In the 1970s when we lived in Painted Hills in Spokane Valley, I met Jerry Sneva through one of our neighbors. I didn’t know him well, we were really simply acquaintances, but I followed the local Sneva family’s racing achievements. 

All the Sneva brothers followed their dad, Ed, into racing. But only one, Tom, had lasting high-level success. He was the first driver to qualify at over 200 mph at the Indianapolis 500 and won the Indy car championship in both 1977 and 1978 but his only Indy 500 win was in 1983.

Jerry Sneva was also a good race car driver and won Rookie of the Year at the Indianapolis 500 in 1977 in a less than top-tier competitive car. 

In 1978 I was working for Spokane Steel Foundry which had a sister company next door that made large centrifugal impact rock crushing machines for the aggregate industry. At that time the company was on an aggressive marketing campaign across the United States and had hired a local rather quirky guy to run the promotion. For more visibility I suppose, he had the company paint the crushing machines bright orange so the advertisements and exhibits at trade shows would stand out.

This is where this saga comes together. Jerry Sneva wanted to race in the Indy 500 again in 1978 but he was having trouble finding one or more sponsors and a car to drive. Even his brother Tom didn’t appear to be helping him. I don’t have any idea why Jerry wasn’t having any success. Then one day I got one of my bright ideas.

Spokane Crusher Manufacturing could sponsor Jerry and with that money he could purchase his way into driving for a team on the Indy Circuit including the Indy 500.

I broached the subject with John Tenold, the company President, and he agreed to meet with Jerry. Unfortunately, I guess the cost was more than John wanted to incur and the sponsorship never happened. 

I thought it would be great to see a bright orange Indy car with the logo “Spokane Crusher” being driven by a local driver in the 1978 Indy 500, but unfortunately, it never happened and Jerry never drove in an Indy race again.

There was an interesting end to the quirky person’s advertising contract. As a joke and him having fun, he photographed an attractive female friend or hired model to pose nude on and in the crusher. Somehow John Tenold found out about the pictures and that was the end of that person’s contract and we never saw him again.

Ken Kaiyala
2-12-2025