1968 Gurney AAR Eagle

One of the stars of the recent Vintage Motor Racing exhibit with a special tribute to Dan Gurney at the Lyon Air Museum was Dan Gurney’s own 1968 Eagle race car.

The 1968 Eagle chassis designed by former Lola engineer Tony Southgate featured a lower flatter nose due to the use of outboard suspension assemblies. The car’s main tub was also lower in profile, with a laid-back windscreen and a body/engine cover which ended with a squared off tail section instead of the earlier rounded tail used in the 1966 and 1967 Eagle designs.

There were five 1968 Eagles built by All American Racers on Santa Ana California in the 33-car starting field for the 1968 Indianapolis 500-mile race,  First was the featured car owned by Gurney’s primary sponsor Oscar L “Ozzie” Olson of the Olsonite Corporation, manufacturer of molded one-piece plastic toilet seats. 

Gurney’s entry was powered by a 303-cubic inch stock-block Ford V-8 engine fitted with Gurney-Weslake Mark Four cylinder heads. For qualifying with the addition of nitromethane to the alcohol fuel the Gurney-Weslake engine could develop 525 horsepower.

1968 was the height of innovation at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway which was reflected in the variety of powerplants fitted to the other AAR Eagles that were entered. Roger McCluskey drove an Eagle owned by Atlanta sportsman Lindsey Hopkins that was powered by a 159-cubic inch 4-cylinder Offenhauser engine fitted with a turbocharger which was sponsored by G C Murphy stores. 

Bobby Unser drove a similar chassis and engine combination owned by Bob Wilke’s Leader Card Racers with sponsorship from Rislone oil treatment. IN 1968, a turbocharged Offehauser engine could develop 625 horsepower in qualifying trim.  

Gurney’s teammate on the Olsonite team for the ‘500” would be 1967 Formula One world champion Denis Hulme who became available after his original entry, the Shelby-Wallis turbine powered machine was withdrawn. Hulme drove the #42 Olsonite AAR Eagle which was powered a conventional 255-cubic inch DOHC (double overhead camshaft) Ford V-8 engine.   

The last Eagle entry in the Indianapolis 500-mile race field was owned by PSA airline heir Tom Friedkin powered by a 159-cubic inch turbocharged DOHC Ford engine driven by Jerry Grant with sponsorship from Bardahl oil treatment. 

While it could potentially produce the highest horsepower of the available engine, at high boost levels, the Schwitzer turbocharged Ford engine suffered both head gasket and fuel distribution issues which resulted in burned pistons.

In qualifying time trials, Unser led the Eagle contingent as he started third, on the outside of the front row, with McCluskey next in seventh place. Gurney himself started the 1968 ‘500’ in tenth place, while Grant started fifteenth, and Hulme in a late-developing program started in twentieth place.

After the leading STP Lotus turbines broke with nine laps left in the race, Bobby Unser lead the final nine laps and won by 53.81 seconds over Gurney. In a stunning debut, the 1968 AAR Eagles swept three of the top five finishing positions as Hulme finished in fourth place.

Two weeks later at the mid-June 1968 two-heat ‘Telegraph Trophy 200’ at the Mosport International Raceway in Bowmanville Ontario Canada, Gurney and his Eagle swept the program. 

A new 1968 Eagle powered by a 305-cubic inch Chevrolet V-8 stock-block engine built by Traco Engineering was entered for the event by Roger Penske for sports car ace Mark Donohue which finished in the top five of both heat races. This marked Penske’s first Indianapolis type racing car entry.

Gurney started from the pole position with a 110 MPH (mile per hour) average speed around the 2.5-mile road course. At the drop of the green flag, Dan led all forty laps of the first heat as Indianapolis ‘500’ winner Bobby Unser crashed his 1968 Eagle on the first lap. In the second Mosport heat with only 15 starters, Gurney again dominated from the pole position,as he led every lap and finished the 100-mile heat race in 55 minutes.  

