Indy 500 ambulances

500 Ambulances

Roscoe Conkle, founder of Conkle Funeral Home in Speedway and Tony Hullman were long time friends. In Indiana, for several years local funeral homes furnished community ambulance service.For many years, Conkles would place their red and white M-M on the track. For race day, Mr. Conkle would ask area funeral homes to bring their ambulances to the track, supposedly so there were enough track ambulances for every driver and outside track ambulances for spectators. As a mortuary college student working for Conkles, I worked the month of May ambulance duty in 1970 and 1971. 1971 was the year of the Pace car accident into the VIP grandstand at the south end of pit row. My ambulance took Tony Hullman to the track hospital. If you brought your FH ambulance to the track, they would disconnect your siren as they didn't want sirens exciting the crowd. Almost all of the ambulances at that time were combinations.
 
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