Sweet & Low

More than three-quarters of the Indianapolis 500-mile auto race was behind him at 2:01 p.m., C.D.T. on Memorial Day, and handsome Sam Hanks was right where he wanted to be: in front of the pack. Now, for the first time, he began to worry. A veteran of eleven unsuccessful attempts at the "big spin in the brick-yard," Sam had planned to steal some time by making only two pit stops in his light, low-slung Belond Exhaust Special. He had already made them, and he could not be sure whether his latest set of tires would last till the finish. He was less than a lap ahead of the second racer. Should he crowd his luck, or bet on the speed and skill of his pit crew?

Sam played it safe: he pulled in for the third time. Just 34 seconds later the Belond was filled with gas, oil and water, three of its tires had been replaced and it was rolling on new rubber. Sam was still six seconds in the lead. By the time he whipped past the finish flag, he was 17.35 seconds in front of Jim Rathmann's Chiropractic Special (named after its sponsor, Chiropractor Ray Sabourin). He had careened around the 500-lap course in 3 hr. 41 min. 14.25 sec., an average of 135.601 m.p.h.--the fastest 500 on record.

Every bit as careful as Sam, the Speedway management had also tried to play it safe. The limit on piston displacement for engines without superchargers had been lowered from 274.59 to 256.284 cu. in. (the limit for supercharged power plants was 170.856 cu. in.), on the theory that less power would mean less speed. It meant just the opposite. Smaller engines allowed smaller cars. The "bombs" that turned out for the 500 had never been lighter, had never handled so well on the turns. As a result, the first ten to finish all beat the late Bill Vukovich's 130.84 m.p.h. record, set in 1954.

Hank's Belond, named for a sponsor, Exhaust-Pipe Maker Sandy Belond, was one of the lightest and lowest cars in the race. George Salih, the California engineer who designed the car, was a conformist only in his choice of engine. (He used the same four-cylinder Meyer-Drake Offenhauser that powered every car in the race except the two V-8 Novi Specials.) Under the Belond's yellow skin, the time-tested Offy engine was laid on its side. In its unusual mount, the Offy not only ran cooler, it gave the car a sleek, slanted profile that rose only 22 inches off the track at the snout. It looked strange, but it was sweet to handle; the off-center weight of the tilted Offy made it cat-quick on the corners. Next year almost every other racer at Indianapolis will probably copy its style.

The difference will be that Sam Hanks will not be back to drive--or so he says now. At 42 the greying, crew-cut driver has spent half his life racing cars, from the midgets to 500 monsters. "This is the only ambition I have left in racing," he said before last week's race started. "When I win the 500, I'll hang up my goggles so fast it'll make their heads swim." Wiping the oil off his face, Winner Hanks, who split $103,000 in assorted prizes, announced that when the season ends he will retire and return to Southern California to look at Pacific sunsets.

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