{"id":5455,"date":"2026-05-22T08:57:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T12:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/?p=5455"},"modified":"2026-05-22T08:57:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T12:57:09","slug":"a-second-calling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/22\/a-second-calling\/","title":{"rendered":"A Second Calling"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast<\/em>,\u00a0click here<\/a>

Fans of the Indianapolis \u201c500\u201d have fond memories of the 1969 Memorial Day race.

It was the one and only time that Mario Andretti \u2013 who at age 81 remains a public ambassador for the sport \u2013 was able to take the checkered flag. \u00a0

But there’s another Speedway legend from 1969.\u00a0His name is Jigger Sirois.

His story is very different.\u00a0\u00a0

Jigger\u2019s full name \u2013 Leon Duray Sirois \u2013 is a tribute to Leon Duray, a racing luminary from early in the 20th<\/sup> century. His nickname honors Jigger Johnson, one of the Speedway\u2019s riding mechanics \u2013 those characters from the early days who sat alongside drivers in wide open cockpits during the race. Typically, neither drivers nor mechanics wore seatbelts.

Jigger\u2019s on-track career began in the late 1950\u2019s. He excelled at racing high-powered midgets on small ovals and dirt tracks and would go on to be inducted into the National Midget Racing Hall of Fame. By the late 1960\u2019s he was ready to tackle the \u201c500.\u201d

During that era of competition, the Speedway featured four full days of qualifying.\u00a0No matter how many cars got on the track on the first day, and no matter how many cars didn’t<\/em> get on the track, the fastest would\u00a0claim the coveted pole position – the\u00a0chance to start the race from\u00a0the inside of the front row.\u00a0

On May 17, 1969, it rained almost all day.\u00a0The skies cleared briefly about 4:00 pm.\u00a0By luck of the draw, the\u00a0first car in line to make a qualification attempt was No. 14, driven by the rookie Sirois.\u00a0

In the image above he is removing the “rookie stripes” from the back of his car, the sign that race officials considered him skilled enough (and other drivers considered him safe enough) to take a shot at becoming one of the 33 starters.\u00a0\u00a0

It was Sirois’ dream to race at Indianapolis \u2013 the track where his father had been a mechanic for two \u201c500\u201d winners.\u00a0Since rain was once again closing in on the Speedway, all he had to do was complete four laps and the pole position would be his.

Jigger was coming around the fourth turn on his last lap\u00a0when he saw it.\u00a0His crew was waving a yellow flag.\u00a0

That meant he was “waving off” that qualifying attempt.\u00a0Crew members\u00a0were afraid that even if Sirois was fastest on day one, there might\u00a0be 33 faster qualifiers\u00a0by the end of the month, and he would be bumped from\u00a0the field.

The raindrops began to fall.\u00a0No one else made a qualifying attempt\u00a0that day.\u00a0As it turned out, Sirois’ four-lap average speed would indeed have been good enough to make the race.\u00a0If Jigger\u00a0had just taken the checkered flag \u2013 if his crew hadn\u2019t waved that flag out of a sense of caution \u2013 he would have won the pole position.

Sadly, when he finally had a chance to qualify the following weekend, his engine blew.\u00a0He never did make an Indy \u201c500\u201d field. Sirois retired from racing six years later, having never turned a competitive lap at the greatest racetrack in the world.

One might even say that his struggles have been memorialized. Every May, the most\u00a0hard-luck driver at Indy receives a dubious recognition.\u00a0It’s called the Jigger Award \u2013 granted to the driver most undone by circumstances beyond his or her control.

But there’s much more to the story of Jigger Sirois.

At the age of three he had witnessed a killer tornado churning near his home in Shelby, Indiana.\u00a0He was traumatized by the sight.\u00a0From that day he had struggled to speak without a stutter.\u00a0

His racing days\u00a0behind him, Sirois was introduced to\u00a0therapies that helped him recover his speech.\u00a0Thus began his second career: helping stuttering children find their voices.\u00a0\u00a0

Jigger points out that there are four stages in the stutterer’s life.\u00a0First,\u00a0you’re embarrassed.\u00a0Then you feel ashamed.\u00a0Then you feel inferior.\u00a0Finally, worst of all, you develop a fear of talking. He committed himself to helping kids overcome the fear that left so many of them in silence.

Last month, Jigger celebrated his 91st<\/sup> birthday.\u00a0He remains one of the nation’s most articulate advocates for speech therapy for children.

Seven years ago, as the Speedway approached the 50th<\/sup> anniversary of his near miss at qualifications history, I wrote a Morning Reflection about the events of that rain-soaked day \u2013 and his amazing second calling in life.

Electrons are powerful things. By the end of that day, the reflection had traveled around the country, from inbox to inbox, ultimately ending up in Williamsburg, Virginia, where Jigger lives with his wife Juanita. A few days later he sent me a deeply touching word of thanks \u2013 a handwritten note which I still have in my desk \u2013 expressing gratitude for revealing that his life story has been a deeply fulfilling one after all.

It may be that you once had a dream.\u00a0You’re pretty sure that something or somebody else, maybe a storm cloud or a waving yellow flag, took it away from you.\u00a0\u00a0

But nobody can take away the\u00a0deeper dream that God has always prepared for you \u2013 the one in which, because of your circumstances, you are uniquely qualified to serve.\u00a0\u00a0

This Memorial Day weekend, give someone else the gift of hope.

Through one means or another, help someone else find their voice.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here Fans of the Indianapolis \u201c500\u201d have fond memories of the 1969 Memorial Day race. It was the one and only time that Mario Andretti \u2013 who at age 81 remains a public ambassador for the sport \u2013 was able to take the checkered flag. \u00a0 But there’s another Speedway legend from… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5456,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[422,1118],"class_list":["post-5455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-calling","tag-indy-500"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5455"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5457,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5455\/revisions\/5457"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}