Mauri Rose

MAURI ROSE scored victories both before and after the four-year break in racing activity caused by World War II. Runner-up in the 1934 Indianapolis 500 and winner of the American Automobile Association National driving title in 1936, he won his first Indianapolis 500 in 1941. After starting on the pole with a Lou Moore-owned Maserati, which developed mechanical trouble, Rose took over a team car started by Floyd Davis and came from far behind to win, thus winning both the pole and the race, but with two different cars. In fact, he was more than familiar with Davis’s car, having driven it to third place the year before. Rose drove a Moore-owned Blue Crown Spark Plug-sponsored front-drive car to victory without relief in both 1947 and 1948 and finished third (driving for Howard Keck) in the rain-shortened race of 1950. As an engineer, he worked at various times for Allison Engineering, Studebaker, Lockheed Aircraft, and Chrysler Corporation. Rose spent little time at the track, and while working for Allison Engineering in Speedway, Indiana, in 1941, claimed he was able to practice, qualify for, and win the race without taking any time off from work.