Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Hepburn had the relief driver signaled into the pits and he took charge again. Joyfully taking up the task of bringing down Shaw, he made up a lap and a half and finished second by a mere 2.16 seconds. It was the closest 500 finish on record, and remained so for the next 45 years. The first Novi engine was ready in time for the 500 of 1941, but there was nothing to cram it into except a five-yearold Miller front drive. Hepburn, by this time the most experienced Indianapolis veteran going, got called up to do the honors. He found the horsepower so intimidating that he played it safe, and, to prevent the throttle from going clear to the floor, wedged a board, a two by four, beneath it. Driving this way, with only three-quarter power, he still acheived fourth place. Following four years of World War IT, Indianapolis racing resumed in 1946. Hepburn, now SO, nev~r would have had the stamina to control the Novi, except that a new chassis was coming off the drawing board. Now able to take full advantage of the horsepower, he got the Novi going so fast he broke the qualifying record by seven mph. And he'd surely have won the 500, too, had not fading brakes forced him into eight disastrous pit stops. A whole new life opened up to him. The roar of the Novi was wonderous, . and he was its charismatic chauffeur. Recognizing the opportunity, he saw the chance to conclude his long and difficult career with honor by winning the 500 in 1947. But over the winter the firebrands of the American Society of Professional Auto Racing appointed him as Indy's elder statesman, their leader, then threw a wildcat strike for more prize money. But the car owners refused to support them, they sided with the Indianapolis management, and gradually the other drivers turned turncoat and abandoned Hepburn. Now regarded as a pariah, he became ineligrble to start in the 500 at all. His past caught up to him a final time in 1948. As the month of May began he was out in Los Angeles in his banal nonracing existence at Bruce Randall Tuxedo Rentals as an au.tomobile salesman pushing Tucker Torpedos. But Ardinger and Bergere, the drivers hired by the Novi syndicate as his replacements, were proving intransigent in the matter of getting the brutes up to speed; they couldn't even approach Hepburn's two-year-i>ld records. And Bergere was whining that the Novi was so lethal it deserved to be banished from Indianapolis. This was too much for the owners. "Get Ralph Hepburn!" they cried in desperation. Hepburn duly appeared: a 52-yearold relic with a deathly pale face, stooped and scarred and with the faded tattoo of a flat track bike on his right forearm, and walking with a heavy limp from the crash of a Miller race car on New Year's Day of 1932. But he still had gleaming board track eyes. And he felt the heavy charisma of his reputation as the only man capable of laming the Novi. He stayed up all night adjusting the beast to the identical chassis settings of 1946. And the following morning the Novi was out on the Brickyard screaming the terrifying war whoop that only Hepburn was capable of. But when he opened up to peak revs and got rough with it, the beast hurled itself against the wall, annihilating Hepburn on impact. The accident made the national wires, and none other than Walter Winchell took to the air calling for a murder investigation. This was the beginning of the Novi's reputation as a hoodoo wagon, a jinxed race car. You could call it the high cost of charisma. ~ .-----------------------------------------------, • ? ,.. Attach Label Here -~. ... For FASTEST service attach mailing label. Please allow 3 weeks for change to take effect. If label is not available print your name and old address in this box. Print your NEW address here. NAME ADDRESS L _ CITY _ _ _ _ _ _ _ STATE _ _ ZIP _ Mail to: Circulation Dept. Cycle News, Inc. 2201 Cherry Avenue, Long Beach, CA 90806 ~ 27

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