Lead Foot

The gates of the Indianapolis Speedway opened at 6 a. m. First customers were two Illinois sisters named Ford who had been camping at the entrance in their sedan for three weeks, selling souvenir photographs of themselves to buyers farther back in the mile-long queue. By 9 o'clock the grandstands were almost full. Inside the oval of the 2 1/2-mile brick track, remnants of the crowd of 168,000 wriggled into rows of bleachers on the tops of busses.

At 10 a. m., famed Tommy Milton climbed into a coupe, crossed the starting line followed by 33 low-slung little racers, humming along in ranks of three, spaced 100 feet apart. After one slow "pacing lap," the coupe pulled off the track and the starter waved a green flag. Then, with a roar of opening throttles, the 500-mile Memorial Day automobile race began.

Four hours 35 minutes later the starter flagged the field again. Slowing down and pushing up their goggles, the drivers of the 15 cars that had finished the race slowly became conscious of a roar other than the one made by their motors, that of the crowd to salute the winner. Louis Meyer of Huntington Park, Calif., who in 1933 became, with Tommy Milton, the only two-time winner of the Indianapolis race, had won it for the third time. His average speed (109.069 m.p.h.) was a new record for the event.. Driver Meyer waved three bruised fingers to salute the crowd, collected vouchers for $20,000 first prize and $1,900 in lap prizes, wiped the grease off his face, changed his clothes, left the track in a coupe he had won for being first at the 200th lap. Mrs. Meyer drove.

The Speedway was first used as a testing ground for the automotive industry, but its Memorial Day race has long ceased to be anything of the sort. Major manufacturers who hate to see their cars finish anywhere but first, still attend the race in droves but rarely enter their products. First eight places in last week's race went to Miller engines, made by famed Harry Miller of Los Angeles or his long-time Assistant Frederick Offenhauser, to whom he last year turned over most of his patterns. Four-cylinder engines are more popular than sixes or eights because of the premium placed on economy by the gasoline allowance--this year reduced from 42 1/2to 37 1/2 gallons.

In 24 years, 31 people have been killed on the Indianapolis track. This year the roadbed, rough as a country lane, was widened at the turns. The outside retaining wall, through which cars used to pitch, was reinforced. Drivers wondered whether this change, designed to make the race safer, might not, by "kissing" cars back into the path of the field, merely serve to make it more spectacular. Last week's race indicated that the track had actually been improved. Although the pace was 3 m.p.h. faster than last year's, there was only one serious accident. Wooden-legged Al Miller was hurled out in front of the grandstands when his front axle broke. His wooden leg was shattered.

Automobile drivers have their own language. In it "heavy-footed" means not slow but fast. Lead-footed Louis Meyer, who vowed to quit driving after winning his second Indianapolis race, followed his usual tactics of tailing dangerous opponents, sprinting when they stopped for gas. At 360 miles, last year's winner, Kelly Petillo, who had hired a crack dirt-track driver named Doc Mackenzie to drive for him this year, could no longer stand the strain of seeing his car behind the leaders, jumped in to drive himself. He finished third. With less than 100 miles to go, Meyer had a five-lap lead. Adapting his pace to that of his nearest rivals, whose progress was signalled to him by his pit crew, Meyer held his speed till five miles from the end, then reduced it to 98 m.p.h. to save gas. With one pint of gas left in his tank, he finished one lap ahead of Ted Horn of Los Angeles.

In contrast with Peter de Paolo, winner of the 1925 race who was offered $100 a minute for a few words over the radio and talked for a full ten, Winner Meyer said: "It was a very nice ride, very nice day."

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