Rodger
Ward

Rodger Ward was born in Beloit, Kansas, in 1921, and his family moved to California by 1930. After leaving the army he began racing midget cars in 1946, and in 1948 he won the San Diego Grand Prix. In 1951 he took the AAA National Stock Car title, which gave him the chance to sit the rookie test at the Indianapolis 500. He passed it.

The Indianapolis 500 formed part of the Formula One World Championship from 1950 to 1960. Ward started the race every year from 1951 to 1960, so his first world championship round was the 1951 Indy 500. In his first two starts, in 1951 and 1952, he retired with oil system problems, but in 1956 he completed the full distance for the first time and finished eighth. In 1959 he drove for Leader Card Racers, run by owner Bob Wilke with mechanic A. J. Watson. That year he won the Indy 500, his only world championship victory, along with the USAC National Championship. He closed the season at the only United States Grand Prix held at Sebring, retiring after 20 laps with a mechanical problem. Tenth place in the 1959 standings was his best championship result. In 1960 he fought a duel with Jim Rathmann at Indianapolis in which the lead changed hands 14 times. In 1963 he contested the United States Grand Prix once more, this time in a Lotus. In total he made 12 world championship starts, with one win and two podium finishes.

Ward won the Indy 500 again in 1962, by which time it no longer counted towards the world championship, and he also took a second USAC title. In 1965 he failed to qualify for the race. He won at Trenton in 1966 but ended his driving career after that year's Indy 500. From 1980 to 1985 he worked as an expert for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network. He also helped with the design of Pocono Raceway. He was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1992, and died in 2004 at the age of 83.

Source: Wikipedia, “Rodger Ward”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.