He won the inaugural California 500, finished second, third and fourth in the USAC national championship and qualified for 15 Indianapolis 500s but Jim McElreath's lasting legacy will be how he's dealt with all the pain life has thrown him in 87 years.
In 1977, he was working on a sprint car at Winchester Speedway for son James, a promising 23-year-old who was already winning USAC midget and sprint races, when he was killed in a violent accident.
In 2000, daughter Shirley Ann, lost her life along with husband Tony Bettenhausen Jr. and two other friends in a plane crash in Kentucky.
With both children gone, Jim's only solace was wife Shirley but she was struck down by a devastating stroke in 2003 that left her in a wheelchair unable to speak. Since that day, Jim has never left her side and, despite fighting his own battle with leukemia, still diligently watches over his partner of 66 years.
"All that Jim has been through, I've never heard him complain, he's one hell of a man," said three-time Indy winner Johnny Rutherford, who came to IMS with McElreath to watch in 1961.
A rugged racer from Arlington, Texas, McElreath came from IMCA sprint cars and started his first Indy 500 in a roadster in 1962. He made his last Indy start in 1980 with a rear-engine car he owned and maintained.
A third in 1966 was his best Indy finish, the same year ran second in the point race to Mario Andretti. He also captured IndyCar races at Langhorne (twice), Trenton and Phoenix.
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