Terry Collection continued from page 1...

In the picture on the front page you may be able to see the gold medal that is laying on the cloth helmet. The medal is inscribed on the back “To Louis Schneider, First car on the track 1930”. Schneider gave this medal to Terry as he was the mechanic who had the car ready.
Some of the other highlights of the extensive collection are a 1941 pit badge, a 1946 pit badge and several other badges and back-up cards. There are autographed pictures of Schneider as well as Terry’s AAA Driver’s License from the 1920’s and several of his “mechanician” license.
There are many beautiful celluloid and string badge credentials as well as a stack of arm bands and many, many AAA lapel pins. It is a beautiful collection.
Michael, who grew up in Indianapolis, has decided to sell the collection. It will be sold as one unit and the individual pieces will not be sold separately.
Part of the collection may be seen at The Old-timers Reunion in Columbus, IN on February 22. For more information please contact Michael at 812-579-5578.

Club Notes

It’s almost time for another Indy racing season to start. The IRL will now be known as IndyCar and promises to have another exciting season. It was nice to hear that John Andretti will return to The 500 this year. Too bad he doesn’t race full-time in Indy cars.
This year appears to be the last few races for Michael Andretti as he has announced that he will retire after the 500 this year. Can’t believe he’s 40 years old. Sure would have been fun to see a young Michael in the wheel-to-wheel racing the IRL has provided the past several years.
Support IndyCar by attending a few races and tuning in to the TV shows. The only way we will ever get our young hot-dogs to choose open wheel racing instead of taxi cabs is to grow the audience and allow our series to have the money to compete for their talents. It’s a real shame that Ryan Newman, Dave Blaney, John Andretti as well as Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Robby Gordon and now Casey Mears, Larry Foyt among others have gone south. You know, those old NASCAR fans are probably plenty irked by the success of our open wheel guys. I bet they wish they’d go home as much as we wish they'd come home.

Columbus Show

The 5th Annual Columbus Speedway-25th Street Raceway Old Timers Reunion will take place at the Bartholomew County 4-H Fairgrounds in Columbus, Indiana on February 22.
These were the home tracks of 500 veterans Pat O’Connor and Larry Crockett in their youth. There is always plenty of pictures and articles about their exploits as well as “from-the-horses-mouth” stories from the people who raced with them.
This year the 1950 Cummins Diesel driven by Jimmy Jackson will join the display of several Champ Cars, Sprints, Midgets, Track Roadsters and old Stock Cars. There will be old racing movies as well as memorabilia, food and plenty of Bench Racing.
The fairgrounds is located on Highway 11, two miles south of Highway 46. Hours are 11:00 A.M. to 7:00 P.M.

Racing Fraternity Deaths

Johnny Mauro who drove in the 500 in 1948, died in a traffic accident in January. He was 91 years old.
Jack Hinkle, 90, passed in his sleep in late January. Hinkle, the oil and banking entrepreneur, was best known as the owner of the beautiful and successful cars driven by Jack McGrath from 1951 through 1955. Hinkle was involved in Sports car racing until 1983, however he walked away from the Champ cars after his close friend McGrath was killed at Phoenix in 1955.
Member Larry Wheat contacted me with the news that former car owner Usona Purcell passed away in October 2002. Purcell spent 26 years as a car owner or co-owner until he sold the last of his cars in 1998. He co-owned the 1984 Hoosier Transportation Spl with his wife Hilda. Dennis Firestone started the 1984 race in the middle of the back row and finished in 12th place. This was Purcell's best Indy result. Mr. Purcell also owned the 1983 Spirit of Vincennes entry, which was driven by Ken Schrader but did not qualify. In 2000, he returned to the Speedway as co-owner of Andy Hillenburg's Sumar Spl. #48 with Bill Simpson. Larry said, “All I know about Mr. Purcell was that he was one great guy.”