|| *Comments on the 1940 International 500:* View the most recent comment <#11> | Post a comment <#post> Tweet 1. Jolly Mean Giant posted: 01.26.2016 - 3:53 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Info for some of the DNQ drivers... Rene Dreyfus: Nationality: French Hometown: Nice, France Born: May 6, 1905 Died: August 16, 1993 Port DeFraties: Nationality: American Hometown: Springfield, Illinois Born: July 23, 1905 Died: August 16, 1972 Bill Lipscomb: Nationality: American Hometown: Van Nuys, California Born: April 28, 1901 Died: June 8, 1963 2. Jolly Mean Giant posted: 01.26.2016 - 6:57 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) George Bailey was intending to make one of the first attempts at Indy for a rear-engined car (more than 20 years before they became the norm in Champ Car competition), but was killed in a practice crash. The last 50 laps of the race were run under the yellow flag due to rain showers. 3. Jolly Mean Giant posted: 01.28.2016 - 5:01 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) First Indy 500 starts for Sam Hanks, Joie Chitwood, George Robson, Paul Russo, and Tommy Hinnershitz. Only Indy 500 start for Rene LeBegue. Last Indy 500 starts for Bob Swanson, Babe Stapp, and Raul Riganti. 4. Jolly Mean Giant posted: 01.30.2016 - 5:49 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Qualifying results: 1. Rex Mays-127.850 MPH 2. Wilbur Shaw-127.065 MPH 3. Mauri Rose-125.624 MPH 4. Ted Horn-125.545 MPH 5. Kelly Petillo-125.331 MPH 6. Bob Swanson-124.882 MPH 7. Mel Hansen-124.753 MPH 8. George Connor-124.585 MPH 9. Ralph Hepburn-123.860 MPH 10. Cliff Bergere-123.673 MPH 11. Babe Stapp-123.367 MPH 12. Frank Wearne-123.216 MPH 13. Sam Hanks-123.064 MPH 14. Doc Williams-122.963 MPH 15. Emil Andres-122.963 MPH 16. Frank Brisko-122.716 MPH 17. Tommy Hinnershitz-122.614 MPH 18. George Robson-122.562 MPH 19. Harry McQuinn-122.486 MPH 20. Joel Thorne-122.434 MPH 21. Billy DeVore-122.197 MPH 22. George Barringer-121.889 MPH 23. Raul Riganti-121.827 MPH 24. Duke Nalon-121.790 MPH 25. Joie Chitwood-121.757 MPH 26. Russ Snowberger-121.564 MPH 27. Chet Miller-121.392 MPH 28. Al Putnam-120.818 MPH 29. Paul Russo-120.809 MPH 30. Floyd Davis-120.797 MPH 31. Al Miller-120.288 MPH 32. Louis Tomei-119.880 MPH 33. Rene LeBegue-118.981 MPH 5. RaceFanX posted: 01.30.2016 - 6:05 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Wilbur Shaw becomes the Indianapolis 500's first back-to-back winner. This was his third and final Indy 500 win. 6. Jolly Mean Giant posted: 08.10.2016 - 7:55 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) The last 50 laps were run at a reduced pace due to rain showers. The rest of the cars were flagged off the track after the top 3 finishers (Shaw, Mays, Rose) completed all 500 miles-as such, this was the ONLY lap 4th-place finisher Ted Horn did not complete at Indy during the 9-year stretch between 1936-1941/1946-1948 (in which he never finished lower than 4th). 7. Jolly Mean Giant posted: 03.21.2017 - 11:16 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) First alternate: Tony Willman 8. RaceFanX posted: 02.09.2018 - 3:18 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) This was the first AAA Champ Car championship race after the outbreak of World War II. The series would complete this season and another in 1941 before the racing would have to stop following the start of the United States' involvement in that international conflict. 9. RaceFanX posted: 05.02.2019 - 8:58 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) *Well, technically this was the second race after the war began but the first after it escalated into a much more global conflict. Champ Car raced at Syracuse in 1939 the day after Germany invaded Poland. 10. RaceFanX posted: 06.19.2020 - 3:10 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) The French government sent Rene Dreyfus, a popular 1930s racer who had joined the French Army as a truck driver, to the USA to specifically to run this race but he didn't make the field. No one was disappointed with that development given the reality of the effort. Dreyfus was Jewish and sending him to Indianapolis was in part meant to get him out of the country before Germany invaded. Dreyfus would get to drive in this race, running stints in relief driving teammate Rene LeBegue's Maserati en route to the pair's top-10 finish, then was told by the government not to come home due to the war because of his religion and his background of having scored an upset win over the Nazi Silver Arrows in the 1938 Pau Grand Prix; both of which would have made him a target by the Nazis after they took over France less than a month after this race. Dreyfus moved to New York and started a restaurant...then enlisted in the U.S. Army when America joined the conflict to help as an interrogator in the European theater. 11. JollyMeanGiant posted: 03.03.2021 - 1:55 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) 36 cars completed full qualifying runs. Rene Dreyfus in the #22, Louis Durant in the #12 and Tony Willman in the #45 were not fast enough to make the field. (Not sure of the exact order they qualified in but Willman was first alternate so he was 34th fastest) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Post a comment:* Your comment may not appear immediately - all comments must be approved by the moderator. Name: Comment: