: We are still not certain about the place of these watches in
: Heuer history!!

: We have no evidence (or even serious suggestions) that they were
: given as prizes to the racers or the teams . . .

Since I work for the Speedway and am good friends with Donald-Davidson, the longtime Speedway historian and with the woman who has run the gift shop for years I have asked a lot of questions and tried to follow up a lot of leads on the origins of these watches.

I can say with almost absolute certainty, as Jeff said, that the Speedway never gave these watches out as prizes. I can also say that nobody remembers selling these or the Wings and Wheels Carreras in the gift Shop but they do remember selling the cheap little Wings and Wheels Heuer stop watches. They will not say that they didn't sell the Carrera or Autavia watches in the gift shop but they don't remember selling any watches that expensive. The woman who ran the gift shop did speculate that Tony Hulman who owned and whose family still owns the Speedway bought these watches to give away.Now we know that Tony Hulman did, in fact, give these watches to friends.

JohnCote