United States GP 1959

United States GP, 1959

Once again the Indianapolis 500 was included in the World Championship. The 1959 race featured - as usual - no European entries at all. In early practice for the 500 Jerry Unser, who had gone over the wall and survived the previous year, crashed and suffered serious burns. He died 17 days later. There was a second fatality between the two qualifying weekends when Bob Cortner crashed head-on into the wall at Turn Three. The result of qualifying was that Johnny Thompson was ahead of Eddie Sachs and Jim Rathmann. and the race developed into a battle between Rathmann, Thompson, Rodger Ward and Pat Flaherty. Flaherty and Thompson both fell out of the fight and Ward beat Rathmann to the flag by 23 seconds.

POSNODRIVERENTRANTLAPSTIME/RETIREMENTQUAL POS
1 5 Rodger Ward Watson-Offenhauser  200 3h40m49.200s  6 
2 16 J Rathmann Watson-Offenhauser  200 3h41m12.477s  3 
3 3 J Thomson Lesovsky-Offenhauser  200  1 
4 1 T Bettenhausen Epperly-Offenhauser  200  15 
5 99 P Goldsmith Epperly-Offenhauser  200  16 
6 33 J Boyd Epperly-Offenhauser  200  11 
7 37 D Carter Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser  200  12 
8 19 E Johnson Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser 500G 200  8 
9 45 P Russo Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser 500G 200  27 
10 10 A J Foyt Kuzma-Offenhauser  200  17 
11 88 G Hartley Kuzma-Offenhauser  200  9 
12 74 B Veith Moore-Offenhauser  200  7 
13 89 A Herman Dunn-Offenhauser  200  23 
14 66 J Daywalt Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser  200  13 
15 71 C Arnold Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser  200  21 
16 58 J McWhitney Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser 500C 200  33 
17r 44 E Sachs Kuzma-Offenhauser  182 Spin 2 
18r 57 A Keller Kuzma-Offenhauser  163 Engine 28 
19r 64 P Flaherty Watson-Offenhauser  162 Accident 18 
20r 73 D Rathman Watson-Offenhauser  150 Fire In Pits 4 
21r 53 B Cheesbourg Kuzma-Offenhauser  147 Magneto 30 
22r 15 D Freeland Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser 500G 136 Magneto 25 
23r 49 R Crawford Elder-Offenhauser  115 Accident 32 
24r 9 D Branson Phillips-Offenhauser  112 Mechanical 10 
25r 65 B Christie Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser 500C 109 Engine 24 
26r 48 B Grim Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser 500G 85 Magneto 5 
27r 24 J Turner Christensen-Offenhauser  47 Fuel Tank 14 
28r 47 C Weyant Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser 500G 45 Accident 29 
29r 7 J Larson Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser  45 Accident 19 
30r 77 M Magill Sutton-Offenhauser  45 Accident 31 
31r 87 R Amick Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser 500C 45 Accident 26 
32r 8 L Sutton Lesovsky-Offenhauser  34 Accident 22 
33r 6 J Bryan Epperly-Offenhauser  1 Engine 20