As a youngster, William Walker frequently heard the stories about his second cousin’s open-wheel racing career. On a trip to the family cemetery in Knoxville, Tennessee, he noticed a large memorial. Close examination showed an intricate design of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, even down to the bricks in the track. On the outside wall, was a miniature roadster with two small figures in the car and a flagman waving a checkered flag. Through this design, commissioned by Pete Kreis’ father, Albert Milani paid homage to Pete Kreis’ last trip around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. On that lap, Pete Kreis struck the notoriously dangerous Turn One wall. His car climbed the retaining wall and rode it for 90 feet before crashing into a tree on 16^th Street. Striking the tree in the middle of the cockpit, the violent crash nearly ripped Kreis’ legs off. Both Kreis and his twenty-one year old riding mechanic, Bob Hahn, died.

Kreis’ accident is one of the unsolved mysteries of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. While Kreis was known for his aggressive “go for broke” driving style, he had the reputation of being a really good driver. Yes, he had crashed before, such as on black ice, but this crash did not make sense. There was some speculation around the Speedway that perhaps he had committed suicide. Yet, he was apparently in a good mood before getting into the car. The next March, five people intimately involved in auto racing discussed his death only to conclude that this accident was very strange.

The car owner, Harry Hartz, had given strict instructions. Kreis was to do five laps at 80 mph, then increase the speed to 95 mph for five laps before he brought the car up to speed for 10 to 20 laps. He was on the very first lap when he crashed in Turn One. There were no tire marks on the Speedway surface or on the retaining wall to indicate that he knew the car was about to crash. Harry Hartz ordered that the car be closely examined as he had an identical car entered in the race. If there was a problem with the Kreis car, Hartz wanted to know what it was so that the other car wouldn’t suffer the same fate. The examination showed that there was nothing mechanically wrong with the car.

Kreis always had a love of speed. At an early age, he would race his family’s car on the backroads near Knoxville, Tennessee. He dreamed of winning the Indianapolis 500. In 1924, his father paid the legendary Duesenberg brothers $10,000 for a racer. Before the Duesenbergs agreed to the sale, they wanted to make sure that Kreis could be competitive. He passed their test with flying colors. The next year, he finished eighth in the Indianapolis 500. Turns out, this was his best finish.

In 1925, he decided he would be more competitive if he drove a Hartz designed car. He sold the Duesenberg racer and bought one from Harry Hartz which had been involved in a crash at Culver City. Kreis would be the owner and driver of the car. While he campaigned in the car prior to the Indianapolis 500, he was hospitalized with the flu for four days. He reluctantly agreed to allow a previously untested Californian, Frank Lockhart, pilot the car. Starting the race in 20^th position, Lockhart soon showed his driving ability and won the race which was shortened to 160 laps by rain.

In 1927, Kreis finished 17^th in the race after a broken axle ended his day after 123 laps. The next year, he finished 22^nd after a rod bearing failure on the 74^th lap. In the 1929 race, his engine seized on the 91^st lap and he finished 16^th. After not getting a ride for the Indianapolis 500 in 1930, he reluctantly agreed to be a back-up driver but only drove the car during practice. In 1931, he secured a ride in a roadster built by a truck manufacturer. Although he qualified for the race, the car was withdrawn after its clutch broke during practice.

Car owners were having reservations about letting him drive their cars. He had developed a reputation for pushing the car hard and driving on the edge. In 1932, he found a ride with Studebaker with the help of his friend, Clff Bergère. Kreis crashed during practice in Turn One when he spun the car around 360 degrees. During the race, he crashed his Studebaker in Turn One on the 179^th lap after his tire blew. After the race, Kreis needed to fill his commitment for a Firestone tire test. Just like during the race, his tire blew and he crashed into Turn One, only this time, he was seriously injured. Later that year, he suffered another crash, this time while driving under the influence in his father’s Auburn. That car turned turtle and then was destroyed by fire.

Thanks to the friendship with Fred Frame, he secured a ride that looked really promising for the 1933 Indianapolis 500. The car had won the 1932 Indianapolis 500 with Fred Frame at the wheel. Once again, his day ended early after a universal joint failed on lap 64 and he finished 32^nd out of a field of 42 cars.

Kreis arrived in Indianapolis in 1934 without a ride and became increasingly frustrated in his inability to land one. He wanted to drive a car with either Harry Hartz or Fred Frame who were non-committal. He stated that if he did not get a ride, he wouldn’t stay for the race. On May 24, Harry Hartz hired him to drive his car. Ironically, it was the same car which he had driven in 1933. The next day, May 25, Pete went to the Speedway to test the car. On the way to the track, he witnessed a serious automobile accident which killed one of the car’s occupants. Perhaps this was in the back of Pete’s mind when he took the car out on what would be his last lap at the Speedway.

Over the years, Walker got to know Pete’s sister, Hazel Kreis Oliver, who shared with him clippings of Kreis’ races. This only increased Walker’s desire to unravel the mystery behind Pete’s death. The family believed that possibly he had blacked out which would account for the lack of skid marks. Yet he had passed the pre-race physical without difficulty. Or perhaps he had taken aggressive action to avoid another car on the track. There were no witnesses to the crash to support this theory.

Before leaving Knoxville to go to Indianapolis in 1934, Kreis had made the casual statement to a cousin that he was either going to win the race or he would come home in a pine box. People who heard the comment thought that he was just joking.

Fascinated by the family tales, Walker spent about seventy years investigating his cousin’s death. Shortly before Hazel Kreis Oliver died, she called Walker and said she urgently needed to see him. He left his home in Virginia and traveled back to Knoxville. There, Hazel Kreis Oliver told him about a special diamond ring. Kreis used to wear it on his little finger and his sister would teasingly ask him to give her the ring. He would always laugh, and the ring would stay on his little finger. Yet, on the day of the fateful crash, Kreis took the ring off his finger and gave it to his mechanic with the instructions to give it to his sister if anything happened to him. His sister believed that Kreis had a premonition about his death which is why she gave the ring to his mechanic.

For years, Walker had wanted to figure out the mystery behind Kreis death. With this piece of information, Walker believes that Kreis, depressed by his failure to win the Indianapolis 500, committed suicide.

This is a book well worth reading. Walker is well grounded not only in information about Pete Kreis’ driving career but also about other aspects of the Indianapolis 500.