Team story
Origins
Bill Vukovich contested his first Indianapolis 500 in 1951 in an Offenhauser-powered Trevis. The Central Excavating Special, entered by Pete Salemi, stopped after 29 laps with an oil tank problem. The chassis name belonged to constructor Floyd Trevis, not to a European team contesting the Grand Prix calendar.
The Formula 1 journey
The best result during the world championship period came in 1960: Eddie Johnson completed all 200 laps and was sixth in the Jim Robbins Special. Another Trevis from the same entrant, driven by Bud Tingelstad, was ninth. That sixth place earned the driver one point, at the last Indianapolis included in the world championship.
Historical timeline
Three chapters in the story of Trevis
Three episodes to revisit the people, cars and races that shaped this journey.
First appearance · Indianapolis 500
Bill Vukovich · Indianapolis 500 1951. The recorded position is P29; this number alone does not show whether the driver completed the race distance. This is the first recorded race start, or the first entry if the team never started a race.
Sporting landmark · Indianapolis 500
Eddie Johnson · Indianapolis 500 1960. The recorded position is P6; this number alone does not show whether the driver completed the race distance. This marks the first win or podium where one exists, otherwise the highest recorded placing for this constructor.
Latest recorded appearance · Indianapolis 500
Bud Tingelstad · Indianapolis 500 1960. The recorded position is P9; this number alone does not show whether the driver completed the race distance. This is the last race start attributed to this constructor in the archive, not necessarily the end of the organisation behind it.
A distinctive way of racing
Trevis built cars for American racing, used by different owners and drivers. Offenhauser was the engine, Jim Robbins the entry name in 1960: keeping them separate avoids attributing a single racing operation to the chassis builder. The car that won in 1961 followed the Watson roadsters’ layout very closely.
What remains
A.J. Foyt did indeed win the 1961 Indianapolis 500 in a Trevis, taking his first victory at the circuit. The race was no longer part of the world championship: that win must not be added to the constructor’s world championship record.
It is, however, the episode that makes a history confined to the 1951–1960 appearances incomplete, when Indianapolis followed its own rules while awarding world championship points.