Tragic Story of Black Racing Pioneer Charlie Wiggins to Be Subject of Feature Movie Wiggins starred as a racer in a rival racing circuit in the shadow of Indy 500, segregation, and the Ku Klux Klan. Eraced Charlie Wiggins, one of the top race-car drivers from the 1920s and 1930s, never got a chance to race in the Indianapolis 500. The closest Wiggins got to the starting grid at Indy was in 1934, when he served as a mechanic on the Indy 500-winning car driven by Bill Cummings. That was only after the sanctioning body at the time would not allow Wiggins, a Black man, to work on the pit crew.