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Sunday evening, late. I was back from the Nurburgring, but it was going to be a long night, for the Indianapolis 500 had recently ended. No, I didn't want to know who'd won, thank you very much. Large scotch, and start the video.
In fact, given what had happened in the European Grand Prix, it was an appropriate moment to be watching Indy. On the flight home, I'd been thinking about Eddie Sachs.
Sachs was a man obsessed with the Indy 500. In love with it. Every year the pageantry, the build-up, would get to him, the singing of 'Back Home Again In Indiana' reduce him to tears. Everything in his life was dedicated to winning this one race.
He came closest in 1961. It was the era of the 'roadsters', front-engined cars of great elegance and muscle, and in his Dean Van Lines Special Sachs took the pole, and led much of the race, which distilled to a fight between himself and a young AJ Foyt. The final pit stops would be crucial. Sachs came in first, and the stop was copybook, but Foyt's was even quicker, and soon he retook the lead with ease.
