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: Just days after National Speed Sport News went to press with its final issue of 2005 and less than three weeks after the demise of the National Sprintcar League, veteran promoter Fred Brownfield announced the creation of the National Sprint Tour.
The second competitor to the long-standing World of Outlaws Sprint Series to be launched during a three-month period, NST will feature the drivers that had left the Outlaws in September to form the ill-fated NSL.
While Brownfield, who also operates the Northern Sprint Tour for 360 sprint cars, had been on board as a supporter of the NSL, he was negotiating with DIRT MotorSports for WoO dates when he was approached by the drivers and teams that had previously been signed to the NSL.
“I was not happy with the circumstances I was in,” Brownfield said. “With the closure of the NSL, I was trying to merge back with DIRT. It wasn’t going satisfactory to my liking, plus the 12 drivers hadn’t signed back with DIRT. I felt compelled to talk to them. They wanted to race for me. It came together in 72 hours.”
Considered by many as the ring-leader in the movement away from the World of Outlaws, 20-time WoO champion Steve Kinser was pleased with the formation of the new series.
“I’m excited that something’s finally going to happen here,” Kinser said. “I’ve had lots of ups and downs over what’s happened here this winter, and I feel fortunate to be a part of starting the series, although it is going to be a tough thing. But, I think overall it is the best for what is happening and we are going to make it work.”
Winners: Tony Stewart played with the competition Dec. 30 at the Rumble in Fort Wayne inside the Fort Wayne Memorial Coliseum.
Stewart didn’t plan to race, allowing Levi Jones to hot lap the No. 2 Munchin Volkswagen. But the reigning NASCAR Nextel Cup champion took over the car, set fast time and won the final race of USAC’s 50th anniversary season after starting eighth in the 60-lap feature.
Stewart blitzed to third after only one lap and took the lead from Matt Estep on lap seven. He led the rest of the way.
“This,” Stewart said, “Is pretty cool.”
Stewart, who won the first of the two races in the2004 edition of the Rumble in Fort Wayne, did not run the second race because of a late-race celebration. Though, he was figured to be a no-show early in the day, he arrived around 2 p.m. and waited until 5 plml to post his track record of 7.323 seconds.
“I’m going to say this because I know my fans like my brutal honesty,” Stewart said. “Every year, all the competitors go out to the bar and try to get me drunk so I can’t run the next day. It didn’t work this time.”
It was the 14th season of 15 that Stewart had captured a USAC feature victory, and the second straight year he waited to win a feature until the last three days of the calendar year.
Dave Darland finished second, ahead of Estep, Billy Wease and Rex Norris III.
40 Years Ago — 1986
News: Attendance at 13 major North American auto racing series increased dramatically, in 1985, by more than half a million over the previous season, according to statistics released by The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company.
The nearly eight percent increase of 503,000 resulted from 6,986,000 spectators attending 207 events in 1985, com- pared with 6,483,000 at 212 dates in 1984. Average attendance at each event rose over 10 percent to 33,749 from 30,580.
“The boom in major league auto racing attendance can be attributed to the steady increase In temporary circuit events near major metropolitan areas and the continuing improvement of permanent circuits that survived the shakeout of the 1970s,” said Leo Mehl, Goodyear director of racing. “New 1985 events in cities such as Miami. Fla., and Columbus. Ohio. and growing traditional events at circuits expanding with extensive capital Improvements such as Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course and Charlotte Motor Speedway have more than offset the disappearance of marginal tracks and events,” Mehl said.
Attendance increased in 11 of 13 selected North American auto racing series monitored by Goodyear, the world’s largest tire and rubber company and biggest producer of race tires, and only decreased in two series that ran fewer events in 1985.
The figures are compiled from official sanctioning body statistics and Good-year race reports and published annually by Goodyear as a barometer of motorsports’ year- to-year popularity.
NASCAR’s Winston Cup stock car series maintained its position as the only series to draw over two million spectators a year, growing to 2,118,000 in 1985 from 2,096,000 in 1984, despite dropping two dates and reducing the schedule to 28 races from 30.
Average attendance at each NASCAR event jumped eight percent, to 75,643 from 68,867, while total attendance grew by one percent (22,000).
The CART PPG Indy Car World Series. combined with the USAC-sanctioned Indianapolis 500. continued as the North American leader in per-race attendance with an average of 91,113 at each of 15 events In 1985. compared with 85.250 at 18 races in 1984 for a healthy seven percent Improvement.
Winners: Nick Fornoro Jr., winner of 26 open-wheel features last season, launched the new season in the same way he ended the old year-by winning Saturday night. Fornoro captured the prestigious second annual $30,000 USAC Hoosier Dome Invitational 100-lap midget championship in front of a record crowd of 13,270.
Driving the Jim Reider owned and built midget, Fornoro out-dueled defending Hoosier Dome champion Rich Vogler, who led the first 24 laps and the 84th circuit.
Fornoro led the final 13 laps while Vogler held off a late charge by Gary Bettenhausen in the Bob Lowe-owned midget.
Bearded Mel Kenyon was fourth and the last driver on the lead lap. Mike Seymour was fifth. Although Fornoro won the top prize of $3,000, his team (USA) was outdueled by Team Indiana 135-75 for the $500-per-driver bonus.
“I didn’t try the outside groove late in the race because we set the car up too tight,” Fornoro admitted while recalling the challenges from Vogler. “We just barely made it. It’s a pleasure to race against Rich. When I passed him the first time. the door just opened on the inside.”
60 Years Ago— 1966
News: Christmas was just that for the followers of stock car racing in the United States. On Christmas Day it was jointly announced by NASCAR and USAC that an accord had been reached with the Ford Motor Company and that factory-backed racing stock cars would take part in the Motor Trend 500 at Riverside, Calif., on Jan. 23 and in the Daytona 500 on Feb. 2 and presumably in all other events on the NASCAR and USAC schedules.
The powerplant to be used will be the 427 cubic inch lo-rise medium portfolio engine, which was used in Ford’s factory-backed stock cars in 1965.
The accord, negotiated by Bill France in a Dec. 22 meeting with Leo G. Beebe, Ford Division Public Relations and Promotions Manager, included a promise on the part of NASCAR and USAC that they would reconsider Ford’s single overhead cam engine for use in 1967.
Ford had earlier announced the 427-inch single overhead cam engine as its stock car racing powerplant. The engine was subsequently ruled out by NASCAR and USAC on the grounds that it was “strictly a racing engine,” and did not meet the spirit of the rules.
Ford then indicated it would sit out the early season races at Riverside and Daytona because all preparations for the 1966 season had been based on use of the SOHC engine. Many newsmen took this to mean that Ford would pull out of racing if the engine were not reinstated.
Winners: A standing room only crowd showed up at the Oakland Exposition Building to watch the second of 14 indoor race meets put on by the BCRA midgets.
Defending champ Dick Atkins put the Pestana Offy No. 1 into the winner’s circle when he won the 30-lap main event in a close finish over Friday’s winner Dee Hileman, Tommy Copp and Mike McGreevy.
Strickland led the first two laps from the pole. On lap two, Rick Henderson spun while second after he bounced into Strickland causing a four-car pileup. Starting the third lap, Strickland spun leading, triggering a 10-car wreck.
After taking the green starting lap four, Strickland flipped into the first turn with Lloyd Nygren driving over Copp as everybody hit their brakes when the red flag came out.
Atkins ran out the final laps of the main with Hileman’s second place keeping him in first place in the point standings.
