question/answer is pretty inaccurate (in fact the same as with the other questions in this thread). I mean that when Jim Hurtubise (and Wurlitzer Company too) was indeed from the city of North Tonawanda, General Motors engine factory facilities are officially located in Buffalo. And even if say it's not Buffalo but Tonawanda (as that factory has official name General Motors Powertrain Tonawanda Engine Plant), the citiy of North Tonawanda and the city of Tonawanda are different ones. The first is located within Niagara County, while the latter is in Erie County (same as Buffalo). So that is that. And in order not to be further confused, we need to be more accurate while asking the quiz questions.

pretty inaccurate (in fact the same as with the other questions in this thread)

The answer I was looking for was "Tonawanda" - I said "There is a one word answer." I thought we were having some lighthearted fun?

I think I have now nailed it. "Those are the two things people remember about me, that I was the first to run 200 and that I won Indy but didn't" These are the words of Jerry Grant who had a perfect chance to win the Indianapolis Iternational Motor Sweepstakes in 1972, but became a victim of a series of misfortunes, was penalized and classified twelfth laps down and 12th overall instead.

Wilbur Shaw.

;-)

Edited by Michael Ferner, 28 February 2014 - 16:54.

within a few years was regularly claiming in writing......

.....to have actually been 1st?

Edited by E.B., 28 February 2014 - 17:02.

Rats, I really thought I had it (Shaw claimed to have been the first to use the command "Gentlemen, start your engines!", but wasn't).

I do wonder, though, what kind of writing there is outside of "magazines, books, letters or newspapers" - if 1947 is by far the closest guess for the year, it can't be the internet, can it?

Rats, I really thought I had it (Shaw claimed to have been the first to use the command "Gentlemen, start your engines!", but wasn't).

Who was apparently 2nd on one occasion (I say apparently because of the seeming lack of accurate record keeping), yet within a few years was regularly claiming in writing to have actually been 1st?

OMG, that is deadly state of mind if you are asking about Theodore Dreiser!

"regularly claiming in writing" but not "in magazines, books, letters or newspapers. EDIT: Oh, or the internet."

He made the claim himself rather than others claiming on his behalf -  so did he walk around in a tee shirt that said "Indianapolis Winner"?  Or write "I won Indianapolis" on a subway wall?  TV advertisments?  Handbills?

Edited by D-Type, 28 February 2014 - 22:02.

Not far enough outside the box!
 

By this I am not referring to anything in magazines, books, letters or newspapers. EDIT: Oh, or the internet.
 

Not winning, just being 1st.

Are we perhaps asking about someone associated with the Cummins Diesel car of 1934 claiming it was the first two-stroke to run the 500 when Leon Duray had a two-stroker in '31 (rules allowed it to be supercharged)?

Or -- did Larry Bisceglia perhaps indicate on the side of his famous van that he was "First in Line" before 1950?

Whew -- now I have to come up with a question? Please allow a little time -- I've already wasted enough at work 

OK, got one -- what unusual distinction do Indy 500 winners Johnny Rutherford and Jimmy Bryan have in common? We mean they're the only 500 winners with this in common, and it's directly related to the race itself.

Man, that was too easy.

Yepper, Rob G. Knew Lone Star JR did it and thought he was the only one, then decided to look it up and found Bryan, too.

Oof -- ya got me so far on this one. Found some things that three of them have in common, but not all five.