It was somewhere near Chattanooga when I first learned that racers came from Phoenix. There I was, in the backseat of my parents’ car driving to another spring break vacation accompanied by Tootsie Pops, word search games and songs. Lots of songs.
My dad has always fancied himself for his musical mind, and for good reason. He was a member of a prominent high school choir and toiled in bands and quartets before paternal life took the lead on his priority chart. He mixed the two on road trips, however, teaching my sisters and me lyrics of various jingles, turning his Chevy Malibu into a mobile barbershop. Navigating the hills of Tennessee and Georgia, we were taught countless ballads, the reward of free orange juice at the Florida state line waiting just a few more numbers away.
That’s when he taught us the lyrics. From Phoenix, Arizona, came a mighty racing man – Harry Weger’s “The Ballad of Jimmy Bryan.” It became as much a backdrop of my family vacations as Rock City and Ruby Falls. The song of a racer, cigars and an Indy 500 win.
James Ernest Bryan was born on Jan. 28, 1926, in Phoenix, Arizona. A likable and light-hearted personality, Bryan was fierce behind the wheel. He began his USAC career in 1952, and by 1960 had won nearly 32 percent of his 72 career starts, finishing in the top 10 in three of four races in which he began.
In 1957, Bryan won the inaugural 500 Miglia di Monza “Race of Two Worlds” in Italy, an exhibition pitting Formula 1 stars against America’s top talent. Two weeks after his third-place finish at Indy, Bryan piloted his Offy to hold off the Jaguars of Formula 1’s John Lawrence and Jack Fairman to win the Two Worlds trophy. Eleven months later, he claimed the biggest win of his career.
Through the turns and down the bricks and by the giant tower, my Dad recited to me as we made the turns down the interstate by the peak of Lookout Mountain. Down the chute he thundered, both hands held high to signify, he’d won the big 500.
The song makes it known that Jimmy Bryan’s win was popular among the paddock. A determined and fearless driver, the jingle let me know the reality of a man I’d never get the chance to meet. Jimmy Bryan was a cigar smokin’, always jokin’ racer.
I love racing. I love the Indy 500. I love a good cigar. Cigars are a funny thing. Sometimes the very best, just at the peak of the enjoyment they provide, unexpectedly go out. On June 19, 1960, Jimmy Bryan was fatally injured in a racing accident in Langhorne, Pennsylvania. A three-time racing national champion, he was 34 years old.
Bryan’s death came a little more than a year after Edward McKay Cheever Jr. was born in Phoenix. Shortly thereafter, Cheever moved to Italy. At the age of 8, young Eddie attended his first automobile race. The track? Monza.
There, at the same facility that introduced Jimmy Bryan to the world, Eddie Cheever was introduced to the world of racing. By the age of 15, Cheever was winning Italian karting titles, and by 20 he was an entrant in Formula 1, where he made 132 career starts. He raced in multiple disciplines and series around the world, and became a mainstay in Indy car racing by the early ‘90s. In 1998, 40 years after Bryan held both hands high, Cheever won the Indianapolis 500, the first to do so as a driver/owner since A.J. Foyt in 1977. No one since has accomplished the feat.
By 2003, Cheever was semi-retired from racing (he returned as a driver for the 2006 season) and a full-time owner when he gave an up-and-comer his first full-time ride.
Buddy Rice was born in Phoenix on Jan. 31, 1976. A third-generation driver and the son of a drag racer, Rice began karting at 11.
“Karting was pretty decent and there was always lots of dirt racing there with Manzanita Raceway and Canyon later on,” Rice told me recently.
By the age of 22, Rice was a top-5 finisher in Toyota Atlantics and by 24 was the series champion. A season later, he tested an Indy car for Cheever.
Rice drove for Cheever Red Bull Racing in 2003, before jumping to Rahal Letterman Racing in 2004. He won Indy in his second career start, one of three career victories in 99 races. He finished in the top 10 in 35 percent of his Indy car starts.
Shortly after his 2004 Indy 500 win, I recall telling him, “Your life just changed forever.” I’ll never forget his reply. “No, I’m different, man. Other people might change, but I won’t.”
He was right. Rice is back in Phoenix, managing drivers and coaching in Global Rallycross.
“The Ballad of Jimmy Bryan” states that whenever racing people meet or racing engines roar, the name of Jimmy Bryan will live forever more.
This weekend, racing people will meet at ISM Raceway for the Verizon IndyCar series race on Saturday night. Buddy Rice may be there. Eddie Cheever may, too. And the name of Jimmy Bryan will indeed live. Before the engines roar, I will, as I’ve done each time I’ve been in Phoenix, take a cigar to lay at the resting place of James Ernest Bryan. It’s become a traveling tradition.
Just like singing the words of his journey, while traveling through the hills of Tennessee.
(Veteran broadcaster Jake Query is a member of the Advance Auto Parts INDYCAR Radio Network team and offers his musings regularly on IndyCar.com.)