The racing life and times of Jerry Grant

Part eight –1975 & 1976 seasons

Grant's 1975 Champion Spark Plug Highway Safety Team postcard

 from the author's collection

Just before the start of the 1975 United States Auto Club (USAC) championship car season,  Jerry Grant signed to drive for car owner Fred W. Carrillo, (frequently misspelled Carillo) a legend in the automotive aftermarket performance parts industry who returned to USAC after a year’s suspension.   

Carrillo, born in Los Angeles in 1926 served in the Army Air Corps as a radar operator during World War 2 then when he returned home he studied mechanical engineering and metallurgy at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) on the GI Bill. Carrillo continued to race hot rods on the dry lake beds until a serious September 1953 accident on the Bonneville Salt Flats ended his race driving career.

Carrillo worked as an engineer for Aerojet-General Corporation, but in his spare time he developed the high-performance connecting rods that would make him a legend. Carrillo established his own company, Warren Industries, in 1963, and Carrillo’s connecting rods were used in the 3-liter Repco V-8 engine that powered Jack Brabham to the 1966 Formula One world championship. 

In 1971, Carrillo partnered in a new race team with Oklahoma oil magnate Doug Champlin driver Sam Posey, and chief mechanic Jack McCormack known as Champ-Carr Racing Enterprises Incorporated. The team started competition with a Surtees chassis in the 1971 Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) Formula 5000 open-wheel road racing series with the ultimate goal of racing in the 1972 Indianapolis ‘500.’ Posey qualified well in all the 1971 Formula 5000 races and finished the season in second place in the championship. 

Champ-Carr had a new 1972 All-American Racing Inc. (AAR) Eagle on order, but the team did not have a sponsor and so did not have the money to pay for it. Pioneering racing marketer and AAR general manager Max Muhleman hooked Champ-Carr up with a well-heeled sponsor, Norris Industries, for a package to compete in the three USAC 1972 “Gold Crown” 500-miles races at Indianapolis, Ontario, and Pocono.

Posey had unsuccessfully tried three previous years to qualify for the Indianapolis 500-mile race in underfunded efforts. In 1969 Posey drove shipping company owner Tassi Vatis’ turbocharged Offenhauser powered Finley chassis, and tried again in 1970 with Vatis but in an Eagle. In 1971 at Indianapolis, Posey drove Jerry Grant’s updated 1968 Eagle and bumped his car owner, who drove the Carroll Shelby owned ‘Norris Industries Special,’ from the 33-car starting field before Posey himself was bumped out of the race day lineup.

Sam Posey easily qualified the ‘Norris Industries Special’ to start from seventh place on the grid for the 1972 Indianapolis ‘500’ and then cruised to a fifth place finish. Posey expected to win the Stark-Wetzel “Rookie of the Year” honors, but the media members voted instead to award the honor to Mike Hiss who started the 1972 Indianapolis ‘500’ in 25th place and finished seventh. Later in the 1972 season, Posey finished fifth in the ‘Schaefer 500’ and nineteenth in the ‘California 500’ after ignition failure.

Norris Industries remained on board as the team’s sponsor for the 1973 season as the team expanded to a three-car operation with Posey again slated for the three 500-mile races paired with John Mahler whose car was funded by Richard Deutsch, Chairman of the Board and Treasurer of the Harbor Fuel Oil Corporation in Connecticut.   At the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1973, the Champ-Carr team and Posey suffered the dreaded “sophomore jinx” as on the first day of time trials, Posey posted a slow qualifying four-lap average of 187.921 MPH.

During the week between the two qualifying weekends, the Champ-Carr team abruptly fired John Mahler and he was replaced by veteran Jim McElreath in the #35 car.  Realizing that Posey’s entry would likely be bumped, the team announced late in the week that they were going their shop to build up a new car. The third car the team had entered as the #31 car was actually just a bare tub at that point that bore AAR chassis tag number 7226.   

On Sunday May 19 USAC Technical Supervisor Frankie DelRoy revealed that rather than building a new car, the Champ-Carr crew had attempted to change the identity of the bumped #34 car to make it appear as #31 in order to make a qualifying attempt. “The car was actually a fraud” said DelRoy, “they cleaned it up and removed all identification. It got past the first inspection crew but it didn’t get by me. We finally got them to admit what they did. I was told the crew was under direct orders from Fred Carrillo to make the changes on the car.”   

McElreath made the stating field in the #35 Norris Industries Eagle (chassis tag number 7220) on Sunday as he bumped out the slowest car in the field, driven by Tom Bigelow. Posey’s original entry, #34 was the second and final car bumped from the 33-car starting field by George Snider.

On May 22, USAC officially disqualified Posey’s #34 car, which moved Bigelow up to the position of first alternate. As the Champ-Carr registered crew chief, Carrillo was assessed a $100 fine by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with a $1000 fine from USAC with Carrillo’s USAC license suspended for one year. Champ-Carr’s chief mechanic McCormack was fined $100 and $250 respectively and placed on probation by USAC for one year.

A storm of controversy followed. The press published Posey’s accusation that his former teammate John Mahler was “to blame for the whole thing” and precipitated the incident by “creeping around the garage at night to see what the crew was doing.” Posey said that “USAC knew we were using parts from #34 to make the #31. There was no attempt to be misleading,” and that USAC’s “reasoning has eluded us as much as our maneuvering eluded them, but USAC rulings change from day to day.”  

USAC also required Champ-Carr Racing Enterprises Incorporated to post a $5,000 performance bond against “future attempts at misrepresentation for the rest of the season” in order for McElreath to start the ‘500.’ On Wednesday May 23 Carrillo admitted in public that he was personally responsible for the fraud and personally apologized “for the great embarrassment I have caused to Norris Industries.” Despite his apology, Carrillo was reportedly fired by as president of Champ-Carr Racing Enterprises Inc. by the company’s board of directors.

