Indy Roadsters

[khyndart in CA]

It certainly was one of the most beautiful of all the roadsters.


Jim Hurtubise in the " Travelon Trailer Special" # 56. Indianapolis. 1960

[khyndart in CA]

With the recent passing of Rolla Volstedt it reminded me of how things happened between Rolla and A.J. Watson at the time of the 1964 Indianapolis 500. It is best described here from Oldracingcars.com.

" AJ Watson's first rear-engined car was an unashamed copy of the very quick late-1963 Vollstedt design. Rodger Ward qualified on the front row for the 1964 Indy 500 and finished in second place.
Since 1959, AJ Watson had been one part of the most successful Indycar racing team of that era. With team owner Bob Wilke and driver Rodger Ward, the "3 W's" had won the Indy 500 and the national championship in 1959 and again in 1962. But then the Lotus 29s had arrived and after seeing Jim Clark dominate the Milwaukee 200 in August in the Lotus, Ward had insisted Watson build him a rear-engined car for 1963. Although AJ Watson was the most successful builder of roadsters, his cars having already won the Indianapolis 500 six times, his skills would not necessarily transfer to the new rear-engined "funny cars". However, Watson was not the only American trying to build such a car and at an Indy tyre testing session late in 1963, Rolla Vollstedt arrived with an extremely effective car based on a Brabham design. To short-cut his project, Watson copied the Vollstedt and had two new cars ready for Indy the following April. They qualified and Vollstedt's didn't and Rolla's dismay was deepened when the Indy 500 organisers awarded Watson the 'Builder Of The Year' trophy for 'his' innovation. Years later, he handed over the trophy to a rather indignant Vollstedt.
Watson built two different versions of his new car, one with a traditional Offenhauser engine for Don Branson and one with the newly-available Ford V8 for Rodger Ward. Ward's worked best, qualifying on the front row at Indianapolis and finishing second three times that season, at Indianapolis, Milwaukee and Phoenix, but the car never actually won a race.
Both cars survived and have now been restored to the 1964 specification. "


1964 AJ Watson rear engine Indy Car # 2 at Laguna Seca on display. August 2010.
(Ken Hyndman photo )

[khyndart in CA]

The "Leader Card Special " Watson Champ Car in the photo above had quite a history to it as well and the Jimmy Bryan incident is recorded in photos on the web.
A conceptcarz.com summary; " In 1959 A.J. Watson built this champ dirt car for owner Ralph Wilke of Milwaukee, Wisconsin for Rodger Ward to drive. This car was the first to make a lap on the new Indy Raceway Park road course driven by Tony Bettenhausen. In April 1960 Rodger Ward drove the car to win a 100 mile at Trenton. Then Jimmy Bryan, a crew cut, cigar smoking giant dressed in Levi's and cowboy boots, drove the car at Langhorne Speedway. The car hooked a rut, leaped into the air and flipped, viciously killing Bryan. In 1964 Rodger Ward drove to 2nd in USAC National Championship. Texans Jud Larson and Johnny Rutherford drove the car in 1965 and Chuck Hulse drove in 1966. In 1967 Jim 'Herk'Hurtubise drove at Springfield only to have a wild tumbling spill, bouncing over the wall, through a catch fence and disappearing out of the track. He was scored in 5th at the time. In 1971, Snider pushed the 12 year-old car to the inaugural USAC National Dirt car title."


(Ken H)

[khyndart in CA]

A. J. Watson was a car builder and chief mechanic from 1949 through 1984 in the Indianapolis 500, winning the race six times as a car builder. Roger Ward won 18 races driving Watson cars. (Wikipedia)
I really like this photo from 1964 showing the Watson roadster against the Watson rear engine car at the Milwaukee Raceway.
A.J. Foyt in the roadster and Roger Ward in the rear engine car. The end of an era for the roadster was on the horizon.







(Ken Hyndman )

[Paul B]

It certainly was one of the most beautiful of all the roadsters.


Jim Hurtubise in the " Travelon Trailer Special" # 56. Indianapolis. 1960

A fantastic roadster Ken, such neat looking machines, state of art engines for the day also