1958 Indianapolis 500 F1 Race Report & Results

Event: Indianapolis 500
Track: Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Weather: dry

Jimmy Bryan won his 1st F1 World Championship race at the 1958 Indianapolis 500. The Epperly-Offenhauser driver started from seventh on the grid and won on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the first time. It was his 1st win of the season, a race overshadowed by the death of Pat O'Connor in a lap-one multi-car pile-up.

Indianapolis, 30 May 1958: Bryan wins, O'Connor killed at the start

The 1958 Indianapolis 500 was decided in the first lap and remembered for it. A massive multi-car pile-up at the back of Turn 3 on the opening lap eliminated eight cars at once and killed Pat O'Connor, the 30-year-old front-row qualifier whose Kurtis Kraft was launched into a flip. Jimmy Bryan, in the 1957-winning Belond AP Special Epperly that Sam Hanks had retired with after his '57 victory, took the lead in the recovery and held it through to the chequered flag. The XLII 500 Mile Race ran 200 laps of the 4.023-kilometre Speedway, 804.6 km in total, but began with a tragedy that defined the day.

Pole had been Dick Rathmann's Watson, with Ed Elisian second on the front row and O'Connor third. The lap-one chain reaction at Turn 3 swept up Rathmann, Elisian, O'Connor, Paul Goldsmith, Jerry Unser, Len Sutton and Art Bisch, all classified out before completing a lap.

The race: Bryan in the Belond Epperly

With the front-runners eliminated, Jimmy Bryan moved through the depleted field in the Epperly. Tony Bettenhausen set the race's fastest lap of 1:02.37 on lap 55 in another Epperly. Among the day's quieter debuts: 23-year-old Anthony Joseph "A.J." Foyt qualified twelfth in his Kuzma and ran competitively before spinning off on lap 148.

Bryan took the chequered flag in 3:44:13.8 with George Amick's Epperly 27.6 seconds back for an Epperly 1-2. Johnny Boyd's Kurtis Kraft was third, Bettenhausen fourth, Jim Rathmann fifth, Jimmy Reece sixth.

Championship fallout

Bryan's eight points joined the championship's American column. The European championship continued at Spa-Francorchamps on 15 June.

Classification 1958 Indianapolis 500

Pos	#	Driver	Team	Time	Laps	Grid	Pts
1	1	Jimmy Bryan	Epperly	3:44:13.800	200	7	8
2	99	George Amick	Epperly	3:44:41.430	200	25	6
3	9	Johnny Boyd	Kurtis Kraft	3:45:23.470	200	8	4
4	33	Tony Bettenhausen	Epperly	3:45:48.610	200	9	4
5	2	Jim Rathmann	Epperly	3:45:49.420	200	20	2
6	16	Jimmy Reece	Watson	3:46:30.750	200	3	0
7	26	Don Freeland	Phillips	3:46:34.860	200	13	0
8	44	Jud Larson	Watson	3:49:47.820	200	19	0
9	61	Eddie Johnson	Kurtis Kraft	3:50:29.560	200	26	0
10	54	Bill Cheesbourg	Kurtis Kraft	3:52:17.390	200	33	0
11	52	Al Keller	Kurtis Kraft	3:53:28.000	200	21	0
12	45	Johnnie Parsons	Kurtis Kraft	3:53:54.650	200	6	0
13	19	Johnnie Tolan	Kuzma	3:54:06.040	200	30	0
14	65	Bob Christie	Kurtis Kraft	Spun off	189	17	0
15	59	Dempsey Wilson	Kuzma	Fire	151	32	0
16	29	Anthony-Joseph Foyt	Kuzma	Spun off	148	12	0
17	77	Mike Magill	Kurtis Kraft	No Time	136	31	0
18	15	Paul Russo	Kurtis Kraft	Throttle	122	14	0
19	83	Shorty Templeman	Kurtis Kraft	Brakes	116	23	0
20	8	Rodger Ward	Lesovsky	Magneto	93	11	0
21	43	Billy Garrett	Kurtis Kraft	Magneto	80	15	0
22	88	Eddie Sachs	Kuzma	Transmission	68	18	0
23	7	Johnny Thomson	Kurtis Kraft	Steering	52	22	0
24	89	Chuck Weyant	Dunn	accident	38	29	0
25	25	Jack Turner	Lesovsky	Fuel pump	21	10	0
26	14	Bob Veith	Kurtis Kraft	Accident	1	4	0
27	97	Dick Rathmann	Watson	Accident	0	1	0
28	5	Ed Elisian	Watson	Accident	0	2	0
29	4	Pat O'Connor	Kurtis Kraft	Fatal Accident	0	5	0
30	31	Paul Goldsmith	Kurtis Kraft	Accident	0	16	0
31	92	Jerry Unser	Kurtis Kraft	Accident	0	24	0
32	68	Len Sutton	Kurtis Kraft	Accident	0	27	0
33	57	Art Bisch	Kuzma	Accident	0	28	0

Fastest lap: 1:02.370 min by Tony Bettenhausen (Epperly) in lap 55

✅ Check out 1958 F1 Championship Standings
✅ Check out 1958 F1 Teams & Drivers

✅ Check out All Time F1 Drivers Rankings
✅ Check out All Time F1 Driver Records
✅ Check out All Time F1 Teams Rankings

About the author

Leopold

Leopold Pleijsier founded F1-Fansite.com in 2001 and has followed Formula 1 since the early 1980s. He writes about daily F1 news, race weekends, drivers and the sport’s history.

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