Editor’s Note: In a nod to our 92 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: Tony George of the· Indy Racing League and Champ Car’s Kevin Kalkhoven both appear willing to cut their power in half for the greater good of a unified open wheel series, according to The Indianapolis Star.
According to the report, the two leaders will share ownership and have agreed to a third party to break ties when it comes to decisions, such as four-time Indianapolis 500 winner Rick Mears or legend Mario Andretti.
Some hardliners in the IRL may question George’s decision to give up total control, especially when the IRL has a rights fee that runs through 2009 with ABC Sports and ESPN and has stronger teams such as Penske Racing, Target/Chip Ganassi Racing, Andretti Green Racing and Rahal Letterman Racing. Champ Car’s television deal is a time-buy agreement, where the series purchases airtime.
Both series have struggled to increase car counts, although the IRL holds steady at 19 to 20 cars per race.
But one IRL official said George is interested in negotiating a deal that is good for “all of open-wheel racing.”
While George and Kalkhoven have agreed on a conceptual ownership-sharing arrangement, significant details remain to be resolved.
“We’ve agreed conceptually (to share ownership), yes,” George told The Star. “Now we have to agree on how we would go about resolving differences that might come up.”
It’s a significant development that could end a bitter civil war that started when the IRL began competition in 1996. Since that time, the rival CART series went out of business in 2000, but its assets were purchased by Kalkhoven, Gerry Forsythe and Paul Gentilozzi in bankruptcy court in 2004
Winners: Jeff Gordon knows one fundamental truth when it comes to racing: There is no place like home.
The four-time Nextel Cup champion dominated Sunday’s Dodge/ Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway, scoring his first victory of the season in front of family, friends, a new fiancee and a sea of adoring northern California fans.
Gordon, who was born in Vallejo, Calif., — less than 20 miles from the track — eased his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Monte Carlo past his sometimes-teammate Terry Labonte with 33 laps to go and went on to seal the victory-his fifth at the track and first since Martinsville, Va., last fall. No one else has won here more than twice in the 18 races NASCAR has run.
“I didn’t know if we were ever going to win another one of these races,” Gordon said. “I’m speechless. What an amazing moment this is, a very special weekend for me and this race
team to get back to victory lane.”
Labonte, who last finished in the top five when he won the final Labor Day race at Darlington in 2003, lost second place on the race’s penultimate lap, when Ryan Newman’s Penske Racing South Dodge Charger passed him on the outside in turn 11 of the 12-turn, 1.99-mile track.
Still, the two-time Nextel Cup champ gave the first-year Hall of Fame Racing team its best finish, with a solid third-place in his Chevrolet.
Newman’s runner-up run was his best race of 2006.
Fourth was the Roush Racing Ford Fusion of Greg Biffle, who scored. The first top-five road-course finish of his Nextel Cup career, followed by Newman’s teammate, polesitter Kurt Busch.
40 Years Ago — 1986
News: Questions were being raised this week concerning the refusal of the Federation Internationale du Sport Automobile (FISA) and the Formula One Constructors Ass’n (FOCA) to issue Michael Andretti the required license to allow the young CART driver to compete in this past weekend’s Detroit Formula One event on the Carl Haas team as a replacement for the injured Patrick Tambay.
Although informed sources said that Haas was less than enthusiastic about young Andretti’s reported $50,000 asking price, the real question centered around the FISA’s adherence “to the regulations.”
While there have been times in the past where FISA has found loopholes in the rules to accommodate specific situations, in the case of the younger Andretti, a leader in the CART /PPG points championship, no such effort was made.
Indeed, Ron Dennis, owner of the Marlboro McLaren Team, said “regulations were there to be followed.” This came after at least one team manager indicated that the rules regarding “the super license” needed to compete in Formula 1 were biased in the European’s favor and didn’t take into account what went on in this country.
Haas told this newspaper there are “some drivers holding Formula 1 superlicenses that I would not let use my station wagon to go for coffee.”
Winners: Midwestern short-track star Butch Miller pulled off a major upset Saturday night when he made the right choice on pit stop strategy and won the $77,480 Kroger NASCAR 200 for the NASCAR Busch Grand National Series at Indianapolis Raceway Park.
Miller was competing in only his third Busch Series race of the season, and seventh of his career, in the Lane Auto/MSW Spyders V-6 Pontiac. His best previous finish had been a second last August at Bristol, Tenn.
“I just can’t believe I won this race,” said Miller, who collected $9,100 for the victory. “I don’t know what happened to the rest of the guys. All of a sudden, I looked at the scoreboard and saw that I was leading. I kept asking my crew on the radio if I was leading, and they wouldn’t tell me anything.
“I don’t know if you can say I beat all the guys from NASCAR tonight,” Miller said. “They still show me the way around. I just outlasted them tonight.”
While Miller’s postrace comments reflected the modesty that has made him popular with the other competitors in his few flings on the Busch Series, his choice of pit stop strategy won the race for him. He pitted for fuel-only during a caution period on lap 83, then drove a steady pace
the rest of the 2OO-lap distance while most of the other front runners chose to pit for new tires under green-flag conditions.
Adding rubber under the green flag had been the right choice in the four previous runnings of the event on the .688-mlle track.
However, Miller’s V-6 Pontiac had extremely good tire wear during the race, and he was able to stay ahead of Jack Ingram and Dale Jarrett.
60 Years Ago— 1966
News: British driving ace and former world champion John Surtees has broken with Ferrari.
Surtees, who had a spat with team manager Eugenio Dragoni on the eve of the LeMans race and sat it out, flew to Modena, Italy for a meeting with Commendatore Enzo Ferrari.
Following the meeting Ferrari issued a statement which said, “It has been agreed to give up the continuation of any relationship,” and included reference to a situation of uneasiness between driver and company. Even in the best of families there occur controversies for various reasons. The Le Mans episode was just the last in a long series.”
Surtees said that “there have been disagreements and misunderstandings, and I could no longer stand any blame put on me. I was really tired. I do not regret having quit Ferrari.”
He added that he has “no immediate plans for any racing activity, except for some Formula II competitions.”
Surtees was gravely injured last September in a Canadian sports car race. He returned to competition this Spring and won the 1,000-kilometer race at Monza for Ferrari and the Grand Prix of Belgium on June 12.
Winners: Mario Andretti became the first man in history to lead 500 consecutive miles in three straight auto races Sunday with an almost effortless triumph in the Atlanta 300-mile race.
The 26-year-old driver with the heavy foot — and seemingly no stern competition this season — led from the dropping of the green flag and finished with almost a four-lap lead on Gordon Johncock to establish a 300-mile championship speed record with an average of 139.319 mph, despite an over abundance of yellow lights.
The victory, which boosted the 1965 driving champion into third place in this year’s derby behind Johncock and Jim McElreath, was worth $12,000 out of a total purse of $72,000.
Johncock placed second when Billy Foster was penalized three laps for passing under the yellow flag, took the point lead over McElreath who finished 13th and out of the points.
