THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: Ruttman family members in North Idaho reflect on his Indy record, still intact 70 years later

One time, a crash forced record-setting race car driver Troy Ruttman to ride horizontal in a vehicle after a race — but it wasn’t as bad as you might think.

In 1949, Ruttman was injured in a crash during a race in Arlington, Texas, and ended up with casts on both legs, up to his waist.

“He broke his pelvis,” recalled Beverly Benson, his wife at the time. “I don’t know what else he broke … We had a new Cadillac, took the back off the seat and put a board from the front to the back, and he just laid there. He was 6 foot 4. But he fit there; that’s how I drove him home.”

Beverly drove her husband back to their home in Southern California — with a detour through Oklahoma, where his relatives lived.

She marveled about the protective equipment — or rather, lack thereof — that drivers wore in those days.

A half-helmet, she said, instead of a fully protective helmet.

Drivers these days wear fire suits. Troy Ruttman won the biggest race of his life wearing a T-shirt.

“It’s just incredible that he lived through all that,” Beverly said.

RUTTMAN REMAINS the youngest winner of the Indianapolis 500, winning in 1952 at age 22. There are four drivers in this year’s field that could eclipse that record.

Indy plans to remember Ruttman today. In the morning before today’s Indianapolis 500, cars of eight past champions, including Ruttman’s No. 98, will be driven one lap around the 2.5-mile track at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Ruttman died of cancer in 1997 at age 67.

But his family — including those living in North Idaho — remembers him every day.

“There’s a lot that are shocked that that’s my grandpa,” said his granddaughter, Dina Shore. “Most people think I’m crazy and then they Google it, and they’re like, ‘No, you’re not lying.’

I work at the hospital and one of the doctors is really into Indy and I mentioned that and he was like in shock, texting all his buddies.”

Benson, 92, who has lived in Hayden the past 20 years; Shore, 50, who has lived in Coeur d’Alene since 2000; and Roxanne Holland, 70, Troy’s daughter who has lived in Hayden the past 24 years, reflected earlier this week on their former husband, grandfather and father, respectively.

HOLLAND WAS 1 month old when Troy Ruttman won at Indy. She’s the youngest of Troy’s three kids — Toddy, the oldest, is 72. Troy Jr. came along a year later, then Roxanne a year after that.

Roxanne was able to see her dad race at Indy in the early 1960s, shortly before he retired in 1964 at age 34, after 19 years of racing.

Roxanne last went back to Indy in 1992, when Troy was inducted into the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame. That was the 40th anniversary of his historic win.

“I’m very glad I went,” Roxanne said. “I remember the speedway, and the balloons, and getting to go in the garage area … it was awesome to do that.”

This year, Beverly, Roxanne and Dina plan to watch today’s race on television.

“It’s not the same on TV, but you can’t see the race (if you’re at Indy), they’re going 200 miles per hour," Roxanne said. "If you want to see the race, you need to see it at home. If you want the whole picture, you owe it to yourself to go.”

Troy Ruttman Jr. followed his dad into racing, but was killed in a race in Pennsylvania in 1969, at age 18.

“So racing’s always been in our blood. I’ve always been around racing,” Roxanne said.

BEVERLY LIVED in California for 73 years, before moving to North Idaho.

Was she ever worried about being married to a race car driver?

“I never took my kids to the races for that reason, because you didn’t know if you were going to come home with a husband or not,” she said. “It’s why they (kids) never went to the races, hardly.”

Eventually, they did, but you can understand her concern. Plus, she said, there wasn’t much for them to do at the racetrack.

She watched Troy race at Indy for some 10 years. She said she doesn’t remember a whole lot about his winning race — remember, that was 70 years ago.

But she recalls that peanuts and the color green were bad luck at the time.

“The thing was, when Troy won that year, he took off his shoes after he got home, and the insoles of his shoes were green,” Beverly said. “I don’t wear green to this day, hardly, because I just got out of the habit. I don’t care for green.”

DINA SHORE’s first name is pronounced “Deena”, as opposed to that of Dinah Shore, the singer, actress and television personality who died in 1994 at age 77.

Dina has two sons and the youngest, Mason, a junior football player and thrower at Coeur d’Alene High, is into NASCAR.

She’s never been to Indy, but hopes they can get back there someday.

“I think they would both enjoy going to Indy,” Dina said of her sons.

Some 10 years ago a book called “California Gold: The Legendary Life of Troy Ruttman,” written by Bob Gates, was published.

“He’s impressed with it,” Dina said of Mason. “He’s taken the book to school a few times.”

“The book makes me look really good,” Beverly said.

Dina was born in 1972, long after Troy retired from racing.

Joe Ruttman, Troy’s younger brother, raced in the NASCAR and NASCAR Trucks series. She remembers watching her uncle, Troy Jr., race.

Dina recalls going with her grandpa to the Long Beach Grand Prix when Troy competed in the pro-celebrity race.

“I heard how he had a fake birth certificate, and that’s how he started early,” she said.

Troy Ruttman’s funeral was on a late May day in his hometown of Mooreland, Okla. As it turned out, rain postponed the Indy 500 that year, and the race began right around the same time as Troy’s funeral.

“I wish he was around a little bit longer,” Dina said of her grandpa.

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 208-664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter @CdAPressSports.