Mike Salay: South Bend's postwar 500 starter

1939 — 1951

From South Bend: Mike Salay — born Michael Leo Szalai on 10 June 1909 in South Bend, died here 14 November 1973 — was racing big cars before the war: at the Belleville, Kansas, fair races of 1939 he is listed from South Bend, Indiana, winning a match race on 31 August 1939, and in 1940 he won a feature there in Jimmy Frankland's Frontenac. His Championship career came after the war. He made eight AAA Championship starts in 1948 and 1949, among them the 1948 Indianapolis 500, where he started 31st in car 86 and was classified 30th, out after three laps with a stalled car; his best Championship finish was sixth at Trenton in 1949. He failed to qualify at Indianapolis in 1949, attempted the June 1950 Milwaukee race without qualifying, and entered the 1951 Indianapolis 500 only to wreck his car in a practice crash. Johnson, McDonald, Van Acker, and Salay are the whole of South Bend's starting record at Indianapolis in the record this history could reach — searched name by name against the Speedway's driver record and printed complete, with no fifth name found.

Sources:

1. The biographical record of Mike Salay (Champ Car Stats, via the Salay biography) — born Michael Leo Szalai, 10 June 1909, South Bend; died 14 November 1973, South Bend; eight AAA Championship starts in 1948–49; the 1949 Trenton sixth; the failed 1949 Indianapolis qualifying, the 1950 Milwaukee attempt, and the 1951 practice wreck.
2. The 1948 Indianapolis 500 record — Salay, car 86, started 31st, qualified 24th at 123.393 mph, classified 30th, three laps, stalled.
3. Kansas Racing History, "Automobile Racing at Belleville between 1939 and 1950" — Salay "from South Bend, Indiana" in the 1939 results, his match-race win of 31 August 1939, and his 1940 feature win in the Frankland Frontenac.
4. OldRacingCars.com, "Where are they now?" Indianapolis driver index — the name-by-name check of the 500's driver record for South Bend births, residences, and deaths, on which this entry and the two before it rest.