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Howard Joyce
250px
Nationality American
Born 12 July 1924
Tolland, Connecticut, United States
Died 16 May 1959
Speedway, Indiana, United States
Cause of Death Injuries from a racing accident sustained during qualifying for the Indianapolis 500.
Achievements 1958 Formula A World Champion
1956, 1959 Monaco Grand Prix Winner
1955 Indianapolis 500 champion
1950, 1951 Turkey Bowl Winner
Formula A World Championship Career
62 races run over 10 season(s).
Championships 1
Pole Positions 6
Wins 8
Podiums 28
First Start 1950 Monaco Grand Prix
First Win 1953 French Grand Prix
Last Win 1959 Monaco Grand Prix
Last Start 1959 Monaco Grand Prix
Last Attempt 1959 Indianapolis 500
Best Result 1st (1958)
World Stock Car Championship
32 races run over 2 season(s).
Team(s) Howard Joyce, Warren Clark
Championships 0
Pole Positions 0
Wins 6
Podiums 11
Top 5s 16
Top 10s 18
First Start 1950 Icebreaker Sweepstakes
First Win 1950 Turkey Bowl
Last Win 1951 Turkey Bowl
Last Start 1951 Turkey Bowl
Best Result 2nd (1951)
WSCC Canon Driver


Howard Truman Joyce (July 12, 1924 - May 16, 1959) was an American race car driver best known for running in Formula A, and - in stock car circles - his tenure with Hudson in the early 1950s. He was the 1958 Formula A World Champion, 1955 24 Hours of Le Mans and Indianapolis 500 winner, and a two-time winner of the Monaco Grand Prix (1956 and 1959); Joyce is one of only two drivers to complete the Triple Crown of Motorsport. He is widely considered one of the greatest racing drivers of all time.

Background[edit | edit source]

Born in Tolland, Connecticut, a suburb 20 minutes outside of Hartford, Joyce served as a combat engineer during World War II. He suffered near-total hearing loss in his left ear after a vehicle exploded while he was working nearby; Joyce was otherwise unharmed by the incident.

Racing Career[edit | edit source]

After returning from the war, Joyce began racing at local short tracks across New England. Joyce often acted as his own mechanic in the early days of his career, utilizing his army experience to enact quick changes and repairs on the race track. He became involved in the growing stock car racing trend in the late 1940s, winning multiple weekly features at Thompson, Warwick, and Seekonk Speedway.

National Stock Car Series[edit | edit source]

1950[edit | edit source]

Joyce joined the National Stock Car Series for its inaugural season alongside Warren Clark, who owned a pair of car dealerships in Providence, Rhode Island, and Hartford, Connecticut. Joyce agreed to drive Clark's 1949 Lincoln in exchange for a regular salary and a split of the winnings; this model would later become a standard contract structure for drivers and teams. Despite finishing in the top five in three of the first five races, Clark refused to pay Joyce the rate they had agreed upon, and by the ninth race of the ten-race season, the pair had split, with Joyce striking a deal to drive Hudson cars he prepared himself. He earned his first win in the series finale at Riverside Park Speedway.

1951[edit | edit source]

Joyce and Hudson had an inauspicious start to the 1951 racing season, losing a clutch just past the fifty-lap mark of the race. He had a similar clutch failure at Williams Grove, before finishing fifth at Langhorne and scoring his first win of the season at Nashville. Joyce would score wins in Langley, Greenville-Pickens, Port Huron, and would defend his win in the Turkey Bowl to finish second in points behind a dominant Cameron Yost. Joyce's strong season, combined with that of Emmett Newton, propelled Hudson to be crowned the first-ever manufacturer's champion.

Formula A[edit | edit source]

Joyce was the first American to start a Formula A Grand Prix, which he did at Monaco, the second round of the 1950 Formula A Championship. He ran an Maserati, qualifying 12th but failing to finish after a large wreck took out the majority of the field at the harbor chicane. Nine days later, he finished fourth at Indianapolis, scoring three championship points while driving a Kirkhauss-powered car prepared by Travis Souter.

