Indianapolis 500

Indianapolis Motor Speedway, 30 May 1962

Notes on the cars:

1. Thompson 62 (Dan Gurney): Entered for Dan Gurney at the 1962 Indy 500 as the #34 Thompson Enterprises car. Gurney qualified eighth but was out early. Returned to Indy in 1963 as Thompson's #85 MT Harvey Aluminum entry for Bill Cheesbourg at the 1963 Indy 500. He crashed the car in practice on 6 May, hitting the wall six times and damaging the car beyond immediate repair according to the Clymer yearbook. Retained thereafter by Micky Thompson and, following his death in 1988. by his son Danny Thompson. The car was still in very original condition when sold to George Lyons (Erie. PA) in 2014.
2. Thompson 62 (Keith Rachwitz): Entered for Keith Rachwitz at the 1962 Indy 500 as the #33 Kimberly Buick car. Rachwitz did not qualify but did race the car at Milwaukee a week or so later. It returned to Indy in 1963 as the #64 Kimberly entry but again Rachwitz did not qualify. Kimberly then sold his two-car team to Indianapolis Ford dealer Jerry Alderman, and the Thompson was raced by Rachwitz at Phoenix in November 1964. According to the late Bill Enoch, who researched Indycar lineages, it was the #75 backup car for Al Miller's Lotus 29 at Indy in 1965. Enoch told Gerald Johnson that it was in the garage but probably never fired up. Subsequent history unknown.
3. Moore 62 (Dan Gurney): In 1957, Leonard Williams, and engineer with the Boeing Airplane Co, had presented a paper to the US Society of Automotive Engineers suggesting the use of a gas turbine engine at the Indianapolis 500. His idea was eventually taken up by the highly successful car owner John S. Zink (Tulsa, OK) who pursuaded Boeing to provide a Model 502-10F turboshaft engine, a lightweight unit used primarily in helicopters. For 1962, Carl Oliver and Zink's chief mechanic Denny Moore built a new car for Zink which was inspired by the 1961 Indy 500 Cooper T54 and by the Lotus 18 and had the turbine engine mounted in the rear of the car . The chassis was a welded tube frame, similar to the Cooper, and used Troutman Barnes independent suspension with the engine mated to a Halibrand quick-change rear end. Dan Gurney was hired to drive the car at the 1962 Indy 500 but struggled with the throttle lag and could only get up to 143 mph. Duane Carter then tried the car and got it up to 142 mph but its top speed of 167 mph on the straight was still below that of the Offys. Bill Cheesbourg tried it next and got to 145 mph, only 1-2 mph outside a likely qualifying speed. An attempt to qualify was planned for the final weekend but the heat on those two days affected the car's performance and it did not get close. After a demonstration at IRP and spending the weekend of the 500 on display at the Speedway, the car was returned to Tulsa and the engine was returned to Boeing. For more on this car, see Len Williams' report. By 1981, the car was restored and on display in the IMS Museum. It was on display again as part of the special exhibit of turbine powered cars in May 2014.

Sources

Note that the identification of individual cars in these results is based on the material presented elsewhere in this site and may in some cases contradict the organisers' published results.

The foundation for this research is the work done by the late Phil Harms collating the results of all AAA, USAC and CART races, including the period covered here. His data was refined by Michael Ferner who added more information before making it available to OldRacingCars.com. Since the start of the USAC project on OldRacingCars.com in 2004, a wealth of further information has been gleaned from the Carl Hungness and Donald Davidson Yearbooks, Formula and On Track magazines, USAC News, National Speed Sport News and other published sources. Gerry Measures has also provided much information from his files as have others on TNF and Trackforum. Since 2009, the work of Simmo Iskül and others identifying cars from period photographs has has moved this research forward significantly.

All comments, clarifications, corrections and additions are most welcome. Please email Allen (allen@oldracingcars.com) if you can help in any way with our research.