Jimmy Daywalt Indianapolis 1961 in the Schulz Fueling Equipment Kurtis Kraft 500 G-2 Offenhauser. Frank Kurtis built this beautiful roadster in 1957 and it was entered that year as Meguiars Mirror-Glaze #49 and it was driven by Ray Crawford but the new car failed to qualify. Ray Crawford entered the car again in 1958, got bumped and missed the show again. In 1959 Bill Homeier tried the qualify the car twice to no avail. In 1960 Ollie Prather entered the car with Eddie Russo as his driver and Eddie finally put the 4 year old car in the show starting 29th. However during the race Eddie while running 24th overran his tire wear margin of safety and his right front tire blew out sending him into the second turn wall extremely hard. In the crash Eddie suffered a ruptured spleen, broken ribs, a severe concussion and an eye injury that threatened to end his racing career. In 1960 the car was entered again and wrenched by Ollie Prather with Veteran driver Jimmy Daywalt in the drivers seat. The 5 year old Kurtis was re-built following the previous years crash and in doing so it was fitted with a Watson style nose as many of older cars were in the early 1960s. Jimmy qualified the car on day two at 144.219 to grab the 23rd staring position for the 500. During the race Jimmy dropped out after completing 27 laps when a brake line failed. Ironically this car in its 6th year had its best run ever in its last 500 in 1962 when rookie Jim McElreath started 7th, charged to the front and on lap 17 and delighted the crowd by passing A.J. Foyt on the main straightaway to take 2nd place. However slow pit times prevented Jim from finishing better and he brought the car home in 6th place completing 200 laps and earning himself rookie of the year honors.
Posted on: Sun, 16 Nov 2014 01:40:29 +0000
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