Editor’s Note: In a nod to our 91 years of history, each week SPEED SPORT will look back at the top stories from 20, 40 and 60 years ago as told in the pages of National Speed Sport News.
20 Years Ago — 2006
News: The American Le Mans Series took another step forward when Honda Motor Company’s Acura division announced it will enter the championship’s LMP2 division starting at Sebring in 2007.
For the ALMS-which has suffered during the past several seasons with not only low car counts but also a lack of new prototypes, both in the LMP1 and LMP2 categories — the addition of a factory-backed effort from Honda, along with the Roger Penske-run Porsche RS Spyders and the winning Sebring Audi RIO turbo diesel, has brought new life to the Don Panoz-owned tour.
Unlike the Porsche LMP2 program, however, which has been clearly defined from the start with its Weissach in-house-designed chassis and engine, the Acura project will be a partnership between the Japanese-owned company and two privateer teams to be chosen this summer. They will help develop the Honda Performance Development-designed, 3.4-liter, double overhead-cam V-8 throughout 2007 into a customer friendly package.
Toward that end, HPD – American Honda’s motorsport arm here – will use both French-built Courage and English Lola-constructed chassis as part of the package they hope to perfect during next year.
Questioned about the path chosen to pursue the Acura division’s racing goals, HPD head Robert Clarke said it was a matter of doing things one step at a time.
“We need to gain experience, so we’ve taken a conservative approach,” Clarke said.
While Honda bas been represented in the IRL and Champ Car with turbocharged and non-turbocharged V-8s for many years, the new LMP2 powerplant is the first created by HPD on U.S. soil for racing purposes only, according to Clarke. He added that the proprietary chassis have been chosen because HPD lacks any experience at this point in the design and construction of such vehicles themselves.
Winners: Danny Lasoski raced from outside the front row to win Saturday night’s National Sprint Tour event at Outlaw Motor Speedway.
Lasoski thought he was in trouble when Shane Stewart chose to start on the bottom by virtue of his dash victory.
”But I was able to run wide open at the top,” Lasoski said.
Lasoski took the lead exiting turn two and led all 30 laps en route to his first NST triumph in Dennis Roth’s No. 83 sprinter.
Stewart ran second until flipping on lap 23. “Something broke in the steering,” Stewart said.
Point-leader Tim Kaeding held off teammate and car-owner Steve Kinser for second. Jason Sides and Jason Solwold rounded out the top five.
Paul McMahan set a track record in qualifying with a 14.988-second lap of the three-eighths-mile dirt track.
40 Years Ago — 1986
News: Dallas businessman Buddy Boren said Thursday he had received a signed contract from the City of Dallas to stage The Spirit of Dallas Grand Prix CART/ PPG Indy Car World Series race on June 21, 1987.
The three-day event would include support events and a pro-celebrity race, Boren said.
Boren’s partners in the venture are Jody Tallal, also of Dallas, and Long Beach Grand Prix founder Chris Pook of California.
The pact calls for the race to be run on a 1.7-mile street circuit around Reunion Arena. Boren said three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Johnny Rutherford has agreed to act as spokesman for the race.
Boren then said, ” All we have to do now is go back to CART with our proposal. I see no problems. They have wanted to come to Dallas for several years, and we have had a lot of talks with them. AH that was holding us up was a contract with the city.”
If CART agrees to the date, it will give the Indy Car teams five races in six weeks, starting with the Milwaukee fixture. Two weeks later, Portland is on the schedule, which would then be followed by Dallas, the Meadowlands and Cleveland, all at one-week intervals.
Winners: Michael Andrett1, relentlessly held back Al Unser, Jr. in a battle of second-generation drivers, scored his first Indy Car victory Sunday in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach before a record Indy car crowd estimated at 77,500 in the second round of the PPG Indy Car World Series.
Andretti posted a margin of victory of .38 of a second over “Little Al,” who dogged him throughout the last third of the 95-lap race after the final pit stop.
Andretti came from the seventh starting spot in the Kraco-STP-Lean Machine March to best Unser Jr.’s Domino’s Pizza “Hot One” Lola at an average speed of 80.965 miles an hour.
Yet another second-generation driver, Geoff Brabham, was third in the Valvoline Spirit, the only other car on the lead lap.
Tom Sneva was fourth in the Skoal Bandit March, a lap down after running out of fuel on the final circuit.
“Where we got our advantage was on the first pit stop under caution,” Michael Andrettl said. “I want to thank chief mechanic Barry Green for that.”
60 Years Ago— 1966
News: The Ford Motor Co., whose product dominated events on the NASCAR Grand National circuit the Iast three years, has pulled out of racing-for the 1966 season, anyway.
Henry Ford ll made the dramatic announcement late Friday. contending recently adopted NASCAR-USAC rule concerning the 427 cubic-inch single overhead cam engine “are unfair.”
That the pullout of all factory-backed (and subsidized) cars on the NASCAR and USAC circuits was no bluff was obvious within 24 hours when Ford drivers signed to compete in the 250-mile NASCAR race at North Wilkesboro, N. C., and the 150-mile USAC late model race at Langhorne, Pa., withdrew their entries.
While terming the rule selling new weight limits for the huge Ford engine was termed “unfair” by Ford, the auto magnate said he had made no decision as lo Ford’s racing plans for the 1967 season, thus leaving the door open for a possible compromise.
A last-minute attempt at such a compromise was stifled Saturday at Charlotte when some 20 promoters or the major tracks in the South met with NASCAR prexy Bill France.
France, however, as has USAC competition director Henry Banks, refused to back down on the ruling which okayed the new engine but placed a 10.36-pound-per-cubic inch displacement weight requirement on cars thusly equipped. This rule would force the OHIC-equipped Ford
Galaxies to carry more than 427 pounds in dead weight at all events.
France, incidentally. said that meeting in Charlotte was “very cordial. Most of the time we discussed the 1967 rules, trying to set up regulations that would satisfy everyone including the independents.”
He later added “we hope to have the 1967 rules ready for publication as soon as possible.”
The latest withdrawal by a major car manufacturer leaves racing in the same position as last year when Chrysler dropped out over a dispute over its hemi-head engine.
Ford’s disagreement with NASCAR and the U. S. Auto Club is over its single overhead cam engine and the weight restriction the two racing organizations decreed on April 6 when the new rules were announced.
Winners: Veteran Jim Paschal breezed to his first Grand National stock car victory in nearly two years after Richard Petty blew an engine with 53 laps left in the 250-mile Gwyn Staley Memorial at North Wilkesboro Speedway.
Paschal led 319 of the 400 laps in a 1966 Plymouth and he and Petty, in a 1965 Plymouth, were the only drivers to lead.
The victory, Paschal’s first since he won the 1964 World 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, was worth, $14,900.
G.C. Spencer finished second in a 1965 Plymouth, three laps back for $2,225. David Pearson was third in a 1966 Dodge Charger for $1,350; Wendell Scott was fourth in a 1965 Ford for $825 and Henley Gray was fifth in a 1964 Ford for $625.
Only 8,000 saw the race at the five-eighths-mile speedway. Promoters attributed the relatively small turnout to the absence of the factory-backed Fords.
