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 first casualty of the battle for supremacy in sprint-car racing is the Mid- American Sprint Series.
Founded by Joe Darmofal and Scott Benic prior to the 2004 season, the 410 winged series, which raced primarily in the three-state region of Indiana, Ohio and Michigan, has suspended operation for at least the this season.
“I call it specialitis,” Darmofal told National Speed Sport News by phone. “There are 21 National
Sprint Tour and World of Outlaws races scheduled in a tri-state area for next season and we couldn’t come up with the number of dates we needed to make it viable for the teams, promoters and sponsors.”
Darmofal said that in order to grow, MASS needed more dates. Since the creation of the NST to rival the World of Outlaws, the two sanctioning bodies have been gobbling up dates at tracks where the World of Outlaws have seldom raced in the past.
“Up until three years ago, the Outlaws raced at only one track in Ohio — Eldora,” Darmofal said.
“Now there are 21 and some more to be announced, and that precluded us from getting to where we needed to be.
“Scott and I decided we shouldn’t dissolve the corporation, but wait it out a year. We are still an Indiana LLC corporation and we will wait it out and monitor the situation and revisit the potential for this mid-level series in the fall of this year. It is a business decision, not a personal one. We don’t want to throw in the towel.”
Darmofal and Benic hope there will be room for their series, which averaged 32 cars per event during its two years of operation.
“After these tracks are done experimenting with $90,000 to $100,000 events, there may be room to relaunch this thing,” Dannofal said.
Winners: Terry McCarl scored a $10,000 payday and earned the title of East Bay Raceway Park’s King of the 360s by winning Saturday’s Ronald Laney Memorial.
McCarl passed early leader Greg Wilson on the ninth lap of the third-mile oval and held him off to put Mark Burch’s No. 1m WoltWeld in victory lane.
“I’ve won a few races here at East Bay before, but never on the final night, so this is pretty big,” McCarl said. “We tried a couple of different things in our hot-lap session and were a little bit off. We changed it after that, and the car was great It was easy to drive.”
With the top six point earners from Thursday and Friday’s preliminary action locked into Saturday’s finale, the front three rows of the 24-car feature sanctioned by the American Sprint cars on Tour were determined by a draw. Wilson drew the pole, while
High-point man McCarl drew outside the front row.
Wilson outgunned McCarl for the lead, but McCarl wasted little time trying to get the top spot. Using the high line, McCarl pulled alongside Wilson entering turn one on the fifth lap. With the pair racing wheel to wheel down the backstretch, the red flag waved when Travis Rilat took a wild flip.
With the final 36 circuits contested in non-stop fashion, McCarl quickly went to work on Wilson. McCarl and Wilson diced for the point for several laps before McCarl gained the advantage.
Lapped traffic came into play two laps later, and Wilson began to lose ground to McCarl. By the 20th round, Wilson began catching McCarl but never got close enough to pass.
“Greg’s a good racer, and I knew he wouldn’t give up,” McCarl said. “I thought I had him once, but then the red flag came out. We were able to get back by him after we restarted and lucky enough to hold him off the rest of the way.”
After starting fifth, Jason Sides moved up to finish third for the third consecutive night.
40 Years Ago — 1986
News: The Dallas City Council last week unanimously approved a contract between the Spirit of Dallas Grand Prix and the City of Dallas granting exclusive rights to stage an Indy Car race through the streets around Reunion Arena starting in 1987.
The contract term is seven years with a three-year renewal option.
The Spirit of Dallas Grand Prix organization is comprised of Dallas businessmen Jody Tallal, Buddy Boren and Long Beach GP organizer Chris Pook.
The proposed 1.7-mile course will wind past the HyattRegency Hotel and around Reunion Arena.
“It is a great place to run,” said Tallal. “You have the beautiful skyline of Dallas as a backdrop, plenty of hotel space within walking distance and the availability of Reunion Arena for special events.” ·
Organizers have proposed a date of June 19-21, 1987 for the race, but must first secure date approval from CART, considered unlikely by some observers due to a crowded calendar at that time of the year.
Three-time Indy 500 winner Johnny Rutherford will serve as official spokesman.
Winners: Brad Doty made a clean sweep of the first half of Volusia County Speedway’s Governor’s Cup Classic for sprint cars by winning his heat and the 25-lap main event Saturday night.
Heavy rains forced officials to cancel Sunday’s portion of the two-day affair, which will not be rescheduled.
The feature was marred with a red flag only once, as John Scheidleman rolled his Scheidleman Excavating Special six times on the first lap. Scheidleman escaped uninjured, but the car sustained heavy damage.
On the restart, Bobby Allen jumped into the lead and held his position for the next 16laps with Doty, Jack Hewitt and Keith Kauffman battling for second. Doug Wolfgang retired near the halfway mark with engine problems, while Rick Ferkel and Todd Vance went out early with mechanical problems.
Following a caution on the 18th circuit, Doty drove around leader Allen to take the lead and held on to cross the stripe ahead of Allen, Hewitt, Kauffman and Gregg Staab.
Fast time of the evening was set by Allen with a clocking of 15.84 seconds.
Heats were won by Hewitt, Doty and Ferkel.
60 Years Ago— 1966
News: The Sports Car Club of America will open its 22nd annual convention with the announcement of a major new series of professional road racing events for sedans.
The American Sedan Championship is an eight-race endurance series that begins at Sebring (Fla.) Int’l Raceway in March and is scheduled to conclude in Las Vegas in October.
The schedule of the 1966 Trans-American Sedan Championship includes eents in Missouri, New Hampshire, Virginia, Maryland, Texas and California.
The series is expected to attract a wide variety of manufacturers, including Ford, Plymouth, Lotus, Austin Cooper, BMW, Alfa Romeo, Saab and Chevrolet.
The series is limited to sedans with engine displacement up to five liters (305 cubic inches) and a maximum wheelbase of 116 inches.
All road races in the series will be at least three hours in length.
Winners: Dan Gurney, who has driven more miles on Riverside Int’l Raceway than any other driver, made history by winning an unprecedented fourth consecutive Motor Trend 500 stock car race.
Gurney, as usual behind the wheel of a Ford owned and prepared by the famed Wood Brothers of Stuart, Va., dominated the running of the $77,350 classic, pocketing the $20,380 winner’s share.
The international racing star completed the 500-mile distance in five hours, five minutes and 59 seconds at a record average speed of 97.946 mph.
Finishing second, one minute and 12 seconds behind in a 1965 Dodge was David Pearson, who was the fastest qualifier and led the early laps.
Curtis Turner was third in a Ford, followed by Dick Hutcherson in another Ford and Paul Goldsmith, who drove a Chevrolet.
