OLD HOTRODDER RACER AND P 38 PILOT DIES

[oldchevyseller]

http://home.flash.net/~dralstin/stories/RodgerWard.htm
RODGER WARD, HE STARTED BUILIND CARS FROM HIS DAD'S JUNK YARD WHEN HE WAS 14!!83 YEARS YOUNG, his car was gonna be lapped and his front axle snapped and bill vukovich died from hitting the car
http://www.motorsportshalloffame.com/halloffame/1992/Rodger_Ward_main.htm

[oldchevyseller]

also this should be in the favorite of everyone ,very important to the car lovin people
http://www.motorsportshalloffame.com/main/03_halloffame_main.htm

[Bullet Nose]

OCS -

Please check your PM's

[oldchevyseller]

got it

[55olds88]

Thats a pretty cool site, even a couple of Kiwi's on there, Hulme and McLaren, I went to school with Denny's nephew, he was a great racer right down to the wire and a truley professional driver right down to his last moments at Bathurst in 92.

[AV8 Dave]

Sad to hear of another veteran Indy driver going to the Golden Speedway. Roger Ward was one of the many Indy drivers I used to hear of when I listened to the live coverage of the race back in the early sixties. Never knew he was a Lightning pilot as well! I understand that Al Keller and Johnny Boyd were also involved in the accident that killed Vukovich. The way they used to come in after the race was done, covered in oil and physically exhausted but with a broad smile made them all "iron men" in my humble opinion. Today's cars are a Sunday drive in comparison. Godspeed Mr. Ward! Hope there's a gold Offy front-engined roadster waiting for you up there. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

[oldchevyseller]

yeah how in the world more were not killed is beyond me ,wearing a leather helmet and just a lap belt ,

[Offy]

Another gone from an era when men raced cars against other men. Women and small boys couldn't get in the pits much less physically muscle a race car around a trecerous oval. Roger was one of the few that was able to race hard and live a long life. Godspeed.

[just steve]

I think it was Hemingway who said it . . .

"There are only three sports: bullfighting, mountain climing, and auto racing. Everything else is just a game."

It took a real ironman to wheel an Indy roadster. God speed, Rodger.

Steve.

[SamIyam]

Yep... Big guns, and a lot of nerve.

RIP Rodger.

Sam.

[Jeff Norwell]

It took a real ironman to wheel an Indy roadster. God speed, Rodger.




...Ironmen indeed.....real men.....godspeed.

[Jeem]

I laugh my ass off at the amount of attention directed towards pro ball players. If I have any hero-worship in me at all, it goes towards the men that strap themselves into overpowered, violent, fire-breathing machines and test their limits.

Pilots, astronauts, race car drivers....

[av8]

I've cited Hemingway many times over the years, Steve, particularly when golfers refer to what they do as a sport and golfers as athletes.

Rodger had a fine natural talent and was an all-arounder like most of the good guns of his era. I read a brief account of his Formula Libre win at Limerock in 1959, in R&T as I recall, and the best part was him having to "back" the car into some of the corners with the hides lit because he did not have the luxury of a gearboz on board! I would have loved to have been there to see it.

Godspeed, Rodger.

[Choptop]

Sad indeed. I had the pleasure of meeting Mr Ward a few years back at a racers reunion. He and my Dad swapped a few stories about racing at the old Carrol Speedway....

Well, perhaps my Dad and Roger are bangin wheels again on the backstretch of the Big "B" track in the sky.

[Skate Fink]

...........my Dad took me to the Indy 500 in 1959. We drove a 1952 Chrysler convertible from Baltimore, MD to Indy. I was 8 years old. Rodger Ward won that race. Dad passed a few years ago and now Rodger. MY memories live on....... http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

[Rix2Six]

[ QUOTE ]
I think it was Hemingway who said it . . .

"There are only three sports: bullfighting, mountain climing, and auto racing. Everything else is just a game."



[/ QUOTE ]

I've heard that Hemmingway quote before but I've never found where he actually said or wrote it. Do you have any ideas where it came from? It's kinda been a quest for me.

Thanks.

Rick

[just steve]

Well Rick, you sent me on a chase with that one. Here's the best info I found, at www.timelesshemingway.com (http://www.timelesshemingway.com)

"Since 1999, the Hemingway Quote Finder has fielded more than 5000 quote source requests and has become a phenomenon in its own right. People from all walks of life have e-mailed in quotations: professors, film production companies, government officials, and authors. If I had a dollar for each time the following quotation was submitted, I would soon corral enough money to pay my web hosting fees until the next millennium: "There are only three sports: bullfighting, motor racing, and mountaineering; all the rest are merely games."8 I've received this inquiry so many times that it prompted me to e-mail back a standard reply:


"This is one in a long list of quotations mysteriously attributed to Ernest Hemingway. While the general public seem to agree that this is in fact a Hemingway quotation, scholars have some reservations and for good reason. The early Hemingway did not believe that bullfighting was a sport. For him it was a tragedy. See his October 20, 1923 article titled "Bullfighting A Tragedy" reprinted in By-Line: Ernest Hemingway Selected Articles and Dispatches of Four Decades edited by William White. Hemingway reiterates his beliefs regarding the tragedy of bullfighting in his 1932 book, Death in the Afternoon."

So . . . who knows? Sure as hell sounds like Hemingway, though.

Steve.