Those milling around the pit area on Pole Day at Indianapolis in 1958 might’ve noticed a slim, slightly-balding, unassuming man posing with Jimmy Bryan for his post-qualifying photo. Bryan qualified seventh and went on to win the 500.
That man, Joe Sostilio, was a good friend of Bryan’s and an essential part of Bryan’s epic 500 victory. Sostilio was in charge of pit-stop preparation, and in an unusual practice for that day, he coached the team in a string of seemingly endless training stops.
Those drills paid off on race day. The crew responded by getting Bryan in and out of the pits three times for a total of 90 seconds. A record in 1958. Bryan was so appreciative he presented Sostilio, and each crew member, a stylized ring with the No. 90 emblazoned on it. It remained a treasured possession of Sostilio’s until his passing in 2000.
But Joe Sostilio was much more than a talented Indianapolis crewman. He was a racer of renown in his own right and enjoyed a long, successful career in midgets, sprint cars and stock cars.
He won more than 300 features and a half dozen championships, including one of the most difficult of that era, the AAA Eastern Sprint Car Championship against men like Tommy Hinnershitz, Jimmy Bryan and Johnnie Parsons.
Sostilio was a winner from the beginning. Growing up in his father’s contracting business, he fell in love with all things mechanical. At age 17, in 1932, he put together a Ford Model A and won his first race out in Readville, Mass., not far from his Newton Centre home.
By 1935, he’d switched to open-wheel racing and captured the New England Dirt Championship for “big cars” that year, then repeated in 1936. In 1938, he won the New England Sprint Car Championship. In 1939, he tried his hand in the smaller cars and handily won the Vermont State Midget Championship while winning features at other East Coast venues.
He won so often on a quarter-mile midget track in Westboro, Mass., that the promoter brought in veteran racer Bill Schindler on four separate occasions in an attempt to stop him. Sostilio won all four races.
When World War II brought racing to a halt, Sostilio served in the Army and then returned to midget racing following the hostilities. He finished second in the 1945 and ’46 Bay State Midget Racing Ass’n points. In 1947, driving Bob Wilke’s Leader Card Offy, he captured 31 wins, finished second 23 times and third 12 times, to earn the Bay State Championship.
During that time, he also began dabbling in the AAA Midwest Midget Series, where 1950 Indianapolis 500 winner Johnnie Parsons befriended him. Parsons was so impressed with Sostilio’s talent, he urged him to step up to the challenging AAA Eastern Sprint Car circuit and even built a car for him to run as his teammate.
It was a very lightweight machine, having been stretched from a midget. The rear radius rods were mounted extremely high, which gave the sprinter tremendous forward bite. Sostilio did very well with the car, becoming a contender for the AAA Eastern Championship through the early 1950s. At Williams Grove Speedway in 1953, he set a track record with the car that stood for an incredible 18 years and went on to claim the AAA Eastern title.
With that accomplishment, Indianapolis car owners became interested. Bryan and Parsons helped Sostilio line up a competitive ride.
He arrived at Indianapolis in 1954 assigned to Ed Walsh’s Bardahl Special. However, while Sostilio sat in the qualifying line, Walsh asked him to vacate the car for the more experienced Art Cross, who had been bumped. Sostilio had a signed contract but realized if he wanted to continue pursuing a champ car career, he needed to acquiesce to Walsh’s wishes. Cross easily qualified the car.
Walsh kept Sostilio in the car for the remainder of the season. He put it on the pole at Langhorne and finished seventh. He finished strong at other championship races that year, but never again got a competitive Indianapolis ride.
However, he continued racing and winning in midgets, sprint cars and stock cars until retiring in 1962. Joe Sostilio’s numerous accomplishments earned him induction into the New England Auto Racing Hall of Fame, the National Midget Racing Hall of Fame and the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame.
THIS ARTICLE IS REPOSTED FROM THE July 3 EDITION OF SPEED SPORT INSIDER
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