Bill Vukovich

Bill Vukovich was the most renowned racer in America when he died at Indianapolis on Memorial Day in 1955. He won the race in successive years, 1953-1954, in the two years before his fatal accident. My book was researched from newspapers of the mid 1950s and contains photos and mastheads from the papers themselves. Vukovich was Slovenian by ancestry and being a grape farmer in Fresno, California was his livelihood. He insisted that racing was a hobby or a pastime, not his full time job. The tragic crash that killed Bill Vukovich was a very freakish one indeed. It involved multiple cars and Vuky was left with nowhere to turn but right. When he made this move it caused him to catapult freely and come to rest upside down. One of his hands was protruding from the crashed and burning car when it came to rest.