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: The lndyCar Series will headline automobile racing’s return to Detroit in 2007.
Series officials joined city leaders and championship-winning car owner Roer Penske to announce the addition of the Detroit Grand Prix to the 2007 schedule.
The race is scheduled for Sept. 2 on Detroit’s Belle Isle — an island park located just east of the central business district on the Detroit River. The 13-turn Raceway at Belle Isle will be staged on 2.096 miles of roadway on the island’s western tip.
“This is a great day for the city of Detroit as the Motor City welcomes back one of its exciting summertime events,” said Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. “Detroit has a rich history of being one of the nation’s best sports towns and excels at hosting large-scale events.”
The Detroit Grand Prix will serve as the series’ penultimate race.
Winners: Doug Esh etched his name into the Williams Grove Speedway record book Saturday night, but he probably owes a fee to an unnamed cameraman from the Outdoor Channel.
Powered by a newly purchased Don Ott engine, Esh dominated the 44th National Open
World of Outlaws Sprint Series event, taking the lead at the green flag in an event that was scheduled for 40 laps.
Esh still had the lead after 26 laps when the yellow flag waved because an Outdoor Channel cameraman was spotted walking along the guardrail near the tum-four billboards.
During the break, it began to rain. It never stopped, and Esh was declared the winner, collecting the biggest victory of his career and earning $50,000 for his team headed by car owners Dick and Tom Leach.
Esh, who finished second in Friday’s preliminary feature, used an interesting tactic to prepare himself.
He posted a note on the dashboard of his personal car which read: “25 thousand is half of 50.”
The weekend was quite a turn- around for Esh, who earlier this season took the gamble to become a full-time racer and went on to be the leading feature winner this season at the
historic half-mile oval.
Just one week earlier, Esh had been involved in a wild crash during the season-ending Friday-night program at the track.
Celebrating in the pouring rain on the frontstretch, Esh exclaimed, “This is a dream come true – starting on the front row and then winning the National Open. I knew we weren’t going to make it (if the race hadn’t been stopped), we were running out of fuel.”
40 Years Ago — 1986
News: Cale Yarborough hasn’t won a race since his victory at Charlotte Motor Speedway last October in the Oakwood Homes 500, and now his entire pit crew has up and left his team, all of which leaves the three-time NASCAR Winston Cup champion … ecstatic!
“Even with a whole new crew my car ran better than it ever has,” said an enthused Yarborough after the recent Winston Cup race at Darlington, S.C. “With Charlotte the next race on our schedule, we’ve got all the ingredients to win-again! ”
Yarborough returns to Charlotte Motor Speedway in high spirits and hopeful of repeating his 1985 victory. That triumph netted the 46-year-old driver $301,600-the largest single-race take home purse in Winston Cup history.
Yarborough, whose 83 wins rank him third on the all-time Winston Cup victory list, will soon follow his crew and leave the Ranier/Lundy Racing operation for which he has driven since 1983. Beginning next season, Yarborough will drive for a team he will own himself.
“But I’d like to leave Harry (Ranier) on a high note, says Yarborough. “I’d like to put the Yarborough name in the win column one more time this season.”
Winners: Bobby Rahal became the first single-season million-dollar man in Indy-car history Sunday by holding off an on-rushing Michael Andretti to win the Pepsi Cola 250.
Rahal will take a three-race winning streak and a nine-point lead in the torrid CART /PPG Cup point duel to Elkhart Lake, Wis., Saturday, when the Race for Life 200 is resumed.
Rahal drove a cool and calculated race in the Budweiser-Trues ports March/Cos worth to nip Andretti by 3.25 seconds.
Bobby resisted the temptation to battle for the lead in the early going on the high banks of the two-mile Michigan International Speedway before a so-so crowd of about 35,000. He thus avoided tire-blistering troubles which hampered the efforts of young Andretti, driving the Kraco-STP-Lean Machine March, and most other starters.
Rahal’s victory and $50,014 payoff pushed his 1986 earnings on the CART/PPG Cup circuit to a record $1,023,419.
In the first Indy-car race of the season in which no one has stuffed it into a wall or guardrail or even spun, Rahal averaged 181.701 miles per hour.
60 Years Ago— 1966
News: Rules governing carburetion, intake manifolds and frame construction for the 1967 stock car racing season were announced Friday by the Automobile Competition Committee of the U.S.
The rules, eagerly awaited by all in the sport, are in addition to the regulations for engines and types of cars announced in August for competition under sanctions of NASCAR and USAC.
“Perhaps the biggest changes,” said Thomas Binford, ACCUS president, “come in the area of carburetion, frame and unit construction and bodies. We believe the new rules adopted are a step toward cars being more closely stock.”
In 1967, wedge-type engines, the type used by Ford, the past several years will be allowed to run with either a single four-barrel, two four-barrel, or three two-barrel carburetors. Previously, they could not use three two-barrel carburetors.
Hemispherical combustion chamber engines, such as Chrysler’s hemi and Ford’s single overhead cam powerplant, will be limited to one four-barrel carburetor. Fuel injection and superchargers are specifically prohibited.
NASCAR President Bill France said, “We must constantly strive to keep our equipment closely related to high production cars and engines and I feel the 1967 rules will accomplish this. They also should keep the cost of competition down for all contestants and this is most important in our type of racing.
Winners: The battle of attrition exacted a heavy toll but Low Blaney outlasted it all to capture the fourth annual Williams Grove 100 for supermodifieds.
Blaney paced himself and his car very well. He started 17th in the 35-car field and he was running ninth on the 15th lap. From that point until late in the race, Blaney played it cool, maintaining the pace of the field.
Ted Wise held the lead late when he pitted with fuel problems on the 91st lap. He returned to the track a lap later, but Blaney had the lead. While all the shuffling had been going on, Blaney slipped closer and closer to the front, putting him in position to take the lead and win the race.
Darl Harrison was awarded second, followed by Bobbie Adamson.
