Wayne Weiler

[Rick Jones]

I was looking through the old photo albums I was given a year ago and I came across several autographed photos of Indy 500 driver Wayne Weiler. They are of him in the number 15 Lindsey Hopkins Coral Harbour car. I don't know the year. One photo is of Wayne at a black tie affair with Sir Jack Brabham, A.J. Foyt, Roger McClusky, and a driver I can't put a name to. I know nothing about Wayne Weiler. Anyone know any information about Wayne and his racing career? I'm curious.
BTW this is the Russ Dowden photo collection that is mostly a collection of photos of the cars and drivers that Russ' good friend Wally Meskowski either built, crew chiefed on, or had some sort of connection with.
Rick

[Rick Jones]

I just checked the Indy stats page and found out that Wayne drove at Indy in 1960 and 1961. In 60 he drove the Ansted Rotary car and finished 24th. In 1961 he drove the Coral Harbours car to 15th place. What else can we find out about Wayne Weiler?
Rick

[SteveE]

Wayne was critically hurt in a sprint car at Terra Haute, which basically ended his career,while he was in the Watson sprinter. I believe the accident was in 1961. He just recently passed away in Arizona.

[Rick Jones]

Wayne was critically hurt in a sprint car at Terra Haute, which basically ended his career,while he was in the Watson sprinter. I believe the accident was in 1961. He just recently passed away in Arizona.

Thanks!

[aXe]

Wayne
I found a Sporty car pic of Him Leading George Amick and Ken miles.Believe it or not they calim that is a corvette He is drivng?
He was a very good Midget, Sprint car and Modified driver from Ariz.
Here is His home town paper report of his death..

Arizona Hall member Weiler was innovator

Jim Gintonio
The Arizona Republic
Oct. 18, 2005 12:00 AM

Wayne Weiler, a charter member of the Arizona Motorsports Hall of Fame who competed twice in the Indianapolis 500, was an innovator.

"He was special," Arizona racing historian Windy McDonald said. "He was far ahead of a lot of us on how to set up cars and what he could do to make them go faster."

Weiler, who lived in Phoenix, died last week at the age of 70. In 2000, The Republic named him the seventh-greatest Arizona driver of the 20th century. advertisement




Weiler finished 24th at Indy in 1960. A year later, 12 days after placing 15th at Indy, his career was cut short by a near-fatal accident at a track in Terre Haute, Ind. Weiler, 27 at the time, was unconscious for 16 days.

He remained in racing as a car owner, and many of the top drivers at Manzanita Speedway drove for him. During his Manzy career, Weiler won 38 races.

Weiler also had a big heart. It was not uncommon for him to open his home to out-of-town drivers

A few more lines on Wayne Weiler, If I recall correctly the midget refered to was a Ford FergusonTaractor powered car?

Wayne Weiler (1934-2005) was a well known dirt-track driver during the 1950's who went on to drive Formula One at the (Indy 500 only). He was born in Phoenix December 9, 1934. He participated in 1 grand prix, debuting on May 30, 1960 with the Epperly team. He scored 0 championship points. His career was cut short by a near fatal accident at Terre Haute, IN later in '61 where he suffered severe head injuries. He made a recovery from that accident and remained active as an owner and manager in auto racing up until his death. He owned a midget car that was driven by many of the top drivers including Lealand McSpadden, Larry Clark and Buddy Taylor. Wayne sponsored cars driven through the years by Ricky Johnson and later by R.J. Johnson. He died October 13, 2005

[roach]

In the 1960 race, he hit the wall coming off of Turn 2 on lap 103:



roach

[ZOOOM]

Just guessing here but I would think the car Wayne was driving in the photo was a Lister Chevrolet. Listers were built in England and usually came to the US with a Jaguar straight 6. Everyone over here modified them to take small block Chevys (hence the hood bulge)...

Ant second guessers?
ZOOOM

[flatlander_48]

Some people used the term Lister Corvette for their Lister Chevys. It was certainly sexier to use Corvette in the name, even if the only difference was using valve covers that said "Corvette".

[LittleFauss]

'Some of us were fortunate enough to meet Wayne on pit row on the Saturday of qualifying for the Bobby Ball 150 in March of 1974 at PIR. We were there for a USRC midget race at Manzanita Park Speedway on Saturday night. 'Got to meet the great Windy MacDonald, the voice of Manzanita and also, Mr. H.G. Listiak!....Who??? Anyway, Wayne was everything everybody says about him; very kind, gracious, personable and including his days as a driver when he was know as a guy that drove like..........'there was no tomorrow!!!"....'As evidence; when he took the famous Peat Bros. super-modified over the fence on the last lap of the 1968 U.S. Open Competition 100 mile race on the 1-mile dirt California State Fairgrounds in Sacramento while battling the great Jerry Blundy and Tamale-
Wagon driver, Bob Hogle for the lead!

[JThur1]

I know nothing about Wayne Weiler. Anyone know any information about Wayne and his racing career?

''As evidence; when he took the famous Peat Bros. super-modified over the fence on the last lap of the 1968 U.S. Open Competition 100 mile race on the 1-mile dirt California State Fairgrounds in Sacramento!

