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: Canadian race fans can say goodbye CASCAR and hello NASCAR.
NASCAR has completed the purchase of Canada’s premier stock car series — the Candian Ass’n for Stock Car Racing — and will sanction a 10- to 12-race series at Canadian short tracks next season.
NASCAR has signed a multi-year contract with Canadian Tire, one of Canada’s most prominent brands, to sponsor the series that will be known as the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series.
CASCAR was founded by Tony Novotny in 1981. While Novotny tried to sell the series in the past and ended up back in charge when the sale fell through, he finally found the buyer he and the Canadian acers and tracks were looking for.
“We are relieved that it is finally getting done,” said Novotny, who will continue as a consultant for NASCAR. “We have sold the company before, but it didn’t work out and now we have handed it over to a great organization that can take it forward.”
NASCAR had spent a great deal of time analyzing CASCAR and the Canadian Market.
“We took a lot of time to look at this carefully,” said Robbie Weiss, NASCAR’s managing director of international events. “When we make a decision, we like to think it’s long term and strategic.”
Jim Hunter, NASCAR’s vice-president of corporate communications said the decision was easy.
“It’s no secret we have a strong fan base in Canada, with almost six million fans. That’s one out of every four; and they’ve been following the sport for quite a while,” Hunter said. “It’s pretty much coast to coast from British Columbia all the way out to Quebec to all the Atlantic provinces.”
Winners: Even Mother Nature couldn’t stop Donny Schatz at Jackson Speedway, as the World of Outlaws Sprint Series point leader completed a sweep of weekend events, beating Joey Saldana and a fast-approaching thunderstorm.
Schatz started on the pole after winning his series-leading eighth dash.
Becca Anderson in the Upstate Kenworth Maxim got a strong run on Schatz on the outside of turn two and too the early lead. She pulled away until reaching lapped traffic on the sixth circuit when Schatz closed in quickly.
On the 10th lap, Anderson had to hit the brakes in traffic, and Schatz blasted to the bottom of the track and took the lead.
Anderson broke a sideboard on her top wing and ended up droping out of the race and finishing 22nd.
Schatz pulled away on the final restart and encountered some traffic with four laps to go, but held off Saldana for the victory.
“We were in the right spot all night long,” Schatz said. “We qualified in the right spot and started the dash in the right spot. The race track was fast. It was hard to race on.”
40 Years Ago — 1986
News: The famed Salem Speedway, dormant since late 1981, could reopen as early as 1987 under the authority of the Washington County Fair Board.
The paved half-mile high-banked oval was recently purchased by Smith Cabinet of Salem from AMI Racing, Inc. The purchase price was not revealed.
However, it has been learned that Smith Cabinet officials purchased the facility and its 52 acres in hopes of arranging a trade with the fair board for the 32-acre Washington County Fairgrounds which is located across the street from their manufacturing facility.
“Everybody is in favor of the plan,” fair board president Eugene Trueblood said. “We are waiting for another appraisal and then we will sit down and discuss the trade. There are a lot of hurdles and we haven’t even discussed dollars and cents.”
The track, once a major venue in the Midwest, was struck by high winds in 1981 which destroyed the grandstand roof and caused minor damage to a small building. Reports earlier this season indicated the track was for sale for $140,000.
Winners: The fans yelled, “Do it, Hewitt,” and he did it.
Bill Elliott banked a million dollars when he did it, Martina Navratilova made a Czech name a household word when she did it, and Secretariat enamored horse lovers the world over by winning three major races.
Whether it is called the Triple Crown, the Grand Slam or the Winston Million, it’s the ultimate in the sport. Jack Hewitt’s master of the one-mile dirt track was confirmed when he coasted to victory in the Hoosier Hundred USAC Silver Crown 100-mile event and locked up the division championship.
Undefeated in five dirt starts in the series, Hewitt’s victories at Springfield, DuQuoin and Indiana State Fairgrounds puts him in the elite company of legendary figures Jimmy Bryan, who tice accomplished the triple win feat, Al Unser and A.J. Foyt.
Hewitt pocketed $12,500 for the victory.
60 Years Ago— 1966
News: “I’m not retiring. I’m just going to pass up some races so I can concentrate and complete my test program for 1967.” Those were the words of A.J. Foyt late last week, commenting on published reports that he had retired for the balance of the 1966 season.
Foyt, plagued with a continuous run of bad luck this year, starting with a tangle in the opening championship race at Phoenix in March, and continuing in the 11-car tangle at Indianapolis in May, was jarred by his loss of certain victory in the Hoosier Hundred last week when a brake pedal broke.
“It caught me all crossed up. Had it given way gradually, I’d have backed off a bit and there’s no way I could have been beaten,” Foyt explained.
“There’s lots of things to do here,” the two-time Indy winner and four-time national champion explained from his garage at the Indianapolis Speedway. “I’ve got this new car, and to run in the remaining races wouldn’t do much for me pointwise, and there really isn’t that much money to run for either,” Foyt explained.
Foyt and his mechanic, Johnny Pouelson, back together after a brief August splitup, are working on his new Ford-engined Coyote.
Winners: Dick Hutcherson, driving his favorite kind of race track, outdueled Junior Johnson in the early stages and then held off a determined bid by David Pearson to win the annual Joe Weatherly Memorial stock car race at Hillsborough Speedway.
Hutcherson’s 1966 Ford Galaxie was only four seconds ahead of Pearson’s 1965 Dodge at the finish of the 150-mile race. Third, two laps back, was Paul Lewis in a 1966 Plymouth; James Hylton, in a 1965 Dodge, beat John Sears and his 1964 Ford to the flag to take fourth spot.
In winning his second straight race at Hillsborough, Hutcherson won $1,400. His average speed for the 150 miles was 90.603 mph, just shy of Ned Jarrett’s record of 90.663 set in 1965.