Following Carrillo’s admission, Sam Posey changed his earlier story. “It was a bad deal all the way. I really didn’t find out until Saturday morning. By then I had to help cover up. Carrillo wanted to do it his way. Maybe it would have been better if I had known because surely it could have been disguised a little better than it was.” Posey closed his statement by reflecting that “it was all so unnecessary; the team could have obtained another car and qualified it with no problem.”

Rich Roberts’ comments in the Long Beach Independent Telegram were typical of those in the press in the days that followed. In a sports page editorial, Roberts’ lambasted Carrillo for being “so stupid as to get caught,” and Roberts stated that in his opinion Carrillo “has a lot to learn.”

There initially were Gasoline Alley murmurs that Posey would replace Jim McElreath as the driver of the #35 Norris Industries Eagle in the Indianapolis ‘500,’ but after the team posted the required $5000 bond, McElreath started the race as scheduled from 33rd position. McElreath and the Norris Industries Eagle retired on lap 54, ironically enough with a broken connecting rod in the four-cylinder turbocharged Offenhauser engine.   McElreath and Champ-Carr entered six subsequent 1974 USAC championship races and posted two late-season top ten finishes at Milwaukee and Trenton.

Sam Posey drove in the other two 1973 USAC “Gold Crown” championship events but never again appeared at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as a driver. Posey and Champ-Carr Racing Enterprises Inc. continued to compete in the USAC/SCCA Formula 5000 series through 1974, the same year that Posey debuted on the ABC Sports broadcast of the Indianapolis ‘500.’

The car that Fred Carrillo entered for Grant just a few days before the 1975 Ontario ‘California 500,’ the #73 “Spirit of Orange County” was a turbocharged Drake-Offenhauser powered Eagle. Researcher Michael Ferner has identified Grant’s car as either AAR tub number 7305 or 7306, which had been driven by Steve Krisiloff for Michigan oil man U.E ‘Pat’ Patrick’s team in 1974 USAC competition.

Part of Carrillo’s deal with Patrick Racing to purchase the Eagle was that the Carrillo entry was serviced by the Patrick Racing crew with the input of crew chief George Bignotti and engine builder Louie “Sonny” Meyer Junior at Ontario. Patrick had left Vel’s Parnelli Jones Racing for Patrick since 1973, while Meyer had worked for Patrick Racing since Pat Patrick bought Louis Meyer Inc. in 1970.

On Saturday March 2 during morning practice before time trials the unpainted Eagle popped out of gear at 185 miles per hours (MPH) and the engine over-revved before Grant could shut it off. According to Carrillo, the crew found the bolts stripped out of the clutch pack and the sudden spike in the revolutions per minutes (RPM) had “warped” all the valve stems in the Drake-Offenhauser engine.  

Fred Carrillo told Santa Ana Register newspaper reporter Art Parra “we will fix the gearbox and qualify on Sunday morning. We will have to be very cautious because the engine is sick with those valves. We’ll put a new engine in it Monday but we’ll have to get the car in the race with what we have.” Talk about low budget! 

The team got away with that plan because the 1975 ‘California 500’  field was short of entries withonly 29 cars qualified into the planned 33-car field at the end of time trials on Saturday afternoon.  On Sunday morning, Grant started at the tail of the second 100-mile heat race. Grant completed two laps at a reduced speed then shut the wounded Drake-Offenhauser engine off and coasted into the pit area to place 16th in the heat race.

Still in primer Sunday for its ‘Twin 100’ appearance, the Eagle was revealed with a new name, “The Sspirit of Orange County” and its new orange and white livery on Tuesday March 4.  With a fresh Drake-Offenhauser turbocharged engine behind him, Grant started the ‘California 500’ from 28th position and within a few laps was up to 12th place when the first caution flew on lap five. Grant rolled in for his first pit stop during the initial caution period only to find that the fuel nozzle would not properly engage according to reporter Art Parra.

The crew sent Grant out to make another lap and when he returned to the team’s pit, “The Spirit of Orange County” was successfully refueled. Before Grant left the pit area,  a USAC steward spotted an oil leak at the rear of the car and three minutes passed before the crew convinced the official that it was not a rear main seal leak, but that the crew had overfilled the transmission. Grant returned to the fray, many laps down, but the Eagle reportedly turned lap speeds just as fast as the leaders.

After the race was briefly slowed for 15 laps due to rain showers, on lap 163 Grant pitted to replace the tires and the crew found that the locating pin for the right rear wheel had broken off and more time was lost with repairs. Grant finished the 1975 ‘California 500’ in 12th position, the next to last of the ten cars still running at the drop of the checkered flag. Grant was scored 22 laps behind winner AJ Foyt, awarded 50 USAC championship points and a check for $6364.

In April, Carrillo asked for and received the “blessing” of the Orange County Board of Supervisors to officially carry the name of Orange County on the Eagle. The Board was eager for the publicity provided by two Orange County residents, as Carrillo hailed from San Juan Capistrano and Grant lived in Irvine.

The County’s proclamation provided no sponsorship monies, but Carrillo had a plan which today would call be “crowd funding.” Carrillo sold sponsorship of each orange painted on the bodywork for $2500 each with the goal sell thirty sponsorships. One of the first sponsors to sign up was the Nelson Iron Works Company of Seattle, Jerry Grant’s sponsor from the 1970 Indianapolis 500-mile race.   

The Eagle also carried associate sponsorship from the short-lived Goodyear Motor Sports Club, a group organized and subsidized by the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company in 1974.  The intent of the club, according to its founder and executive director H. Leo Mehl, Goodyear’s director of racing, was “to stimulate racing in this country and allow fans to get closer to the drivers and their cars.”

