Howard Joyce

Howard Joyce

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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

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

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

1950

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Complete Formula A Championship Results

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

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

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

Complete Indianapolis 500 Results

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

Sporting Positions
Previous Jose Maria Fuentes	Formula A World Driver's Champion 1958	Next 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