New marker in downtown Fresno will honor Vukovich racing family

A new memorial to the Vukovich racing family is coming to downtown Fresno.

The new marker will be unveiled Saturday at a 10 a.m. ceremony at City Hall before it will be moved next to the Bill Vukovich Sr. monument in front of Selland Arena.

Bill Vukovich Jr. will be at Saturday’s ceremony; so will a historic midget race car owned by the Gerhardt family that Bill Sr. drove to the 1950 AAA national championship.

Bill Sr. dominated the Indianapolis 500 in the early 1950s, leading 85% of the laps he drove and winning the 1953 and ‘54 races. He was leading again in 1955 when he was killed in a crash.

Bill Jr. had six top-10 finishes in 12 starts at Indy with a best of second place in 1973.

Third-generation driver Billy Vukovich III was an emerging open-wheel racing star at the age of 27 when he was killed in a crash at Mesa Marin Raceway in Bakersfield in November 1990. Billy had started three straight Indy 500s with a best finish of 12th.

The Indiana-based American Racing Memorial Association is providing the marker honoring the Vukovich family. Ken Takeuchi will be Saturday’s master of ceremonies.

This story was originally published June 6, 2019 at 1:30 PM.