The Indianapolis 500 has been contested since 1911. But the great race was cancelled by the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Imperial Japanese on December 7, 1941. The track sat idle until the end of the war, but not the men involved in the sport. Some men started their own companies providing assets to the war effort. Some men worked for companies that produced products for the war effort. But some men fought in the war. One man endured the hellish conditions of the Bataan Death March, a journey on a Hell Ship, and then slave labor in Japan. But he survived and then took his back pay and bought a racing car to compete in the Indianapolis 500.One man had never won a Championship Car race in his life. Could he finally win for his multi-millionaire car owner? Could 2 "old men" win before time ran out of their careers?America needed time to heal and recreate. They needed the 1946 Indianapolis 500.
