A. J. Watson (May 8, 1924 – May 12, 2014) was a car builder and chief mechanic from 1949 through 1984 in the

Indianapolis 500 The Indianapolis 500, formally known as the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, and commonly called the Indy 500, is an annual automobile race held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) in Speedway, Indiana, United States, an enclave suburb of Indi ...

, winning the race six times as a car builder.

Rodger Ward Rodger M. Ward (January 10, 1921 – July 5, 2004) was a World War II P-38 aviator in the United States Army Air Forces, and an American race driver with 26 victories in top echelon open-wheel racing in North America, two Indianapolis 500 v ...

won 18 races driving Watson cars. A native of southern

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, Watson came to Indianapolis in 1948 but missed the race. He returned the following year with a home-built car that failed to qualify. For the next 11 years, his cars not only qualified but were leaders in many years. From 1955 to 1958 he was associated with the

John Zink John Smith "Jack" Zink (October 17, 1928 – February 5, 2005), founder of Zeeco, Inc., was an American engineer who received 35 patents for his inventions in the field of combustion, and was also known for his achievements and contributions in b ...

team, and from 1959 on with Bob Wilke. His first win as a car builder came in 1956 when Pat Flaherty drove the John Zink entry to victory in that year's Indy 500. Watson had won the previous year as a crew chief for Bob Sweikert. Watson's cars dominated the race through 1964. Although he continued entering cars for another two decades, he was never able to regain the commanding position of his heyday. In 1964, with many teams following Lotus's example and moving to rear-engined "funny cars", Watson built a pair of cars based on Rolla Vollstedt's successful car. These worked reasonably well but could not reproduce the success he had with his front-engined "roadsters". He built monocoque rear-engined cars in 1966 and 1967 with ever-decreasing success. From 1969 until 1977, Watson ran

Eagles Eagle is the common name for many large birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of genera, some of which are closely related. Most of the 68 species of eagle are from Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, jus ...

and then built a small series of highly derivative new "Watson" cars in 1977, 1978 and again in 1982 based on Lightning and

March March is the third month of the year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. It is the second of seven months to have a length of 31 days. In the Northern Hemisphere, the meteorological beginning of spring occurs on the first day of March ...

designs before retiring. He is frequently listed on the Indy 500 entry sheet as the "race strategist" for

PDM Racing PDM may stand for: Computing * .pdm (disambiguation), several file formats * Personal data manager - portable hardware tool enabling secure storage and easy access to user data * Phase dispersion minimization, a data analysis technique for fi ...

, though his role with the team is largely honorary. He died on May 12, 2014 at the age of 90.

Career awards

* He was inducted in the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame in 1993. * He was inducted in the

Motorsports Hall of Fame of America The Motorsports Hall of Fame of America (MSHFA) is hall of fame that honors motorsports competitors and contributors from the United States from all disciplines, with categories for Open Wheel, Stock Cars, Powerboats, Drag Racing, Motorcycles, ...

A.J. Watson
at the

in 1996.

References

External links

Legendary Mechanic Celebrating 50th Year at Indy
{{DEFAULTSORT:Watson, A.J. 1924 births American racecar constructors Auto racing crew chiefs Formula One constructors (Indianapolis only) Indianapolis 500 International Motorsports Hall of Fame inductees 2014 deaths National Sprint Car Hall of Fame inductees People from California Sportspeople from California