Throughout it’s 100 year history the Indianapolis 500 has been littered with many great examples of bad luck stories and what if moments, be it JR Hildebrand’s decision to pass Charlie Kimball on the final lap in 2011, or Mario Andretti’s decision to preserve his engine inadvertently bringing about the end of his race in 1987. In todays update however we will be taking a look at a driver whose stroke of misfortune proved to be so notorious it led to an award at the Speedway being named in his honour.

Born in the small town of Shelby in Northern Indiana, Leon ‘Jigger’ Sirois grew up with motor racing very firmly within his veins. His father Earl had been a successful race mechanic during the 1950s, working on the machine that took Lee Wallard to victory in the 1951 before guiding Sam Hanks and Jimmy Bryan to successive Brickyard successes in 1957 and 1958 respectively, whilst his distinctive nickname was chosen as a reference to the two-time 500 winning riding mechanic Jigger Johnson. With that kind of background, it seemed inevitable that young Jigger would pursue a career in motorsport, and in 1956 he made his competitive debut competing in a jalopy midget race at the Iliana raceway in Northwest Indiana.

During the early sixties Jigger emerged to become one of the most successful drivers of the Mid-west dirt-track scene, picking up 31 wins on his way to the UARA midget title in 1961. Further success would follow on a national level, picking up victories in 100 mile races at Daytona Beach and Milwaukee before running a certain AJ Foyt close during at the Houston Astrodome in 1964. The level of performance from Jigger soon began to attract the attentions of USAC team bosses, and in 1968 the 34 year old was hired by Fresno based car dealer Myron Caves to drive his #14 machine at the 1969 500 event.

Entering that year’s qualifying session, Jigger found himself somewhat on the backfoot A delay in his car arriving at Indianapolis, combined with having to pass his rookie orientation test, left him with only a handful of days to adjust to his Gerhardt chassis. And despite his best efforts in his few days of practice, the Indiana native remained somewhat pessimistic about his chances of making the field. When pole day arrived, Jigger was given the honour of being the first car to make an attempt to qualify for the race, the session taking amidst overcast skies and with the threat of rain increasingly prevalent. After recording two laps at 162mph, a slide into turn one saw Jigger’s speed drop to 160mph, and fearing that the time would not be fast enough to make the race team boss Caves decided to wave off the final lap of Jigger’s attempt.

By the time the second car of Arnie Knepper took to the track rain had began to fall around the track, continuing throughout the rest of the day and leading to pole day being washed out. For Jigger, this came as a major blow, the rules of the 500 at the time stated that pole position for the speedway would be decided by the fastest qualifier on pole day itself regardless of how many drivers made a qualifying effort, meaning that had Jigger completed his fourth lap he would have claimed pole position for the race by default. As it was pole position went to AJ Foyt, qualifying at a speed of 170mph in a rescheduled pole day the following week, Jigger meanwhile struggled to make speed, waving off his second qualifying attempt before suffering a turbo failure attempting to bump Peter Revson from the field. From being on the cusp of pole position just seven days earlier Jigger had failed to qualify for the race.

Such was the level of notoriety of Jigger’s misfortune that speedway officials decided to introduce the Jigger award to the 500 celebrations, being rewarded to the driver or team that suffered the worst luck during that year’s qualifying and practice procedure, being won in later years by established names including Johnny Rutherford, Emerson Fittipaldi and Roger Penske to name but a few. The exploits of Jigger also led to changes being made to Indy’s qualifying procedure, allowing every driver to make at least one qualifying attempt before a pole-sitter could be declared.

Jigger would make five further attempts at making the 500 field, falling short on every occasion before returning to a career in dirt track racing before retiring from racing in 1977. Despite his near miss, Jigger holds no regrets over Caves’ decision to pull him from the field, remaining a popular figure in the Indiana region both at the speedway and through his work to promote the awareness and treatment of stuttering disorders in youth. Jigger’s story should be held as a testimony of just how important luck remains at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and although it remains unlikely that anyone will suffer a stroke of misfortune as sever as Sirois all of this year’s 500 participants will be hoping that Irish eyes shine on them when the Month of May arrives.