They Don't Wash Their Socks by Kathlyn Gay

Author:Kathlyn Gay
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Walker Childrens
Published: 1990-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

Green is a No-Go

A green light has long signaled the start of a race, but the color has been a no-go for the paint on racing cars and most objects connected with auto racing in the United States. Not so in England, however. Green is the British national racing color (red is Italy’s national color; Germans use silver cars).

Although the idea that the green goblins will getcha is a fading superstition in auto racing, many drivers and others connected with racing still have shades of the phobia. A story is told often about Mario Andretti refusing to sign autographs with a green pen, which he considers bad luck. No one is sure about the origin of the superstition, but it may stem from early racing days when green cars blended into the background of grass, shrubs, and trees near a track and thus were hard to see. In addition, some early drivers of green cars at the Indy 500 were killed or badly hurt in races.

As a result “green has been despised at the speedway,” says an Indianapolis official. Oddly enough, the bleachers at the racetrack are painted green. But massive crowds pack the stands on race day, so the offensive color is covered up, perhaps burying the curse as well.

Nevertheless, over the years there have been plenty of instances when green has been expunged. During the 1950s, Troy Ruttman bought boxing shoes to drive in but discovered that the inside soles were green. So he tossed the shoes out. In 1968, Roger Ward, now retired, wore a green suit to the speedway, but people around him became so upset he had to change. In a similar instance that same year, the mother of racing brothers Bobby and Al Unser was invited to a drivers’ meeting and wore a dress with a predominantly blue flower pattern. But there was a bit of green in the pattern and Mrs. Unser was asked to put on a different outfit.

Twenty years later, the green curse still bothered the Penske racing crew. The sponsor of the team, Miller beer, had a green stripe painted on their car to represent one of the colors on the beer label. Roger Penske argued that the stripe should be removed. But company policy seemed to take precedence over green phobias. Perhaps that had something to do with the bad luck that followed.

Penske driver Danny Sullivan, a 1985 Indy winner, was driving a green-striped car for the time trials before the 1989 Indy 500 race when the engine cover flew off. The car crashed into a wall, leaving Sullivan with a mild concussion, fractured right forearm, and bruised right foot. He wasn’t expected to qualify for the big race. But he did and started twenty-sixth, moved up to twelfth place, and then the car’s clutch went out, forcing Sullivan out of the race.

Two other Penske drivers also had to drop out of the 1989 Indy race. Al Unser’s car suffered the same fate as Sullivan’s, and the engine on Rick Mears’s car failed.

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