Description
Bill Vukovich was the greatest race driver of his era, a grim, hard-charging product of a humble and difficult childhood. He honed his racing skills and temperament on the midget and sprint car tracks in California and then went on to dominate the Indianapolis 500. He led 150 laps of the race in 1952 before steering failure forced him out eight laps before the finish. He won the race in 1953 and ’54, and still is the only driver to have led the most laps in the race for three consecutive years.
He had a 17-second lead after 57 laps in 1955 when a multi-car accident on the backstretch sent him flying over the outside wall. He landed upside down on parked cars and was killed instantly.
Although private by nature and gruff with strangers he was generous with friends and extremely close to his wife and two children, and regarded as a man of great integrity.
Indianapolis sportswriter Angelo Angelopolous, widely recognized as one of the best in the country at his craft, was the only media member to grow close to Vukovich. He dedicated himself to telling Vukovich’s dramatic life story after giving up his newspaper career to become a freelancer for national magazines.
He was working against a tight “deadline,” however, because he was slowly dying of leukemia – contracted from the radiation he received while flying over the Hiroshima bombing site as a Navy pilot during World War II. Angelopolous, who died in 1962 at age 43, had a contract with a publishing house and left behind an edited manuscript that for unknown reasons never reached print. He had insider access to Vukovich’s garage at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and socialized with him as well. He presents never-before-published details of Vukovich’s life and career, including dialogue that will make readers feel as if they are along for the ride. The story reads like fiction, a Hollywood movie script, but is thoroughly researched and entirely truthful.
Both Vukovich and Angelopolous are members of all the halls of fame that are appropriate for their careers, and together they present an unforgettable story.
About the Author
Angelo Angelopolous was born and raised in Indianapolis and spent most of his working career with the city’s afternoon newspaper, The Indianapolis News. He was an outstanding writer who took advantage of the afternoon paper’s generous deadlines to tell stories like nobody else in the history of the city’s newspapers.
He was living a charmed life. Hired by the News directly out of college at Butler University, he interrupted his career to enlist in the Navy after World War II broke out. He became a pilot, returning to civilian life and the News after the war’s end. He married a local model and was a charismatic, popular figure in both the local sporting world and social circles.
In 1955, however, he was diagnosed with leukemia, which he contracted after flying over bombing sites in Japan. He handled his fate gracefully, remaining optimistic about a recovery and working up to the final month of his life in 1962. He was prominent enough that his passing was reported in newspapers throughout the country.
This book was his major focus after leaving the News in 1956 to become a freelance writer and will stand as the ultimate testimony to his career. It also carries an air of mystique because it never reached publication, for uncertain reasons, despite a contract with publisher Bobbs Merrill. A few copies of the manuscript were known to exist over the years, but only one – kept in a closet by Angelopolous’ nephew – was kept.
