The 65th running of the Joe James/Pat O’Connor Memorial is scheduled for Saturday night, Sept. 7, when the historic sprint car race returns home to the paved high banks of Indiana’s Salem Speedway.
The event has overcome multiple roadblocks through the years and is now the nation’s second oldest sprint car race behind only the Little 500, which debuted in 1949.
The marquee sprint car event was created to honor Joe James, who lost his life in a champ car accident at San Jose (Calif.) Speedway on Nov. 5, 1952. The 27-year-old James had competed in three Indy 500s prior to his death.
Larry Crockett topped the inaugural running of the Joe James Memorial at Salem on Oct. 4, 1953. Pat O’Connor, a native of North Vernon, Ind., had his name added to the event in 1958 after he perished in a 15-car pileup during that May’s Indianapolis 500. O’Connor was a two-time winner (1954 and ’57) of the Joe James race.
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