Rose, Mauri
Auto Racing
b. 1906, Columbus, OH
d. Jan. 1, 1981
The first driver to win the Indy 500 three times, Rose began racing on dirt tracks in 1927. The first of his ten Indy starts was in 1933, when his car failed after 125 miles. He finished second in 1934 and fourth in 1936, when he won the national driving championship.
Rose's first Indy victory came in 1941. It wasn't unusual then for a driver to start the race in one car and finish in another, if the first car broke down. Rose's car was out of the race after the sixtieth lap. His team's second car was called in at the 180-mile mark and Rose replaced Floyd Davis, who was in fourteenth place. Rose took the lead at 425 miles and never gave it up.
He won again in 1947 and 1948. In 1949 he was in second place with eight laps to go when his car broke down. He was running third in 1950 when his car's exhaust pipe caught fire in the pits. The fire was extinguished, but he'd lost precious time, and the race was ended by rain before he had a chance to challenge the leaders. Rose retired after the 1951 Indy 500, in which his car failed to finish because of a collapsed wheel.
An engineer, Rose invented a device allowing amputees to drive an automobile. He said he was prouder of that invention than of anything he ever accomplished on the racetrack.