Editor’s Note: In a nod to our 91 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: The SCCA Trans-Am Series will feature multiple classes of race cars beginning with the 2011 season.
Under the new format the series will be open to three classes. The top class will be known simply as Trans-Am (TA) and will continue to include the current Trans·Am cars. The Trans-Am 2 (TA2) class will be based on cars eligible for GT2 and GTA competition in SCCA Club Racing competition, while Trans-Am 3 (TA3) will be based on cars currently eligible for SCCA Club GT3 action.
Any race car eligible in either the SCCA Pro Racing GT2 or GT3 class will also be eligible to compete in the TA2 or TA3 class. Rules will be based primarily on SCCA General Competition Rules specifications, with minimal safety modifications.
Additional technical and operational details will be available in the near future.
The series. which has a rich history, has been drawing slim car counts this season.
Winners: Cruz Pedregon may be out of contention to claim his third NHRA Funny Car world championship after missing the 2010 Countdown, but he performed like a title contender in his wire-to-wire triumph Sunday in the O’Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Nationals at zMAX Dragway.
Joining Pedregon in the winner’s circle were Larry Dixon (Top Fuel), Greg Anderson (Pro Stock) and L.E. Tonglet (Pro Stock Motorcycle), all first-time winners at the all-concrete Charlotte-area facility.
Following an almost flawless performance in qualifying that netted his 39th-career No. 1 qualifier and his first of the season, Pedregon powered his Snap-on Toyota Funny Car past John Smith, his brother Tony and Jeff Arend to meet 2008 zMAX event winner Jack Beckman in the final round
Despite temperatures in the low 90s, Pedregon was perfect again, laying down a 4.171-second, 299.13-mile-per-hour pass to Beckman’s losing 4.212 e.t 301.81 mph in Don Schumacher Racing’s Valvoline Mail Terminal Services Dodge to claim his 27th career Funny Car Wally and his first since the 2008 NHRA Finals in Pomona, Calif.
An emotional Pedregon, who celebrated his 47th birthday Sunday, said he and his crew are approaching the rest of the season as if they had made the Countdown.
“I’m not big on spoiling anything for anybody. I’m a champion; I need to act like a champion. I’m trying to win the race, and that’s what we did. We’re just going to act like we’re in the Countdown,” he said “I’ve driven some great cars, and I can honestly say that this car ranks among the best cars I’ve ever driven, and I’m most proud about that.”
Pedregon’s win capped off a weekend of upsets for the Funny Car class that saw point-leader John Force lose to 15th-qualified Paul Lee in the first round and only two Countdown contenders advance to the semifinals.
Force maintained a slim four-point lead over Beckman, who vaulted into second place with his runner-up finish.
30 Years Ago — 1995
News: A proposed boycott by IndyCar teams and drivers of the 80th Indianapolis 500 on May 26, 1996, with those teams competing in a 500-mile race at Michigan Int’l Speedway the same day, appears close to reality.
IndyCar is at odds with the rival Indy Racing League — a creation of Indianapolis Motor Speedway president Tony George which will include the Indianapolis 500 as its centerpiece event, over new qualifying rules at Indianapolis which leaves non-IRL runners only eight of 33 starting places for which to shoot.
The IRL has announced a five-race 1996 series which will begin Jan. 27 with the Indy 200 on a new purpose-built track at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla. The IRL is designed as an oval track alternate to the heavily foreign driver-flavored IndyCar Series which runs a majority of its races on road courses and street circuits. Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) which broke away from the United States Auto Club (USAC) in 1979, conducts this series.
The Indianapolis 500 is sanctioned by USAC, which will also officiate at all IRL events.
According to sources, many IndyCar teams will boycott the Indianapolis 500 and compete in a 500-mile race at Michigan Int’l Speedway-about a 5-hour drive from Indianapolis-on the same day. Confirmation is expected in the next 2-3 weeks.
“It’s real,” car owner Chip Ganassi told the Associated Press last week. “I don’t know that there’s much else to say. We have a position, and we’ve made it known to Tony. I hope cooler heads prevail.”
Ganassi holds two franchises in CART, which is governed by the 17 car owners who hold the 22 active franchises in the car-owner group among them. Each franchise holder is a director of CART.
The 2-mile Michigan oval is reportedly considering honoring all tickets to the Indianapolis 500 for its rival race as a way to threaten George and the IRL to back down from the changes in its qualification procedure.
“It’s not a boycott, we are just going somewhere else to race,” said IndyCar team Carl Haas. “The boycott is the other way around. The speedway has excluded us from coming there by only leaving us eight positions.
