Born in Indianapolis in 1946, Bruce McConnell has always been fascinated with anything mechanical. “I was one of those kids who always needed to take everything apart to see how it worked,” tells Bruce. “When I was about 8 years old, I began attending the Indianapolis 500 and knew right then that I had the need for speed.”
Bruce’s love of all things horsepower continued and in 1958 a family friend gave him a go kart, which, of course, he disassembled and re-assembled countless times trying to make it faster. In 1960, Jim Rathman (an acquaintance of his father’s who won the Indy 500 that year) began building his monocoque ‘Xterminator’ go karts and gave him one to race, which is when Bruce began to really develop his passion for motorsports. “When I turned 16, I began drag racing a 1963 Olds F85 convertible at the local drag strips on Saturday night,” continued McConnell. “Of course those were the days of racing by class and I entered the car into C/FX, running in the low 14.5- 15 second range.” Proving he was no slouch behind the wheel… Read more of this article. Just click on the digital feature below this introduction.
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