Scan from the author's collection

For a $15 annual membership to the Club, a fan (such as the author at 16-years old) received a monthly newsletter, the club’s quarterly Challenge magazine and “other benefits to put you on the inside of the sport,” which included access to discounted race tickets and the chance to order items from the Club’s catalog of unique apparel and accessories such as a set of 8 x 10 inch pencil sketch prints of the 22 members of the club’s driver advisory panel.

An original club sticker from the  author's collection

Members of the Goodyear Motor Sports Club’s advisory panel included drag racers Don Prudhomme and Raymond Beadle, stock car racers Richard Petty and Bobby Allison, and USAC drivers Bobby Unser, Johnny Rutherford and A.J. Foyt. The Goodyear Motor Sports Club never met it expected goal of 50,000 members, with a peak of 42,000 members before it was dissolved on January 1 1977 due to “economic factors beyond the Club’s control.”  

Grant at an estimated 240 pounds in his 1975 IMS qualifying photo

courtesy of INDYCAR

The Fred Carrillo-Jerry Grant “Spirit of Orange County” entry was received by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on April 16 1975. With the effects of the national energy crisis still being felt, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway stuck with a shortened practice schedule with the track set to open on May 4 1975.  However, after the debacle of the shortened two-day time trial schedule of 1974, the Speedway returned to the traditional four days of time trials in 1975.

An article in the Santa Ana Register dated May 1 indicated that the “Spirit of Orange County” Eagle  would make its first appearance on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval on Tuesday May 6. Carrillo told the reporter that “We are going to Indy with the thought of winning.  Our fundraising has been good but not fantastic. If we come home with the Borg-Warner Trophy it will be much easier in the future.”  

The tiny team had expanded their fundraising efforts; for a $5 donation, the donor received a membership card, a “racing patch,” a “racing decal,” and an autographed 8 x 10-inch photo of Grant and the car.  The leader of the fund drive, Dave Whitcomb, an automotive technology instructor at Santa Ana College, promised that a newsletter, poster, caps, jackets, and t-shirts would be available soon.

The Santa Ana Register reported on May 9th, the day before the start of time trials, that during his three days of practice at the Speedway, Grant posted a fast lap of 188.20 MPH, reportedly the seventh fastest car in practice. As USAC continued to limit the turbocharger “boost” levels for the Offenhauser engines at 80 inches of Mercury (nearly 40 pounds per square inch) qualifying lap speeds remained below the track record.

After their first qualifying attempt was waved off after three laps as too slow, Jerry Grant and the Carrillo Eagle became one of 20 car-and-driver combinations that qualified on the first day of time trials, May 10 with a184.266 MPH four-lap average to start in fourteenth position.  On May 14, Art Parra reported in the Santa Ana Register that former drag racing promoter Don Rackeman of Newport Beach California identified as the publisher of Motor Sports Weekly, Drag News, and Motorcycle Weekly had acquired half interest in the car and that the Eagle had a brand new engine.

The 1975 Indianapolis “500,” run on May 25 once again did not go the full distance for the third consecutive year, as torrential rains hit the track with leader Bobby Unser on his 173rd lap and starter Pat Vidan displayed both the red and checkered flags. Unfortunately, Grant and “ The Spirit of Orange County Special” had retired from the Indianapolis ‘500’ on earlier lap 137 with a burnt piston.   

The next appearance for the “Spirit of Orange County” team came at Pocono Raceway for the “Schaefer 500.” Grant qualified the #73 Eagle at 181.864 MPH and started on the outside of the front row. Grant led laps 85 and 86 before a long pit stop dropped the Carrillo Eagle from contention. After the race Carrillo told reporter Parra “when we took the lead, it looked like it was going to be our race. Then a little scavenge pump broke and we were in the pits for 16 laps.”  Like the 1975 Indianapolis ‘500,’ the 1975 ‘Schaefer 500’ did not run the full distance, with the red and checkered flags displayed at 170 laps. Grant wound up scored as the14th place finisher nineteen laps behind winner AJ Foyt.

On July 17 the Santa Ana Register reported that the “Spirit of Orange County” entry would race at Roger Penske’s Michigan International Speedway in the July 20th “Norton 200.”  Carrillo was quoted that “we are more than pleased with our progress. We began the season at the back of the pack at Ontario, we were in the middle of the pack at Indy, and sat on the front row at Pocono.”  Grant again qualified well on the high-banked two-mile oval to start from the fifth position, but on the 24th of 100 laps the Eagle coasted into the pits with engine failure. 

In the same July interview, Carrillo claimed that the team was considering an entry in the Formula 5000 races on the streets of Long Beach, as under the rules package at that time, USAC turbocharged cars were allowed to enter the series. “We feel that we can compete with the Formula 5000 cars and it will give us a chance to show our car close to home,” said Carrillo.

The “Spirit of Orange County” did not appear at Long Beach, but it was entered at the 1975 USAC season finale at the Fastrack International Speedway in Phoenix Arizona. The Eagle’s result at the “Phoenix 150” is a mystery, as the car is listed as “did not start” and reportedly powered by a Pontiac engine. Developments in 1976 lead the author to believe that Carrillo deliberately mislead officials with the engine’s identification.  

1976

Fred Carrillo and a slimmed-down (from his high of 240 pounds) Jerry Grant entered the same turbocharged Offenhauser powered Eagle at the “Jimmy Bryan 150” held at the Phoenix International Raceway, renamed by the new five-member ownership group. Grant qualified poorly to start ninetieth in the twenty-two car field, and then Grant’s unnamed Eagle was the first car to retire on lap eight when Grant pitted with no oil pressure.

The use of the Offenhauser for the Phoenix race entry must have been a stop-gap measure because Carrillo was deep into the development of turbocharged 209-cubic inch American Motors Corporation (AMC) rocker-arm stock-block engine, with funding from the Champion Spark Plug Company.

