Billy Vukovich is considered by many to be the greatest of all Indy car drivers. In his four starts at the Indianapolis 500, he won two, dropped out of one race with eight laps remaining when a part broke after leading 150 laps, and had a comfortable lead on lap 57 when he was killed in a five-car crash.

His dad was a farmer who immigrated from Yugoslavia with the dream of owning his own farm. His father toiled as a sharecropper in Fresno, California. He finally scraped together enough money to purchase a 20-acre farm during the Great Depression. The first year’s crop didn’t produce enough to pay the mortgage and the farm was foreclosed. Despondent, Billy’s father committed suicide. At the time, Billy, the sixth of eight children, was 14 years old. With his older siblings out of the home, Billy took odd jobs to support the family from driving trucks, to working in the fields and picking cotton. Even though he liked school and showed a mechanical bent, he dropped out of school the following year.

His older brother, Mike, was responsible for getting Billy into racing. Mike with his brothers’ help rebuilt a 1926 Chevrolet into a rudimentary racer.  After Billy found a badly rusted abandoned Model T Ford, he and his brothers rebuilt the car and he raced on country roads near Fresno. After the police put an end to his street racing, Billy started hanging around garages and racetracks helping people with the cars and hoping to get a ride.

Fred Gerhart, who would later become a sought-after car builder, gave Billy his first ride in 1936. In his fourth outing, Billy won his first race. After that, the victories began to pile up. He quickly migrated to midgets with Gerhart. Over the next several years, Billy would win over 130 featured midget races in a car he lovingly referred to as “Old Ironsides.” Billy had an innate ability to drive and a feel for the racetrack. He could envision where the holes would open up.  In 1940, he had a string of nine consecutive midget victories and won a total of 16 races. He was at the top of the midget racing world.

After World War II, he resumed racing midgets and friends and competitors urged him to go east to race in the big open-wheel racers and the Indianapolis 500. He wasn’t interested. He was a family man with two children. He was introverted and didn’t seek out publicity. In fact, he would try to keep out of the spotlight. But the persistence of others finally led him to championship car racing.

He showed up at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1950. Despite the fact that he had never driven on a track that was longer than a half-mile, he wasn’t intimidated. He teamed up with Peter DePaolo who won the Indianapolis 500 in 1925. The car, Wilbur Shaw’s Maserti, had won in 1939 and 1940. He easily passed the rookie test but unfortunately, the car was not competitive with newer cars, and he didn’t qualify for the Indianapolis 500.  He continued to show his racing prowess by winning the National Midget Championship.

In 1951, while most people didn’t think he would make the Indianapolis 500 in the Central Excavating car, he qualified 20^th.  The car developed an oil leak and went out of the race on lap 30. While he exited the race early, he showed others his ability. Two races later, he qualified seventh for the race at Langhorne even though he had never driven this difficult track before. He quickly gained the lead and was in front for 15 laps before his car failed. Driving six different cars, he participated in 10 of the 15 champ car races and finished in the top 5 three times.

In the off-season he teamed up with Howard Keck whose team included Jim Travers and Frank Coon, two legendary championship car mechanics. At long last, he would have a competitive car. A new Frank Kurtis designed car was built and Billy started from the eighth position in the Fuel Injection Special in 1952. He led the race for 150 laps including 44 of the final 52 before the car suffered from the failure of a steering pin on lap 191 and he grazed the wall.

He returned in 1953 and easily took the pole position. On a day that was in the 90s, the heat took its toll. While several cars utilized relief drivers, he was used to very hot temperatures from being on a tractor in the broiling Fresno sun. He won the race leading 195 of the 200 laps. When he would pull into the pits, he would drink one cup of water and pour another down his back.

Billy arrived in Indianapolis as the favorite to win in 1954. Initial runs at the Speedway showed the car to be speedy but as time went on, Billy’s time around the track was getting progressively slower. Billy missed the first weekend of qualifications with a cracked engine block. With the new engine installed in his car, Billy qualified 19^th. Even though he was in the race, there were still problems with the engine. Coon identified the problem being the pistons and rings and hand tooled the pistons. By this time, Billy was no longer favored to win. Billy drove to second place within the first eight laps. He won the race having led for 90 of the 200 laps including the final 51.

In 1955, he was again favored and started from the 4^th position. By lap 3, he was in the lead which he held until the fateful crash. It started when Rodger Ward’s car wiggled from a gust of wind coming out of Turn 2. His car flipped a couple of times and was sliding towards the outside of the track when three racers including Billy came around the turn. In an effort to miss the melee, the three drivers went to the outside to squeeze by. Unfortunately, rookie Al Keller saw the problem too late, hit the brakes and turned his car hard to the left going into the infield. He tried to correct by turning right back onto the track. Billy’s car hit the outside wall, went over it somersaulting several times, and ended upside down in flames. He was killed instantly of a basil skull fracture.

His only son, Billy, and only grandchild, Billy III inherited his racing gene. By the time Billy II arrived at the Speedway, most drivers had to garner sponsorships to get a ride. Like his father, he was introverted. His seventh-place finish in his first Indianapolis 500 resulted him in being named rookie of the year. He participated in sixteen Indianapolis 500s. His top finish was seventh in 1973. His grandson participated in three Indianapolis 500s with a top finish of 12^th in 1989. Unfortunately, he was killed when he hit the wall at a race in Bakersfield when his throttle stuck.

Bob Gates interviewed many people in the racing community along with the extended Vukovich family which provides insight into the lives of these three men. All shared a strong work ethic, a love for family, and close friends.