Gurney did not race his Eagle Indy Car again for five and half months as he next appeared at the 1968 United States Auto Club (USAC) season finale at the Riverside International Raceway for the ‘Rex Mays 300.’ 

Gurney qualified the AAR Eagle now fitted with stubby front wings on the nose and a rudimentary wing that spanned across the rear exhaust pipes, qualified for the pole position with an average speed of 118-1/2 MPH around the historic 2.6-mile road course.

Gurney led the first four laps of the race, before Mario Andretti in a tight battle for the 1968 USAC national championship led the next four circuits. Gurney surged back into the lead on lap nine and never looked back as he led the remaining 108 laps and won by a lap over Bobby Unser’s 1968 Eagle which had been repaired from its Mosport damage and fitted with a DOHC Ford engine. 

The #48 Olsonite AAR Eagle raced five times during the 1968 USAC season and scored three victories and one second place result  was displayed at the Lyon Air Museum as it appeared at its final race as a tribute to Dan Gurney who passed away on January 14 2018.  

The 1972 AAR "Mystery Eagle" on display 

The Lyon Air Museum of Santa Ana California recently hosted the “Vintage Motor Racing exhibit” with a special tribute to Dan Gurney. This was a fitting memorial as Gurney’s All American Racers has been based in Santa Ana since 1970. One of the two AAR Eagle race cars on display was a recreation of the historic 1972 “Mystery Eagle.” shown as it appeared at the 1972 ‘California 500.’

Veteran racer Jerry Grant began the month of May 1972 without a ride for the Indianapolis 500-mile race but campaigned for the seat in the second Eagle for Dan Gurney’s All-American Racers (AAR) team. Grant was an ideal candidate for the highly sought-after ride in second AAR Eagle, but there was a problem: Gurney had a fast machine but no sponsorship.

Photo of Jerry Grant in 1972 courtesy of

the IUPUI University of Digital Studies

Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection

Gurney and Grant had a long relationship which dated back to 1965, when Grant first co-drove with Gurney in a Lotus 19 in the Daytona 2000-kilometer race. Grant had driven for All-American Racers in 1966 in the ill-fated Gurney-Weslake Ford engine powered Lola T70 sports car in the USRRC and SCCA Can-Am series.

On Thursday, May 18, 1972 Jerry Grant was formally announced as the driver of the second AAR 1972 Eagle painted purple and white and dubbed “the Mystery Eagle.” The car appeared to outsiders to be unsponsored, as aside from contingency decals, there was only the logo of CV Enterprises on the rear wing and the company logo “You Name it” emblazoned across the nose of the car and on the rear wing end plates.  

CV Enterprises was a company operated by the mysterious Christopher A. Vallo Junior, a self-described millionaire from the Chicago suburb of Highland Indiana who also owned property and a restaurant in Minnesota.  Vallo, a Korean War veteran of Greek descent, had been convicted in 1965 of passing counterfeit currency and was sentenced to three years of probation.

In late 1970, the 265-pound Vallo approached stock car builder and racer Ray Nichels and his son Terry with a check for $1 million for the Nichels’ to build Vallo a team of winning Pontiac stock cars.  In November 1971 Nichels filed an $8 million lawsuit against Vallo that alleged non-payment per their contract terms.  

According to fellow historian and writer William LaDow, the contact for the 1972 Indianapolis ‘500’ CV Enterprises sponsorship came through Bobby Unser, who introduced Vallo to Gurney during the month of May when Gurney was desperately searching for sponsorship for a second Indianapolis entry. In hindsight, given the nationwide publicity given to Nichels’ lawsuit, one wonders why (or if) Gurney was not wary of Chris Vallo, or perhaps he was that desperate for sponsorship.  

