70 Years Ago at the Brickyard
The Trident at Indy: three points, two wins, one legend

May 2009 sees Maserati mark a genuine milestone in the company’s long and glorious history. Seventy years ago, on Monday May 30th 1939, Wilbur Shaw claimed victory in the Indianapolis 500 at the wheel of his Maserati 8CTF – making Maserati the first (and only) Italian car manufacturer to win the greatest spectacle in motorsports.

The victory was the culmination of a decade of involvement by Maserati in the race. Back in 1929 two cars were sent over to take part; Lettorio Piccolo Cucinotta raced a 2-litre 26B, finishing in twelfth place, while Baconin Borzacchini drove a Tipo V4. The Tipo V4 was a remarkable feat of engineering: the engine was created by taking two 2-liter straight-eight blocks and coupling them together – side by side! The two blocks retained separate crankshafts, linked together by gears; they were inclined by 25 degrees away from each other. Only two of these wonderful cars were built; even more amazing is that one has survived, and you can read about it here.

The straight-eight engines were designed to be supercharged, which was not permitted by the Indianapolis 500 rules; this left the car down on power, and the resulting engine problems forced the V4 into retirement early in the race. The whole enterprise was an early demonstration of the commitment of Maserati to innovation and technical creativity.

In 1936 Maserati shipped two cars over to compete in the Vanderbilt Cup race held on Long Island, New York. Babe Stapp used one of the two in the 1937 Indianapolis 500; unfortunately the clutch of the V8 RI gave out after 36 laps. The following year a Tipo 6CM was entered by Mauri Rose; this was another example of the adaptability and ingenuity of the Maserati brothers. The V8 RI was fitted with a supercharged 4.8-liter V8 engine, and while the 6CM used a very similar chassis, it was fitted with a straight-six supercharged engine of just 1.5 liters!

Entered by the Boyle Racing team, the 6CM performed well; Rose qualified ninth and, despite supercharger problems towards the end of the race, finished thirteenth overall. The performance was enough to convince the Boyle Racing team to continue with Maserati the following year, so an order was placed for an 8CTF. This was an all-new car, designed specifically to make the most of new international regulations which restricted engine capacity based on weight; Maserati opted for the maximum engine size permitted, 3 liters.

The V8 engine was a completely new design; the under-square bore and stroke dictated a fairly low limit, with peak power coming at 6,300 rpm. The two Roots-type superchargers meant that the engine put out over 350 hp, enough to propel the 1,700 lbs machine to 180 mph. But not with its original engine: when the car was sent to the US from the Bologna factory, the weather on the transatlantic crossing was so cold that the water in the engine froze solid, and cracked the block. A replacement was quickly ordered and sent over; in just a week the Boyle Racing squad stripped down the original engine and used the parts and replacement block to build a working engine.

Wilbur Shaw was an Indianapolis veteran; he first took part in the great race in 1927, winning in 1937 and placing second in 1938. So his confidence was high when all the events of the ‘Month of May’ got under way. His confidence was well-placed – he qualified the 8CTF in third spot at an average speed of 128.977 mph, within 1.2 mph of pole position.

The race itself was run at a furious pace, with the leaders averaging over 120 mph for the first 250 miles; it would probably have set a new record, but then tragedy struck. A driver in the lead pack lost control, and three cars crashed out; one of them, 1938 winner Floyd Roberts, went through the outer wall on the back straight, and later died of his injuries. There was more than 30 minutes of running under yellow flags while the wreckage was cleared and the walls repaired.

The race developed into a three-way battle between Shaw, Lou Meyer in the Bowes Seal-Fast Special and Jim Snyder’s Thorne Engineering Special. The lead changed several times as pit-stops proved decisive. Shaw stopped just three times – once for fuel and a right rear tire, once for fuel and a right front tire, and a final ‘splash and dash’ for fuel in the final 25 miles. Snyder pitted just twice, but at his first stop new spark plugs were required and the stop took four minutes, and when it took over three minutes to fit two rear tires at his second stop, he dropped too far back.

By contrast Meyer could have won the race – but then, while leading with less than 50 miles to go, his right front tire blew out in Turn One, forcing him to head for the pits. That allowed Shaw to go a lap clear, but Meyer mounted a determined charge; and when Shaw pitted with less than ten laps to go, it seemed the huge crowd would be treated to a fight to the finish. But it was not to be – Meyer crashed on the back straight with less than seven miles of the 500 remaining. That left Shaw well clear, and he came home more than a minute ahead of Snyder. It was the first win by a foreign car since 1919, and the first by an Italian manufacturer.

The following year the team and Shaw returned to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with the Maserati 8CTF – and became the first driver - and car - to take back-to-back victories in the race’s thirty-year history. The record shows the Maserati taking a narrow victory ahead of the Bowes Seal-Fast Special of Rex Mays, with Mauri Rose the only other driver on the lead lap at the finish. What the records do not show is that the final 125 miles – 50 laps – were run under yellow flags, as light rain made racing too dangerous. Even without that, this was a race that Shaw dominated; he led 136 of the 200 laps.

He came agonizingly close to making it three in a row in 1941, the final race before World War II led to the cancellation of the event. Shaw qualified third – pole went to Mauri Rose, in another Maserati 8CTF. Rose led six laps in the first 60 before his car was sidelined by a problem with the spark plugs. By contrast Shaw took command of the race, and looked set to win again when a wheel collapsed on lap 152; he had led over 100 laps at that point. Almost 70 years later it is difficult to be certain, but it seems likely that a pit-lane fire before the race was the cause of the failure. It has been theorized that the wheel was damaged but the mechanics failed to notice; a more likely explanation is that water used to fight the fire washed the ‘mounting marks’ off the tire. With the wheel and tire not perfectly balanced, a high-speed vibration would result, enough to literally shake the wheel to pieces.

Shaw left a lasting legacy, not merely the result of his back-to-back victories in the near-unbeatable 8CTF. Towards the end of the war he learned that the track’s owner had no intention to re-open the Speedway, and intended to use the land for housing. Shaw persuaded Indiana businessman Tony Hulman to buy the track, and enough work was done to allow racing to resume in 1946. Hulman named Shaw President of the Speedway, a role which saw him organize the Indianapolis 500; unfortunately Shaw was killed in a plane crash in 1954. The Speedway is still owned by the Hulman family; the present owner, Tony George, is the grandson of Tony Hulman.

The Maserati 8CTF used by Wilbur Shaw is still at the site of its famous victories, one of the star attractions in the Hall of Fame Museum at the Speedway. On a recent visit to the track, the car - in immaculate condition - was rolled out for us for a photoshoot with the Quattroporte and GranTurismo. The shoot attracted quite a crowd - not surprising, given the racing history of the 8CTF and the elegant, understated yet distinctively sporting lines of the two modern cars. The photoshoot was complete when we were joined by the four drivers (John Andretti, Mike Conway, Milka Duno, Davey Hamilton) who raced for Dreyer and Reinbold in this year's Indy 500 - Dreyer and Reinbold own the Maserati of Indianapolis dealership.