At the 1964 Indianapolis 500®, A.J. Foyt, Jr. was racing for the Sheraton-Thompson team owned by Bill Ansted and Shirley Murphy and run by crew chief George Bignotti. The rear-engine revolution was in progress, and among the 61 entries there were 24 rear-engine "funny cars." Foyt had a rear engine available, but chose to race his Watson Roadster. After the race, Foyt said, "A lot of guys made fun of me driving an antique car with an antique engine, (but) these antiques have made me an awful lot of money around here.
When
the race began, Clark jumped into the lead. On the second lap of the race there
was a terrible accident back in the field, which took the lives of Dave
MacDonald and Eddie Sachs, and brought out the first red flag because of an
accident in Speedway history. When the race was restarted, Marshman led from
Clark, but both fell out from separate mishaps. Jones then led until his first
pit stop, when a spectacular fire on pit road ended his race. From Lap 55 to
the end of the race, Foyt commanded the race from first place. Rodger Ward finished
second, a lap behind Foyt. Foyt's winning speed was 147.350 mph, which was
faster that the qualifying record five years earlier. Foyt's victory would
prove to be the last ever at Indy for front-engine cars, which had won every
Indy 500® from 1911 through 1964. This diecast item is numbered #3258.