“We decided if we can’t get some compromise on their part (the Indianapolis Motor Speedway), then we were going to race at Michigan on the same date. Yes, that is a gamble, but that is what is going to happen.”
On July 3, the IRL announced 25 positions in the 33-car starting field for the Indianapolis 500 would be reserved for the top 25 team ownes based on IRL points, as long as they posted a competitive qualifying speed. Eight positions would be for at-large teams, and the order of the 33-car starting field would be determined by qualifying speed. Other IRL events will also offer preferred starting places to regular runners.
lndyCar wants the Indianapolis 500 to continue its time-honored qualification procedure of all places in the field open to the 33 fastest qualifiers. If the speedway and the IRL does not back off its announced qualification procedures, it will send an ultimatum to George and the Speedway threatening the boycott.
“I hope it doesn’t happen,” Haas said of the Michigan race on the same day as the Indianapolis 500. “I hope some common sense will prevail. But it appears the Speedway or Tony George is pretty intransigent.
“What happens next? I don’t know. I don’t want a war, I don’t think anybody wants a war. We were willing to compromise on a lot of things, but one thing that isn’t acceptable is this phony way of qualifying for the Indianapolis 500. ·
“No, no, we don’t want to boycott. That is our only real contention, that eight-position deal. I don’t have a problem with their IRL races, but they have stacked the deck against us at Indianapolis.”
Winners: After 500 laps at Martinsville, race cars look like they fell into a combine.
Dale Earnhardt’s black No. 3 Chevrolet was no exception Sunday. Earnhardt was, and he harvested the sixth victory of his career at this tight half-mile track, and his fourth win this season.
He beat Terry Labonte to the checkered flag by 1 second, and Labonte nipped Rusty Wallace by a nose after the two raced side-by-side the last lap. Bobby Hamilton finished fourth, his third consecutive top-five run, and Geoff Bodine was fifth.
The win, nevertheless, shaved only 34 points off Jeff Gordon’s lead in the season point standings. Gordon finished seventh and leads Earnhardt by 275 points with five races left on the 1995 schedule.
Earnhardt led 251 of the 500 laps, although it was Labonte who turned the fastest laps in the late stages of the event.
Labonte jumped into the lead for the first time on lap 235. He led twice for a total of 163 laps, and was the leader on lap 402 when the eighth caution waved.
After tires and fuel, Labonte came out of the pits second to Earnhardt, and on the restart on lap 412, suddenly faded to seventh.
“A problem developed with the ratchet,” he said. “On the restart, I thought I had a broken axle or driveplate. Then it started working again, but would drive only one wheel. I guess we were lucky to finish. I don’t think it would have lasted much longer.”
Labonte chased down the leaders and with his runnerup finish, became the fifth Winston Cup driver to surpass the $10 million mark in career earnings.
60 Years Ago— 1965
News: Three drivers shared prize winnings at the Trenton Fairgrounds Sunday in the triple-header auto racing program which claimed the life of URC sprint car driver Don Gillette.
Joe Kelly won the 50-mile modified-sportsman stock car event when AI Tasnady ran out of fuel with two miles remaining, while Earl Halaquist won the 25-mile sprint car race and Larry Dickson copped the 25-mile ARDC midget run.
Gillette, 29, of Brewerton, N.Y., was killed in the sprint car event when his car, which was leading the race, collided with a vehicle driven by Carl Bailey In the eighth lap.
Bailey, driving only four weeks with the URC, bad just been lapped by Gillette when his car suddenly swerved up the track in the thlrd tum. Bailey’s car hit the rear wheels or Gillette’s vehicle and then passed over the car, landing broadside in front of Gillette.
Gillette’s car then struck the wheels of Bailey’s mount and both cars flipped in different directions.
Gillette flipped high into the air and rolled along the three-foot high steel guardrail before coming to rest upside down on the rail with Gillette pinned inside.
Winners: Richard Petty piloted his 1965 Plymouth to victory in the Old Dominion 400 Friday night.
The event had originally been scheduled for Thursday but was delayed 24 hours because of rain.
Petty clicked off the 150-mile route on the three-eighths-mile paved speedway in two hours, 12 minutes and 34 seconds, a respectable 67.890 mph average.
NASCAR point leader Ned Jarrett was second in a 1965 Ford while Bud Baker romped home third wheeling a ’65 Dodge.
Jarrett, the night’s fastest qualifier, jumped into the early lead from his pole starting slot but finally gave way to Elmo Langley’s ’64 Ford Langley eventually finished sixth.
Shortly afterward, Langley had to slacken his pace and Petty went into a lead he never relinquished.
All but eight of the 30 starters finished the grind.