The Champion/AMC “stock-block” power plant project was another attempt at reducing engine costs in USAC championship racing. The ground-breaking engine had been first publicized in the Indianapolis Star newspaper in February 1976 in an interview with Dick Jones, Champion’s West Coast racing manager. "The company felt that even though it had almost 100 per cent of the field," Jones said, "it would be shirking its responsibility if it didn't look into means of reducing cost to car owners. So they let me do this."

Jones stated in the Star interview that based upon the basic data for the prototype, it would represent a price reduction of 50 per cent over the Offenhauser or the Foyt V-8 engine. “This possibility was one of the determining factors of why Champion opened its Long Beach shop for the development work,” as Jones revealed to the Star that design layout started in July 1975, and that “the project was entirely funded by Fred Carrillo and Champion authorized me to do the design and development."

The work involved to build the “stock block AMC” engine was extensive and the completed race engine shared little with a production engine. Years later in an interview, Carrillo recounted the details of the unique engine. “Basically, these were 209-cubic inch engines, and I worked with Champion on them. I built the crank, rods, pistons and pretty much everything else, and they put it together," Carrillo said. "It was a de-stroked 343 cubic inch “Trans-Am” block, and I shortened the stroke to about two inches, something like that, and before that it had about a 4-inch stroke, if I remember right. I made a 180-degree crank for it.”

Notice the small diameter pipe atop the manifold

Photo courtesy of  the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection

 in the IUPUI University Library Center for Digital Studies

The engine used dry sump oiling, a standard racing practice in which the oil is carried in a separate reservoir tank instead of in the pan.  The cylinder heads were modified to accept bigger 2- inch intake and 1.625-inch exhaust valves. The utilization of a turbocharger required complete fabrication of intake and exhaust manifolds, with a round tube atop the intake manifold designed to equalize the increased flow to each cylinder.

1976 United States Auto Club (USAC) rules regulated a maximum of 75 inches of Mercury manifold pressure for rocker-arm stock-block engines. In his February interview, Champion’s Dick Jones revealed that Jerry Grant ran 180 miles an hour with the AMC engine in winter tire tests at Ontario Motor Speedway, while "the fastest ‘Offy’ there ran 186 MPH with 75 inches, so I'd say you probably would make the program at 180.” At this stage, Jones said “we want to ascertain the reliability of the parts for the time required. The engine has in excess of 400 miles on it on the track as well as considerable dynamometer time."

At the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, California-Oklahoma Racing, which historians suspect was a second Fred Carrillo-Doug Champlin partnership, entered two AMC-powered Eagle chassis painted red-white and blue. In an article in the Star on May 14, the writer offered the opinion that the AMC engine “represents an approach to a racing engine which has had many advocates as a power plant from a standpoint of speed and durability and it brings an entirely new aspect into automobile racing.”

Grant was quoted in the May 14 Star article as stating that “the engine is very smooth and the throttle response is better than anything I've ever driven here."  Grant admitted that he had to work with the car chief, former AAR mechanic Dave Klym, to “dial in” the chassis to deal with the added weight of the AMC engine. Carrillo did not reveal horsepower figures to the Star, but said the AMC horsepower output was “comparable to anything at the track.”

The only drawback Carrillo admitted to in 1975 was “the condition of added weight, some 138 pounds over an Offenhauser engine.” In an interview years later, Carrillo remembered that “we were supposed to get an aluminum block and heads from AMC, but I guess AMC was running out of money so we had to go with the iron block, and because of that, we were 500 pounds heavier than anyone else.“

Notice how slim Grant has become in his 1976 Indy 500 qualifying photo

photo courtesy of INDYCAR

Grant did not make a qualifying attempt in the “California-Oklahoma” Eagle until the third day of ‘500’ time trials on May 22nd, and his 183.617 MPH four-lap average was the second fastest run of the day. Grant started the bicentennial ‘500’ from 20th place alongside the fastest qualifier for the race, Mario Andretti.  In the race on May 30, Grant was running well in the ‘500’ when the Eagle stopped on the backstretch on lap 91 reportedly out of fuel. After Grant’s #73 car was towed into the pits, light rain began on fall on the Speedway and the yellow flag was displayed, as cars continued to circulate on track at reduced speeds. 

On the leader’s lap 102 with Grant’s disabled car still in its pit area, the rain fell harder and the red flag was displayed with the remaining field of cars stopped in the pit area. The rain showers continued intermittently through the afternoon and at 3:30 PM Chief Steward Thomas Binford declared the race complete. For the fourth consecutive year the Indianapolis 500-mile race ended earlier due to rain.

With 91 laps to his credit Jerry Grant finished 27th, which matched his finish in his rookie year, 1965, for his worst-ever Indianapolis ‘500’ result.  For some unknown reason Grant skipped the picking up the $15,594.34 check at the Victory banquet along with Mario Andretti, who was enroute to Sweden to test his Lotus Formula 1 car,  Billy Vukovich, and David Hobbs.

The Carrillo/Grant/AMC Eagle returned to action at Ontario Motor Speedway for the California 500 which had returned to its original Labor Day race date for 1976 after two unsuccessful years as a spring race. After the first two days of practice in 100-degree heat, Grant’s was the fastest of the 18 Eagles entered and fourth fastest overall with a best lap of 186.637 MPH.   In qualifying the best Grant could do with the AMC-powered Eagle was a 15th place starting position after he posted a two-lap average of 182,866 MPH.

Ranked at 12-1 odds in pre-race poll conducted by the Associated Press of “newsmen, officials, drivers and mechanics,” Grant finished the “California 500” in tenth place nine laps in arrears to the race winner, his former teammate Bobby Unser who drove for Grant’s 1974 car owner, Bob Fletcher.  Finishing just ahead of Grant was a young rookie driver from Bakersfield named Rick Mears in his first USAC championship car start in Bill Simpson’s 1972 Eagle the “Do-It Wax System Special.”  In contrast to the record heat earlier in the week, the race day high temperature was 85 degrees, but the 1976 “California 500” still only attracted 52,466 paying spectators.  

