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 Cleveland Grand Prix has been a fixture on the Champ Car World Series schedule since 1982, and thanks to new ownership its future has been secured for the next five years.
Mi-Jack Productions, owned by brothers Mike, Jack, Bill and Dan OIAMP CAR Lanigan, snapped up the rights to the Cleveland race and will also serve as promoters for a revamped Houston Grand Prix. U.S. Bank has extended its 10-year involvement in the Cleveland race and continues as the event’s presenting sponsor.
“We are extremely excited to take ownership of the Grand Prix of Cleveland Presented by U.S. Bank,” stated Mi-Jack Promotions Chairman and CEO Mike Lanigan. “This event has a tremendous history in Northeast Ohio and is one of the most important races in the Champ Car World Series. Our vision is to carry on the great traditions of the past 25 years while introducing a number of new innovations to make the event even better for the fans.”
Plans to boost attendance include lower ticket prices and a focus on the 25-year history of the unique event, which is run at Burke Lakefront Airport on the shore of Lake Erie.
Invitations have been extended to all past winners of the Cleveland race, and (in a practice pioneered by the successful Australian Champ Car event)’ grandstands will be named after Cleveland’s multiple champions — Danny Sullivan, Alex Zanardi, Al Unser Jr., Emerson Fittipaldi, Paul Tracy and Sebastien Bourdais.
“I am honored that the Grand Prix of Cleveland would recognize my accomplishments and am proud to be linked with an event that has meant so much to the series,” commented
Zanardi. “I will never forget the times I raced in Cleveland and will certainly never forget my 1997 victory there, which ranks among my finest.”
The Lanigan brothers’s primary business, heavy equipment manufacturer Mi-Jack Products, employs more than 200 people in the greater Cleveland area.
Winners: Chad Kemenah held off Donny Schatz to capture the season opener for the World of Outlaws Sprint Series Thursday night at Volusia Speedway Park.
Kemenah, who won the past four All Star Circuit of Champions titles, led all 25 laps at the wheel of his Underground Utilities, Inc. Eagle with Kistler power.
“We were pretty good, and that’s all because of my crew,” said Kemenah, who finished second to Schatz in Wednesday’s All Star event at Volusia. “Wednesday night Donny got by me at the end. and I was trying not to let that happen again. These guys are just great to race with. It makes it really, really fun. We’re off to a great start, but we’ll keep a level head, too.”
Despite an accomplished career, Kemenah knew competing with the Outlaws would be a challenge.
“It’s kind of a make-believe story to think that.” he said about expectations of winning right away. “No doubt about it, my starting spot helped, but you still have to be fast enough to stay there. I guess it’s just the best way to get started.”
Schatz worked his way through the field to finish second, with Joey Saldana, Chad Layton and Brian Brown rounding out the top five.
For Schatz, who posted eight main event victories in 2005, to grab the runner-up position, he had to recover from a tough qualifying session.
“We kind of dug ourselves out of a hole and came up smelling like roses after qualifying loth and pulling a zero invert,” said Schatz. “It was a decent finish.”
40 Years Ago — 1986
News: For stock car racing, the age of aerodynamics began in 1969 with the arrival of the Plymouth Super Birds, Dodge Daytonas, Ford Talladegas and Mercury Cyclones.
Those sleek; exotic cars were built in Detroit strictly for racing. When enough was enough, NASCAR kayoed them in 1971 by handicapping the engines and body designs.
The sport is now closer to those years than any time since, and aerodynamics will probably play a bigger role in Sunday’s Daytona 500 than any time in history.
Every brand of car in the field has been designed and built with stock car racing in mind.
What this means, perhaps, is that the best mechanical knowledge — more than driving ability-will lead to Victory Circle at the conclusion of the 500.
The new fastback designs of the General Motors products with the sloping rear windows has teams concerned with the proper balance of their race cars.
A year ago, the aerodynamics of the GM cars was such that the air flowed over the top of the cars, just catching a part of the rear spoiler. But now the air flows across the top and dams up in front of the rear spoiler, causing much greater downforce on the rear wheels.
Previously, drivers have complained of their cars being loose in the days leading up to the 500, meaning that the rear of the car wants to come around in the turns. But in last Sunday’s Busch Clash arid in qualifying, the talk was of cars pushing, meaning the front of the car doesn’t want to go left in the turns.
All agree, however, they had rather work with a car pushing than one that is loose.
The GM products were generally using 300-pound rear springs a year ago. This year, some will be using up to 600-pound springs on the rear to counter the air force on the rear wheels.: The Ford Thunderbirds went through this matter a year ago, and in this year’s 500 will be using 400 to 500-pound rear springs.
Winners: The third engine proved a charm for 36-year-old Grant Adcox in winning the wild and wooly ARCA Permatex Super Car Series 200, Sunday, here at Daytona lnt’l Speedway.
Adcox led the last 23 laps of the 80-lap event, which was marred by a last-lap crash that sent 27-year-old driver Randy Baker to Halifax General Hospital after his car rolled and flipped five times on the backstretch.
He is the son of Buck Baker, retired NASCAR driver, and the half-brother of current NASCAR star Buddy Baker.
The yellow flag was already out, when that accident happened, because of a spin by Howard Rose on the tri-oval portion of 2.5-mile speedway.
Adcox had blown two engines in practice for the ARCA Permatex Challenge Series event.
He said he got in a total of only seven laps of practice with those powerplants.
But the third engine, which had never been on the track until Sunday, performed faultlessly. Adcox had a clear edge in power over the rest of the field.
He said his only real problem was a serious pushing (understeer) condition during the last 10 laps because he failed to change rightside tires on his final pit stop after 47 laps.
Driving the H.G. Adcox Chevrolet, he was leading by nearly a straightaway over runner-up Ralph Jones when the yellow flag came out for Rose’s spin.
Adcox said he was going through the third turn on the way to the checkered flag when the Baker accident happened behind him.
“I think it’s the only time in my career I wasn’t around where any trouble happened,” he said.
60 Years Ago— 1966
News: The addition of a new track, Pennsylvania’s Pocono Int’l Raceway, the dropping of races at Trenton, N.J., and Milwaukee, Wis., tracks, and the lengthening of the Atlanta race to 300 miles were the major changes in the 1966 schedule of the United States Auto Club national championship races released this week.
New rulings, which limit tracks to only two races, eliminated the annual 15-miler at Trenton, and the 150-mile race at Milwaukee, which was run for the first time last year.
The season opens at Phoenix Raceway on March 20 and concludes at the same one-mile track on Nov. 20.
Winners: Jerry Richert, the defending IMCA champion, won his second Florida State Fair sprint car feature Sunday but it was not easy.
The final two laps of the race, Gus Linder was bumping the champion on the backstretch and jabbing at him from the inside and the outside on the turns.
Don Hewitt passed Bill Puterbaugh on the next to last lap to take second and Puterbaugh spun himself right back to ninth place in a whirligig on the last turn of the last lap.
Richert brushed off the bumping incident when questioned in the winner’s circle after the race.
“He tapped me a little bit,” Puterbaugh said. “I didn’t have any trouble. The car was working a little worse at the end of the race than at the start. And those caution flags hurt me. I’d build up a lead and then lose it under the caution.”
Linder turned almost the entire grandstand into his cheering section as he worked his way up from 14th place in the 16-car starting field. He put on a show in the middle laps with Gordon Woolley, another hard driver.
Linder finished second, with Hewitt, Jerry Blundy and Rollie Beale completing the top five.
