Ray is riding the enormous White-Triplex Special. Purpose built by Philadelphia businessman J.H.White, it had three V/12 Liberty engines, one in the front and two side-by-side in the back, giving a total engine capacity of 81-litres! Making the White-Triplex Special probably the largest capacity, piston-engined car ever constructed. These were in turn mounted on a giant ladder chassis, and covered with a simple, but graceful 'aerodynamic' bodywork.

Ray Keech, a winner of the Indianapolis 500 winner, was one of America’s favourite drivers at that time and was employed by White on a purely professional basis.

The car though, was as monstrous to drive as it looked. Ray found it a difficult outfit to control at the best of times, but coupled with being hospitalised after getting scalded by a burst water pipe, seriously burnt by flames leaking from a front exhaust pipe, and, on one occasion, flying (81-litres-and-all!) for over 50-feet after hitting a pot-hole, he came close to telling White that he could park his so-called car in his back lot!

But the record fell: 207.55 mph. And Ray went home a happy, but significantly wiser, man.

Twelve months later, Sir Henry Segrave made a small improvement to the record, and old J.H. felt compelled to unholster his mighty beast and give it another go.

Ray Keech was contacted, and offered a second chance at fortune and glory. His response was short and to the point. But basically, he felt he’d get far more benefit from pursuing other options.

ANY other options.

When Ray Keech, regarded as one of the best drivers in the country, wouldn’t drive it, other’s took that as a warning worth taking on board and White found himself unable to acquire a firm hand to grip his tiller. That was until his Chief Mechanic, Lee Bible, expressed an interest.

Lee had no previous experience at all, of this sort of thing. But he knew the car as well as anyone, and saw it as a golden opportunity to make his mark in the World.

On the day of his record attempt, Lee told a reporter that this was going be the “best day of my life”. A statement that, in retrospect, he would probably want to thoroughly reconsider..

Half-way through his run, he was to suddenly find himself able to understand clearly, and confirm completely, Ray Keech’s concerns about the overall safety of the White-Triplex Special.

The barrel-roll that followed certainly left the required mark in the World, but it did nothing for his record chances, and simply lead to a text-book display of how such flamboyant behaviour may so easily result in one’s personal dust allocation becoming substantially, and with finite implications….Bitten.

As originally conceived, The Sumar Special was designed to carry an elegant, all-enveloping bodywork. Which lead many motoring writers to describe it as one of the most beautiful cars ever to run in the Indianapolis 500. And there are plenty of photos, and even models available, that imply that this may actually be the case.

Except that of course, it’s not!

Swoopy, the bodywork may have been. But effective? Well, no. Don’t be ridiculous!

It was too heavy. It created lift which ruined the handling. It roasted the engine, the tyres, the brakes and driver. Who, in turn, moaned that the limited vision made it difficult to “place” on the track.

And the clever solution was?.......Take the bodywork off!

Unfortunately though, what skulked underneath that panel-beater’s fancy wasn’t really up to the same aesthetic standards.

So, next time you read of how the dazzlingly beautiful Sumar Special wowed the crowds at Indianapolis. Remember, this is the sight that the American public were actually treated to on race-day.

Apparently he told their marketing department that his business was booming and he was looking to promote a big expansion programme.

The track has been flooded by un-seasonal rain. Practice has been cancelled, leaving you under-employed.

You have a flying-helmet and some goggles, while another chap has found a canoe behind the garages.

There was always going to be a certain inevitability about what happened next.