Oilpressure

We have a winner for the 2019 Oilpressure.com Indianapolis 500 Trivia Contest. One entrant suggested I list all of the entrants and rank them by their score. I’m  not going to do that for two reasons. The main reason is that it would be a lot of trouble. The second reason is that some people didn’t come close to winning, and this is supposed to be fun and not embarrassing to people. So I decided I would list and rank the Top-Three, as sort of a podium – even though there is no podium for the Indianapolis 500.

When there were two parts to a question and someone only got one right – I only took off a half-point, instead of marking the entire answer wrong.

This was the closest finish we’ve ever had among the Top-Three. And there was new blood at the top – mainly because Mike from Vernon Hills told me last week that he was going to give others a chance, so he would sit out this year. There was a tie at the top. Two people only missed two answers, while third place only missed three. All three got the tie-breaker correct, so I had to resort to who got theirs in first.

With that being the case, our winner was Rick Johnson of Lynnwood, WA; who missed only two and submitted his entry on May 9. Also missing only two was Mike Risch, from parts unknown, but submitted his on May 14. Missing only three was fellow blogger Patti Nolen (ikissedthebricks), from the Chicago area. Patti deserves a tip of the hat, because she won Susan’s trivia contest and came within one answer of tying for first on this one. But Rick is the one who wins an Oilpressure.com T-shirt and has bragging rights for a year. Rick, please e-mail me on how to get your prize to you. Congratulations to Rick and also to Mike and Patti, Thanks to all who entered and played. I hope you all had fun with it.

And now, the answers…

1. Only three drivers have ever started the Indianapolis 500 and driven a Top-Fuel Dragster in an NHRA National Event. Name them. Art Malone, Danny Ongais and John Andretti

2. Who is the only person to lead a lap in the Indianapolis 500 as both a driver and a riding mechanic? Peter DePaolo

3. What was the first year that an entry blank for the Indianapolis 500 did not have a space to enter a riding mechanic? 1964

4. What was the first year that the top four finishers finished on the same lap? 1962

5. What former Indianapolis 500 winner later became the race’s Chief Steward? Tommy Milton

6. What driver drove more laps than anyone without leading a single lap? Chet Miller

7. Who was the oldest driver to be fatally injured at IMS? Ralph Hepburn, aged 52 in 1948

8. Which driver earned the nickname “Dean of the Speedway”? Chet Miller

9. What was the most recent year that the entire front row was made up of “Indy-only” one-offs? Name the drivers. 1995 – Arie Luyendyk, Scott Brayton and Scott Goodyear

10. There are nine living drivers that drove in the 1965 Indianapolis 500. Seven are former winners. Name the two living drivers from the 1965 starting grid that never won the Indianapolis 500. Mickey Rupp and George “Ziggy” Snider

11. Who was the last Hoosier-born driver to win the Indianapolis 500? Wilbur Shaw

12. What former Indianapolis 500 winner later invented a device that allowed amputees to drive an automobile? Mauri Rose

13. What driver led the first lap and the final lap of the same Indianapolis 500, but in two different cars? Joe Boyer in 1924

14. Two former Indianapolis 500 winners would later commit suicide. Name them. Lora Corum and Tommy Milton

15. Two former Indianapolis 500 winners would later perish in airplane crashes. Name them. Wilbur Shaw and Graham Hill

16. Who was the first to drive a Cosworth and the first Ilmor Chevrolet in the Indianapolis 500? Al Unser

17. Which non-winning Indianapolis 500 driver finished second, more times than anyone else? How many times? Harry Hartz finished second three times.1922, 1923 and 1926

18. Only twice has a rookie driver qualified on the pole. Name the two drivers and in what years? Walt Faulkner in 1950 and Teo Fabi in 1983.

19. Mario Andretti is third on the list of all-time lap leaders for the Indianapolis 500. How many laps did he lead throughout the 1970s? Zero

20. Cyrus Patschke drove relief for Ray Harroun in the 1911 Indianapolis 500. What other driver did Patschke drive relief for in that same race, and where did that driver finish? Joe Dawson, the 1912 winner, who finished fifth in 1911

21. What was the last year a driver in Victory Lane drank water from the cup with the engraving “Water from Wilbur”? Who was the winning driver? 1957, Sam Hanks

22. What was the pre-World War II name of the engine that eventually became the Novi? The Winfield

23. Heading into the 2011 Indianapolis 500, which driver in that field had the most previous “500” starts? How many? John Andretti, with twelve previous starts.

24. Name a driver who finished last in his first Indianapolis 500, and finished first in his last Indianapolis 500. Bobby Unser

25. What prominent car-owner claimed to have been born in Chicago, but had actually been born in Germany and immigrated to the US with his parents? Carl Haas

26. Roger Penske leads all car-owners with seventeen Indianapolis 500 victories. In 2017, Michael Andretti became tied for second-place behind Penske. Who did Michael Andretti tie and with how many victories? Lou Moore, Five victories

27. What driver holds the record for most Indianapolis 500 starts on the front row? Rick Mears, with eleven front row starts

28. What is the smallest time difference between the two fastest qualifiers? Who were the drivers and in what year? .01 seconds Al Unser over Johnny Rutherford in 1970; but I will also take Ryan Briscoe over James Hinchcliffe in 2012.

29. Who was the last person to sing (Back Home Again in) Indiana before Jim Nabors sang it for the first time in pre-race ceremonies? 1925 winner, Peter DePaolo in 1971

30. What driver holds the record for completing the first fifty laps in the shortest amount of time? What was the year? Fernando Alonso, 2017

31. Who was the last driver to put a front-engine car on the pole? What was the year? Parnelli Jones, 1963

32. When Jim Clark won the 1965 Indianapolis 500 in a Lotus powered by Ford, it was the first time an Offenhauser engine had failed to win in quite a while. Prior to 1965, when was the last time an Offenhauser failed to win the Indianapolis 500? 1946, when George Robson won with a six-cylinder supercharged Sparks.

33. What was the original name of the race car that sat atop the Safety Auto Glass Company in Indianapolis until the fall of 2012? Jones & Maley Special

Tie-Breaker: How many cars have completed the full race without a pit stop? Name the drivers and the years they accomplished the feat. Four; Dave Evans (1931), Cliff Bergere (1941), Jimmy Jackson (1949) and Johnny Mantz (1949)

This entry was posted on May 22, 2019 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.