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IndyCar
HILDEBRAND: Yeah, It’s Got A Hemi…
I've driven vintage F1 cars, I've driven vintage Trans-Am cars and all sorts of things…but THIS was an Indy Roadster at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
J.R. Hildebrand  |  Posted May 18, 2011   Indianapolis, IN
JR Hildebrand's passion for auto racing history is obvious as he recounts what it was like to drive a 1950s-era Indy roadster around the Speedway. (Photo Courtesy of courtesy of Skip Peterson)
I’ll skip the flowery story introduction and get right to the point: It was pretty awesome to get a chance to jump in and drive a Kurtis-Hemi Indy 500 roadster last Friday.

It's owned by a friend of mine Joe Freeman, and is taken care of by Phil Reilly Restoration out in the Bay Area which is where I was originally introduced to both the owner and the car a couple years ago. The car has a pretty interesting history.

As the story goes, the car was somewhat of a factory backed entry by Chrysler through dealer Roger Walcott designated to run in the 1953 Indy 500. The rules had changed for '53 to allow stock-block engines bigger displacement, up to 335 cubic inches, whereas race-prepped blocks (like the Offys) were limited to 275, resulting in a perfect way for Chrysler to introduce the 331 hemi.

In a Firestone test at the end of '52, they rolled the Kurtis out with the new Hemi that Chrysler had been developing for the Cunningham sports cars (it was the Hemi’s first time in an Indy car) and without trouble, unofficially waxed the speed records from earlier that year with a relatively unknown driver at the helm. That became the car and team's ultimate demise, because it was all made very public by Chrysler that they had this car that was going to go out and win the Indianapolis 500 in '53, prompting the sanctioning body to change the rules before it could ever run (sound familiar?).

They required that ALL cars were to be limited to 275 cubic inches, severely dampening the power of Chrysler's new Hemi. It didn't even qualify for the race in '53, but did go on to finish respectably at each of the next two years with an Offy.

I wasn't really even expecting to drive the car last Friday to be honest, but I knew that Joe was in town and I went down to check out all the cars before they went out for the historic Indy 500 cars parade.

Coincidentally, I had just finished up a Panther Racing photo shoot and had my driving suit on and helmet in hand.... PURE COINCIDENCE, I tell you!...

Upon getting down to where they were parked, I was prompted by Phil Reilly and his crew to drive the Kurtis out to pit lane because they didn't have enough people to get all the cars out there in time for the lapping session.

And I thought, ‘Well hey, this is pretty cool, so why not?’ One of Reilly’s crew members guys gave me a quick rundown on how to get the ole’ Hemi fired up (the Kurtis was restored back to its original spec of 331 cubic inches, I might add) and with a grumbling snarl from the sidepipes, I was on my way out to the pit lane.

Just maneuvering the car underneath the grandstands to the pits was a bit of a chore - the front wheels seem like they're miles away, the track-width is super narrow both front and rear, the steering wheel lays flat in your lap, and the shift knob, for lack of a more descriptive explanation, is dangerously centered in the manly-parts region...

It was a little disconcerting, but who cares, I'm just driving the car down pit lane and parking it right?

Well of course, in the back of my mind this whole time, I'm sort of thinking that, yeah, it would be MORE than bitchin’ to roll this thing out on the INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY, GREATEST RACETRACK EVER, THE PLACE THIS CAR WAS BUILT FOR, but at the same time, this car in and of itself is a piece of history.

It's not a toy for JR to play with, and requires an immense amount of respect along with the man that owns it. As I'm considering this dilemma, my man Joe walked up and made my predicament much simpler by saying, "Hey kid, so how 'bout you drive the Kurtis? You'll have a blast!"
Hildebrand couldn't resist leaning on the Kurtis-Hemi in the corners and feeling what kind of grip the skinny tires had to offer... (Photo Courtesy of courtesy of Skip Peterson)

And just like that, Yahtzee! I'm in!

I really had no idea what to expect, but was kind of assuming that we were going to be stuck just cruising around behind the pace car. That proved to be incorrect. I rolled out first in the roadster group, and pace car driver Stephan Gregoire (knowing that I was driving the first car in line maybe?) just sort of just took off!

Obviously my racing instincts kicked in at that point and suggested pushing on that pedal over there on the right, so along with a bunch of other Indy roadsters from the 50s and 60s, I was off. The three-speed tranny between the legs was a little bit of a handful to manage, but I got it in top gear and quickly realized that that was undoubtedly the right choice as the revs started climbing down the straights. The sound and power of the motor definitely got my blood flowing, but believe me, I'm sure that paled in comparison to my heart rate once I realized that I was approaching Turn One at a decent clip in this thing for the first time! It was a very foreign feeling at first, that's for sure.

The car responded pretty quickly to my steering inputs and all that, but the feeling for what the thing was doing was totally different than anything I'd ever driven before. I'm sitting there feeling like I'm practically standing up in the car, I'm all the way at the back of the thing between the rear wheels, and now I've got to hustle it down into Turn One? Seriously? Man, it was more excitement than I was expecting for my off-day after Rookie Orientation!

After a few laps around the track, I started to figure things out. All the other fellas out there were animals down the straights so we kept together in a good group for a while (I didn't really feel like blowing Joe's Hemi up so I pedalled it at about five-grand), but I couldn't help but try to drive that baby blue Kurtis down into the corner a little harder every lap.

Knowing the repercussions for doing something stupid far outweighed the risk, and I was able to suppress my desire to really go for it, but I did notice that after driving through a little traffic, the pace car and I had lost the rest of the field...

Just the little bit that the car had started to move around in the middle of the corners was enough to get me a little nostalgic about how crazy it must have been back in the days that these things were hauling ass around the Speedway on skinny tires and on the ragged edge lap after lap.

People hear the speeds that we go today and think that it sounds dangerous and insane, but the guys that strapped into those cars back in the early days were the ones that really had to man up.

Reality set back in as I checked my phone while driving down the front-straight (How ‘2011’ is that! ~Ed.) to see that I was already late to an appearance I was meant to be at that day, so I pulled the Kurtis-Hemi back into the lane and hopped out.

In the heat of the moment all I had time to do was smile and run off to hospitality, but later on it sunk in that I had just gotten the chance to do something really special. I've always enjoyed learning about the history of this great sport of ours, but that day was something totally new and totally different.

I've driven vintage F1 cars, I've driven vintage Trans-Am cars and all sorts of things…but THIS was an Indy Roadster at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. And that's something I'll most certainly never forget.

Learn more about JR Hildebrand, Panther Racing and the National Guard by visiting www.PantherRacing.com.
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