Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Gentlemen, start your engines!

Anton Hulman, Jr.

I actually found this along with a handful of 1960's Indianapolis Motor Speedway official photos at a dump near my parents' cottage some years ago!  It looked to me like some successful Toronto tire distributor had passed away, and his family had cleaned out his cottage.  Philistines!  Anton "Tony" Hulman, Jr. ploughed money from his Terre Haute company (which he made famous through his "Clabber Girl Baking Powder") into saving the Speedway which he bought from Eddie Rickenbacker in 1945.  In 1954 he took over the job of starting the race with the familiar, "Gentlemen, start your engines!"

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