Here, Templeman duels with one of the first American rear-engine Indy Cars, an entrant developed
by famous racer Mickey Thompson.
1962 Forbes Weinberger Homes Special, Indy Car
By the early 1960s, new rear-engine racecar designs from Europe made our once proud USA Indy roadsters look aged and even slightly inefficient. By contrast, British open wheel racecars such as Lotus models were strikingly small, lightweight, low, modern and fast looking. These represented the leading edge of open-wheel racecar design. Against this new reality, the 1962 A.J. Watson Weinberger Homes Special was a late-in-life Indy roadster that stood tall against the onslaught of the rear-engine newcomers, making them prove themselves until the dog days of 1965.
Chicagoan Bill Forbes, an Indy Car owner since the late 1950s, ordered one of the three new A.J. Watson roasters built for the 1962 racing season. Although his car was never destined to win a championship race, it was to have one of the longest and most colorful careers of any of the famous Watson Indy-style roadsters. This car fought the battles of the transition from front-engine Indy roadsters to rear-engine Indy Cars like no other.
Forbes and his chief mechanic Dave Laycock chose 1956 USAC champion Clark “Shorty” Templeman to drive their new car. Templeman, who qualified for his first Indy 500 in 1955 had three previous starts at the Speedway, all ending in mechanical failure. He qualified the new Forbes roadster as car number 4 in 6th starting position for the 1962 Indy 500. During the race, while running well in the top ten he spun into the wall. Yet despite a seven-minute pit stop to repair a broken sway bar he completed the race with an 11th place finish, completing all 200 laps!
As #8, second driver of the Forbes roadster was Jim McElreath, who beat most of the new rear-engine
Indy Cars, but not all of them.
Ten days later Templeman started the Milwaukee 100-miler in 17th position and spun on the 84th lap, finishing a disappointing 16th. Forbes and Templeman parted company after the race and Forbes hired Jim McElreath as the team’s new driver. Shortly thereafter Templeman sadly died in a Midget car crash at the Marion County, Ohio, Fairgrounds in August 1962.
Driver Jim McElreath, an IMCA and USAC sprint car veteran from Arlington Texas took over the Forbes ride in mid-1962 at the August Milwaukee 200-miler. After qualifying 15th McElreath drove a strong race and finished in 5th position, hinting at good things to come.
Returning to Indy in May 1963, McElreath put the Forbes Roadster [as car number 8] on the outside of the second row for the car’s second consecutive year, challenging all comers including the new rear-engine Indy Cars. British racecar builder Colin Chapman brought his Lotus rear-engine design to the Speedway in 1963 in hopes of defeating the dominant Offenhauser-engine roadsters. Battling with Parnelli Jones late in the race, Lotus’ pilot Jimmy Clark was set to end the Offy’s reign. But after a heated battle the Scotsman couldn’t quite prevail and Jones took the victory. During the race McElreath ran as high as 2nd on several occasions but spun twice, once in the pits while avoiding contact with another car, and then finally finished a strong 6th.
For Indianapolis 1964, now facing a tidal wave of rear-engine racecars from Europe and the USA, the Forbes roadster yet again took-on the Indy 500 (this time as car number 18) with another respected Texas driver, Lloyd Ruby at the wheel. Of the 33 Indy 500 starters, twelve were of rear-engine design, a third of the total field. Jimmy Clark, Dan Gurney and Bob Marshman were fastest in their Lotus Fords but incredibly, Lloyd Ruby started 7th in the Forbes roadster and drove to a steady 3rd-place finish, his career-best at Indy. AJ Foyt took the checkered flag and drank from the traditional milk bottle of victory, but it was to be the final win for a front-engine roadster at the Indy 500.
Two racing veterans, Jim McElreath (Forbes #8) and Don Branson (#4) fought the battle of Indy Roadsters against rear-engine upstarts successfully until the mid-1960s, such as the Lotus and Cooper cars from Great Britain, A.J. Watson’s Ford and Offenhauser-powered rear engine cars, and those from California hot rodder Mickey Thompson. After 1965 a front-engine racecar never won another Indianapolis 500.
Bill Forbes sold the car in February 1965 to Sid Weinberger and Frank Wilseck, who campaigned it through the 1965 season as the Weinberger Homes Special, car number 76. They contracted Gordon Johncock, a Super-Modified hot-shot from Hastings Michigan as the driver.
At the 49th Indy 500 on May 31st, 1965, after logging an estimated 700 miles in practice, “Gordy” Johncock qualified the Weinberger Homes Special at 155.012 mph (20th position), and finished an impressive 5th place in an Indy 500 field dominated by 27 rear-engine cars that year. Johncock and the Weinberger were one of only six Indy roadsters in the event. They held their own but sung their swan song as Britain’s Jimmy Clark won the 1965 Indy 500 in a Lotus 38; the first victory at Indy for a rear-engine car. A front-engine roadster never won again.
Ace driver Lloyd Ruby was the Indy 1964 driver of the Forbes roadster, before it was sold and became the Weinberger Homes Special for its final competition year, 1965.
