Driver James Hinchcliffe
and longtime publicist/journalist Michael Knight were honored with traditional
Indy 500 awards Friday in a ceremony at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway media
center.
Hinchcliffe was announced as recipient of
the Jigger Award, presented by the American Auto Racing Writers and
Broadcasters Association, to an Indy 500 competitor who experiences
misfortune/bad luck. Hinchcliffe, who survived near-fatal injuries in a 2015
practice session accident at IMS only to return a year later and win the pole
position, didn’t qualify for Sunday’s 102d running of “The Greatest Spectacle
in Racing.”
The award is named for Jigger Sirois, who
missed being the pole winner in 1969 when his crew waved-off a qualifying run
which would have been the only one completed before rain prevented any more
track activity. Under rules then in effect, Sirois would have been on the pole,
but never did qualify for the race. Sirois accepted the award for Hinchcliffe.
Knight accepted the Angelo Angelopolous
Award, given since 1963 “to the 500 Mile Race Participant Who Best Exemplifies
the Creed of Good Sportsmanship.” Angelopolous was an Indianapolis News writer
who loved the 500 and fair play and sportsman-like acts.
Knight covered the race for the Philadelphia Daily News before a
quarter-century career as a publicist for CART and numerous drivers and teams,
including the Newman/Haas, Treadway, Robby Gordon and Sam Schmidt teams and
drivers such as Mario and Michael Andretti, Nigel Mansell, Arie Luyendyk and
Gordon. In recent years he’s reported for the Arizona Republic. He is a lifetime member of the 500 Oldtimers and
is attending his 40th Indy 500, which he said will likely be his
last.
