In 1955 The Sumar Special showed up at Indy looking very much like a road racer. It had fenders and a canopy, Jimmy Daywalt was the driver and accoring to the best information I can find he never qualified the car as it came of the transporter. He complained of a claustrophobic feeling with the canopy in place and later it was determined that the weight of fenders ate up gains of the streamlined design. According to the information available he ran the race without the fenders and canopy. What was left.......it was a Kurtis chassis with a Meyer Drake Offy.
I attended the Indys of that era and I distinctly remember a race that had two streamlined cars with fenders. One was blue and one was yellow, the blue one must have been the Sumar. Before the race ended both had removed the streamlining. I am still searching the archives for information on the yellow car.
In 1959 USAC decided to run an event at Daytona so the Sumar special took advantage of the opportunity to try for a closed course speed record. The driver was Marshall Teague a former NASCAR driver that had fallen out of favor with the France family. Marshall set the record at 171.821 MPH and on February 10, 1959 crashed and was killed trying to improve on it.
WickerBill sez;
If anyone has any photos of or information about these cars I would appreciate hearing from you.
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