Rick, as you know by now, Wayne Weiler was from Phoenix, Arizona. He came up through the Fullhouse Jalopies (as Super Modifieds were known in Phoenix at the time - no, I don't know why). He raced in CRA and then moved up to Indy. As posted, he also did some Sports Car racing, under the USAC banner. After the Terre Haute accident, he returned to racing years later, and as LittleFauss mentioned (and I was just getting ready to), thought he was in a wheel-to-wheel battle for 2nd on the final lap of the '68 100 lap open at the old California State Fairgrounds when he put the Peat Brothers 'T' bodied Modified over the wall. Turned out he was a lap down to the 2nd place driver, but signals being what they were...he didn't know it at the time. As a footnote, Wayne wasn't seriously hurt, but one of the Peat brothers (twins) was injured a bit worse when their pick-up was struck while they were on their way to the hospital to check on Wayne's condition (!).

Weiler returned and IIRC, drove for the last time in '73 or '74, racing a Midget in the newly formed Arizona association (MMOA). After his driving days, he stayed involved in Midget racing as an owner and operated his cotton farm.

[LittleFauss]

JThur1, 'Did you also know that besides Wayne Weiler not being sure of where he was running at the time of the last lap of that race but, also that the overall scoring of the race was a complete and utter disaster! A lot of car owners, fans and even officials alike actually believed that the Sacramento driver, Johnnie Anderson had won the race. (He was officially scored in third.) The "word" was, that was why Anderson was "rewarded" with the ride in the Agajanian-Faas Wynns Spit-Fire Offy Indy Car at the beginning of 1970.......('Aggie, being the race promoter, felt he owed it to Anderson.) The first race being on the 1 mile paved oval at PIR where he was involved in an early race accident (to no fault of his own) and essentially "black-balled" from the championship car trail afterwards. 'USAC officials saying that he "needed more experience." .......'Looking back, IMCA driver, Jerry Blundy, from Galesburg, Il., ended up winning all three U.S. Open races in Sacramento, including the ill-fated 1970, with all of the fatalities that only went 35 laps, so it was definately no "fluke" that he was declared the winner in 1968.

[aXe]

JThur1, 'Did you also know that besides Wayne Weiler not being sure of where he was running at the time of the last lap of that race but, also that the overall scoring of the race was a complete and utter disaster! A lot of car owners, fans and even officials alike actually believed that the Sacramento driver, Johnnie Anderson had won the race. (He was officially scored in third.) The "word" was, that was why Anderson was "rewarded" with the ride in the Agajanian-Faas Wynns Spit-Fire Offy Indy Car at the beginning of 1970.......('Aggie, being the race promoter, felt he owed it to Anderson.) The first race being on the 1 mile paved oval at PIR where he was involved in an early race accident (to no fault of his own) and essentially "black-balled" from the championship car trail afterwards. 'USAC officials saying that he "needed more experience." .......'Looking back, IMCA driver, Jerry Blundy, from Galesburg, Il., ended up winning all three U.S. Open races in Sacramento, including the ill-fated 1970, with all of the fatalities that only went 35 laps, so it was definately no "fluke" that he was declared the winner in 1968.

No fluke?
How could you say that when it counted Blundy was no where to be seen by the second place car in all those races. Talk about a guy who had a number on a specific track! Well Jerry was untouchable at Sacramernto. I have some movies I took of that race the last race ever there. Aggie Telling Blundy it was all over is in one of the last scenes. Some big fire shots from the back stretch, I was in the main grandstands. I had a feeling that young Kid Jimmy Gordon was gonna do something big? I never thought how big. He was driving like a man possesed. Being a couple of laps down after having a flat tire changed.
It was Sad day for Ca. auto racing. They ran there fior 20 years and I think had one broken arm in a wreck. Now the last race ever there and We lose 3 drivers on the same day.
aXe

[LittleFauss]

'aXe, 'You may have misunderstood my phrasing of the fact that it was "no fluke" that IMCA champion, Jerry Blundy won the 1968 race. 'Precisely my point; if there was indeed a mixup in scoring for 1968, Blundy left no doubt as to who "owned the deed" to that famous race track by winning again in 1969 & 1970. No disrespect intended at all; in fact, nothing but the ultimate high praise. One more note: Jimmy Gordon was 2 laps down but, he had pulled in earlier because he simply "couldn't see!" Remember, it had rained very heavily on Friday and early Saturday morning before qualifying and the race track on Sunday was as heavy as it had ever been. His goggles on his open-faced helmet had "mudded" up so bad, so early, that he had to pull in for more. And Leonard Faas, Sr. (owner, King-O-Lawn Lawnmowers) who was chief mechanic on the #96, Don Edmunds-built sprint car for the car owner, Hayden Harris from Palos Verdes, CA. and Gordon's new, future Indycar- co-owner along with Aggie, literally screamed at Gordon to "get back out there and make up those laps!!!"..... as he was being pushed off to restart. Hence; Gordon was driving like a bat-out-of-hell when he tangled with Bud Gilbert on the backstretch.......'End of story, end of an era; end of a brilliant career.