What a lovely lady Alice is. At almost 92, she’s sharp as a tack, and full of wisdom & fun.
Alice is the widow of Sam Hanks, who won the Indy 500 in 1957. With tears in his eyes, and his wife’s arms around him, Sam retired from racing in Indy’s Victory Circle. He continued to work for the Speedway for 22 years as Director of Racing, in addition to being a spokesman for Raybestos Brakes and Monroe Shock Absorbers. He drove the Indy pace car from 1958 until 1963. His ’57 win was his 13th attempt, after finishing second in 1956. He passed away in 1994.
For those of us who were around in those days, it seems like yesterday, on another planet. You can watch a short film of Sam’s 500 win on You Tube, narrated by another racing legend Cris Economaki .
Alice recently spent almost two hours with me, in her lovely home overlooking the Palisades surf. It was amazing how many friends we had in common. I was a crew member on various Indy cars from 1981, well into the 90’s with the Lazier family. Alice and I wondered how it is that so many people at the top levels of racing know and like each other, from Roger Penske down to the lowest tire changer. The only possible answer we came up with is….It’s so darn hard to get there! Ya start out working all day, driving all night, sleeping in the truck until the track gate opens, then you get out and do it all over again. If you’re willing to do that for years, or even decades, you must have something in common.
That leads to another question I wanted to ask Alice “What advice would you give to someone just starting in racing?” Her answer was precious, “Work hard and find someone with money.”
Sam’s 500 winning race car was the Belond Exhaust Special, built for team owner George Salih by Quin Epperly in his southern California shop. Almost all Indy cars in those days were powered by a 4 cylinder “Offy” engine, but when Sam saw that Quin had laid the Offy down 72 degrees from vertical, reducing the frontal area, lowering the center of gravity, and increasing the weight bias to the left side, he knew he could win in that car. It was the ultimate evolution of the “roadsters”, which were replaced by the rear engine cars in the 60’s.
That lead to another question, “What was your most enjoyable moment in racing?”
Without any hesitation, “When Sam stepped out of the car.” If you watch the You Tube video, you’ll see race drivers in tee shirts and baseball caps, with no roll bars or seat belts. Some even raced while smoking cigars. Fires, crashes and deaths were very common.
The next question, “What was your most enjoyable moment in life?” With no hesitation, “When I met Sam.” They met in the Midwest while Sam was in the military, then married right after the War. They moved to booming Southern California in 1947, where Sam continued his career racing sprint cars, stock cars, anything with wheels. Soon he was moving up to Indy roadsters.
For the 1957 Indy win Sam received a check for $107,000 in the winner’s circle (about 2.2 million in today’s money) then immediately gave it to the team owner who paid expenses and salaries out of it. That was common practice in those days.
No contract, just a gentleman’s agreement. “We bought our present house in 1958.” said Alice. “There were no lawyers or agents in those days. When we travelled we stayed in hotels usually run by the family who also lived there, and when we sat down to dinner we had real food, often prepared by the wife and daughters of the owner. It was a very different time.”
When I asked Alice, “What is your favorite car?” she answered “Usually the one I’m driving at the moment. I tend to keep my cars a long time. I treat them well and they treat me well. I’m currently driving a Mercedes C 320. It’s a lovely car. I’ll be sad when I eventually trade it. Everybody I’m close to is a car person. I don’t know why people love cars so much. I guess we just do.”
What a great afternoon. Thanks to Alice for spending the time with me, and thanks to Sylvia Wilkinson for setting up the interview. I hope we can have both of them over to the Shelby shop in Gardena, where we are building continuation Shelby GT-350 racecars. Turns out Alice is a Shelby fan also!
Duane and Shelley
