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: Indy Racing League driver Paul Dana was killed in a crash during practice before Sunday’s Toyota IRL Indy 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
The crash occurred at 10:03 a.m., and Dana was pronounced dead shortly before noon, according to IRL President Brian Barnhart.
“This is a very black day,” said Dana’s team owner, Bobby Rahal. “On behalf of our team, our prayers and sympathies go out to Paul, his wife, Tonya, and the rest of his family.”
Ed Carpenter hit the outside wall in the second turn during the 30-minute final practice. His car spun down the track and came to rest. Nearly seven seconds later, Dana’s Panoz-Honda came through at race speed and slammed into the bell housing and gearbox of Carpenter’s DallaraHonda.
Dana’s car went airborne on impact. Carpenter had minor injuries, but the 30-year-old Dana was airlifted to Jackson Memoiial Hospital in Miami-the area’s Level-l trauma center where he died.
Carpenter, 25, is the stepson of Tony George, the IRL founder and CEO who also owns Vision Racing.
Rahal said that Dana’s teammates, Danica Patrick and Buddy Rice, would not compete in the race. They will race Sunday in St. Petersburg, Fla.
It’s unclear what will happen to Dana’s No. 17 car.
Winners: The week began with Kevin Harvick verbally slapping around Kurt Busch. It ended with Busch beating Harvick in the Food City 500.
A controversial bump-and-run tactic on Matt Kenseth gave Busch’s Dodge the lead with four laps to go in Sunday’s Nextel Cup race at Bristol Motor Speedway. He then had to hold off – of all people – Harvick to win for the first time in the Roger Penske-owned car that Rusty Wallace made famous here.
“That was the window we needed,” Busch said of moving Kenseth out of the way. “If I had still been his teammate, maybe I would have let him live. But I was hungry.”
Harvick, bitter as can be, settled for second. He couldn’t get his Chevrolet to Busch’s rear bumper. The 170,000 fans on hand knew what was coming if he did.
“I needed a couple of’ more laps,” Harvick said. “He knew I was coming.”
Lost in the Busch-Harvick drama was Kenseth- the driver who dominated the fall race here last season and brought his Ford home in third.
The 2003 series champion was involved in a late-race incident of his own. Jeff Gordon passed him for third, but Kenseth returned the favor as the white flag flew, sending Gordon’s Chevrolet spinning to a 21st-place showing.
After the cars rolled onto pit road, Kenseth went over to Gordon to apologize.
But Gordon responded with a shove.
“He raced hard all day long, and he worked for his third-place finish and got it unfairly taken away from him,” Kenseth said of Gordon. “I would have been ticked off, too. I probably should have known better than to go over there.”
“I was fired up,” Gordon said.
40 Years Ago — 1986
News: National Speed Sport News has learned an out-of-court settlement may be near between the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. and the estate of late racing driver Mark Donohue.
In early April, 1984, a Rhode Island Superior Court jury awarded the former Indianapolis 500 winner’s estate $9.6 million in damages, a figure which was estimated to be boosted to $20.9 million after accrued interest was paid.
After the decision was handed down, Goodyear immediately appealed and asked for a new trial.
According to Insiders, the judge assigned to the case has asked both parties to reach an out-of-court agreement.
Apparently, part of the agreement will not allow either party to disclose terms of the settlement and the outcome of the ease could not serve as a precedent in future-related cases.
Donohue succumbed to severe head injuries several days following a crash while practicing for the 1975 Austrian Grand Prix.
Winners: When Shane Carson is not off running with the World of Outlaws sprint car series, he can probably be found running off from an NCRA dirt car field.
The latest example came Saturday night in a 40-lap feature at I-30 Speedway. Carson is now two for in NCRA main events this season.
The only competition Carson had on this cold night came from the hard-driving Jon Johnson, who is always right up in the heat of battle until sidelined so often by mechanical problems.
Tonight was no different.
Driving the beautiful Carter /Maxwell/ Adams Chevrolet Co. Gambler No. 76, Carson started outside Johnson on the front row and, after one attempt to start failed, ran second to Johnson for seven laps.
On the eighth circuit, Carson blasted into the lead from the low side only to have Johnson roar back around him on the next go round.
Johnson stayed in the vanguard until the 17th lap when Carson again went under him. Once again, on the very next lap, Johnson recovered the lead but the third yellow flag up to that point nullified the pass.
When the green flag came back out, Carson took off and was never seen again.
Johnson stayed with him for a while but eventually succumbed to mechanical ills.
Five more yellows and a red for fuel sent some of the crowd home early for warmth as the feature took one hour and 10 minutes to complete.
John Werthern and Randy Richardson finished second and third.
60 Years Ago— 1966
News: Once again the world’s best automobile race drivers meet on the jousting ground of an abandoned World War II airport to prove their courage and the stamina of their iron steeds.
And with competition grown so keen between United States and European race car manufacturers, it may prove to be the biggest donnybrook in the history of die Sebring 12 hour endurance race, being run for the 16th year Saturday.
Until last year, Ferrari of Italy had more than dominated the winner’s circle, taking seven of the overall championships.
But their victory streak was broken last year by a relatively unknown car and driver, Jim Hall of Midland, Texas, piloting a homebuilt Chaparral with an automatic transmission.
This set the racing world on its ear and Hall and his partner, Hap Sharp, both on men, have been eating up the road circuits since.
Ford, however, bas jumped into international racing with both feet and is out to prove that American production techniques and design capabilities are the best in the world.
Ford has 21 cars, including three of their very rapid seven-liter Mark II models and a sports prototype Roadster XI entered.
The Mark II Fords dominated the field at the 24 hour endurance race at Daytona Beach, Ln February.
Ford is looking for repeat performances at Sebring’s 12-hour event and the Le Mans 24 Hours.
Winners: Jim McElreath of Arlington, Texas, reclining at the wheel of the rear-englned Ford-powered John Zink-Urschel-Slick Trackburner, scored the fourth championship victory of his career and the first of the new season winning Sunday’s 150-mlle Jimmy Bryan Memorial at Phoenix International Raceway.
The story was 23 little race cars, 22 little race cars, 21 little race cars and down to nine little race cars as McElreath watched the only two cars ahead of him tangle and spin each other out and then held on as all but rune of the 23 starlets dropped out.
McElreath, who took over the lead on the 49th lap, held on through a series of yellow flags and three restarts to finish a quarter of a lap ahead of Rodger Ward at the wheel of John Mecom’s ” American Red Ball Express” Lola fitted with a supercharged Offy engine.
Third and fourth places went to venerable roadsters, powered by normally aspirated Offy engines.
Third was Chuck Hulse, making his comeback to USAC after a long injury-caused layoff. He drove the Blum-Dean Van Lines Spl., while fourth went to Bud Tinglestad in the Federal Engineering Special.
Carl Williams was fifth in the Dayton Steel Wheel rear-engined Offy with George Snider taking sixth in Sheraton Thompson’s year-old Lotus Ford.
