Editor’s Note: In this monthly photo essay feature, National Sprint Car Hall of Fame photographer John Mahoney shares his memories and images from some of the most amazing and historic sprint car and midget races.
USAC Sprint Cars, Terre Haute (Ind.) Action Track, Sept. 11, 1966
The reason I’ve included this race in my Memories series is not the race itself, but rather the thrill of shooting posed photos of my racing heroes that day. The races were a bonus.
I was attending Indiana University in Bloomington, Ind., at the time and along with my Kodak Retina 35mm camera and a couple rolls of film, I headed to Terre Haute for the USAC sprint car show.
My camera had a “fixed” normal lens, so it would not accept telephoto lenses. At the time, I was perfectly satisfied with this set-up since I’ve always loved shooting the people in our sport at close range. I’m not sure how I finagled a pit pass, but it may have been through my pal, Gene Crucean, and our phony newspaper Northwest News.
This part I remember like it happened yesterday. Cars were lined up in the qualifying queue and I picked a spot near the head of the line. I was fairly new to shooting posed photos, but I figured this was as good a chance as any to ask.
First came Russ Congdon, then Chuck Taylor followed by Bud Randall, Al Miller, Bruce Jacobi and Arnie Knepper. All agreed easily and my confidence grew.
It wasn’t long before A.J. Foyt was pushed up in line. I took a deep breath and asked for the shot. I remember distinctly thinking he had smiled as I pressed the shutter button.
It was a couple more years before I started processing my own film, so I had to wait to pick up my prints at the camera store before confirming that, yes, A.J. had smiled!
Mario Andretti and a few others followed and as we used to say, all of the posed photos had “turned out.”
Oh yes, the races. Roger McCluskey won the 50-lap feature, while Don Branson out-timed the 39-car field and won the first heat. Foyt and Bobby Unser won the other two heats and Al Smith topped the semi.
Dave Lundy survived a fence clearing flip on the 31st lap of the feature.
This story appeared in the March 22, 2023 edition of the SPEED SPORT Insider.
