Editor’s Note: In a nod to our 91 years of history, each week SPEED SPORT will look back at the top stories from 15, 30 and 60 years ago as told in the pages of National Speed Sport News.
15 Years Ago — 2010
News: Impact! Racing has been sold to MasterCraft Safety.
The announcement was made Dec. 1 at the International Motorsports Industry Show in Indianapolis. Founded by safety pioneer Bill Simpson, the brand will now be known as Impact! Racing by MasterCraft Safety. It will be managed by MasterCraft Safety.
“I am honored that Bill has entrusted me to take his company and safety innovations to the next level under the MasterCraft Safety name,” said MasterCraft Safety CEO Robbie Pierce. “As a result of the fusion of our companies, we have united the best of both worlds by bringing motorsports such as NHRA and NASCAR together with desert and short-course off-road racing. With Bill staying on as an ambassador and consultant for Impact! Racing by MasterCraft Safety, we will bring racing to a new audience and we hope to convert loyal fans and advocates.”
As the leading manufacturer of performance off-road suspension seating and other vehicle safety equipment for more than 30 years, MasterCraft Safety has aspired to broaden its product offering and now it has with the addition of Impact! Racing’s footwear. gloves and helmet product lines.
Sales, operations and manufacturing of the American-made Impact Racing products will continue at its Brownsburg, Ind., facility.
“I have loved every moment with this company,” said an emotional Bill Simpson, founder of Impact! Racing. “It’s no secret that I’m getting older. It’s time for me to pass the torch to someone that I know, trust and respect. I knew in my heart that I wanted someone who was as passionate and involved in racing and safety as I have been throughout my career. I can think of no one better than Robbie.”
Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard and racing driver P.J. Jones were among those on hand for the announcement.
“I went to my first NASCAR race this year and I realized these guys are just like us, but they had nicer motorhomes,” Pierce joked during the press conference.
The sale comes at the end of year where Impact! Racing was involved in a much-publicized controversy with the SFI Foundation regarding the certification of some of its products. The dispute was later settled.
Winners: Johanna Long may just be getting her feet wet in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series but she’s on top of the late-model world after winning the 43rd annual Snowball Derby Sunday at Five Flags Speedway.
Long survived a wild finish to win the prestigious short-track event at her home track and in doing so joined 1994 race winner Tammy Jo Kirk as the only female Snowball Derby champions.
“This is absolutely amazing. I can’t believe I won it,” said Long, who plans to compete for the truck series rookie of the year in 2011 after running seven races in 2010. “Running the truck races this year has helped me out a lot, but to come back home and win this race is just so amazing.”
The first 100 laps of the scheduled 300 on the half-mile asphalt oval ran mostly clean with just two cautions slowing the pace. But the final two-thirds of the race was a hectic struggle that included 14 cautions and fittingly ended with the speedway’s unique version of overtime.
Bubba Pollard and Donnie Wilson were battling for the lead on lap 288 when contact between the two sent Pollard spinning. The caution brought a difficult decision for drivers and crews on whether to pit for fresh tires or stay out and maintain track position.
Wilson, along with four other drivers, stayed out. Long was second off pit road and restarted seventh on lap 292.
Chase Elliott, who won the Snowflake 100 for pro late models Saturday night, ran second on the restart with Landon Cassill third. Cassill pulled alongside Elliott entering turn one and the two made contact. Elliott spun and crashed, ending his chances of a sweep.
The race reached the 300-lap mark under the caution flag, but the race was extended because speedway rules require at least five green-flag laps to be completed at the end of the race. The laps do not have to be consecutive. The race went back green with 312laps complete.
but Mason Mingus and Casey Roderick, who were running fourth and fifth respectively, tangled to bring a caution before a lap was complete. The wreck moved Long up to fourth.
While Cassill looked under Wilson for the lead, Long made her way around Casey Smith for third. Cassill completed the pass of Wilson one lap later as Long also went by Wilson for second.
Long got her nose under Cassill in turn two the following lap and contact between the two drivers sent Cassill spinning while Long took the lead.
Cassill made a 360-degree spin and continued in fourth, but a chain reaction behind Cassill ended with Pollard and David Stremme crashing.
With two laps remaining, Long led Wilson on the restart. Long pulled away from Wilson and cruised to the finish, which officially came on lap 328.
Wilson settled for the runner-up finish, while Scott Hantz took advantage of all the attrition and finished third.
Cassill held on to finish fourth with Dennis Schoenfeld filling the top five.
30 Years Ago — 1995
News: The long-awaited entry list for the inaugural Indy Racing League event has been released, and one major hurdle detractors of the organization said couldn’t be cleared has been scaled with ease.
Forty-one cars were officially entered for the Jan. 27, 1996 Indy 200 at Walt Disney World Speedway near Orlando, and the tentative list shows 18 drivers assigned cars. The other 23 cars are backups or team cars with no drivers listed.
Earlier in the week, IndyCar published its entry list, showing 31 cars with three former Indy 500 winners, the new Toyota-engined cars of Dan Gurney and an assortment of prominent rookies.
Topping the IRL entry list is 1990 Indianapolis 500 winner Arie Luyendyk, who will pilot a 1995 Reynard Ford Cosworth for Jonathan Byrd/Leberle-Treadway Racing.
