1956 Indianapolis 500

1956 Indianapolis 500
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Round	3 of 1956
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The Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Race details
Date	30 May, 1956
Race number	51
Official Name	40th International 500-Mile Sweepstakes
Location	Indianapolis Motor Speedway Speedway, Indiana, USA
Course	Permanent racing facility 4.023km (2.5mi)
Distance	200 laps, 804.600km (500.062 miles)
Pole Position
Driver	Pat Flaherty Watson-Offenhauser
Time	4:07.26
Fastest Lap
Driver	Paul Russo Kurtis Kraft-Novi
Time	1:02.32 on lap 19
Podium
First	Pat Flaherty Watson-Offenhauser
Second	Sam Hanks Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser
Third	Don Freeland Phillips-Offenhauser
Lap Leaders

Weather conditions
Time Trial 1	Sunny
Time Trial 2	Sunny
Time Trial 3	Rain
Time Trial 4	Sunny
Race	Cloudy

The 1956 Indianapolis 500, or officially known as the 40^th International 500-Mile Sweepstakes, was the third round of the 1956 FIA Formula One World Championship, staged at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana, United States, on Wednesday, the 30^th of May.

Qualifying

• Saturday, 16^th of May – Pole Day time trials
• Sunday, 17^th of May – Second Day time trials
• Saturday, 23^rd of May – Third Day time trials (rained out)
• Sunday, 24^th of May – Fourth Day time trials

Qualifying Results

The full qualifying results for the 1956 Indianapolis 500 are outlined below:

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Time	Ave. Speed
1	8	Pat Flaherty	Watson-Offenhauser	4:07.26	145.596 mi/h
2	24	Jim Rathmann	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	4:08.07	145.120 mi/h
3	7	Pat O'Connor	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	4:08.31	144.980 mi/h
4	73	Dick Rathmann	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	4:08.72	144.741 mi/h
5	99	Tony Bettenhausen	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	4:08.96	144.602 mi/h
6	98	Johnnie Parsons (W)	Kuzma-Offenhauser	4:09.75	144.144 mi/h
7	42	Fred Agabashian	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	4:09.88	144.069 mi/h
8	29	Paul Russo	Kurtis Kraft-Novi	4:10.79	143.546 mi/h
9	5	Andy Linden	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	4:11.65	143.056 mi/h
10	1	Bob Sweikert (W)	Kuzma-Offenhauser	4:11.69	143.033 mi/h
11	53	Troy Ruttman (W)	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	4:12.66	142.484 mi/h
12	15	Johnny Boyd	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	4:12.92	142.337 mi/h
13	4	Sam Hanks	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	4:13.43	142.051 mi/h
14	10	Ed Elisian	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	4:14.63	141.382 mi/h
15	19	Rodger Ward	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	4:15.01	141.171 mi/h
16	48	Jimmy Daywalt	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	4:15.36	140.977 mi/h
17	49	Ray Crawford	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	4:15.53	140.884 mi/h
18	88	Johnny Thomson	Kuzma-Offenhauser	4:07.34	145.549 mi/h
19	2	Jimmy Bryan	Kuzma-Offenhauser	4:10.45	143.741 mi/h
20	89	Keith Andrews	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	4:11.79	142.976 mi/h
21	26	Jimmy Reece	Lesovsky-Offenhauser	4:11.95	142.885 mi/h
22	82	Gene Hartley	Kuzma-Offenhauser	4:12.02	142.846 mi/h
23	14	Bob Veith (R)	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	4:12.57	142.535 mi/h
24	54	Jack Turner (R)	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	4:12.82	142.394 mi/h
25	57	Bob Christie (R)	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	4:13.10	142.236 mi/h
26	16	Don Freeland	Phillips-Offenhauser	4:14.06	141.699 mi/h
27	12	Al Herman	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	4:14.22	141.610 mi/h
28	55	Al Keller	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	4:14.97	141.193 mi/h
29	41	Billy Garrett (R)	Kuzma-Offenhauser	4:16.12	140.559 mi/h
30	27	Cliff Griffith	Stevens-Offenhauser	4:14.47	141.471 mi/h
31	34	Johnny Tolan (R)	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	4:17.03	140.061 mi/h
32	81	Eddie Johnson	Kuzma-Offenhauser	4:18.82	139.093 mi/h
33	64	Duke Dinsmore	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	4:19.87	138.430 mi/h

• (W) represents as previous winners.
• (R) represents as race rookies.
• Bold indicates a driver's best/qualifying time.