According to Carl Hungness, after the 1976 Ontario race, Fred Carrillo’s 1973 Eagle was converted back to Offenhauser power and sold to Jim McElreath for his son James to race as the #26 McElreath Racing entry during the 1977 USAC season. The sale was likely part of the deal that Jim McElreath as the replacement for Jerry Grant as the driver of the Carrillo/AMC Eagle during the 1977 season.  Jim and James became the first father and son combination to race in the same USAC championship race at 1977 “Schaefer 500” at Pocono Raceway. James’ career tragically ended with his fatal crash on October 16 1977 at Indiana’s Winchester Speedway.

The AMC engine was not the only new V-8 engine design to debut in 1976, as the Vel’s Parnelli Jones (VPJ) Racing Team debuted the turbocharged 161-cubic inch displacement Cosworth DFX, a development of the successful Cosworth DFV formula 1 racing engine. Roger Penske had originally worked with Cosworth to bring the engine to USAC in 1975, but he lost interest and the engine was developed by VPJ.

Al Unser won the pole position in the DFX’s first race, and Unser won the 1976 “Schaefer 500” in the turbocharged Cosworth engine’s fourth race appearance. Al Unser for VPJ racing scored a total of three USAC race wins in 1976 with their exclusive engine before the McLaren and Penske teams began to use them in 1977.         

In our final installment coming soon. we will close out the story of the racing life and times of Jerry Grant with his 1977 season and retirement from racing.

The racing life and times of Jerry Grant

Part six –1973 season

USAC opened the 1973 race season embroiled in another dispute with the Automobile Competition Committee for the United States (ACCUS) the umbrella organization of United States auto racing sanctioning bodies to the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). USAC’s complaint was about the number of “Full International” events set aside for the other ACCUS members. The increasing number of “Full International” races eroded USAC’s control over its drivers and led to USAC’s threat to withdraw from ACCUS in 1974

Specifically, the USAC organization was irritated over the number of Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) events classified as “Full International,” which enabled drivers from ACCUS one club that held an FIA license to freely race with another ACCUS club.  The entire 1973 SCCA L&M Continental Series was classified as ‘Full International” if that event was listed as “Full International."

USAC then decided to refuse to allow driver interchange between USAC and SCCA during 1973, which led to Jerry Grant and Mark Donohue not renewing their USAC licenses, and in effect resigning from the USAC. In his April letter to USAC, Grant pointed out that he only had a ride for the three USAC “Crown Jewel” 500-mile races, and he had chances to race elsewhere and get paid.

Jerry Grant planned to compete in the opening round of the SCCA L&M Continental Series formula car series race at Riverside for car owners Chuck Jones and Jerry Eisert. Although it was one race deal, Dan Gurney and Grant planned to compete in the 1974 L&M series with a new All American Racing (AAR) Eagle creation.

Mark Donohue was scheduled to compete in the entire 1973 SCCA Canadian-American (Can-Am) Challenge series in the Penske Porsche turbocharged 917-10. Grant’s and Donohue’s resignation meant they could still race in the USAC FIA internationally-sanctioned 500-mile races at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Ontario Motor Speedway.  Despite the negative publicity generated by the defending Indianapolis ‘500’ winner, Donohue, and the first man to turn a lap at 200 MPH in a USAC championship car, Grant, quitting the organization, USAC officials remained intransigent.


 

Photo of Jerry Grant in 1973 courtesy INDYCAR

Grant was entered for the 1973 Indianapolis ‘500’ as the driver of Oscar ‘Ozzie” Olson’s #48 “Olsonite Eagle” as a teammate to Bobby Unser, with a third Eagle entered with no driver named. Practice at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway opened early on April 28, but Grant was at Riverside International Raceway in California for the L & M SCCA Formula 5000 race on April 29th.

Grant qualified ninth at Riverside but suffered unspecified mechanical problems during his qualifying heat but he still started the feature on a sponsor’s provisional. Grant’s ‘KBIG’ Lola T330 then fell out of the feature race after nine laps when the 475-horsepower Chevrolet V8 engine overheated and Jerry finished in the 24th position. 

On May 12, for the second year in a row practice prior to the first day of Indianapolis ‘500’ qualifying brought tragedy to an Eagle driver. Art Pollard in Bob Fletcher’s ‘Cobre Firestone Special’ customer Eagle crashed in the south short chute during morning warm-ups and Art died an hour later at Methodist Hospital.

Grant was the third car out on track from trials and qualified his white #48 car with orange and blue trim for his seventh Indianapolis 500 start with an average of 190.235 MPH, which would place him on the outside of the sixth row in the field of 33 cars.  As time trials progressed, Bobby Unser saw his year-old track one and four-lap track records smashed but he qualified his Olsonite Eagle in the second starting position behind Johnny Rutherford. Before qualifying was completed, the third Olsonite Eagle driven by Wally Dallenbach made the starting field. 

Race Day, Monday May 28 1973 dawned cloudy and cool with showers that delayed the scheduled start over four hours.  As the field of 33 cars accelerated and took the green flag from starter Pat Vidan, the McLaren of David “Salt” Walther who started alongside Grant in the middle of the sixth row, climbed the left front wheel of Grant’s Eagle. Walther’s car pin wheeled in the air over the top of Dallenbach’s Eagle and flew into the outer catch fencing.

Two of the support posts of the catch fencing were torn out as the front of Walther’s car was sheared off and burning methanol fuel and parts flew into the trackside folding chair seating area located just a few feet away. With a total of ten cars involved in the horrific crash, starter Vidan immediately displayed the red flag to stop the race.  