Former Indy 500 polesitters Scott Brayton and Roberto Guerrero were also entered, Brayton in one of John Menard’s potent 1995 Lola Menards, and Guerrero in one of Pagan Racing’s 1994 Reynard Ford Cosworths. Eddie Cheever, a front-row starter at Indianapolis, will partner Brayton at Menard. Formula One stalwart Michele Alboreto was named to one of Scandia/Simon Racing’s 1995 Lola Fords along with Chilean star Eliseo Salazar.
Promising Toyota Atlantic graduate Richie Hearn was named to a 1995 Reynard Ford owned by John Della Penna.
Supermodified sizzler Davey Hamilton will pilot one of the four Lola Ford Cosworths entered by team owner A.J. Foyt, while Stephan Gregoire will drive one of Ron Hemelgarn’s 1995 Reynard Fords.
Hemelgarn has two more cars entered, and Buddy Lazier is one of those mentioned for a second car.
Indy 500 veteran Johnny Parsons was assigned a 1994 Lola Menard for Blueprint Racing, and Indy Lights grad Buzz Calkins will debut in a 1995 Reynard Ford for his Lights team, Bradley Motorsports.
Sports car ace Johnny O’Connell will drive a 1995 Reynard Ford for legendary IMSA team owner Clayton Cunningham. ·
Others entered include perennial American IndyCar Series contender Bill Tempero, rookie Stan Wattles, Rick DeLorto, Butch Brickell, Tony Turco and Jim Buick.
Winners: Ron Hornaday’s wish became reality Sunday, and so, too, will The Christmas wish of a local child.
The fan favorite here won the NASCAR Featherlite Southwest Tour 150 at Tucson Raceway Park in a nationally televised race, the second in the Winter Heat Series.
He earned $4,125 and contributed half to charity.
Hornaday, who has been successful here, wished to give something back to the community that has embraced him. He made a deal to donate half his earnings to the Central & Southern Arizona Make-A-Wish Foundation.
“They’ve been great to me,” said of the fans in his adopted hometown. “We’re going to give Liz McCusker (southern division manager of Make-A-Wish Foundation) a check right now and hopefully make a kid happy for Christmas,” he added after receiving his prize money and trophy.
Hornaday’s successful run started in the trials. He averaged 93.168 mph around the three-eighths-mile banked paved course in a Chevrolet Monte Carlo owned by Dale Earnhardt to qualify fastest. Hornaday started eighth in the inversion.
Sean Monroe towed Hornaday with him when he snatched the lead from Kevin Harvick, the tour’s top rookie, on the fourth lap. A subsequent caution period gave Hornaday the opportunity to drive by Monroe and go ahead to stay.
His bid to remain in front was constantly challenged, first by Monroe, who stayed with him to the 75th-lap intermission.
When they returned to racing, 1995 Tour champion Lance Hooper charged past Monroe and put the heat on the leader.
But, he couldn’t make a pass after closing to within a length on the 85th circuit. Hornaday then pulled away, maintaining a steady four-to-five-length lead on Hooper and Monroe who were waging wheel-to-wheel combat for second.
Hornaday’s advantage had dwindled to feet when Hooper spun with three laps to go, and dropped to fifth. The hot pace also took its toll on Monroe who dropped to fourth behind runner-up Rick Crawford and Craig Raudman.
60 Years Ago— 1965
News: The Ford Motor Company will sit out the early season stock car· races at Riverside, Calif., and Daytona Beach. Fla., Ford officials announced over the weekend.
Ford’s action came as a result or an earlier decision by NASCAR and USAC that Ford’s 427 cubic-inch single overhead cam engine would be outlawed from race tracks in 1966.
The bombshell was dropped on Ford by NASCAR and USAC Friday when Bill France of Daytona Beach, Fla., president of NASCAR and Henry Banks of Indianapolis, Director of Competition for USAC, made the joint announcement.
Donald Frey, general manager of the Ford Division, Ford Motor Company, announced last Monday that the company would race cars in USAC and NASCAR using the powerful 427-inch overhead cam engine.
The announcement by France and Banks stated that their action had “full approval” of the Automobile Competition Committee for the U.S., FIA, world governing body of autosport.
“We also took it up with the promoters of major speedways around the country — Darlington, Charlotte, Atlanta, Rockingham, Martinsville — and their reaction was that we should proceed with the action,” France told this newspaper. The annual promoters meeting of NASCAR was held in Daytona Beach Thursday.
France sold the engine had been approved by NASCAR for competition in its drag division, but added: “The V-8-overhead cam engine introduced by Ford this week is at this time strictly a racing engine and is not representative of a typical stock car engine. It will be looked upon as an experimental engine for 1966 and will be reviewed for eligibility in the 1967 season.”
Banks said, “In reaching this bilateral agreement, we are simply following our rules which state the engine must be representative or volume production and readily available to the public.”
Winners: Jackie Evans won the season finale at Hollywood (Fla.) Speedway Saturday night, beating out Dave Scarborough and Marty Handshaw in the late model modified headliner.
Shorty Mills took the limited sportsman main, leading the track champion in the division, Buck Gibbs, and Curly Curtis under the checkered flag.
At this writing, Gibbs is the unofficial limited sportsman champ, with Teddy LaFleur the runner-up. LaFluer became a father Friday night. He has not had his regular sedan for the past six weeks and has been wheeling the Gordon deuce.
The LaFluers, Teddy and George, will have a new couple ready for the 1966 opener on Jan. 8.
The 1966 opener will mark the return of the supermodified and sportsman cars at Hollywood Speedway.