Grid

Pos	Pos	Pos
Driver	Driver	Driver
______________
1	______________
Pat Flaherty	2	______________
	Jim Rathmann	3
		Pat O'Connor
______________
4	______________
Dick Rathmann	5	______________
	Tony Bettenhausen	6
		Johnnie Parsons (W)
______________
7	______________
Fred Agabashian	8	______________
	Paul Russo	9
		Andy Linden
______________
10	______________
Bob Sweikert (W)	11	______________
	Troy Ruttman (W)	12
		Johnny Boyd
______________
13	______________
Sam Hanks	14	______________
	Ed Elisian	15
		Rodger Ward
______________
16	______________
Jimmy Daywalt	17	______________
	Ray Crawford	18
		Johnny Thomson
______________
19	______________
Jimmy Bryan	20	______________
	Keith Andrews	21
		Jimmy Reece
______________
22	______________
Gene Hartley	23	______________
	Bob Veith (R)	24
		Jack Turner (R)
______________
25	______________
Bob Christie (R)	26	______________
	Don Freeland	27
		Al Herman
______________
28	______________
Al Keller	29	______________
	Billy Garrett (R)	30
		Cliff Griffith
______________
31	______________
Johnny Tolan (R)	32	______________
	Eddie Johnson	33
		Duke Dinsmore

Non-Qualifiers

The full list of non-qualifiers for the 1956 Indianapolis 500 is outlined below:

No.	Driver	Constructor
58	Eddie Sachs (R)	Schroeder-Offenhauser
87	Jay Abney (R)	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser
33	George Amick (R)	Epperly-Offenhauser
91	Johnny Baldwin (R)	Kurtis Kraft-Ferrari
25	Tony Bonadies (R)	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser
81	Buddy Cagle (R)	Kuzma-Offenhauser
84	Bill Cheesbourg (R)	Lesovsky-Offenhauser
87		Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser
31	Jimmy Davies	Kurtis Kraft-Novi
51	Len Duncan	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser
41	Edgar Elder (R)	Kuzma-Offenhauser
9	Giuseppe Farina (R)	Kurtis Kraft-Ferrari
35	Johnny Kay (R)	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser
74	Mike Magill (R)	Templeton-Offenhauser
77	Jim McWithey (R)	Schroeder-Offenhauser
9	Earl Motter (R)	Kurtis Kraft-Ferrari
41		Kuzma-Offenhauser
74	Roy Newman (R)	Templeton-Offenhauser
75	Marvin Pifer (R)	Ewing-Offenhauser
10	Eddie Russo (R)	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser
27		Stevens-Offenhauser
33		Epperly-Offenhauser
85	Gig Stephens (R)	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser
62	Len Sutton (R)	Lesovsky-Offenhauser
3	Marshall Teague	Kuzma-Offenhauser
47		Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser
46	Shorty Templeman	Hillegass-Offenhauser
93	Leroy Warriner (R)	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser
22	Chuck Weyant	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser
22	Dempsey Wilson (R)	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser
79		Silnes-Offenhauser

Race

Results

The full results for the 1956 Indianapolis 500 are outlined below:

Pos.	Grid	No.	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Led	Time/Retired	Points
1	1	8	Pat Flaherty	Watson-Offenhauser	200	127	3:53:28.84	8
2	13	4	Sam Hanks	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	200	0	+20.46s	6
3	26	16	Don Freeland	Phillips-Offenhauser	200	4	+1:30.23	4
4	6	98	Johnnie Parsons (W)	Kuzma-Offenhauser	200	16	+3:25.64	3
5	4	73	Dick Rathmann	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	200	0	+4:21.81	2
6	10	1	Bob Sweikert (W)	Kuzma-Offenhauser	200	0	+5:34.99
7	23	14	Bob Veith (R)	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	200	0	+6:25.66
8	15	19	Rodger Ward	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	200	0	+6:32.27
9	21	26	Jimmy Reece	Lesovsky-Offenhauser	200	0	+6:38.27
10	30	27	Cliff Griffith	Stevens-Offenhauser	199	0	+1 Lap
11	22	82	Gene Hartley	Kuzma-Offenhauser	196	0	+4 Laps
12	7	42	Fred Agabashian	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	196	0	+4 Laps
13	25	57	Bob Christie (R)	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	196	0	+4 Laps
14	28	55	Al Keller	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	195	0	+5 Laps
15	32	81	Eddie Johnson	Kuzma-Offenhauser	195	0	+5 Laps
16	29	41	Billy Garrett (R)	Kuzma-Offenhauser	194	0	+6 Laps
17	33	64	Duke Dinsmore	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	191	0	+9 Laps
18	3	7	Pat O'Connor	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	187	39	+13 Laps
19	19	2	Jimmy Bryan	Kuzma-Offenhauser	185	0	+15 Laps
20	2	24	Jim Rathmann	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	175	3	Rings
21	31	34	Johnny Tolan (R)	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	173	0	Mechanical
22	5	99	Tony Bettenhausen	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	160	0	Accident
23	14	10	Ed Elisian	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	123	0	Brakes
			Eddie Russo (R)		37
24	16	48	Jimmy Daywalt	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	134	0	Accident
25	24	54	Jack Turner (R)	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	131	0	Mechanical
26	20	89	Keith Andrews	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	94	0	Transmission
27	9	5	Andy Linden	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	90	0	Oil Leak
28	27	12	Al Herman	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	74	0	Accident
29	17	49	Ray Crawford	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	49	0	Accident
30	12	15	Johnny Boyd	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	35	0	Oil Leak
31	11	53	Troy Ruttman (W)	Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser	22	0	Spin
32	18	88	Johnny Thomson	Kuzma-Offenhauser	22	0	Spin
33	8	29	Paul Russo	Kurtis Kraft-Novi	21	11	Accident	1FL

• ^FL Indicates a driver scored one point for fastest lap.

Milestones

• Only pole position and victory for Pat Flaherty.
• Only fastest lap for Paul Russo.

References

Images and Videos:

References:

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