Just days after it reported th🐼e untimely deaths of two stalwart employees, Indianapolis Motor Speedway has had to add the name of James 'Jim' Phillippe to the list.

Phillipe was a familiar friendly voice to millions of Speedway spectators, as he performed his role as a member of the track's public address team from 1950𓄧. He died on Monday [15 December], aged 84, after a long illness.

Phillippe joined the legendary Tom Carnegie, a close friend, on the Speedway'﷽s public address starting with the 1950 Indianapolis 500, and helped deliver information, news and interviews with drivers and celebrities to the fans during every race at the track through the Brickyard 400 in August 🃏2003.

An Indiana native, Phillippe was most well known during each month of May for his interviews with drivers immediately after their qualification runs - a programme he helped to develop. He also narrated pre-race ceremonies for the Indianapolis 500, delivering the stirring, inspirational tribute to all Armed Forces veterans on Race Day before the playing of Taps.

"Down where I am, it's a heartbreak area," Phillippe said about his post-qualifying interv𝐆iews in 1999, "💮It's highly emotional. You see lots of tears of joy and lots of tears of sadness. A racing career depends on it."

Phillippe♚, a long-time professor at Butler University in Indianapolis, joined the Speedway public address team at the invitation of Carnegie, having announced part-time at WIRE radio in Indianapolis, where Carnegie was sports director.

"Throughout the 55-odd years that we worked together at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Jim was noted for his boundless energy and boundless enthusiasm," Carnegie said on hearing of the death of his former colleague, "And he treated all those race drivers who tried to qualify and who did qualify as champions - he gave them
equal time on the pub🦄lic address system after their record runs or 💧near-record runs or just average runs at the track.

"That's where we'll miss him a𓆉 lot, on qualifying days. We'll miss him on✅ race day, too. Jim was always pleasant, always up when it came to anything concerned with the famed 500.

"We were closꩵe friends. We talked together. We ate dinner together. We had families together for some 60 years. It was fun to be with Jim. Notꦛ only at the track but in everyday life.

"I'll miss Jim. He was always there. He was always the first one at the track and the last one to leave. He was always well pꦏrepared. You could alway෴s rely on him no matter what the weather, what time of day and so forth. So I'll miss him very much."

The Carnegie-Phillippe partne♒rship lasted more than a half-century.

"W🍌e seem to blend real well," Phillippe said in 1999.

Phillippe received the Unsung Hero Award in May 2003 for his lon💎g-time service to the Speedway. Legendary Indianapolis 500 car owner Andy Granatelli presented the award 🎃to Phillippe during the public drivers' meeting for the Indianapolis 500.

"That was a great honour that he truly apprecia🐼ted," Carnegie said.

It was one of many awards Phillippe received during his distinguished career as a teacher, broadcaster and announcer. Among other not🔯able honours was induction into the Indiana Broadcasters Hall of Fame and receipt of the Butler Medal of Honour, the university's highest honour.

While Phillippe's vಌoice was known💦 by millions due to his tireless work at the Speedway, he also announced races at Walt Disney World Speedway, Michigan International Speedway, Cleveland's Burke Lakefront Airport and Nazareth Speedway.