The terms of the agreement between the pair was never revealed, but Grant got the ride on May 18 over Unser’s objections, as Unser reportedly wanted a sprint car driver as his teammate according to Gordon Kirby. On Friday May 19, 1972, Grant took his first laps in the #48 “Mystery Eagle” and after just 20 or so laps of practice, posted a best lap of 186.881 MPH.

The following day, after the remaining “first day” qualifiers failed to knock Unser from the pole position, Grant qualified for the 1972 Indianapolis 500, his sixth Indianapolis start, in the 15th position. Grant’s four-lap average speed of 189.294 MPH with the last lap run at 191.164 MPH, was the fourth fastest run overall, and the fastest qualifier of the third day non-pole position eligible cars.

 

In a post-qualifying interview with the Associated Press, Grant commented on such a fast run after so few practice laps. “Sure, I’m excited. But it’s easy to explain. I have the world’s best former driver as a car owner and the world’s best current driver as a teammate.” According to Gordon Kirby, however, there was tension behind the scenes, as Unser who had done all the testing and development work, resented Grant’s immediate success. 

The 1972 Indianapolis 500 featured a new rule that required that, a car take on fuel during at least four mandatory pit stops during the 500-mile race. The rule further stated that “approved procedures under this supplementary regulation will be covered in bulletin form.”  The total amount of fuel allowed for each car to complete the 500 miles was 325 gallons, the same as 1971 but with one additional stop required.

Each car started the race with 75 gallons of methanol fuel on board, and the pit tank limited to 250 gallons. While a total of 325 gallons seems like a lot of fuel today with contemporary electronic engine controls, it was going to be close for many teams in 1972 to average better than 1-1/2 miles to the gallon with their mechanical fuel injected turbocharged engines. 

At the start of the 1972 Indianapolis ‘500’ on Saturday May 27, pole-sitter Bobby Unser took the lead at the drop of the green flag and led the first 30 laps until his car retired on lap 31 with ignition problems. Gary Bettenhausen, in Roger Penske’s McLaren then took control of the race.  

Grant battled with Bettenhausen and took the race lead of lap 162 when Gary pitted and then held it for three laps until he pitted and Bettenhausen resumed the lead. On lap 175, Grant retook the lead and held on while Bettenhausen’s car retired on lap 182 with ignition problems. Bettenhausen’s teammate Mark Donohue inherited second place but was nearly a lap in arrears.   

While in the lead, Grant’s Eagle began to vibrate and “push” or understeer entering the turns with what Grant thought was a bad right front tire, so with just thirteen laps to go, Grant was forced to pit a fifth time. Without working team radio communications since early in the race, with only hand signals from the driver, Gurney and the crew surmised that Grant’s Eagle was running out of fuel. With the “Mystery Eagle’s” 250-gallon pit side fuel tank empty, the crew stopped Grant in teammate Unser’s stall.  

In a chaotic situation, the crew connected the fuel hoses, and then Gurney realized the problem was not fuel and ordered the crew to disconnect the hoses. The AAR crew changed the right front tire before they realized the problem was with the left front tire. 

By the time the disastrous pit stop was over, Grant’s car had been stationary for 38 seconds and Mark Donohue in the Sunoco DX- sponsored McLaren had swept past into the lead. Over the final 12 laps, Grant could not close the gap and crossed the finish line nearly a lap behind Donohue.

To finish second after he led the ‘500’ with thirteen laps to go must have been a crushing disappointment to Grant and the AAR team, but the worst was yet to come.

George Bignotti, crew chief for Vel’s Parnelli Jones Racing, owner of third-place finisher Al Unser’s ‘Viceroy Special’ filed a post-race protest which claimed that Grant’s car should have been “automatically disqualified “after it took fuel from Unser’s fueling tank. Bignotti’s protest was reviewed by the stewards overnight, and meanwhile, the AAR team studied videotape as they suspected that the USAC scoring was wrong and that Grant had actually won the 1972 Indianapolis ‘500.’

