6 replies to this topic

[Nanni Dietrich]

I've read that race numbers over 99 are not allowed in the Indy 500.
Is it true? Did ever race a car with a higher number?
In Formula 1, in 1974 Lella Lombardi drove (she did not qualify) an ageing Brabham that wore the very rare high #208 starting number.

Lee Wallard won in 1951 at Indianapolis with the Belanger Kurtis #99. The following year Troy Ruttman had his winning Agajanian-Kuzma #98. It was reported that the favorite for the success in 1953 was Chuck Stevenson, who drove the Agajanian's #97... but the car lasted only 40 laps.

There was also a (strange, indeed) rule in the first decades of past century that did not allow numbers with-0 (20, 30, 40, 50 etc.).
Is it true?
Possibly this changed in the years after the WW-II, because I remember Emmo Fittipaldi's winning Penske sporting the #20.

[Disco Stu]

I've read that race numbers over 99 are not allowed in the Indy 500.
Is it true? Did ever race a car with a higher number?

No three digits numbers have ever been allowed at Indy. They were allowed at other Indy Car races for a few years in the late '60s and early '70s, but that's it.

There was also a (strange, indeed) rule in the first decades of past century that did not allow numbers with-0 (20, 30, 40, 50 etc.).
Is it true?

Sounds strange now, but back when scoring was done more by hand it made sense. If someone called out "20" when car #20 crossed the line, then called out "3" when car #3 crossed right behind it, it could easily be mistaken for calling out "23" and scoring car #23 for that lap. Outlawing those numbers just did away with that potential confusion.

[Collombin]

There was also a (strange, indeed) rule in the first decades of past century that did not allow numbers with-0 (20, 30, 40, 50 etc.).
Is it true?
Possibly this changed in the years after the WW-II, because I remember Emmo Fittipaldi's winning Penske sporting the #20.

I think Silent Sam was the first car post-WW2 to run with such a number, so presumably by 1967 the scoring methods were a little more sophisticated.

[Rob G]

No three digits numbers have ever been allowed at Indy. They were allowed at other Indy Car races for a few years in the late '60s and early '70s, but that's it.

In the 2009 Homestead 300, Alex Lloyd's car number was changed from 06 to 40202, which was the number people could text to donate money to cancer research.

It was a really nice gesture, but as an aside, I think having a number beginning with zero is only slightly less weird on an Indy car than a number with five digits.

Edited by Rob G, 16 March 2011 - 04:18.

[Henri Greuter]

I think Silent Sam was the first car post-WW2 to run with such a number, so presumably by 1967 the scoring methods were a little more sophisticated.

Had something to do with pronouncing numbers at the Timing & Scoring dept in the years before the time transponders:
sixteen sounded too close to sixty, fourteen to forty, etc.

from 67 on the numbers ending at zero were at long last permitted and the STP team (as well as the teams they sponsored in later years) had a fondness for them.
All of Pat Patrick's winning cars had numbers ending on 0, all of them were 20, thus including the year (1989) he had no STP sponsoring anymore.


Henri

[stevewf1]

In Formula 1, in 1974 Lella Lombardi drove (she did not qualify) an ageing Brabham that wore the very rare high #208 starting number.

I believe I read somewhere that the number 208 was because of a sponsor. A radio station, I think. (?)

[Tim Murray]

Yes indeed - Radio Luxembourg, which in those days broadcast on 208 metres on the medium waveband.