Floyd Roberts is in "500 Miles the Book"

Floyd Roberts (February 12, 1900 - May 30, 1939) is a former Championship Car racing driver from Jamestown, North Dakota. He won the Indianapolis 500 in 1938 with a record speed of 117.2 mph (188.6 km/h). He led for 92 laps. The following year, 1939, driving the same car, he was killed in a crash on the backstretch after hitting a wooden fence at near 100 mph (160 km/h). Roberts was the first former winner and defending champion of the race to have lost his life while competing. Indy 500 results
Starts(5);Poles(1);Front Row(2);Wins(1);Top 5(2);Top 10(2): In five starts at Indy this great driver had major control, until 1939 when Floyd Roberts lost his life because of an accident on the back straight a way of the Indy 500 during the 1939 five hundred mile race. I used to study and read about Floyd Roberts in the Thorntown, Indiana Library. When I was much younger and reading about racing, the Floyd Roberts story hit me hard. I started to talk to so many former drivers and the Indy old timers club and everyone said the Floyd Roberts was such a great man. I knew he would make a great guardian angel for the main character in my fiction novel. The thought of a driver that has passed away from and accident on a race track to come back as an guardian angel to a young driver. That thought came to me after a wonderful driver lost his life after hitting the second turn of the Indy 500 during practicing for the race. I was so sad over the loss of this driver. I started to study the drivers that have lost their life in racing over the years. The Lord in this story helps the dreams of young man to be a great race car driver, by supplying a great group of guardian angels to help Bobby Wright in his quest of driving in the Indianapolis 500 mile race.

Get the ebook for $5.99 and no waiting at all!

The first purpose-built for car racing circuits. Milwaukee?

I ran across this information as I was putting together more research on motorsports. I was so disappointed with the Indy Car race this year when the fans in the Milwaukee area just did not show up for a great race. I know for a fact that the actual promotions for the race did not happen until two month before the race. Their was no interaction with local businesses at all. No grocery stores were involved, and no gas stations promoted this race at any level. No product branding and contest for free tickets, or heck not a thing but some radio and TV advertising a month or two before the race? I did grow up in Indiana with such an major thrill of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway so close to me. I have been in such a major excitement of information over Indy. So much news has been in play about the Indy 500 and the history. Well the Lord brought me to Milwaukee area for the reason of letting me know even a major fact in my motorsport quest. The Milwaukee Mile!
The Milwaukee Mile is the oldest motor racing track in the world, with racing being held there since 1903. It was not purposely built for motor racing, it started as a one-mile (1.6 km) horse racing track in the 19th Century.
From 1903 to 1914, a one-mile dirt oval track was run on Brunots Island, just south of Pittsburgh on the Ohio River. Louis Chevrolet won the AAA Champion car in 1905. On September 10, 1907, Rex Reinersten was fatally injured in a crash here. In 1916, Chevrolet won the first Universal Films Trophy at the mile and an eighth Uniontown Speedway board track,. south of Pittsburgh in Hopwood, PA.
A remaining section of the Brooklands track today.
Brooklands in Surrey, England, was the first purpose built motor racing venue, opening in June, 1907.[7] It featured a 4.43 km (2.75 mi) concrete track with high-speed banked corners. Brooklands was also a centre of the aviation industry, with Vickers setting up a factory and aerodrome there during World War I. The racing circuit was closed in 1939 as war-time aircraft production took over. Damage done to the track during World War II meant the track never reopened for racing.
Competition gradually spread to other parts of the British Empire. The first competition in India was held in 1905 by the Motor Union of Western India. It ran from Delhi to Mumbai, (Delhi-Bombay trials 1905) a distance of 810 miles (1,300 km) in an attempt to expose India to the automobile and test its suitability for Indian conditions. Lord Curzon, the Viceroy, gave his consent to the event.

Jim Gandolf
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
references: 1.^ ":: The Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of India ::". Fmsci.in. Retrieved 2011-08-08.
2.^ The Motor – Google Books. Books.google.co.in. 2009-05-13. Retrieved 2011-08-08

500 Miles the Book by: Jim Gandolf (content)

I have to say that over the years I have wondered; what drives a race car driver even with the danger that can happen at any given time. Whether it is a race itself or practicing for the best speed. Can you even believe emotions; as you are putting your son or daughter in that car; and not knowing if that would be the last time you would be looking into their eyes? The pain of being a race fan over the years has had me do a lot of research on this very subject. I never wanted to be a race car driver; I have found my play in the racing world. I have interviewed many retired drivers, back when these drivers really had no safety to speak of. What is inside of these drivers whose minds are very strong in what they feel that they were safe for their time? Some of these drivers drove fuel bombs in reality. I wrote a fictional story of three former drivers that passed away at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in very traumatic crashes. These drivers come back later in time as a guardian angels to a young man growing up in Indiana. This young man becomes a race car driver. The time frame is the most powerful time in Indy Car racing. The 1970’s though the 1980’s. There was only one powerful race each year in this time frame in Indianapolis. The vision of this young man going back in time to when the race track was built to the first Indy 500 in 1911. The dreams of a young man to follow him to his fist race, and though his driving career. Love of his family, and the support of his friends.
Jim Gandolf