Oilpressure

It’s time once again for a May tradition on this site – the 2024 Oilpressure.com Trivia Contest. Not much has changed because, well…you know – Change is Bad!

As usual, there are thirty-three questions to represent each driver in the starting field; plus a tie-breaker. Every year, I think this is a tough one, but there is always someone who comes along and practically aces it. I have thrown in a few softballs this year. Last year, I knew I had a tie-breaker that no one would get. To my surprise, about 75% of you got it. So I guess the term “difficult” is all relative.

You will have almost two weeks to get your answers in. Please send them to geophillips14@gmail.com by 6:00 pm on Tuesday May 21. This is where I get picky; please number your answers. No matter how many times I say that, every year I will get at least one person who does not number their answers. And that person does not get their answers counted. When I see it like that, I just delete it and move on. So if you want your answers to count – number them. The answers will be posted on Wednesday May 22, along with who the winner is.

Also, please send your answers by e-mail only. Don’t send them by social media direct messages. A few of you have my phone number. Please do not text me your answers. I want them by e-mail only please.

The prize hasn’t changed either. It is still a 100% cotton Oilpressure.com T-shirt. Almost a decade ago, I was giving away Oilpressure.com polos, but that got way too expensive – so I’m back to a T-shirt. But do you really do this for the prize? No. This is about bragging rights.

I gathered most of these questions listening to archived recordings of The Talk of Gasoline Alley with Donald Davidson. But I also want to thank Paul Dalbey, “Mike from Vernon Hills” and Mark Dill for their contributions to this quiz. I can still proudly say I have never “lifted” a question from the trivia book by the late Pat Kennedy. I have also never (I don’t think) repeated a question from a previous year’s quiz. This is all new material each year.

In past years, some entries have a lot of blank answers. Please guess! Who knows? You might guess correctly. I prefer to see a wrong answer, than no answer.

Don’t let the month get away from you. Go ahead and get started now. May 21 will be here before you know it. Wrap it up this weekend and be guaranteed you are entered. Good luck!

George Phillips

1.  Name a legendary fabricator whose nocturnal work habits earned him a notorious nickname. What was the nickname?

2.  Name at least one team that placed second in the Indianapolis 500 four times, yet never won.

3.  During the 70s, only one foreign (non-US citizen) driver finished in the Top-Ten. Name the driver and year.

4.  Three drivers have the dubious distinction of having been named the First Alternate Starter two separate times. Name the three drivers and the years.

5.  After Wilbur Shaw did away with milk in Victory Lane (instead offering “Water from Wilbur” in a silver cup); who was the first driver to drink milk in Victory Lane along with the water?

6.  What car number has won the Indianapolis 500 more times than any other? What was the last year that car number won?

7.  What Indianapolis 500 winning driver rode in the first Daytona 200 motorcycle race?

8.  Name a driver who would later obliterate the one-lap and four-lap record, who served on the winning pit crew in 1923?

9.  Jigger Sirois Is infamous for waving off his last qualifying lap, that supposedly would’ve put him on the pole for the 1969 Indianapolis 500. What was his father’s nickname?

10. There was a driver in the 1950s who drove for two separate teams, that had car names made up of a combination of people’s first names. Who was the driver and what were the names of the cars?

11. There was once a car whose primary sponsor was an NFL Franchise. Who was the driver, what was the NFL team, what was the year and where did the car finish?

12. When Billy Arnold won from the pole in 1930, it was one of the most dominating wins in Indianapolis 500 history up to present times. Who was originally assigned to that car to begin the Month of May?

13. Dempsey Wilson started thirty-third and finished thirty-third in a car qualified by someone who stepped out of the car and refused to drive it during Carburetion Day. Who qualified the car?

14. Who was the first driver to qualify a front-drive car for the Indianapolis 500, and in what year?

15. What driver gave Team McLaren its first Top-Ten finish in the Indianapolis 500?

16. In 1946, Jimmy Jackson finished second in a car painted green, despite the fact that green was considered very unlucky by traditionalists. Why did he paint his car green?

17. The main welder for famed car-builder AJ Watson, had a brother who won the Indianapolis 500. What was the welder’s name and who was his race-winning brother?

18. What two drivers missed the 1952 Indianapolis 500 due to military service overseas?

19. Walt Faulkner was once sponsored by a company founded by someone who drove in the inaugural Indianapolis 500. Who was the 1911 driver, and what was the company he founded that sponsored Faulkner?

20. Who was the first female driver to be entered into the Indianapolis 500, but did not qualify? What was the year?

21. Before Roger Penske won the race three years in a row, from 2001 to 2003; who was the only car owner to win the Indianapolis 500 three years in a row?

22. In 1947, Bill Holland was not originally assigned to the car that finished second in a controversial finish. Who was the original driver assigned to that car?

23. Who was Honda’s very first race car driver, driving for a few years in Formula One before coming to the Indianapolis 500 and starting three times?

24. What is the name of the creek that runs underneath the main grandstands along the front straightaway, and then goes underneath Turn One?

25. For a period of time, points were awarded in the Indianapolis 500 that counted toward to World Championship. During that time, only one Grand Prix (Formula One) driver qualified for the Indianapolis 500. Who was the driver, what was the year and where did he finish?

26. During this same period referenced in Question 25, who was the only American Indianapolis 500 driver to ever race in a European Grand Prix? What was the year and where was the Grand Prix (what country)?

27. One year there were two rookie drivers fatally injured within a span of nine days at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, while driving the exact same car. This ultimately led to the the development of what is now known as the Rookie Orientation Program, which went into effect the following year. Who were the two rookies, what was the year they were fatally injured and who was the car-owner?

28. Dr. Jack Miller, who started in three Indianapolis 500s in the late 90s, is often referred to as ”The Racing Dentist”. He is not the first dentist to race in the Indianapolis 500. Name at least one other dentist who started and raced in the Indianapolis 500.

29. What driver holds the track record for when the track surface was entirely brick?

30. In the rear-engine era under the “old” qualifying format, a car was qualified and then bumped – making that car ineligible to qualify again. A supposed scramble took place to find another car, when in actuality the team simply disguised the car that was bumped. The car was immediately disallowed, when it was discovered it was the same car. What year did this happen, and who was the driver of the car?

31. Who was the first driver to ever hit the SAFER Barrier?

32. What driver led 266 laps in his career at the Indianapolis 500, yet none of them past Lap 99?

33. What was the reason Dan Gurney started running car number 48 in 1968?

Tie-Breaker: What driver was once married to a Playboy Magazine Playmate of the Year?

This entry was posted on May 8, 2024 at 4:04 am and is filed under Indianapolis 500. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.