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Show PHIL SHAFER TO RACEJHIS YEAR Freckle -Faced Roly Poly Finishing Two Car for 1 ; Indianapolis Race. Chuckling Phil Shafer, red haired, freckle-faced heavyweight champion of automobile racing, la building two cars for the International SOO-mlle contest to be held at the Indianapolis motor speedway In May. Shafer, a Jolly, roly-poly food container con-tainer who holds hie weight constant with three really Important trips to the grocery store each day, still laughs at the fates which prompted him to sell two race cars one In 1927, the other In 1928 despite the fact that these aelf-same cars were driven to Victory In those .years. In 1927 Shafer sold a car out of hla table to Bill White, Hollywood racing magnate, who put George Senders, an unknown quantity In the big league circuit, In the driver"! seat, and he brought the car home a victor. Shafer just chuckled aa Souders nodded an assent to the checkered flag of victory which released approxlmate- ly $38,000 to Bill White's eloquent ability to spend. "Okeh with me," laughed Shafer, "the car probably would bave stumbled and fallen dead on the home stretch If It waa flying my colors." Shafer's stable color Is mischievous mis-chievous boy red to match hla hair and freckles and demeanor. The following year Shafer had two more In bis stable. Louis Meyer, a twenty-three-year-old mechanic with driving aaperatlons, asked Shafer If he would sell one of tbe mounts. "Sure," beamed Shafer, "but what are yon going to use for moncyT ' Tbe quiet, shy Meyers asked the price, obtained It and took an option on the car. This was less than two weeks before the day of the race. Meyer persuaded Alden Sampson, a boyhood friend who was running a garage In a small Ohio town, to be- come a racing magnate, suinpson liked the Idea, hocked his business and purchased the car from Shafer. Meyer drove It to victory. Shafer's car didn't even finish. The Meyer-Sampson Meyer-Sampson combination collected approximately approx-imately $40,000 for the victory. 'This la getting to be more serious than a coincidence," was all Shafer said. But he kept on chuckling. The best be had ever been able to do at Indianapolis was third. Last May Shafer had a car In the race. It finished twelfth. "But this year I'm going to race both of my cars," says Shafer, "and maybe I'll have the thrill of wutchlng my two drivers fighting It out at 405 miles for the right to see which one cornea In first Woudn't that be a laughr And then he chuckled some more. ',' ' ' |