Salt Walther suffered third-degree burns over 25% of his body and nine spectators were hospitalized, two in critical condition. Before the clean-up of debris and track repairs could be completed, it began to rain again. The 1973 Indianapolis 500-mile race would completely restart on Tuesday May 29.

Overnight, all the damaged cars except Walther’s were repaired. On Tuesday morning it rained again which delayed the scheduled 9 AM start. During the delay there reportedly there was a stormy drivers meeting during which several drivers criticized race officials for the decisions which the drivers claimed led to the previous day’s conflagration.

After the track dried, the cars were started again to another start, but at the beginning of the second parade lap, John Martin in his own unsponsored McLaren pulled into the pit area and signaled to officials that it was raining on the course. Soon after, heavy showers settled in and by 2 PM, officials announced that the start of the 500-mile race was moved to 9 AM Wednesday morning. 

The small crowd present at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Wednesday saw a clean start as Bobby Unser in his Olsonite Eagle took the lead and held on for the first 39 laps, while many of his expected competitors, including AJ Foyt, Mario Andretti, Lloyd Ruby, and Peter Revson retired. On lap 48, the #62 Olsonite Eagle of Dallenbach retired with a broken connecting rod in its Offenhauser engine.

The red flag was again displayed on lap 57 due to Swede Savage’s horrific crash on the main straightaway, and during the delay, a clearly unnerved Jerry Grant was interviewed by ABC Sports. Grant, who had brought his Eagle to a stop just short of the Savage accident debris field, complained that he needed to run a different line to avoid driving through the oil on the track. Grant responded to the interviewer’s follow-up question about the safety of the track by replying “it’s making an old man out of me.”  Not surprisingly, Bobby Unser interviewed moments later by ABC Sports refused to agree with Grant’s assessment of track conditions.  

After one hour and ten minutes the race resumed. Grant’s Olsonite Eagle retired with the same malady as Dallenbach’s, a broken connecting rod on lap 77, and then Bobby Unser made it a hat trick when his car’s Offenhauser engine broke one of its four connecting rods at the halfway point. Mechanical attrition in 1973 ‘500’ was extremely high with just twelve cars still running with several of those cars more than seven laps down, when showers began to fall on the leader’s 129th lap.

When the rain intensified the race was stopped with the 1973 500-mile race’s fourth and final red flag on lap 133 with Gordon Johncock in the lead.  Moments later Johncock was declared the joyless winner of the 1973 Indianapolis ‘500.’  There was no Victory Banquet held, and though preliminary results listed Grant in seventeenth place, he was credited with a nineteenth place finish in the final official results and earned $16,675.

The public fallout from the circumstances of the 1973 Indianapolis 500-mile race, with the senseless death of pit worker Armando Teran, the injuries to nine spectators and the critical burns to two drivers (one of whom, Swede Savage would later die) was immediate.
 

STP Corporation President Andy Granatelli the sponsor of Savage’s and Johncock’s Eagles, stated that “all of us in racing must face the fact that we are simply going faster than our tracks and drivers can safely handle these flying missiles.” If changes were made promptly, Granatelli threatened to pull out of racing "This is not a demand for reform, but a sincere and sad plea to all of my fellow members of the racing community to assist me in obtaining this kind of reform," Granatelli said.

On Saturday June 2 1973, the USAC Board of Directors met in a special emergency session, and the Rules Committee and the Board quickly voted to make immediate rules changes. The allowable width of the rear wing on the championship cars was reduced from 64 inches to 55 inches. The allowable fuel capacity of all cars was slashed from 75 gallons to 40 gallons, with fuel bladders only allowed to be installed on the left side of the cars. To further reduce speeds, the total amount of fuel allotted for a 500-mile race was reduced from 375 gallons to 340 gallons.

Jerry Grant did not race again on the 1973 USAC championship trail until late August at the Ontario Motor Speedway for the fourth annual ‘California 500.’  In one year, the atmosphere at Ontario had changed dramatically, as the track was under new management but there were still serious long-term financial concerns.   

Originally envisioned in 1963, with ground broken in September 1968, the Ontario Motor Speedway was built at a total cost of $25.5 million. The completed project designed by Benham-Kite and Associates and built in 22 months by the Stolte Company Inc. featured a 2-1/2 mile oval modeled after the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but one lane (10 feet) wider, and more banking in the two short chutes with a flat infield road course.

The track had a unique public funding structure: the track owner, the Ontario Motor Speedway Corporation (OMS Corporation) was a non-profit entity created and controlled by the City of Ontario to issue the bonds for the purpose of raising the money required to purchase the 800 acres adjacent to the San Bernardino Freeway (also known as the “10”) and construct the facility.  

The Ontario Motor Speedway Incorporated (OMS Inc.) a for-profit company initially headed David Lockton and later by Ray Smartis, had a seven-year contract to oversee the construction and operation of the Speedway. A 1968 Market Support and Economic Evaluation Study by Economics Research Associates Inc. anticipated that over one million persons would attend events at the Speedway each year. The $20,000 study concluded that with that level of attendance, the Speedway would easily generate sufficient income for the track operator to pay the OMS Corporation rent, which would be used service the 7.5% interest payments on the bonds.  

A postcard drawing of the back side of the OMS main grandstand

The track opened in 1970 with 140,000 permanent grandstand seats and a five-story control tower building that featured a private “Victory Circle” VIP club with suites, restaurants, bars, and air-conditioned seating. Membership to the “Victory Circle Club” cost $250 annually and tickets to the inaugural California ‘500’ USAC race in 1970 ranged from $5 to $25. That first USAC race drew 178,000 fans, but then attendance dropped to a reported 130,000 for the 1972 running of the California ‘500.’

