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 — 2009
News: The city of Sao Paulo will stage the opening round of the 2010 IZOD IndyCar Series season.
Scheduled for March 14. the event represents the IndyCar return of Indy·style racing to Brazil thanks to the partnership between the Sao Paulo municipality, the Indy Racing League and TV Bandeirantes and BandS ports.
“The arrival of the IZOD lndyCar Series confirms Sao Paulo’s nature of staging great worldwide events. It is a gift to the citizens of Sao Paulo who will be able to watch, up close, great race cars and drivers. lt is also a great opportunity for business for the city that becomes the capital of motor racing in Latin America;· said Mayor Gilberta Kassab.
The event marks the first IZOD IndyCar Series street race in Brazil. Sao Paulo is already home to the Brazil Formula One Grand Prix staged at the Interlagos race track. Now the city concentrates two of the most important motorsports events worldwide.
“While our primary focus continues to be building the sport of the IZOD lndyCar Series domestically the race in Sao Paulo affords us a unique opportunity to visit a country that has a huge passion for open-wheel racing. With strong support from our major partner AprexBrasil,
a significant television package from TV Bandeirantes. a large number of drivers from the country and the opportunity for a unique course, it makes sense from both a business and competition stand· point,” said Terry Angstadt, president of the commercial division for the sanctioning Indy Racing League.
Winners: Twenty-year-old Bryan Clauson capped his career-best season by winning the 69th running of the Turkey Night Midget Grand Prix at Toyota Speedway@ Irwindale.
The event was co-sanctioned by the USAC Mopar National Midget Championship and the USAC
Western Midget Series and ran 98 laps of the half-mile asphalt oval in honor of the late race organizer J. C.Agajanian, car owner of Indianapolis 500 and sprint car owner, who used No. 911 on his race cars.
Approximately 5,000 spectators watched Clauson become the 47th different winner of the prestigious granddaddy of midget racing classics.
The event dates back 75 years to 1934 when the inaugural Turkey Night Grand Prix was held at Gilmore Stadium in nearby Hollywood.
The Agajanian Promotions event took place at the state-of-the-art Irwindale track for the 11th-consecutive year.
Clauson became the ninth different TNGP winner at the track and fourth consecutive first-time TNGP winner.
“This is awesome. I ran here two or three times and had great cars and feel I threw some away,” Clauson said. “I got the motor running, stayed calm early and saved my tires. With 98 laps on soft right rears you have to save your tires and brakes. The track changed a bit in turns three and four, so I changed grooves to pass lapped cars. I tried to be careful early. There was dipping and diving. I saw the 11 car (Josh Wise) under me a couple of times.
“This is unbelievable. It’s one of those races you grow up wanting to win. Being with Cary (Agajanian) as my agent, it’s one I wanted to win and hang on the wall.”
30 Years Ago — 1994
News: As rewarding for competitors as the 1994 NASCAR Winston Cup season has been, the 1995 season will be even better.
You can take Bill France’s word for it.
At the annual Thursday press conference at the WaldorfAstoria Starlight Roof, the NASCAR president announced the 1995 31-race schedule, which will cover 9 months, and then said it will be worth $38.6 million.
“This year’s $30 million season was the richest in NASCAR’s history,” France told a group of about 500 in the jam-packed Starlight Roof, the same room in which the first New York NASCAR Winston Cup banquet was held 14 years ago. “In 1995, $38.6 million in prize and point-fund monies will be available to our teams.”
The same 31 races which made up the 1994 schedule return for 1995.
France also pointed out a record 11 Winston Cup drivers topped $1 million in winnings in 1994.
While most of the annual conference was geared toward our point-fund program payouts and special awards to alleviate some of the strain on Friday night’s live, ESPN-broadcast awards dinner, France did field questions concerning the flurry of new race-track proposals in St. Louis and especially, the Dallas-Ft. Worth area.
France told attendees he and his staff were observing developments in Texas and St. Louis, but that no Winston Cup races would be added to subsequent series schedules unless
a present event comes off the schedule.
The only new event NASCAR has committed to is one at Roger Penske’s proposed California Speedway in 1996, and France made clear there would be just one event there.
Winners: Surviving a crash-strewn event, Tammy Jo Kirk became the first female winner of the Snowball Derby late model stock car event at Five Flags Speedway.
A veteran of the NASCAR All Pro Series, Kirk managed to avoid the wreckage of a collection of accidents and beat Eddie Mercer to the finish of the 328-lap event on the half-mile paved oval.
The victory was also the first major triumph for Kirk, who finished ninth in All Pro points this season.
Chasing Kirk and Mercer to the finish were Jeff Purvis, Wayne Willard and Jody Ridley as just those five finished on the lead lap.
The second five at the pay window were Mike Garvey, Hal Goodson, Ricky Brooks, Darryl Brown and Mario Gosselin.
ASA champion Butch Miller, veteran Red Farmer and All Pro hotshoes Buckshot Jones and Bobby Gill were among those failing to finish the event.
60 Years Ago— 1964
News: Bobby Marshman, 28 year-o1d veteran USAC driver from Pottstown Pa., was critically burned Friday afternoon ~·hen his Lotus Ford slammed into the west retaining wall at Phoenix Int’l Raceway here and burst into names.
The accident came during tests being run for the Ford Motor Company. Marshman was in the 18th lap of a 30-lap test on the one-mile asphalt track when the car went out of control.
Witnesses said that he seemed to have trouble entering the turn, and a “breaking” sound was heard before the car veered into the outside guard rail. It ground along the retainer for approximately 200 feet and burst into names.
Marshman was pulled from the blazing car by firefighters wearing asbestos suits. The Bremen, stationed in pairs around the track, are professional fire-fighters from the Luke Air Force Base Crash and Rescue Team, who work at the track on off duty hours.
As Marshman was pulled from the inferno, he yelled to his mechanic Jack Beckley, “Jack, get me to the hospital quick. I’m burning all over.”
He was rushed to a hospital here where he was admitted in “extremely critical” condition with burns over 85 percent ofhis body.
He was flown to the Brooke Army Medical Burn Center in San Antonio, Texas Saturday night. It was reported that Marshman was taken there because it has a skin bank, and he had no skin left which was suitable for grafting.
Winners: Two-time Indianapolis Champion A. J. Foyt continued his fabulous winner and four-time USAC National spree here at the Hanford Speedway Sunday afternoon.
Foyt, driving a Ray Nichels-prepared 1964 Dodge, won the 200-mile USAC late model contest, which was the final USAC late model race of the 1964 season.
Parnelli Jones, ’63 Indianapolis winner, clinched the USAC late model championship Sunday by finishing second to the Flying Texan.
Jones, who has won seven USAC late model races this year, including six at Milwaukee, drove a 1964 Mercury to second place in the 200 miler, thus clinching the title.
This was Jones’ first USAC stock car title. He previously had won the USAC sprint car division championship on three different occasions.
Third in Sunday’s Billy Vukovich Memorial race was Joe Leonard in a ’64 Dodge. The former motorcycle champion was named the USAC Stock Car Rookie of the year based on his 1964 performances. Bobby Unser finished fourth in another ‘64 Mercury.