Leon "Jigger" Sirois

Leon Duray Sirois was born on 16 April 1935 in Shelby, Indiana, into a family already woven into Indianapolis Motor Speedway culture. His father, Earl "Frenchy" Sirois, balanced local business life (Farmall implements and later a hardware store with the family) with work as a championship-caliber Indy mechanic. Frenchy later joined George Salih's crew on the Belond laydown roadster that won the Indianapolis 500 with Sam Hanks in 1957 and Jimmy Bryan in 1958, and earlier work was tied to Lee Wallard's winning effort.

Leon was named for Leon Duray, a celebrated early Indy and board-track driver whose legal name was George Stewart. The household nickname "Jigger" referenced John "Jigger" Johnson, a family friend and riding mechanic on Indy winners in 1931 and 1937, and was also used by an older sister when Leon was a baby. Growing up near the Calumet Region, he absorbed racing from garage talk and May trips to Indianapolis long before he sat in a race car.

Sirois graduated from Lowell High School in Indiana. Between race weekends he took practical jobs that paid the bills: truck driver, construction worker, crane operator, and later pipe fitter and welder. After retiring from competition he worked for Amoco Oil Company in Virginia. The blue-collar path shaped how he talked about Indianapolis. In a 1989 Los Angeles Times interview he said many of his workmates would love one lap at Indy or Daytona, and that he felt fortunate simply to have pulled onto the Speedway to qualify.

Sirois began racing around 1956 to 1957 in stock cars and jalopies at Illiana Motor Speedway in Schererville, then moved into midgets with United Midget Auto Racing Association and related Midwestern circuits, including Joliet Memorial Stadium, O'Hare Stadium, and Raceway Park. In 1961, with Larry White's No. 82, he won the UARA midget title, taking eight features from forty-nine starts and finishing nearly every race he entered that season.

He advanced to USAC National Midget competition in 1962. Early that year he nearly won the Night Before the 500 midget race at Indianapolis Raceway Park before a late tire failure left him sixth, a performance that put him in front of much of the Indy community. Months later a violent crash at Springfield, Illinois, left him with serious head injuries, burns, a broken collarbone and a long rehabilitation. He returned to racing the following season and continued to win features, including documented USAC midget success such as a win at Joliet Memorial Stadium on 14 August 1968. He was inducted into the National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame in 2013.

Sirois reached USAC Championship Cars in the late 1960s. In 1968 he made four starts and ran near the front at Michigan before transmission failure. In 1969 he finished fifth at Phoenix, his career-best Indy-car result, and earned a ride in Myron Caves' No. 14 Quaker State Oil Gerhardt-Offy for the Indianapolis 500.

On Pole Day, 17 May 1969, after drawing first in the qualifying order and waiting out rain, he completed three laps near 161 to 162 mph. Owner Myron Caves waved off the fourth lap, worried the average would not survive bumping. Rain returned; no one else completed an attempt that weekend. Had the run stood, Sirois would have sat on the provisional pole and, in the final analysis, his speed would have made the 33-car field. Later attempts failed, including an engine failure on Bump Day. He returned to Indy through 1975 without qualifying, including a late bump in 1974 and a practice crash on opening day in 1975. Outside May he led early at DuQuoin in 1972 in a turbine Silver Crown car before finishing third. He retired from racing in the late 1970s.

Sirois married Juanita and relocated from Indiana to the Yorktown and Williamsburg area of Virginia, describing the move in racing language as reaching Victory Lane compared with earlier struggles. He worked as a welder and pipe fitter after racing.

A tornado scare near Shelby when he was three left him with a lifelong stutter. He managed public speaking around the garage as best he could for decades. Around age 65 he sought professional therapy, learned techniques that gave him control of his speech, and turned that hard-won skill into advocacy for children who stutter. Writers and friends later described a second calling: helping young people move past embarrassment, shame, and fear of talking.

Sirois became known as much for temperament as for speed. After the 1969 wave-off he declined to blame Caves, noting that the owner had tens of thousands of dollars in the car while he had little more than driving shoes at risk. "I don't believe in being bitter," he said in later profiles. "A lot of people have a lot worse things happen to them." He told Shav Glick in 1989 that memories of simply qualifying for the 500 were priceless, and that he still felt like a Hoosier at heart around race time even after moving to Virginia.

The 1969 episode helped push USAC toward clearer Pole Day weather rules. From 1971, cars in the original qualifying draw were guaranteed a chance in the pole round even if rain stretched the session. Writers and historians, including Donald Davidson on The Talk of Gasoline Alley, retold the story so often it became Speedway folklore.

The American Auto Racing Writers and Broadcasters Association created the Jigger Award in 1969 for unusual or hard-luck moments during May at Indianapolis. Sirois was the first honoree and later a familiar presenter at AARWBA breakfasts. The perpetual trophy, a whiskey jigger on a plaque, lived for years at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum. The award was quietly retired after roughly 2018, but the nickname and the lesson of grace under misfortune remain part of Indy culture.

Sirois won the 1961 UARA midget championship and multiple track titles in Midwestern midget racing. He was the inaugural Jigger Award recipient in 1969 and namesake of that AARWBA hard-luck honour. In 2013 he was inducted into the National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame.

His 1969 near-miss has been recounted in the Los Angeles Times, Indianapolis papers, SPEED SPORT, Doctorindy.com histories of the Jigger Award, and reflective essays such as Glenn McDonald's "A Second Calling." Video features include Racing Through History's "The Hard Luck Story of Jigger Sirois" and clips of historian Donald Davidson explaining both the qualifying saga and how Leon Duray Sirois received his given name and nickname.

Leon Duray "Jigger" Sirois died on 23 September 2026 at the age of 91. SPEED SPORT reported that he had battled health issues in recent years and that he was survived by his wife, Juanita. Obituaries framed him as a midget racing champion, an Indy hard-luck legend, and an advocate who found his voice later in life.