INDIANAPOLIS — The Indianapolis 500 Mile Race of 50 years ago offered more than a new glass and metal scoring tower to replace the wooden pagoda.
Another feature that drew considerable attention in 1957 was the so-called “Sidewinder” race car constructed by George Salih. The car’s primary attraction was its Offy engine that was only 18 degrees from being horizontal. The driver assignment went to Sam Hanks, a soft-spoken and personable Californian who had been on the Indy scene since 1940. Sam had participated in 11 Indy 500s.
Sam’s extraordinary racing talents took on many forms; for example, several weeks after the 1954 Indy race, the Chrysler Corporation dedicated a new proving-grounds track in Michigan. As part of the daylong program, “four of the nation’s top drivers” engaged in a special invitational match. The quartet had placed first through fourth in that year’s 500. The drivers were Bill Vukovich, Jimmy Bryan, Jack McGrath and Troy Ruttman. McGrath posted the fastest time, 179.386 miles per hour over the 4.7-mile oval. Several weeks later, Hanks traveled the course with a Chrysler V-8 and posted a 182.554 mph lap, an American closed-track record.
Following the 1956 season, Hanks, 42, considered retiring, but he was intrigued by the Sidewinder and decided to stick around one more year.
The yellow No. 9 Belond Exhaust System Special started the race 13th, yet the number certainly was not veiled by superstition. The 13th-place grid start resulted from qualifying on the second weekend. At that, only five drivers registered faster times.
In the race, with the combination of driver skills and the car’s low center of gravity, Hanks had superior cornering speeds, even with an 83-gallon fuel tank. By lap 20, Hanks was second behind Paul Russo’s Novi. Russo’s car had more straightaway power, yet Hanks’s Sidewinder was able to work the corners in a smoother fashion.
Hanks roared into the lead, led 136 laps and beat Jim Rathmann to the checkered flag by 21 seconds. His 135.601-mph average broke Vukovich’s existing record by nearly five miles per hour.
In the first USAC stock-car race a month after the 500, Hanks won a 300-mile contest at Trenton, N.J.
The following year, Hanks, who had retired from championship-type racing there a year earlier, returned to Indy as Director of Competition.
Hanks had moved up the ladder rapidly, as he began driving midgets in 1936. Championships became commonplace, for in 1937 he drove the Danny Hogan Offy to 19 victories and the Pacific Coast Championship. Living in Alhambra, Calif., Hanks was dubbed the “Alhambra Assassin.”
By 1939, Hanks was serving as his own owner, mechanic and driver. Much of his success was achieved at the famous Gilmore Stadium in Hollywood. Further, he was one of the few drivers who traveled the country competing in nightly midget shows.
During that year, he competed in the World Championship Midget Auto Races at Chicago’s Soldier Field. It was a strictly by invitation affair. The invitees consisted of many of the top midget drivers in the land. He finished third in the standings over the four nights of competition behind Ronney Householder and Duke Nalon.
Hanks continued his midget activities up to World War II. During the global conflict as a Second Lieutenant, he served in the Army Air Force. While stationed at Wright-Paterson in Dayton, Ohio, he met a young secretary named Alice, who he married shortly thereafter.
He continued his midget activities with a great deal of success after the War as the midgets were popular, thus providing excellent payoffs for some drivers as the Doddlebugs were drawing extraordinary crowds. Along the way, he won the AAA Midget Championship in 1949 and the 1953 national championship.
By the early 1950s, Sam made the decision to devote his racing activities solely to the Champ Car trail and the Indy 500.
Hanks’s compassion for others was without bounds, and if he wasn’t occupied at the track, you might look for him in a gin rummy game or bench racing or being in conversation about another passion — aviation, while savoring one of his Cleopatra Top Quality thin cigars.
Without question, Sam was a terrific individual who had a perpetual smile. He passed away in June, 1994.