Mike Magill

Standout Big-Car Racer Magill Achieved His Indy 500 Dreams

Mike Magill had a dream. Soon after World War II, he realized that he wanted to race, and with that realization came a passionate desire to compete in the Indianapolis 500. Like many of that Greatest Generation, after surviving a depression and a war, he let nothing stop him as he chased his dream to fulfillment.

Born Charles Edward Magill in Haddonfield, N.J., his mother called him Mickey. Famed promoter Sam Nunis, however, didn’t like the name Mickey, so he changed it to Mike. Magill earned the “Iron” moniker because of his fearless ability on his favorite track, Pennsylvania’s Langhorne Speedway.

It took guts to run Langhorne, as it did Dayton (Ohio) Winchester (Ind.) and Salem (Ind.). Magill ran them hard and fast, fueled with bravery honed as a fighter pilot in the South Pacific. They were fearful tracks, but paled in comparison to battlegrounds like Guadalcanal, Guam and Bougainville.

Magill saw his first race in 1947, an AAA big car show in Essex Junction, Vt. He was hooked. A few weeks later he was racing himself, at New Jersey’s Alcyon Speedway.
A charter member of the URC, Magill won the championship in 1950, ’51 and ’53. That display earned him an AAA ride, in 1953, driving Dutch Unverdorben’s little Offy, the former Agajanain 98 JR sprinter that Troy Ruttman raced with such success.
Then it was necessary for a driver to run the Midwest high banks in order to attract the attention of Indy car owners. His first venture was a hard 100 laps at Dayton against another “Iron Mike” — Nazaruk.

Magill displayed a penchant for the “hills,” and in 1956, got a shot at Indy. He didn’t qualify. The next year he did, in George Walther’s new Kurtis.

Staring 18th and without brakes from the start, he steadily moved forward. Then on lap 101 he tried to pass Jimmy Bryan on the inside. Bryan moved down and knocked Magill into Al Herman. Both ended up in the hospital.

Magill had the Walther ride again in 1958, but three days before the track opened he got word that Juan Manuel Fangio was to drive the car instead. When Fangio couldn’t get the car up to speed, Magill got the call and put the car in the race.

He cleared the first-lap melee that killed Pat O’Connor, but while sitting stalled in the grass, Art Bisch crashed into him. Magill finished 17th despite losing more than an hour for repairs.

In 1959 Magill returned to the wheel of the Walther car and was involved in a spectacular, 45th-lap crash that put him upside down. Sliding down the track, the roll bar, his helmet, and then the back of his head was ground down. He remained in the hospital until Christmas and retired soon after.

Even though his never became a household name, Mike Magill did see his Indianapolis dream fulfilled. “I wish I could’ve finished better,” he once said, “but I got to play in the big leagues.”

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