Practice and Time Trials
The 1968 Indianapolis 500 was the second and eventually the final year of participation by the controversial STP Granatelli Turbine machines. For 1968, the Pratt & Whitney turbine engine was installed in the Lotus 56 chassis, often known affectionately as the "Wedge Turbine." In a veiled effort to curtail the turbine's power output, USAC had imposed revised regulations regarding the maximum annulus inlet (reduced from 23.999 in² to 15.999 in²).
Mike Spence was fatally injured after a crash in turn one on May 7. A tire broke off his Lotus "Wedge" Turbine and struck him in the head. He died of his injuries a few hours after the accident after being taken to the hospital. Spence's death came one month after Jim Clark's at Hockenheim. Clark was scheduled to drive one of the Lotus Wedge Turbines at Indy.
Read more about this topic: 1968 Indianapolis 500
Famous quotes containing the words practice, time and/or trials:
“It is not always possible to predict the response of a doting Jewish mother. Witness the occasion on which the late piano virtuoso Oscar Levant telephoned his mother with some important news. He had proposed to his beloved and been accepted. Replied Mother Levant: “Good, Oscar, I’m happy to hear it. But did you practice today?””
—Liz Smith (20th century)
“We can’t nourish our children if we don’t nourish ourselves.... Parents who manage to stay married, sane, and connected to each other share one basic characteristic: The ability to protect even small amounts of time together no matter what else is going on in their lives.”
—Ron Taffel (20th century)
“... all the cares and anxieties, the trials and disappointments of my whole life, are light, when balanced with my sufferings in childhood and youth from the theological dogmas which I sincerely believed, and the gloom connected with everything associated with the name of religion, the church, the parsonage, the graveyard, and the solemn, tolling bell.”
—Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902)