Editor’s Note: In a nod to our 90 years of history, each week SPEED SPORT will look back at the top stories from 15, 30 and 60 years ago as told in the pages of National Speed Sport News.
15 Years Ago — 2010
News: When Randy Bernard took over as lndyCar Series CEO, he promised to make some bold moves to advance the series forward. He took a big step in that direction by returning to the sport’s roots by announcing a return to The Milwaukee Mile on the 2011 IZOD lndyCar Series schedule.
Bernard also said that beginning next year, the sanctioning body will no longer be the Indy Racing League because the “IRL has a negative connotation” dating back to the CART split in 1996. It will be known as IndyCar.
“lndyCar is known around the world.” Bernard said. “I just came back from Europe and everyone over there is familiar with IndyCar. The same when we went to Brazil. You want to create a perception and welcome back the 15-20 million fans we lost in the 1990s to come back to their roots. The first thing we can do is make sure our brand image is very positive.
“Our key attributes about technology; innovation and speed all have elements to a traditional track like The Milwaukee Mile. I’ve heard from the traditionalists and the purists that they want The Milwaukee Mile back on the schedule. We are lucky enough to deliver.”
Other highlights on the schedule include the season opener at St Petersburg, Fla., March 7:7, the popular street race in Sao Paulo, Brazil. will be moved to May 1, The Milwaukee Mile will be Father’s Day (June 19), Iowa has been moved to a Saturday night race on June 25, and new events at New Hampshire Motor Speedway Aug. 14 and the Streets of Baltimore on Labor Day Weekend.
Winners: Billy Moyer completed a lucrative sweep of this season’s two crown jewel dirt-late· model events at Eldora Speedway, charging forward from the 23rd starting spot on Saturday night to win the prestigious DIRTcar UMP-sanctioned World 100 for an unprecedented sixth time.
The 52-year-old Moyer’s $43,000-plus triumph in the 40th annual spectacular came almost exactly three months after he pocketed $100,000 for emerging victorious in the famed half-mile oval’s Dream XVI. He won both 100 tappers in the same season for the second time in his Hall of Fame career.
Moyer pulled off his previous Dream/World 100 double in 1998 and the last time he had held the coveted World 100 globe trophy was in 2000. So with an amazing 2010 effort, he effectively turned back the clock to his glory years at the Big E.
The past decade was a rough one at Eldora for Moyer, who finished third in the 2001 World 100 but over the next eight years didn’t place higher than 21st and failed to qualify for the main event four times.
He was beginning to wonder if he’d ever recapture his magic at the track founded by Earl Baltes and now owned by NASCAR star Tony Stewart
“I once said if I could win this thing six times I’d get up on my white horse and walk away,” Moyer said of the World 100. “Right now. I don’t know.”
Moyer thrilled the capacity crowd as he cut through the talent-laden field to take the lead from 2005 World 100 winner Dale McDowell on lap 66 and then beat three-time World 100 champion Scott Bloomquist to the finish line by about five car lengths.
McDowell. who started 17th and led laps 42·65, settled for third place after being overtaken by Bloomquist on lap 96. Outside polesitter Don O’Neal finished fourth and 2007 World 100 winner Jimmy Owens completed the top five.
But despite the speed Moyer showed with his Banner Valley Hauling Victory Circle chassis. he had his doubts that Saturday would mark the end of his long World 100 slump.
“The way the weekend started I never would’ve thought it was gonna happen,” said Moyer, who transferred through a B main after qualifying only 48th-fastest in Friday night’s 134-car time-trial session and finishing a quiet fourth in a heat race. “But when you get backed up against a corner is when you start throwing things at the car. We made an estimated guess on what to do to the setup and it worked
“Starting that far back. there wasn’t no conserving tires, no conserving anything. It was just as hard as you can run for 100 laps. It was like the good old days here.”
30 Years Ago — 1995
News: Adding another jewel to his accomplished career, veteran late model driver Larry Phillips of Springfield, Mo., has won his fourth NASCAR Winston Racing Series national championship, NASCAR’s national title of weekly short track racing.
The 53-year-old is the only driver to win the coveted title more than once in its 14-year history.
Racing at Speedway USA in Bolivar, Mo. and Lebanon (Mo.) 1-44 Speedway, tracks in the Pacific Coast Region, Phillips scored 32 victories in 40 starts and earned the $100,150 championship.
Competition for the title ended Sept. 10, and Phillips scored the highest in a competition index comparing the records of the eight regional champions. It was the sixth year Phillips has won a regional title.
“This is another great chapter in Larry Phillips’s long career,” said Dennis Huth, NASCAR Vice-President for Administration. “He is an amazing racer to continue at the pace he sets for himself year after year. We certainly salute his accomplishment.”
Seven other regional champions won $33,650 each, including Sunbelt champion Paul White of Temple, Texas, who finished second to Phillips in the national title race.
White, 32, raced at Heart O’Texas Speedway. Ray Guss, Jr. of Milan, Ill., 36, won the Central crown racing at Farley, Dubuque and West Liberty, Iowa.
The Mid-America titlist, Homer, N.Y.-native Dale Planck, 25, raced to the title at Fulton and Utica-Rome Speedways.
Mel Walen, 46 earned the Great Northern championship racing at Raceway Park in Shakopee, Minn. while Jon Compagnone Jr. at 24 years old, topped the Eastern Seaboard region with 11 victories in 22 starts at Volusia County Speedway in Florida.
