Studebaker 'Racing Trivia' Question #94

[SN-60]

Before the restart of the 1964 Indy 500, (the race was red flagged after the second lap disaster),
Andy Granatelli made two requests to USAC officials......He was denied both.....anyone know
what these requests were?

[SN-60]

I wonder if I FINALLY beat jnormanh with this one?

[jnormanh]

I wonder if I FINALLY beat jnormanh with this one?

Are you reading Granatelli's They Call Me Mister 500? I don't own a copy.

If so, you should be aware that it's large part fiction.

That doesn't mean I don't like Granatelli. In fact I admire him for all the effort, innovation and money he put into Indy. He's one of the Indy heroes, but, just as AJ Foyt will never win the Miss Manners award, Andy will never be an accurate historical source.

I enjoy your trivia. Especially when I know the answer :-) If you ever get down this way, drinks (and BS) are on me. LOL!!!

[SN-60]

To jnormanh,------ Thank you jnormanh, the invite is very kind of You, and if I ever do make it down to the Carolinas I'll definitely take you up on that! I've read Mr. G's book 'They Call Me Mr. 500'.....years ago...
I remember that I found it interesting... but to tell You the truth NONE of these Indy trivia come from it (lost My copy). Hope you don't think I'm 'leaning' on You for answers...but in truth, I'm quite impressed with
Your knowledge of mid twentieth century Indy racing history.

[Stude8]

These were the three Studebaker entries in the 1964 Indy 500 race.
#3 Kurtis NOVI driven by Art Malone, qualified at 151.222 MPH, finished 11th (flagged at 194 laps);
#28 Kurtis NOVI driven by Jim McElreath, qualified at 152.381 MPH, finished 21st (out with mechanical trouble);
#9 Ferguson NOVI 4WD driven by Bobby Unser, qualified at 154.865 MPH, finished 32nd (crashed on lap 2).

[SN-60]

To: Stude8,-----I enjoy these trivia questions because without fail I get to see 'new' material. Your three posted photos are a case in point. Great photos/info! But we're still looking for what Granatellis two requests
of the USAC officials were.

[davepink53]

A smoke and a beer?

[SN-60]

To: davepink53,--------After the second lap disaster, and knowing His #1 car would now be sidelined.....a smoke and a beer would probably have made perfect sense. But no, these were not Andy's
requests to USAC. Try again!

[SN-60]

No more responses on Andy's 'requests'?

[SN-60]

ANSWERS: 1) As NOVI #28 was the last car to make it through the '64 second lap disaster before the race was stopped, Andy Granatelli felt #28 deserved, and He asked for, a higher starting position on
the single file restart...He was denied this by USAC. 2) A bit more technical..... NOVI engines were always started on 'cold' plugs....then the sixteen plugs were changed out for 'hot' racing plugs. The race was not
restarted for over an hour after the accident. The engines in the two remaining Granatelli cars had cooled off to the point where restarting and bringing them to racing speed would be considered very rough
treatment without the usual sparkplug change. So Granatelli asked for a chance to go through the usual warmup procedure on these two cars, but USAC denied Him this feeling that they would have to also
allow everyone else to 'tune' their cars. USAC officials simply did not allow ANY of the remaining race cars to be worked on before the race was restarted.
As a result, both STUDEBAKER-STP-NOVIS were down on power right away....and PROBABLY the reason #28 blew a piston on lap 77.