The Belond Special

By Sigur Whiaker

The Belond Exhaust Special has a special place in Indianapolis 500 history. It won the Indianapolis 500 twice but with different drivers. Sam Hanks drove to Victory Lane in 1957 and Jimmy Bryan in 1958.

George Salih, senior engineer and plant manager with Meyer & Drake Offenhauser, was the chief mechanic on Lee Wallard’s Belanger Special which won the 1951 Indianapolis 500. He remained the chief mechanic for Murrell Belanger through the 1953 racing season. In 1954, Salih joined Al and John Jones, the owners of an Indianapolis automobile dealership. The driver of the Jones car in 1955 and 1956 was Sam Hanks. In 1956, Hanks lost the Indianapolis 500 in the Jones’ car by a mere 21 seconds despite having been involved in a multi-car accident in the 20th lap.
 
In 1952, a massive Cummins Diesel-powered six-cylinder car took the pole position. One of the striking features of the Cummins Diesel-powered car was its low center of gravity. About the same time, Salih began toying with the idea of laying the engine on its side to achieve a lower center of gravity which would reduce wind resistance. He told Sports Illustrated, “I used to doodle race cars on napkins, bits of paper, anything. Every time I’d doodle, the car would come out looking like this one. The more I studied the shape it was taking the better it looked. Finally it became an obsession with me. Actually, I had to lay the engine over to fit the shape of the car I wanted.”
 
Salih had committed to being the crew chief for the Jones car in 1957 so he towed it home to California and prepped it for the 1957 Indianapolis 500. By July, the car was ready and Salih put it in the corner of his garage. Salih would work his full-time job at Meyer-Drake, and then in the evenings would retreat to his garage where he and his close friend and fellow Indy 500 mechanic Howard Gilbert built the car.
 
One evening, he invited Sam Hanks and his wife to dinner after which the men retreated to the garage. There, he unveiled the car and watched as Hanks inspected the car from every conceivable angle. Then came the sales pitch for Hanks to drive the car. He told Hanks he had not decided on a driver and mentioned possibly Johnnie Parsons or Tony Bettenhausen. That was enough to get Hanks’ competitive juices flowing and by the end of the evening, Hanks insisted on driving the car.
 
Salih tried unsuccessfully to sell the car to various people before the Indianapolis 500. Finally, Sandy Belond, who owned a successful Southern California muffler shop, agreed to sponsor the car. The month of May was quickly approaching, Salih was unsure how he was going to get the car to Indianapolis. He took out an $18,000 mortgage. Just before leaving California, a chance meeting led him to accepting $1,000 if he used English Lodge Spark Plugs in the car.
 
Arriving at IMS, his low-profile car became quite the attraction. Because it was only 21 inches high, the engine had to be tilted on its side.  George Salih quipped to Don O’Reilly of the Indianapolis News, “My workshop was so small we had to build the front of the car under the workbench.” Another oddity about the car was that the Offenhauser engine was built from cast off parts which were not good enough to sell to a customer. Once at the track, Salih continued in his efforts to sell the car for $30,000 without success. He even considered taking $18,000 to get out of debt.
 
Because of mechanical problems, Hanks did not attempt to qualify on the first day. When he made his run, he qualified the car in thirteenth position. On Carb Day, a leak threatened to have the car dropped from the field. Salih and his crew stayed up until the early hours of the morning to fix the leak.
 
After the waving of the green flag, Hanks was in 8th place after the first lap and fifth by the fourth. Hanks continued to move up quickly and soon challenged Paul Russo’s Novi. Russo was leading at the 25-mile mark, but by mile 37, Hanks took the lead for a short time. By the end of 100 miles, Hanks was leading the race setting a new speed record of 140.023 mph for the first 100 miles. He was still leading at 250 miles (check this), and was being challenged by Jim Rathmann for the lead. While Rathmann was only two seconds behind at 140 laps, Hanks took the checkered flag by 21 seconds. In doing so, he broke Bill Vukovich’s speed record established in 1954 of 130.840 by nearly 5 mph. At the time, Sam Hanks was the oldest driver to win the Indianapolis 500. Hanks announced his retirement from racing in Victory Lane.
 
After the race, Peter Schmidt, one of the potential buyers of the car, showed Salih a check for the car which he had written prior to the race but never had given to Salih. By that time, the car wasn’t for sale. Instead, Jimmy Bryan was hired to pilot the car in 1958. Bryan was a three-time National Champion (1954, 1956-57).
 
Bryan started in seventh place but after the first lap had taken the lead after avoiding a multiple-car accident by a foot in Turn 3. He told Indianapolis Star reporter Ray Marquette that he “didn’t know how he got through the 16-car accident.” In front of an estimated 175,000 spectators, he won the race having led 139 laps with a winning speed of 133.791 mph. Had there not been an accident on the first lap which resulted in the race being run at reduced speed for the first 39 minutes, Bryan probably would have established a new speed record.
 
The Belond Special was back at the Speedway for an attempt to win the Indianapolis 500 for a third consecutive time. It was not to be. On race day, Jimmy Bryan’s crew had trouble getting the car to fire up. He drove two laps and then pulled into the pits with a broken clutch which prevented him from shifting gears and an oil leak.