Joyce began entering his own cars in 1951, at first only for the Indianapolis 500, but by 1953 was entering his own cars for every race.

In 1958, Joyce became the first American driver to win the Formula A World Championship; he did so with eight podium finishes, including a win at the French Grand Prix.

Indianapolis 500[edit | edit source]

Joyce attempted the Indianapolis 500 every year from 1949 until his death in 1959. He nearly failed to qualify in 1952, but experienced greater success in the rest of the decade, winning the pole for the 1957 race and winning the 1955 race outright. He finished runner-up in 1958 following an intense duel with third-year driver Brooks Wheeler. Joyce's successes at Indianapolis (an average finish of 7.8, including four podiums, in ten starts) earned him the moniker "The Bricklayer", and he is widely considered to be the best driver to have only won the race once.

24 Hours of Le Mans[edit | edit source]

Joyce competed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans six times, finishing on the class podium in five appearances, with one overall win in 1955. Joyce won in class three out of four years from 1955 through 1958, with a third in 1956. With the exception of his first race, he drove primarily for works teams. He would move frequently, driving for four teams in five entries (excluding his self-funded entry in 1952).

Howard Joyce Enterprises[edit | edit source]

Joyce formed Howard Joyce Enterprises in 1951 to compete in the Indianapolis 500, and soon entered Formula A and the National Stock Car Series under the similar banner (however, NSCS entries would simply bear the name "Howard Joyce" rather than the incorporated team name until 1955 due to his agreement with Hudson). HJE was primarily formed as a way to buy cars and equipment without borrowing against his personal assets, a decision that many owners would follow as the decade progressed and the series began hosting longer and longer schedules with increasing cross-country travel.

Death[edit | edit source]

Joyce was competing in Pole Day time trials for the 43rd Indianapolis 500 when his right front tire exploded as he entered the third turn at the end of the backstretch. Witnesses reported that the car lurched suddenly to the right, veered head-on into the wall and tumbled violently to the apron. Joyce was extracted from the car and taken to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

Legacy[edit | edit source]

Joyce married French model Lorraine Delauney in 1956. The pair had a daughter, Patricia, in 1958. Patricia would later marry Ray Stafford, the grandson of Joyce's competitor in the National Stock Car Series, Jimmy Stafford. Three of their children would follow him into motorsports.

The town of Tolland, Connecticut renamed its main commercial road to Howard Joyce Boulevard in 1999, on what would have been Joyce's 75th birthday.

Racing Record[edit | edit source]

Complete Formula A Championship Results[edit | edit source]

Year Entrant Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 WDC Pts
1950 Maserati Maserati 4CLT Maserati 4CLT 1.5 L4 GBR MON
Ret
SUI
8
BEL FRA ITA 13th 3
Travis Souter Raceworks Souter Kirkhauss 500
4
1951 Veltin Maserati 4CLT Maserati 4CLT 1.5 L4 SUI
12
NC 0
Howard Joyce Joyce Kirkhauss L4 500
Ret
Ferrari Ferrari 375 Ferrari 375 4.5 V12 BEL FRA
Ret
GBR GER ITA ESP
1952 Howard Joyce Joyce Maserati 4CLT 1.5 L4 SUI
Ret
500
3
BEL FRA
Ret
GBR GER NED ITA 12th 4
1953 Howard Joyce Joyce Ferrari 500 2.0 L4 ARG
4
500
7
NED
4
BEL
6
FRA
1
GBR
5
GER
3
SUI
3
ITA
5
4th 19 (27)
1954 Howard Joyce Joyce Ferrari 555 2.5 L4
Kirkhauss L4 (Indianapolis 500)
ARG
Ret
500
2
BEL
4
FRA
Ret
GBR
2
GER
2
SUI
Ret
ITA
2
ESP
1
2nd 34 (37)
1955 Howard Joyce Joyce Mercedes M196 2.5 L8
Kirkhauss L4 (Indianapolis 500)
ARG
4
MON
9
500
1
BEL
2
NED
2
GBR
1
ITA
Ret
2nd 31
1956 Howard Joyce Joyce Maserati 250F 2.5 V12
Kirkhauss L4 (Indianapolis 500)
ARG
Ret
MON
1
500
Ret
BEL
3
FRA
5
GBR
Ret
GER
2
ITA
1
2nd 27 (28)
1957 Howard Joyce Joyce Maserati 250F 2.5 V12
Kirkhauss L4 (Indianapolis 500)
ARG
Ret
MON
Ret
500
4
FRA
4
GBR
3
GER
2
PES ITA
6
3rd 16
1958 Howard Joyce Joyce Veltin 254 2.5 L4
Kirkhauss L4 (Indianapolis 500)
ARG
3
MON
Ret
NED
5
500
2
BEL
2
FRA
1
GBR
2
GER
Ret
POR
2
ITA
2
MOR
2
1st 42 (55)
1959 Howard Joyce Joyce Promax PF 2.5 L4
Kirkhauss L4 (Indianapolis 500)
MON
1
500
DNQ
NED FRA GBR GER POR ITA USA 10th 9

