Spud McElroy

Spud McElroy
Sex	M
Birth name	Sylvester McElroy

Spud McElroy was a corporal assigned to the motor pool on Okinawa where Frank Blixter was in charge and Mel Austin had recently been promoted to sergeant. his name was really Sylvester, but you didn’t dare call him that or he might hurt you. He was a racer who had run sprint carsd and midgets along the east coast.^BR1-1

He had been married twice, paying alimony to a girl in Jersey and child support to another one in Philly.^BR1-8 He might have been still married for all he knew.^BR1-21

He met up with Frank Blixter at the end of the 1947 racing season and they cooked up the idea of the Midwest Midget Sportsman Association, a travelling race show.^BR1-11

Spud concentrated on keping the cars going and running the races while Frank was mostly the promoter and organiser. Spud used restrictor plates in the carburetors to keep racing close, or to keep a bad driver out of the way at the back of the field. He sealed the carburetor bolts and rarely told anyone what he'd done.

The first few winters Frank and Spud stayed with Frank's folks, in later winters they got an apartment together.

After helping Runt Chenowith's first Indianapolis 500 attempt Spud decided he wanted to at least try to qualify for the Indy 500 someday. In order to get some race practice he decided he'd run one of the MMSA cars from time to time.^BR1-17

For a few weeks Spud worked for the new owner when Frank sold the MMSA in early 1955 but didn't get on with him. When he left he went down to Indianapolis and helped Runt and Squirt Chenowith. He the worked as a mechanic f ro Frank Blixter Ford in Livonia while rebuilding a wrecked Indy car he'd bought. He qualified in midfield for the 1956 race and finished in the mid-teens.^BR2-16

He started a fabrication shop building race cars in Indianapolis, where he employed Peewee Svoboda.^BR2-16

He died about 1997.^BR2-27