On November 29 1972, after just over two years of operation, the Ontario track was padlocked because the operator, OMS Inc. failed to make the annual rent payment of $2 million to the OMS Corporation to be used to cover the interest payments to bondholders. OMS Inc. claimed that it was impossible to pay the $2 million annual rent, which it said represented 60% of the Speedway’s annual gross revenue.

The track operator, OMS Inc., reported that it lost over $9.7 million since the track opened and took the position that the bondholders should accept a percentage of profits, rather than a fixed payment.  The OMS Inc. counter-proposal was rejected, and with the Speedway operator in default, the original agreement was terminated in December and the OMS Corporation began a search for a new track operator.

After a couple months of negotiation, a potential savior was identified - Western Racing Associates (WRA), which had offered a proposal to run the Speedway in 1968 agreed to lease the Speedway for 12 months. Allegedly backed by razor fortune heir William Gillette, the publicly identified officials of the company were Conrad Sprenger, the president of an Ontario radio station, Orange County contractor/developer Kent B. Rogers and as a recent addition to the group, former OMS Inc. general manager Ray Smartis.  

On Thursday January 4 1973, the five-member governing board of the OMS Corporation unanimously accepted the WRA proposal. However, a few days later just before the deal was set to be signed, WRA backed out of the deal. The Speedway remained shuttered as the OMS Corporation was forced to renew its search for a new track operator. For this third search round there were three leading groups in competition to run Ontario Motor Speedway. One group headed by Ray Smartis, another group was a reportedly a coalition of local labor unions, and then there was the Ontario Motor Speedway Operation Company Limited (OMSOC).

The principals of OMSOC were racing industry heavyweights- Anton Hulman and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Corporation, 1963 Indianapolis ‘500’ winner and USAC racing team owner Parnelli Jones, Jones’ racing team partner and Southern California car dealer Vel Miletich, Jones and Miletich’s public relations/business manager Jim Cook, and the pair’s lawyer a man named Dudley Gray.

Other partners in the OMSOC included Peter Firestone, grandson of Firestone Tire and Rubber Company founder Harvey Firestone, Mike Slater the president of Commander Motor Homes and a USAC car owner, and Arthur D Hale, the founder and president of US Mag Wheels. Parnelli Jones was President and Vice-Chairman of the group, while Tony Hulman, who held the majority of the shares, was OMSOC Chairman.  Gray was the General Counsel, Miletich the group’s Secretary-Treasurer. IMS President and long-time Hulman confidant Joseph Cloutier was a Vice-President with Jim Cook named the OMSOC General Manager.

OMSOC quickly emerged as the frontrunner, but before the OMSOC proposal was submitted, some tough behind the scenes negotiating was done with USAC. After weeks of conferences between the IMS Corporation and USAC, a deal was finally signed at the first USAC race of the year at Bryan Texas. USAC agreed to sanction the 1973 California ‘500’ for a $500,000 combined sanctioning fee and purse, which was a reduction of $200,000 from 1972.

At the April 10 deadline, OMSOC submitted its proposal, which called for the group for the group to immediately pay all the outstanding debts incurred by OMS Inc., and pay the OMS Corporation $150,000 in rent at the end of the first year on March 31, 1974. OMSOC would pay $200,000 rent for the second year, $250,000 at the end of the third year, $400,000 for the fourth year and $512,000 the fifth year.

To supplement the sharply reduced rent payment amounts, OMSOC would also pay the OMS Corporation a 50% share of the Speedway profits. The two other competing groups which had submitted proposals withdrew their proposals after the details of the OMSOC proposal were revealed.

The OMSOC offer was unanimously accepted by the OMS Corporation Board, and after the signing the one year agreement with a five-year option, OMSOC President Parnelli Jones accepted the keys to the plant on April 22 1973. “We have a year to find out if the track can be operated successfully," Jones said at the signing. "We honestly don't know yet. We do know that it will take all the cooperation of the community, the drivers, car owners, manufacturers, racing fans, and sanctioning bodies to make it happen."

Planning for the fourth annual 1973 California ‘500’ began immediately, with changes in the format from the previous three years. Qualifying would be just two laps, not four laps and the day after qualifying there would be two 100-mile “qualifying heats” held with the finishing order of the races to set the 33-car field behind the front row.

The shorter “qualifying heats” would not pay individual purses but would award USAC championship points. USAC formally issued the sanctioning agreement for the 1973 “California 500” on April 20, 1973.  OMSOC announced for the first time at Ontario, camper parking would be allowed in the infield, which would not create sightline problems as the backstretch at Ontario was several feet higher in elevation than the front straightaway.  

During practice for the 1973 “California 500” Jerry Grant and the ‘Olsonite Eagle #48 turned in a practice lap speed of 190.645 MPH which put him near the top of the speed charts. After qualifying was completed on August 25, the same three drivers made up the front row of the starting grid for the 1973 “California 500” as the 1972 race; Grant, Peter Revson and Gordon Johncock.

But unlike 1972, Grant did not win the pole position as he qualified second fastest with a two-lap average of 198.873 MPH, while pole-sitter Revson broke the magic 200 MPH barrier, but did not approach Bobby Unser’s year-old track record with a two-lap average of 200.089 MPH.

Grant, Revson, Bobby Unser, Jerry Karl in Smokey Yunick’s turbocharged Chevrolet-powered Eagle,  AJ Foyt and Foyt’s teammate George Snider chose to save the wear and tear on their equipment and did not race in either of the twin 100-mile “qualifying heat” races on run August 26. Technically, Grant, Johncock, and Revson by qualifying on the front row were not required to run either 100-mile races.   

The twin 40-lap races were won by Johnny Rutherford and Wally Dallenbach, so they would start in fourth and fifth positions respectively for the 500-mile race on Sunday September 2. The day before the California ‘500,’ a group of car owners met in a closed-door session to discuss what was described as “upgrading the design, performance, safety, and finances of the USAC championship circuit” while at the same time a closed-door drivers meeting was held.

