To celebrate the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500 this year, we will profile all the British, and British born drivers who have taken on the speedway since 1911, looking at their time at IMS, results and in some cases interviews with some of the drivers. In Part Four we look back at the father of a famous Grand Prix driver, a jack of all trades from Scotland and someone hopefully with Grace.
Alfred Moss
Alfred Moss in 1924 (Indycar Media)
Surname sound familiar? Well the father of Sir Sterling and Pat Moss competed in one race as an entrant at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. According to Sir Sterling, his farther was a dental student and convinced his father to send him to Indianapolis to study combining his desire to also compete in motor racing. He was a relatively inexperienced racer by the time he got to Indy but that did not stop him, qualifying his Barber-Warnock (entered by Henry Ford) in 1924 in the twentieth position. He would complete 176 laps, still taking the chequered flag 24 laps behind the co-winners LL Corum & Joe Boyer. It was the only 500 Alfred Moss would start, although the following year he did act as a relief driver for Herbert Jones in 1925. He died in 1972, having become a very successful dentist.
Jeff Ward
To listen to Jeff Ward you would not pick up at all his Scottish heritage. Born in Glasgow in 1961, he moved to California with his parents at a young age where he learnt his early motor sports trade on two wheels becoming a very accomplished Motocross biker over his career winning all the AMA championships (125, 250 and 500cc). After retiring from Motocross, made the move to the Indy Racing League, making his début in 1997. His career would see him driving for eight teams over seven seasons, a season best finish of sixth in 1998 taking one win, at Texas Motor Speedway in 2002 for Ganassi. This would be Ward's last full season in the IRL.
Jeff Ward after qualifying (vitalmx.com)
As for Jeff's career at Indianapolis, he drove in seven 500's. Failing to qualify in 1995, Jeff returned in 1997, qualifying in seventh, finishing in third.1999 saw his best finish as runner up to Kenny Bräck, leading three laps in the process. Followed up with a top five in 2000. In his final races, finishes of ninth, twenty-fourth and in 2005 a sole race with a twenty-seventh place race. Still with the desire to compete, Jeff returned to two wheels and won the Supercross championship and picked up an X-Games medal. Still going into his 50's, Jeff would compete in more off road races, super trucks and most recently in Global RallyCross for Ganassi.
Katherine Legge
Katherine Legge at the 2013 Indy 500 during Driver Presentations (D.Edelstein)
Despite racing in the US since 2005 in the Atlantic Series, Katherine Legge has competed in only two Indianapolis 500 races, in 2012 and 2013. Three times a victor in Atlantic, she moved up to ChampCar full time in 2006 with PKV and then with Dale Coyne the following year earning six top tens. With the series reuniting with the IRL found herself out of a ride and returned to Europe to compete in the DTM championship. With America always on Legge's radar, she joined the woefully underpowered Dragon-Lotus team in 2012. The team struggled until ditching the engine for a Chevrolet, shared between Katherine and team mate Sebastian Bourdais for the rest of the year. A ninth place finish at Fontana would end the season on a high. A one off Indy attempt followed in 2013 before moving on to the new Formula E series and now with the Delta-Wing programme in Sportscars.
Looking at Katherine's two Indy 500 races, 2012 was a tough year for the team as they abandoned the lotus engine after São Paulo. Learning the new package resulted in a low starting position for the race, in 30th ahead of the remain Lotus cars (of Alesi and De Silvestro). Finishing in 22nd, one lap down. A very late entry followed just before the qualifying weekend in 2013 with Schmidt Peterson Pelfrey, powered by the unfavoured Honda engine. Qualified in 33rd, keeping Michel Jourdain Jr from the grid. The race performance was very solid but technical problems left her seven laps down by the end, finishing in 26th place. Legge was working on a third race for 2016 with the Grace Autosport team, and all-female effort led by Beth Paretta, but as of May, this looks very unlikely, for this year at least...
Looking at Katherine's two Indy 500 races, 2012 was a tough year for the team as they abandoned the lotus engine after São Paulo. Learning the new package resulted in a low starting position for the race, in 30th ahead of the remain Lotus cars (of Alesi and De Silvestro). Finishing in 22nd, one lap down. A very late entry followed just before the qualifying weekend in 2013 with Schmidt Peterson Pelfrey, powered by the unfavoured Honda engine. Qualified in 33rd, keeping Michel Jourdain Jr from the grid. The race performance was very solid but technical problems left her seven laps down by the end, finishing in 26th place. Legge was working on a third race for 2016 with the Grace Autosport team, and all-female effort led by Beth Paretta, but as of May, this looks very unlikely, for this year at least...
Previous Chapters in our feature of 'A British 500'
Part One - Hughes, Hill & Taylor
Part Two - Eldridge, Crawford & Jakes
Part Three - Duff, Wilson & Conway
Part One - Hughes, Hill & Taylor
Part Two - Eldridge, Crawford & Jakes
Part Three - Duff, Wilson & Conway
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