It is time once again for the Annual Oilpressure.com Trivia Contest. It’s when you get to separate yourself from the general pack, and put your Indianapolis 500 trivia knowledge on display.
Let’s be honest, these questions are not for the faint of heart. If you go back and see the first couple of contests I put together, they were embarrassingly easy. Just for old time’s sake, you can go back and look at the very first one I put up back in May 2009.
As the years went by, the questions got increasingly harder. One year, they got so hard no one could do it and many people stopped even trying after that – so I had to back it down and throw a couple of easy ones in each one.
The instructions are the same as always. You will have two weeks to compile your answers and send them to me. When submitting your answers, PLEASE write the accompanying question number beside your answer. I do not have the time nor the desire to go back and line your answers up to the correct question. If I get a submission like that, I won’t even grade it. I just delete those. Every year, at least one person will send in answers like that. If I’m in a good mood, I will e-mail them back and tell them to re-do it. But don’t count on me to always be in a good mood (believe it or not).
There are thirty-three questions, one for each starting spot. They are short answer. Several questions have multiple parts to them. If one part of your answer is incorrect – the entire question is incorrect. There is also a tie-breaker at the end.
I still come up with most of my questions from listening to old episodes of The Talk of Gasoline Alley with Donald Davidson. If multiple people keep coming up with the same answer that differs from Donald, I will research it and many times will give credit for a right answer – but not always.
The only help I got this year was from Mike from Vernon Hills, who contributed six of the questions this year. Thanks to Mike, who has been helping out with questions for the past several years.
Please submit your answers to me by TUE MAY 19 at 6:00 pm EDT to geophillips14@gmail.com. I will then post the answers along with the winner on the following day, Wed May 20.
What are you playing for? This year, nothing but pride. I have run out of my Oilpressure.com T-shirts; and did not order a new batch in time, when the deadline date snuck up on me, it was way too late when I realized it. We will see about next year. Still, you get bragging rights for an entire year. Isn’t that the most important thing?
Without any further rambling from me, here are this year’s questions. Good luck!
George Phillips
- Prior to Team Penske winning three straight Indianapolis 500s from 2001 to 2003; who was the only car owner to win three Indianapolis 500s in a row. What were the years?
- How many team owners are credited with having at least three Indianapolis 500 victories? Name them.
- Who originally took over the Michener Petroleum Racing team?
- Who was intended to be Bobby Unser’s Indianapolis 500 teammate in 1971, before a crash sidelined him?
- Who was the track record holder at the time, that was shot down in WWI over Verdun?
- Who was the car-owner that Denis Hulme was originally slated to drive for in 1967?
- It is well documented that Dick Simon was the last driver to start the race as an alternate starter. Who was the last driver to do it before Simon, and when?
- Name an Indianapolis 500 winner that attended Jefferson High School in Lafayette, Indiana.
- Who drove Mario Andretti’s winning car in the race the following year after Mario’s win?
- What driver drove the first Cosworth engine in the Indianapolis 500? What was the year?
- Who was the first car-owner to win the Indianapolis 500 three years in a row? Name the years and the winning driver(s).
- Name a driver who hitchhiked his way across the US to drive in the 1936 Indianapolis 500.
- Who was originally slated to be Mauri Rose’s teammate in the 1947 Indianapolis 500?
- What driver was originally assigned to the car that Walt Faulkner put on the pole in 1950?
- The 1956 Indianapolis 500 winner once owned a bar in Chicago. What was the name of the bar? What street was it on, or what famous Chicago landmark was it near?
- Who was the first woman to be part of the Indianapolis 500 television broadcast team?
- How many times did 1965 winner Jim Clark start on the front-row? How many times did he participate in the traditional front-row photograph?
- What future Indianapolis 500 winner, spent the night before the 1960 race sleeping under a park bench at Leonard Park in the town of Speedway?
- What driver has the most Indianapolis 500 starts in an AJ Watson-built chassis?
- Who was the first female broadcaster and pit reporter for the IMS Radio Network, and what year?
- Who is the person in the question above related to by marriage?
- The 1961 race is known for the late-race battle between AJ Foyt and Eddie Sachs. Both cars were Watson chassis, but built by other car builders using Watson blueprints. Who actually built the two cars that finished first and second in 1961?
- What Indianapolis 500 starter made headlines, when he was recruited by DeSoto to drive a car across the US backwards?
- On three separate occasions, the pole sitter has exited the race before completing a single lap. Name the years and the drivers when this happened.
- In the famous Foyt/Sachs duel in 1961 Foyt had a problem with the fuel hose on his third pit stop, forcing him to make a late-race fourth stop. On that last stop, they borrowed the fueling equipment from another pit for a car that was already out of the race. Who was the driver of the car, whose fueling equipment was borrowed by the Foyt team?
- At the time of his death, this driver was the last remaining Indianapolis 500 driver from the 1940s. Who was he, and what year did he pass away?
- Who does Donald Davidson give credit to, for the earliest development of wide, low-profile tires in racing?
- For those interested in numerology – in one particular year, the first four car numbers of the starting grid were 1-9-11 and 32. Put them together and you get 1911, the first year of the Indianapolis 500; and No. 32 – the car number for Ray Harroun, when he on that 1911 race. In what year did this coincidence take place?
- For several years, The Vita-Fresh Orange juice Special was on the grid of the Indianapolis 500. What was the first year this car qualified, and who was the driver?
- What year(s) had the most qualified cars bumped from the field (prior to the multiple bumps per day format that has been in play for the past couple of decades)? How many were bumped?
- For years, The Indianapolis News would supply a newspaper in Victory Lane with the winner’s name in the headline. When was the last year this was done?
- Which Indianapolis 500 winner was given the nickname The Little Professor (not Alex Palou)?
- When was the last time a turbine-powered car was entered into the Indianapolis 500? What type of chassis was it? Who was the car-owner and who was the driver?
Tie Breaker: There has never been a year with no rookies in the field. However, there have been years with only one rookie. Name the years with only one rookie drivers, their names and where they finished.
