See Rodger Ward Win the 1959 Indy 500

This was the year of the “Flying W’s”, namely Watson, Ward and Wilke.

Two-time “500”-winning chief mechanic A.J. Watson had teamed up with longtime racing benefactor Bob Wilke for the purpose of building cars for other people in addition to entering their own. In spite of never having finished higher than eighth in any of his eight previous 500 starts, their driver, Rodger Ward, charged from sixth to second on the first lap and then led 130 of the 200 laps on the way to forcing Jim Rathmann into the runner-up position for the third time since 1952.

Rathmann, whose car was a twin sister to Ward’s, was originally to have been a teammate until Wilke agreed to sell the car to Lindsey Hopkins, for whom Rathmann had been driving since 1956.

Although later builders were credited with having pioneered pneumatic onboard air jacks for expediting pit stops, it was in reality Don Watson, A.J.’s father, who developed them for the Ward and Rathmann one–two finishers of 1959.