Rodger Ward, Indianapolis winner and Grand Prix entrant

Rodger Ward won the 1959 Indianapolis 500 while it counted toward the World Championship, and twice tried his hand in the United States Grand Prix.

Rodger Ward was born in Beloit, Kansas, on 10 January 1921, and grew up in California, where he built a Ford hot rod at 14. During the Second World War he was a fighter pilot and later a flight instructor. He began racing midget cars in 1946 and in 1950 broke the long run of Offenhauser midget wins at Gilmore Stadium with a Ford engine prepared by Vic Edelbrock.

Winning the 1951 AAA National Stock Car title earned him a rookie test at Indianapolis, and from 1951 the 500 became his World Championship stage, as the race counted toward the championship until 1960. Ward started every year from 1951 to 1960, with finishes ranging from eighth in 1956 to early retirements in several other years.

Everything came together in 1959. Driving a Watson Offenhauser for Leader Card Racers, he won the Indianapolis 500 and went on to the USAC National Championship. Late that year he entered the first United States Grand Prix at Sebring in an Offenhauser midget car, retiring after twenty laps. In 1960 he finished second at Indianapolis after a long duel for the lead with Jim Rathmann.

Ward won the Indianapolis 500 and the national title again in 1962, by then outside the World Championship, and he made one more Grand Prix start at Watkins Glen in 1963 in a Lotus BRM. His World Championship record shows 12 starts, 1 win and 2 podiums. He raced at Indianapolis until 1966 and died on 5 July 2004.

0 world titles, 1 wins, 0 pole positions, 12 starts.

Teams

Victories

• Indianapolis 500 1959