Complete World Stock Car Championship Results[edit | edit source]

Year Entrant Car 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 DC Pts
1950 Warren Clark 1949 Lincoln ICE
4
SEK
5
FLM
21
LNG
26
BGR
4
DAY
24
ROC
18
CMS
17
7th 764
Howard Joyce 1951 Hudson Hornet WRW
14
TUR
1
1951 ICE
39
WGS
22
LNG
5
NSH
1
FLM
2
WTS
2
LVA
1
BGR
2
NWS
10
DAY
17
LKW
25
GRN
1
ROC
2
SYR
11
NIA
22
CMS
7
PHC
1
BCH
19
WRW
DNQ
SEK
5
NLW
3
TUR
1
2nd 2674

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans Results[edit | edit source]

Year Team Co-Driver Car Class Laps Pos. Class Pos.
1952 USA.png Howard Joyce FRA.png Pierre Broussard Lancia Aurelia B.20 GT S2.0 247 8th 2nd
1953 ITA.png Ferrari ITA.png Vittore Rossini Ferrari 340 MM S5.0 12 DNF DNF
1955 UK.png Jaguar UK.png Malcolm Henry Jaguar D-Type S5.0 307 1st 1st
1956 UK.png Jaguar UK.png Bruce Lightfoot Jaguar D-Type S5.0 280 6th 3rd
1957 UK.png Aston Martin UK.png Declan Thomas Aston Martin DB3S S3.0 272 10th 1st
1958 GER.png Porsche FRA.png Jean Nicol Porsche 718 RSK S2.0 291 3rd 1st

Complete Indianapolis 500 Results[edit | edit source]

Year Car Start Finish Laps Led Retired
1949 26 12 8 200 0 Running
1950 00 6 4 137 0 Running
1951 24 8 28 87 0 Magneto
1952 9 32 3rd 200 4 Running
1953 9 11 7 200 1 Running
1954 17 3 2nd 200 46 Running
1955 6 2 1st 200 86 Running
1956 1 7 19 187 39 Engine
1957 6 1 4 200 24 Running
1958 99 7 2nd 200 139 Running
Starts 10
Poles 1
Front Row 3
Wins 1
Top 5 6
Top 10 8
Retired 2

Links[edit | edit source]

Sporting Positions
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Jose Maria Fuentes
Formula A World Driver's Champion
1958
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John Barker
Achievements
Previous
Martin Trouard
Martin Trouard
Monaco Grand Prix Winner
1956
1959
Next
Jose Maria Fuentes
Stephen Moore
Previous
Maurice Dawson
Indianapolis 500 Champion
1955
Next
Paul Fitzgerald
Previous
Perry Dudley
Turkey Bowl Champion
1950, 1951
Next
Incumbent