1960 Indianapolis Indy 500 Rathmann v Ward 8x10 Gelatin Silver IMS Photo

Description: This 1960 Indianapolis Indy 500 Rathmann v Ward 8x10 Gelatin Silver IMS Photograph is the exact item you will receive and has been certified Authentic by REM Fine Collectibles. This image was acquired along with 100s of other Official Indianapolis Motor Speedway photographs from famed Indianapolis 500 Photographer Jim Haines' personal collection. The 1960 Indy 500 produced one of the most thrilling duels in the race's history, as Jim Rathmann and Rodger Ward battled for the lead from start to finish. Never before had two drivers battling for the lead of an Indianapolis 500 made their final pitstops simultaneously. Onboard air-jacks plugged in – these also locked the brakes to ease the changing of wheels – well-practised crews leapt into action. Rookie team owners Kenny Rich (aptly named) and Paul Lacey – goodtime guys from Dallas – had spared no expense in prising renowned tuner/chief mechanic Takeo ‘Chickie’ Hirashima from his previous employ, and in persuading NASCAR pitstop guru (among most other things motorsport) Henry ‘Smokey’ Yunick to impart his knowledge. Yet Rodger Ward’s Leader Card squad – owned by serious-minded and race-proven Bob Wilke, a paper baron from Milwaukee, and overseen by ace car-builder AJ ‘The Head’ Watson – edged them by a couple of seconds to grab 200ft over Jim Rathmann’s sister Watson-Offenhauser, looking especially fine on their tall tyres, as they rejoined the track. There were 52 laps to go – and this pair had been at it since, well, 1959. Rathmann drove ever more deeply into Turns 1 and 3 on his final set of fresh rubber – both crews had deemed the unloaded left-fronts okay to continue – so as to compromise the potentially faster Ward. Now lapping as quickly in traffic as they had in qualifying, the top two continued to duke it out while keeping a bead on their wearing tyres’ warning orange breaker strips. They indicated two maybe three laps left. Tops. Ward’s was the first to show: the right-front on lap 197. Had he not won in 1959 he might have kept his foot in. But Ward 2.0, seven years older at 39 than the prematurely balding Rathmann, took the measured view and backed off. And so it was Rathmann, a man with more reason to take a risk on the day, who swung into Victory Lane. His right-rear was shot, its strip having popped to the surface the lap after Ward’s. His win marked not the end of an era – a roadster would prevail as late as 1964 – but the beginning of its end: the field of the last Indy 500 to count towards the Formula 1 World Championship was the last to be all front-engined and powered entirely by the wailing Offy.

Price: 199 USD

Location: Beverly Hills, California

End Time: 2024-10-09T15:57:12.000Z

Shipping Cost: 0 USD