The person who was the longest-serving employee at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway didn’t have Hulman or George as a surname. Instead, it was Bill Spoerle, one of the most acclaimed—and arguably, most obscure—restorers of historic automobiles in the world. The head of restoration for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Foundation, Bill died peacefully in his sleep November 4 at the age of 80.
Most people who’ve visited the historic speedway are familiar with its Hall of Fame Museum and its treasured displays of antique racing and road cars. To visit the museum is to become acquainted with the enormity of Bill’s handiwork. He restored a lot of those cars, priceless racing icons, including the Miller that Louis Meyer drove to the first of his groundbreaking trio of Indy 500 wins in 1928. It was a very rare privilege to be invited into Bill’s private sanctum on the speedway grounds where he worked his miracles.
Born Wilhelm Spoerle in Germany, he received his automotive baptism by working with a motorcycle race team in Europe. He made acquaintances with Floyd “Pop” Dreyer, who convinced Bill to come to work at his racing and motorcycle shop in Indianapolis, which would later become one of the first Honda motorcycle dealerships in the United States. From there, Bill became a race mechanic, working on Sprint cars raced by Elmer George, whose father-in-law was IMS owner Tony Hulman.
He migrated to the speedway as a restoration expert in 1963 after George retired from racing. In the intervening time, Bill restored everything from Indy winners to famous street cars, especially from Indiana, that Hulman favored. For years, he drove a seven-passenger Mercedes-Benz touring car that had once been owned by King Faisal of Saudi Arabia in the annual 500 Festival Parade.
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