1954 Kurtis 500C-Maserati/Frank Arciero Special
After back-to-back wins at the Indianapolis 500 in 1953 and 1954, Bill Vukovich returned for the ’55 race with only one goal…to win three in a row. His mount was Lindsey Hopkins’ 1954 Offy-powered Kurtis 500C (Kurtis Chassis #372; the Hopkins Special; car #4) which had finished 21st at Indy the prior year with Pat O’Conner behind the wheel. As the green flag dropped at Indy in ’55, Vukovich wasted little time going to the front. By lap 57, he and the Kurtis had a 17-second lead over the field and it appeared he was well on his way to a third straight guzzling of the milk. It was not to be.
Exiting Turn Two Vukovich encountered three slower cars driven by Johnny Boyd, Al Keller and Rodger Ward. In a chain reaction crash, Vukovich’s Kurtis became airborne, launched over the backstretch retaining wall and cartwheeled four and a half times, landing upside-down. Vukovich died at the scene; he was 36.
