STL All Sports

Most active of participants, Chet Miller drove his gasoline-buggy sixteen times in the famed annual Indianapolis Speedway classic before death caught up with him. He was killed trying to qualify on the eve of the 1953 race. Up to then, his escapes from destruction were little short of miraculous.

During the Indianapolis 500-mile race in 1934, Chet was winging along at 115 miles per hour when suddenly his car skidded on an oil patch, whirled into the air, and catapulted over the retaining wall as 100,000 spectators screamed with horror.

By some miracle, Miller's car landed squarely on its four wheels on the front lawn of a neat little stucco house outside the speedway. A white-haired lady who had been sitting on the porch rose to her feet and shook her tiny fist at the driver in the racing car.

"You get off my lawn!" she shrieked. "You careless drivers just plain make me sick. If you don't leave immediately, I'll have you arrested for reckless driving!"

"Sorry, ma'am," said Chet Miller meekly. And he backed off the lawn and drove his battered car around to the entrance to the Speedway.