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Ziggy
12-27-04, 11:15 PM
TROY, The Story of Indy's Youngest Winner by Carol Anderson Sims

Wow! What a subject. A long anticipated read that has actually been for sale for quite sometime. Author fell into the notion that they could sell this book without the help of a retail network. It's kind of hard to come by unless you know a source to purchase.

I was lucky to stumble across this title, and am the better informed for having read it.

Troy Ruttman became the youngest winner of the Indianapolis 500 in 1952 at the tender age of 22!. As a child of the depression, money was hard to come by. His parents lived a rather nomadic lifestyle in order to put food on the table. Winding up in Los Angeles and riding a bicycle for Western Union finds our hero getting his only form of transportation stolen. The rest is in the history books.... from winning the "Ashcan Derby", a weekly show for what we would now consider bombercars, his talents were quickly noticed by all the right people. His metoric rise at the dawn of the California Racing Association, the birth of the Dry Lakes and all the Grandfathers of Hot Rodding fall into this story.

The trials and tribulations of Troy's fascinating career have been captured by the author. Carol Sims did several interviews with Troy before he passed away in May of 1997. We owe her a debt of gratitude for mining Troy's career firsthand.

Troy Ruttman's own words. Let me tell you folks, this dude was cool. Harking back to a time when our society was changing, the Beatnick Era, Rock and Roll, those care free fifties. Troy Ruttman was not without faults, and in this book he is unashamed and shares with the readers the how's and why's of what some may say a career wasted. A teenager running Champcars. Winning race after race. How good was he? here's and example. Troy won the pole position, won the heat race, won the feature on the vaunted Salem High Banks the first time he ever drove there. He was nineteen years old! Ruttman won in everything, Stock Cars, Midgets, Sprints, Champcars, Sportscars and for you fruity cuppers, ran the Monza "Race of Two Worlds" and befriended Luigi Musso, gaining a one off drive in the French Grand Prix in 1958. If it had wheels, Ruttman was interested.

A great book on a great American talent.

You can order yours from www.etcracing.com, tell them Ziggy sent you!

ISBN #1565814525

Published by
Tichenor Publishing for Larry and Georgia Davis
4900 West State Road 45
Bloomington Indiana 47403
(812) 825 2122

Ziggy

theunions
12-28-04, 01:35 AM
Can anyone verify if Carol (who herself passed away just 2 years ago or so) was indeed the first woman allowed to work inside Gasoline Alley, or if not who and when?

Railbird
12-28-04, 06:05 AM
Of all the heroes of that era of American racing, and there were many, Ruttman and Sweikert were the two most mentioned by their peers for their pure driving skills.

Thanks Zig

cart7
12-28-04, 10:06 AM
Thanks for the read zig. It's always a pleasure to hear about the days when racers weren't bridled by sponsor commitments and exclusivity contracts and could jump into a ride whenever they could. :thumbup: