1937 Indianapolis 500

Sparks Racing Team

From the 1937 Indianapolis 500. Pictured are Jimmy Snyder, the driver. Hidden behind the windshield (and great mechanics are always behind the scene) is the passenger-mechanic, Takeo Chiki Hirashima. Standing is the engineer/designer, Paul Weirick (I think), who was a partner with Art Sparks.

Jimmy set a 130 mph record which held for many years. Seriously, there is a graph on display at the Indy museum. The peak on that graph is Jimmy Snyder.

Jimmy also played professional football for the St. Louis Gunners, a predecessor of the LA Rams. He was known in the papers as The Chicago Milkman, because that had been his off-season job.

Tak was the passenger mechanic, as was the custom of the time. He was born in America, but was interned with his wife in the Manzanar War Relocation Center. He also fought in the 442nd Infantry regiment, the most decorated unit in American military history.

Art, not pictured, designed the engine. Among other things, he designed a method of manufacturing forged aluminum pistons. I have pictures of him elsewhere, but he is almost lost in the crowd of famous onlookers.

Somehow, I had misplaced this picture during the process of writing my book and just recently found it.

It made me think of my dad, who was a superb mechanic, but not a racing nut. I remember he told me once that he was uninterested in racing and the specialized mechanical practices which it required. He said he had a passion to make ordinary cars run efficiently and reliably on a day-to-day basis.

That conversation has always stuck with me. It inspired me with an appreciation for people who do ordinary things extremely well.

One of these days, I will write about Dad as I did about my brother when he died, and about my mother when she died. At the moment, his death is too near.

I wish he could have read my book. The dedication in the back is to him.