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: Two of the most successful and longest-running midget engine manufacturers — Ford Racing and Esslinger Engineering, Inc. — have joined forces to enhance the value and performance of the only OEM production-based engines competing in the USAC National Midget car Series.
The Esslinger-Ford will cost $27,500 for the dirt engine and $28,500 for the pavement engine, thousands of dollars less than other OEM-supported powerplants.
“We want to make midget racing more affordable for everybody,” said Hank Dertian, Ford Racing’s USAC engine program manager. “With Esslinger Engineering we have the ability to share technical and engineering resources to help teams running Esslinger-Fords stay competitive.”
The Esslinger-Ford engine has a direct link to Ford production engines. The base 2.3-liter, overhead cam engine was available in the Ford Mustang, and a derivative of the engine was most recently found in the Ford Ranger. Ford has produced millions of the stock engines over the years. ·
Esslinger Engineering has been developing race parts for the 2.3-liter Ford engine for more than 30 years.
“The Essslinger-Ford will be the only single overhead-cam engine running in the series. The engine runs a lot of the Ford parts, and of everything out there it’s the only one that’s based on a production engine,” said Dan Esslinger, president of Esslinger Engineering.
‘”We started in 1974 developing this engine and have worked on its evolution to this point. The resources and technical support we will gain with Ford Racing involved will really help in the development as we go on. Midget racing is our passion, and we know it’s very important to Ford as well.”
Winners: Fifty-five-year-old Keith Kauffman outlasted 23 younger competitors to score a thrilling last-lap victory in Sunday’s sprint-car feature at Wllliams Grove Speedway.
The victory, worth $3,000, was the 50th of Kauffman’s Hall of Fame career at Wllliams Grove.
Lance Dewease drew the pole starting position and led the opening laps of the 25-lap event as Kauffman moved up from fourth place to take over the runner-up spot with 10 to go.
On the final lap, Kauffman found some rubber on the low side of the race track and drove alongside Dewease entering the third corner and edged in front at the finish line.
Doug Esh held on to finish third, followed by T.J. Stutts and Fred Rahmer.
Cory Haas won the limited-sprint car feature, beating out Jimmy Layton and Kevin Nagy.
40 Years Ago — 1986
News: Three cars for Michael Andretti and one for Danny Ongais increased the official entry list last week to 52 for the 70th running of the annual Indianapolis 500 May 25.
The three for Andretti were described as March/Cosworths owned by Kraco Enterprises of Compton, Calif., and carrying the Kraco/STP/Lean Machine name.
Ongais will be at the wheel of a Buick-powered March car entered by R.J. Herd of England.
Andretti, the son of 1969 Indianapolis winner Mario Andretti, gained his early racing experience in go-karts, Formula Ford and Super Vee competition. He has driven in two previous Indy races, placing fifth in 1984 and eighth last year, and also in 30 championship events at other tracks.
Ongais has driven in all of the last rune Indianapolis races and led the field at some stage in four of them, finishing in the first 10 three times. He also has driven in 74 Indy Car events at other tracks and won six of them.
Additional entries will be accepted until midnight of April 4, and the track will be available to all entrants for daily practice sessions.
Winners: Morgan Shepherd said he could have cried.
“Oh, no, not because of the final caution flag. Things became too tense then to worry about anything but winning the race.
“But before the last caution, I was riding along in the lead with Bill Elliott behind me. I knew I had him covered. I felt so good about everything at that point that big ol’ tears began filling up my goggles. I kept saying to myself, ‘You’re going to win the race, you’re going to win the Race.'”
But then things seemingly took a turn for the worse for Sunday’s winner of the Motorcraft 500-mile race at Atlanta Int’l Raceway. On lap 318 of the 328-lap event, Kenny Schrader hit the wall in turn two and brought out the ninth and final caution.
This set the stage for a five-lap, green flag showdown between Shepherd and Dale Earnhardt, who moved into second place during the pit stops under yellow.
“I’ll tell you,” Shepherd said, “I didn’t know about things then. Earnhardt, you know, is one tough customer. I knew we were playing a new ball game.
“We had stopped and changed all four tires, and I wasn’t sure they would work as well as the ones we had taken off. I figured, oh, well, we’re going to lose another race.
“But when the green flag dropped and I drove into that first turn, I knew we were back in business. When I turned. the steering wheel, the car just drove right on through the turn like it had been doing all afternoon. That first lap under green told me that I didn’t really have to worry about Earnhardt after all.”
Shepherd went on to win by a car length over Earnhardt.
60 Years Ago— 1966
News: “Speed Sport News,” a new syndicated radio program devoted to auto racing and motorsports, will debut on nearly 500 stations throughout the United States this weekend.
The 10-minute show has been picked up by stations in 49 states including Alaska and Hawaii.
Furnished by DuPont, makers of the No. 7 line of Car Care Products, the program will cover every aspect of the auto sport including Indianapolis and championship car racing, late model and short track stocks, sports cars and road racing, midget and sprint cars, record runs and auto shows.
Chris Economaki, editor and publisher of National Speed Sport News, will host the 10-minute show every weekend. In addition to his efforts in the newspaper field, Economaki is well known for his work on television, serving as racing expert and technical consultant to the American Broadcasting Co., on their Wide World of Sports network TV Show.
Writer of the show is Bob Fendell, World Telegram and Sun auto sports columnist.
Each installment of the weekend series will include commentary on matters of the moment relative to the racing scene, an interview with a name personality connected with the sport, and a look at what’s coming up along the auto racing circuit.
Winners: The mighty Hemi scored again as Paul Goldsmith wheeled his 1965 Plymouth around North Carolina Motor Speedway to win the first running of the annual Peach Blossom 300-mile stock car race.
This was the full size 426 cubic inch hemi, not the smaller 405 which Richard Petty used in winning last month’s Daytona 500.
Driving a Ray Nichels Engineering stocker, the 39-year-old Goldsmith took the lead for good on lap 452 of the long grind. He won a total of $14,390 and made 10 pit stops in a race that ran five seconds short of five hours. Eight of Goldsmith’s stops were made under caution.
His average speed was 100.027 mph, short of the record set by Curtis Turner in winning the inaugural 500-mile race here last fall on the brand new high-banked mile track. Turner’s speed was 101.943 mph.
The lead changed hands 27 different times and was close even at the finish with the winner having only a 3.82-second lead over runner-up Cale Yarborough.
