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the years. He always kept in touch with some of the old bike and car gang, but his time was on more important family matters. After a tough, five-year battle, he lost his wife of 48 years, Dianna, to cancer in 2000. It was a gut-wrenching Joe Leonard then, and now. Of late, Leonard has received numerous accolades, such . as this San Diego Auto Museum Hall of Fame award, for his motorcycle and automobile racing efforts throughout the '50s, '60s and '70s. period in his life, but he pressed on, continuing to raise his granddaughter, Emily, and tending to his rental properties in the San Jose area. But then the phone started ringing. As if unearthing some long-forgotten, highly prized artifact, or perhaps bestowing the rightful honor to an aviation hero of yesterday, the historians have recognjzed that this guy Leonard really did something special in his that end, Leonard has numerous accolades. recently been inducted day. To reaped He has into the AMA Hall of Fame, the Dirt Track Hall of Fame, Motorsports Hall of Fame in Novi, Michigan, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of went to Indy, I followed their careers. I dreamed of running the Indianapolis 500 when I was a kid. I'd listen to it faithfully on the radio every year." Ironically, it was the repayment for a good deed done during his motorcycle days that provided the right opportunity to make the switch to four wheels. "Paul Goldsmith was instrumental in that," Leonard recalls. "I had loaned him an engine one time at Bay Meadows, and he went on to win Portland with it. He remembered that, and he was the one who got me a ride in stock cars. He was having great success with them. In fact, he was the first guy to show them good 01' boys how to use the draft. " Leonard quickly became a contender in USAC's northern stock car division, earning Rookie of the Year honors there, but open wheels and Indy cars were his top priority. That stepping stone came after he trounced a man who would go on to be one of auto racing's great American heroes, A.J. Foyt, in a 100mile race at the Du Quoin State Fairgrounds in Du Quoin, Illinois. "I sat on the pole that day, and I beat Foyt, and he said to me, 'Why don't you come on down and try some real racing?" Leonard recalls. Of course, Foyt was talking about the greatest spectacle in motor racing, the Indianpolis 500, and he helped prime Leonard by getting him a ride in a roadster for a 200-miler in Phoenix. Not really sure exactly what he was doing in the aging machine, Leonard charged to an amazing fifth-place laps. He'd pass me on the back finish. It wasn't long after that, that stretch, and then I'd pass him on the front stretch, and then I'd hold him Fame and the San Diego Automotive Museum Hall of Fame. He will be honored in the San Jose Sports Leonard would get the chance to race in the 500, entering the 1965 race among a bumper crop of rookies that included Gordon Johncock, AI Unser, Mario Andretti - all of them destined to be legends at Indy. Driving for America's Formula One ace, Dan Gurney, Leonard was credited with 29th place after losing the clutch only 10 laps into the race. In '66, he returned, only to become involved in a horrific multicar pile-up on the opening lap. As A.J. Foyt's teammate in 1967, Leonard was strong all day and finished third while Foyt claimed his third Indy 500 win. Leonard then picked up a ride through fabled Indianapolis Motor Speedway fixture Andy Granatelli in 1968. "Parnelli Jones, who would later be my boss, drove the turbine car there the year before I did [1967), and he had about three laps to go when he burned out a bearing," Leonard says. "So then I jumped in it the next year and sat on the pole, and I had a seven-second lead on everybody when the fuel-pump shaft broke. Then in 1969 I broke after lapping Mario AndreW, and he off and he'd pass me on the front stretch, and it would be vice versa. Peter Revson and Mark Donahue were driving _absolute missiles - they with baseball star Dave Rigetti and football star Jim Plunkett. went on to win that race. In '70, I came from 19th to second and then bumped the kill switch with my new fire mittens. They just rolled into the garage, and then we fired it up the next week and won Milwaukee with it. "My best chance was in 1971, though," Leonard says. "I dueled with AI Unser Sr. for probably 25 had Penske's cars - but we went right by them. Then my turbocharger went bad. AI's didn't, and he went on to win the race." But even if Indianapolis never treated Leonard as kindly as the Springfield Mile or the Peoria TT, he proved that he belonged there by winning the USAC National Championship for the series' Gold Crown [Indycar) Division in 1971. Part of that championship drive included a win in the California 500 at Ontario Motor Speedway in Ontario, California. He went to do it all again in 1972, along the w.ay matching his career-best third-place finish at Indianapolis. Unfortunately, Ontario was the site of Leonard's career-ending big crash. It came while he was running fourth in the 1974 California 500. "I hit the wall doing 195 mph," Leonard says. "I was lucky to get out with just a crushed ankle, but it never did work again right after that. In fact, today, if I'm going to walk anywhere for a long period of time, I use a cane. My motorcycle knee acts up now, too. I move real slow." And, until recently, real quiet. Unlike many of the surviving motorcycle champions of his era, Hall of Fame in November, along "With all of the stuff that I'd been through with my wife, being recognized for my racing wasn't all that important to me," Leonard says. "But I'm deeply honored to be recognized now. It has been humbling. There are more important things in life, but a champion is a champion, and they can't take that away from you. Once you get it, you don't have to beat the tom-tom to tell everyone about it. Anyone who knows anything about racing should know that, and if they don't, then they don't know much about racing. I was just kind of dormant because I've never led a very extravagant lifestyle - I don't believe in that. My grandfather always told me, 'Jody, always have some in the sock.' Any moron can go spend money. It takes a smart man to stay within his limitations. " He has treated his racing career brilliant as it was - much the same way, with little fanfare, always keeping it in the sock. Like Chuck Yeager, however, Joe Leonard's amazing past has finally caught up with him in a way that he never expected. "For me, I guess it was always enough to just be remembered as a real racer," Leonard says. "I raced Leonard, now 69, has not been one to win every time, and I think that to make a ton of regular appearances at "legends" functions over everybody I ever went up against knows that." CN o U c I. n __ S • SEPTEMBER 12,2001 41