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: Indianapolis Motor Speedway officials announced the start time for the May 28 Indianapolis 500 has been moved to 1 p.m. local time due to the. state of Indiana switching to Daylight Savings Time this spring.
The race originally was scheduled to start at noon local time. In addition, gates will open at 6 a.m. on race day, one hour later than in past years.
“This starting time change was made because of Indiana’s shift to Daylight Savings Time, which also had an effect on scheduling with our Indianapolis 500 1 p.m. Central, May 28 television partners at ABC Sports,” said Joie Chitwood, IMS president and chief operating officer. “We think this change will have minimal impact on our fans. Sunset will occur one hour later this year due to the time change, which will give us just as much daylight as last year; when the starting time was noon.”
Indiana will adopt Daylight Savings Time for the first time in April after previously staying on Standard Time all year.
Winners: Cory Kruseman fought off Daron Clayton to capture the $10,000 winner’s share in the Feb. 1 O’Reilly Sprint Bandits Tour Topless finale at East Bay Raceway Park’s 30th Winternationals.
Kruseman took command from Bryan Clauson on the fourth lap and spent the final laps fending off the charges of Clayton, who had charged through the field from his 20th starting position.
“I’m just glad I drive for some guys that like to race as much as I do,” said Kruseman, who steered Glenn Crossno’s Downing-powered No. 38 Bullet. “We were happy to get a chance to come down here in Florida, and we look forward to coming back.”
The top point earner from the preliminary programs, Kruseman drew third starting spot, with Clauson and Danny Smith on the front row. .
Clauson took the early lead, with Kruseman riding second. Kruseman pulled even on the third lap and finally took the lead as the pair completed the fourth lap.
Clayton blasted through the field, taking fifth after 15 laps on the third-mile dirt track. He grabbed fourth from Zach Chappell on lap 16 and gained another spot when Clauson was collected in an accident involving Kyle Nicholas and Brandon Petty on lap 22.
Kruseman continued to work the low side masterfully, as Clayton raced past Cottle for second on the 25th round. Clayton was reeling in the leader when the final yellow flag of the race came on lap 31.
Clayton challenged Kruseman repeatedly during the final laps but was unable to pass. Bud Kaeding, Shane Cottle and Zach Chappell rounded out the top five.
40 Years Ago — 1986
News: Championship Auto Racing teams announced that its 1986 series would be worth a record of $15.5 million to contestants.
Prize money will total $8.75 million; the PPG Point fund $1.2 million; Domino’s Pizza A ward $1 million and $550,000 in contingency awards have been posted. To this is added $4 million as the estimated prize fund for the Indianapolis 500 which is conducted by the United State Auto Club, but included in the CART/PPG point series.
Individual purses were established for the 16-CART races on the schedule with $700,000 to be paid at Long Beach, theMeadowlands, theMichigan500; $600,000 at the Portland 200, the new Molson Indy race in Toronto, the Domino’s Pizza 500 at Pocono and the Molson Indy in or near Montreal.
The venue for this event will either be on a new street circuit in Montreal, an oval at nearby airport, or a return to Sanair Super Speedway in St. Pie, officials said.
The Miami Indy Challenge, which closes the season, will be worth $550,000 to competitors. $500,000 purses will be posted for the Budweiser Cleveland Grand Prix, Escort Radar Warning 200 at Mid-Ohio, the Road America 200 at Elkhart Lake, Wis., and the Monterey Grand Prix at Laguna Seca. The Miller American 200 at Milwaukee is to be worth $450,000 and the two 200-mile events at Phoenix, Ariz. will be worth $400,000 each.
Winners: Give Al Holbert, Derek Bell and Al Unser Jr. credit. It took two years, but they finally won the Sun Bank-sponsored, season-opening Daytona 24-Hour Camel GT enduro over the Preston Henn crew that humbled them in the last hours, here, 12 months ago.
In 1985, Holbert, Bell and Unser Jr. looked to be sure winners until electrical problems, with their Porsche Lowenbrau 962, stopped their charge and allowed the Valvoline-backed Henn 962 of A.J. Foyt, Bob Wollek, Thierry Boutsen and AI Unser Sr. to grab the victory in the final hour, forcing the Lowenbrau crew to settle for second.