The next day, Grant’s #48 Olsonite Eagle was the first car out of the California ‘500,’ for the second year in a row, as he crashed in the second turn on lap two after second place driver Gordon Johncock’s “STP Double Oil Filter” Eagle blew its Offenhauser engine and laid a slick mixture of oil and STP Oil Treatment on the track surface.

Dallenbach, the eventual California ‘500’ winner was behind Grant and while his “STP Oil Treatment” Eagle also slid in the oil, Dallenbach somehow saved it from crashing.  Johncock’s crippled Eagle coasted around to his pit area and by crossing the start/finish line; Gordon was credited with a 32nd place finish. Jerry Grant in last place earned just $2,305 out of the total purse of $370,000.  

Grant tested the early development Formula 5000 Eagles in late 1973, and while AAR built Eagle chassis for the 1974 and 1975 SCCA/USAC Formula 500 championships seasons, Jerry Grant was not the AAR team’s driver. After the 1973 “California 500,” Grant never drove again for All American Racers Inc., although he drove nothing but Eagles for the rest of his USAC racing career.

Postscript – the USAC/SCCA battle resolved (for awhile)

Author's copy of an SCCA/USAC F5000 program

USAC’s threatened 1974 withdrawal from ACCUS over the “Full International” status of SCCA races never occurred. Instead a series of meetings between USAC and SCCA officials commenced in January 1974 with an agreement was reached in May 1974 for the Formula 5000 series to be jointly sanctioned by the SCCA and USAC. The eighth season of the open wheel formula car road racing series, known as the 1974 “SCCA/USAC Formula 5000 Championship” began June 2 at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course with "Buckeye Cup."  

Beginning immediately, the Formula 5000 championship was open to not only SCCA legal cars but also to USAC cars powered by either 161 cubic inch turbocharged, 255 cubic-inch double overhead camshaft or 305 cubic inch "stock block" engines. The USAC cars would run on methanol, with a required pit stop for turbocharged cars.

Over the next few years, there were a number of USAC stars that competed in the Formula 5000 series; the roster included Mario Andretti, Mike Mosely Johnny Rutherford, as well as Bobby and Al Unser, but there were only three turbocharged Offenhauser powered entries that ever tried to run the Formula 5000 series.

In a press release that announced the agreement worked out with USAC President Reynold McDonald, SCCA President Cameron Argetsinger was quoted that “joint sanction is an important step, but more importantly, USAC and the SCCA have agreed to direct their best efforts of a long-range plan for a common open-wheel car and engine formula and a single championship to be run on both road courses and ovals.” The timetable called for the two groups to formulate a detailed plan for approval by each governing board by January 1975 with the common formula put into effect in January 1976.

Alas, this plan never came to pass as the SCCA and USAC were unable to agree on a common formula. Nearly a year after the planned target, on October 11 1976, the USAC announced its withdrawal from the joint sanction of the Formula 5000 series. Frankie DelRoy, USAC’s Technical Director told Milwaukee Journal writer Roger Jaynes “for a while it looked like we could work out a common formula. But every time we tried to work out a compromise the SCCA wanted everything their way. Fuel, tire sizes, type of engine- everything.”

In the end, said DelRoy, “it was a case of us helping out the SCCA and them not helping us.  They got our name drivers - Mario Andretti, Al Unser and the rest to strengthen their series, but they didn’t want to help us one bit.” The Formula 5000 series came to an end at the close of the 1976 season, and most of the teams enclosed their Formula 5000 chassis in full bodywork to compete in the “new” SCCA Can-Am series for 1977.  

Postscript- the slow death of the Ontario Motor Speedway

After attendance dropped again for the 1973 “California 500,” the new operators, the Ontario Motor Speedway Operation Company Limited (OMSOC) moved the 500-mile USAC race date to March for 1974. The original one-year operation agreement between OMSOC and OMS Corporation was renewed with amendments reducing the rent payments in 1974.

The March 9 1975 USAC California ‘500’ attracted just 52,000 spectators, and after the race it was revealed that OMSOC owed $119,000 in back taxes, $7,000 in penalties and $75,000 in rent due on March 31 1975. On March 27 1975 OMSOC President Parnelli Jones president terminated the lease saying that OMSOC had lost too much money.

George Mim Mack, chairman of the non-profit OMS Corporation which issued the bonds was asked in a 1975 newspaper interview if the Ontario Motor Speedway would ever be profitable. His response was “you’d have to say since the first operators were knowledgeable and the current group is very knowledgeable that it may be unrealistic for that to happen in the immediate future.”

OMSOC closed their offices on March 31, 1975 and the City of Ontario assigned ten City employees to care for the facility with Ray Smartis returning as General Manager later in 1975. Smartis moved the 1976 California ‘500’ date back to Labor Day, and the Ontario Motor Speedway continued to struggle along as it hosted Spring and Fall USAC race dates beginning in 1977 but it still lost money. Beginning in 1978, the threat of foreclosure hung over the track daily and that possibility had to be reflected in every contract for track use.

By 1980 the latest management group was bankrupt, and Ontario Motor Speedway bonds were nearly worthless, while the value of 800-acre property had skyrocketed. In December 1980, the City of Ontario sold the bonds, and in effect the property and facility, to the Chevron Land Management Company for $10 million. By February 1981 the track was deserted. 

During 1981, Chevron demolished the track facilities and in the summer of1986 moved the 1.5 million cubic yards of dirt that formed the earthen berms. With the last vestiges of the track Chevron developed the area for commercial and residential uses.

There are no landmarks of the “Big O” left, although there is a multi-use public park in the City of Ontario California named in honor of the Speedway and several streets in the area of the park are named after automobiles such as Duesenberg Drive and Porsche Way.  

In the next installment of the Jerry Grant story in 1974, Grant moves onto another team as a replacement for an injured colleague.