Phil Warren, 37, won the Mid-Atlantic region title racing at Langley and Southside Speedways in Virginia. Jeff Wildung, the Northeast winner, raced at Viking and Madison Speedways in Minnesota.
Winners: It didn’t take Andy Hillenburg long to put the disappointment of losing the lead in Friday’s preliminary feature behind him. He was a man on a mission Saturday and led all but two laps to win the Gold Cup Race of Champions for the second straight year.
“We’ve had a tough year, so I’m glad to be able to defend this title,” Hillenburg said after receiving the $20,000 winner’s check. “It’s a great race to win; I’m glad to get this one for STP ”
The victory was Hillenburg’s second of the year and the 16th of his career.
Steve Kinser, going for his 10th Gold Cup championship, battled Hillenburg for much of the 40-lap race. After Hillenburg burst into the lead from the pole, Kinser had the No. 11 Quaker State Maxim on his rear bumper when Bobby McMahan stopped in the third corner late in the second lap.
Hillenburg raced away on the restart as Stevie Smith challenged Kinser for second four laps into the event. The caution flag was waving again during lap six as Hillenburg caught the backmarkers.
Andy was approaching lapped traffic again four laps later when Kinser, Smith and two-time Mini Gold Cup champion Jac Haudenschild caught him.
Haudenschild started making his way toward the front the next time around, steering the No. 22 Pennzoil Maxim high into turn one to pass Smith for third. Four laps later, he rode the rim around Silver Dollar Speedway’s quarter-mile oval to pass Kinser for second.
Haudenschild narrowed the gap during the next five laps and won a back-straightaway drag race to take the lead midway through the race.
Only two laps later, Haudenschild tangled with Scooter Lambert and flipped over the catch fence on the back stretch. His crew had the car repaired by the time fence repairs were made and he joined the field at the rear.
Hillenburg restarted at the front of the field and quickly opened a comfortable advantage.
Kinser closed to within two lengths of the lead as Hillenburg caught the backmarkers again late in the 25th lap, however. Seven laps later, as Hillenburg took the low line through lapped traffic, Kinser raced wheel-to-wheel with him through turn two but was unable to complete the pass.
Kinser kept within striking distance of Hillenburg before making one final attempt to steal the victory early in the white-flag lap.
He took the high line into turn one as Hillenburg stayed in the low groove to pass a pack of backmarkers. Andy maneuvered through lapped traffic quickly, and was three lengths ahead when he took the checkered flag.
Opening-night preliminary feature winner Danny Lasoski passed Smith late to claim third.
60 Years Ago— 1965
News: The United States Auto Club’s board of directors voted Thursday to adopt the European 3-liter formula for the Indianapolis 500-mile race, opening the race to foreign cars and drivers.
The ruling, which governs engine size of cars competing in the 500, calls for smaller power plants and cars of the type racing on European road circuits.
The new formula goes into effect Jan. 1, 1968, and covers all USAC-sanctioned national championship automobile racing.
USAC’s board, meeting in Speedway, acted on a recommendation made by the organization’s rules committee in a meeting held here in September, 1964.
The drop in engine size Is the first major formula change since 1958 when rules reduced the displacement from 4.5 liters to 4.2 liters in an effort to slow down the high speeds being produced by the speedway cars. It is expected the size will make the 1968 race cars somewhat slower than the present machines, at least for a time.
The motion by the board was not unanimous, but carried by the substantial margin of nine to four. It establishes piston displacement for non-supercharged overhead cam engines at 183.06 cubic inches, down from the present 256 cubic inches being used by the Ford V-8 and Offenhauser power-plants. As of Jan. 1, 1968, these engines may not be used in any USAC national championship events.
Displacement for overhead cam supercharged engines was placed at 2 liter or 122.04 cubic inches. This Is less than the present supercharged Novi V-8s and eliminates the current Novi V-8s from the 1968 race.
Added formula changes established the displacement for non-overhead cam American production stock block engines at 219.07 cubic inches for non-supercharged powerplants, and 158.65 cubic inches for a supercharged version of the same type engine. This rule applies to the United States only.
Winners: Four-time USAC National Champion A.J. Foyt won his fourth Hoosier 100
here Saturday and extended his championship victory total to 31 — most ever by any driver —only to find himself mathematically eliminated from the 1965 point race.
Foyt sped to victory 4.2 seconds ahead of Mario Andretti who picked up 160 points. Mario now needs only 56 points to clinch the USAC 1965 driving title, something he could do Sunday at Trenton by finishing 10th or better.
Foyt toured the route in one hour, 10 minutes and 42.85 seconds, averaging 84.907 mph, far off the record 93.544 mph set here by Rodger Ward two years ago.
Jud Larson wound up third while Bobby Unser was fourth and Red Riegel placed fifth.
George Snider shocked the crowd of 23,764 when he outgunned Foyt into the first turn at the green flag and set a blistering pace as Foyt vainly attempted to overtake him.
Snider was able to hold off Foyt nearly 15 miles when he went high through a turn and nearly lost control of the car. By the time he recovered Foyt had slipped beneath him into first.
Snider again picked up the chase but encountered similar difficulties midway through the event to again drop back. He was finally relieved by Ronnie Duman at 76 laps and finished eighth.
Although it was literally “no contest” after that point, Foyt put on a neat driving exhibition in pulling away from the field on four occasions when the caution flag flew on the rut-packed track.
The victory netted Foyt $18,286 of the $50,504 purse.