This year, the roles were reversed, as the Henn 962 held a seemingly invincible lead, with less than 100 laps to go, when Foyt and his Indy 500 partners, Danny Sullivan and Arie Luyendyk, found themselves with throttle problems that forced several hasty pit stops.
That put Holbert, Bell and Unser on the same lap and treated the fans to a brief, but nevertheless exciting, battle between the two cars before Holbert passed Foyt in the final hour to take a lead he would never lose.
At the finish, the Lowenbrau 962 had covered 712 laps, or 2,534.72 miles, at an average of 105.484 mph, both records.
Foyt and friends were just 1:42 back, the closest finish in the history of the 24-Hour af-fair. TJlird place went to the BFGoodrlch ‘962 of Jim Busby, Darin Brassfield, and Formula One ace Derek Warwick, only 10 seconds behind Foyt.
60 Years Ago— 1966
News: Don’t put the Offenhauser in the grave yet. After Jimmy Clark’s scorching success with his Ford-powered Lotus in last year’s Indianapolis 500, railbirds had cast the old reliable Offenhauser engine — used to power Indy cars for years — in racing’s graveyard.
The magnificent 255-cubic-inch Ford power plant not only proved to be as reliable as the “Offy” but hurled race cars around Indiana- polis at a much greater rate of speed which after all is the name of the game.
But Offenhauser impresario Dale Drake discounted all the somber talk about his brainchild and decided to do something about it.
“If you can’t beat ’em, start changing things” Drake told his antagonizers as he hustled off to the drawing board. And off the drawing board Drake had taken the old 255-cubic-inch “Offy” and given it a real face-lifting. He came up with two different Offenhausers — one a conventional-type 250-cubic-inch and the other which has caused much talk among the railbirds was a supercharged 168-cubic·inch version.
There was much discussion about the disadvantages of the super-charged engine especially after a poor debut at the Phoenix 200-miler here last November.
Drake didn’t give up however and it pa1d off Wednesday at Firestone tire tests in Phoenix.
Fred Gerhardt, who is building six special chassis for the 500,
installed the supercharged Offy in his new car and asked Parnelli Jones, the 1963 Indianapolis 500 winner who finished second to Clark in a Lotus-Ford last year, to give it a whirl.
Outfitted with 1966 Indy tires, Firestone engineers turned Jones loose on the one-mile Phoenix oval and he responded by unofficially breaking the world’s one-mile track record with a blazing 122.65 mph run.
Winners: The crowd was down Saturday night at the Oakland Exposition Building due to a hard all-day rain but the races were or the best yet with Mike McGreevy in the Stryker Offy taking the 30-lap main event.
The restart flag came out on the start of the main when Bill Vukovich spun and Tommy Copp and Dee Hileman stalled. On the restart, Mike McGreevy got the jump on pole man, John Leverenz and made it through the first turn the leader, with Levernz, Vukovich, and the previous night winner George Benson right behind him.
Dee Hileman stalled on lap five for a yellow flag with McGreevy opening up a safe lead on the green. Copp spun on lap 11 for a yellow flag with Dick Deis driving over Rick Henderson’s car on the start for another yellow flag. Lap 15 saw Vukovich third, spinning and being hit by Benson for the fifth yellow with rookie Gary Johnson spinning to miss the two stalled cars. Copp got through traffic to take fifth at the yellow from way back.
Dick Atkins moved into second on the green with the yellow out again as Gary Johnson’s car lost a tail pipe. Yellow flag No. 7 came out on lap 17 with a multi-car tangle as Copp, Hileman and Levernz spun. Lap 18 saw another big mixup with Levernz and Deis left parked in the first turn.
On the green, McGreevy, Atkins, Henderson, Don Meacham and Vukovich were in the top five. However, Deis spun on lap 21.
Lap 22 saw Vukovich, Levernz, Rapp and Benson pile up in the second turn.
After two more yellow flags, McGreevy won his first main event over Atkins, Henderson, Meacham and Deis.
