Bill Spoerle, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway restoration manager, died Tuesday. He was 80.
Spoerle was the speedway’s longest tenured employee, having joined the staff in 1963, according to Autoweek, an affiliate of Automotive News.
Spoerle restored Duesenbergs, Maseratis and Lotuses and worked on the Miller race car that three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Louis Meyer drove to victory in 1928, Autoweek said.
Automotive restoration was familiar territory to Spoerle. He studied mechanical engineering in trade school in his native Germany and graduated as a master tool and die craftsman. After graduation, Spoerle started working for NSU, which is now Audi, in its European Grand Prix Motorcycle Racing division, his obituary said.
Spoerle moved to the United States in 1956 after Pop Dreyer, an Indianapolis motorcycle dealer, persuaded him to come work at his dealership.
He married Dreyer’s daughter, Mary, in 1959. Spoerle and Mary were married for 53 years before she died in January 2013.
Spoerle spent two years in the U.S. Army, “where he worked on any engine that needed to be fixed,” his obituary said. He then became chief mechanic for race car driver Elmer George until 1963, when Tony Hulman, the businessman who bought Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1945, established the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum, and hired Spoerle and Barney Wimmer as restorationists.
He never retired. Spoerle returned from visiting Germany just more than a week before he died, his son, Kurt Spoerle, said.
He worked until his death “not because he had to, just because he wanted to,” Kurt said.
Kurt called his father “your stereotypical German,” whose diligent work ethic was probably shaped from growing up in Germany during World War II.
Kurt said he will always remember his father’s “absolute love of preserving automobile history, specifically racing history."
Post a comment
Hello guest, care to post a comment?