Moving North, by Don

Moving North
by Don

In 1956, Dad decided to give up farming and move to Indianapolis, Indiana and work in the garage with my brother R.J..

In August, when we started for Indiana, we weathered tornadoes across Missouri from the east to the west. When we got to Missouri they were all gone. When we arrived in Indiana my Dad and I started working with R.J. in his garage.

Much to my surprise my brother had gotten into building race cars in his shop. I helped him build one and put the engine in one to get ready to test it. I could not contain myself until the second came when I could go test the car. I begged my brother to let me test the car, and he told me I was not old enough to drive on the track.

My brother's nick name on the track was Curly because he had no hair on his head.

We finally got to the track Saturday night. I bugged Curly to let me try the car while they were mixing the fuel mixture. These were sprint cars which were open-style roadster type.

Curly came and got me and told me we were up next and to warm the car up for the track. His instructions were: Put the helmet on and get in the car. Run the car until they give the green flag to bring the car on the track. Drive the car around the track until they give the checkered flag. Then bring the car into the pit, get out of the car and hand his helmet to him.

The adrenaline was running when I got into the car and put the helmet on. After two laps to warm up, they gave me the green flag. I went 10 laps around the track with the timer on until I got a checkered flag.

I pulled into the pit the way I had been instructed. My brother met me when I stopped the car and said, Get out of the car and give me my helmet. He told me never to tell anyone that I had driven the car, because I wasn't old enough to drive the car. The reason he was being secretive, I found out a few minutes later, was that I had set a new track record!

I would say that was the biggest day of my life. I was now a race car driver.

The track was a dirt track across from the Indianapolis 500 race track which no longer exists.

Wow, what a fun ride Don gave us with this "RACEy" memory. We could see him taking off with only the dust behind him. How about you? Too, this was a great description about an event in his life that changed him forever.

PHOTO: Google: from Brown Motors

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