When the official race results were posted at 8 AM on Sunday morning May 28 1972 , Jerry Grant and the “Mystery Eagle” were placed twelfth in the finishing order. Chief Steward Harlan Fengler, Referee Don Cummins, and Steward Walt Myers had upheld Bignotti’s protest and that Grant was not credited any laps after the pit violation, just as if the car had retired at that point.  

After a hearing the USAC Appeal Board announced their decision on Wednesday afternoon June 7 1972.  While the panel agreed with Dan Gurney’s claim that the lap 188 refueling of Grant’s car was a mistake, as the car did not need fuel to complete the race, Chief Judge Charlie Brockman said that Gurney’s  “line of testimony is not relevant. The stewards cannot be responsible for the mistake of a contestant. The panel respects Mr. Gurney’s forthright honesty as he admitted that he would have taken the same action and chanced whatever penalty had he positively identified the need for more fuel.”  

The USAC Appeal Panel determined that a violation of the rules had occurred and cited the 1972 500-mile race Approved Supplementary Regulation #23 which stated that the maximum fuel supply other than that carried in the car was 250 gallons.  

On the heels of the stunning loss of more than $71,000 of Indianapolis ‘500’ prize money, Gurney and Grant found that the mysterious Chris Vallo had disappeared. Like Ray Nichels and David Pearson the pair wound being owed a lot of money which they would never collect.  Until his death Jerry Grant would show visitors to his home a copy of 1972 check for $10,000 from CV Enterprises stamped twice by the bank “NSF” (Insufficient Funds). 

In March 1976, the law finally caught with Chris Vallo, then 45 years old, as he was convicted on several federal counts: failing to file income tax returns, making false statements to obtain bank loans and firearms and possession of firearms as a convicted felon.  Vallo who had earlier filed for bankruptcy to escape several civil judgments was sentenced to five years in federal prison. Upon his release, Vallo remained out of the public eye and passed away in 2000.

Grant’s promising 1972 USAC season came to a halt for lack of sponsorship with the purple and white #48 AAR Eagle grounded for three months. In mid-August, Gurney’s primary sponsor Oscar L “Ozzie” Olson of the Olsonite Corporation, manufacturer of molded one-piece plastic toilet seats, announced that he had purchased the “Mystery Eagle.” 

Olson announced that Jerry Grant would run the final three USAC races on the 1972 schedule, starting with the third leg of the USAC ”Triple Crown” the ‘California 500’ at the 2-1/2 mile “Indianapolis of the West,” Ontario Motor Speedway.

Practice at Ontario California began on August 22 1972 and both the Eagles of Grant and teammate Bobby Unser soon posted practice lap speeds of over 200 miles per hour (MPH). Experts calculated that the turbocharged Offenhauser engines in the AAR Eagles had to produce nearly 1,100 horsepower to accomplish the 200 MPH feat.

That huge amount of horsepower from 159 cubic inches of engine displacement came at a price as the high level of boost pressure put a tremendous strain of the engine’s internal components.  Unser experienced two engine failures in practice and then in pre-qualifying practice on the morning of August 26, Unser’s car suffered another engine failure, which opened the door for Grant.

Jerry Grant’s first lap around the Ontario Motor Speedway in the purple and white #48 “Olsonite Eagle” lap was completed in 44.7 seconds, or 201.414 MPH. Jerry Grant was the first man to officially turn a lap in an Indianapolis-type championship race car at over 200 MPH. Grant’s lap broke Peter Revson’s day-old Ontario track record of 194.470 MPH and set a new world’s closed course speed record and took the two-year old "world’s closed course speed record" away from NASCAR stock car racer Bobby Issac.

Grant’s last three laps of his 10-mile time trial run were progressively slower, but he would start the ‘California 500’ from the pole position with a four-lap average of 199.600 MPH. In a post-qualifying interview, Grant explained “I didn’t want to push it, so I backed off a little after that first lap. The track is slick, and I didn’t want to make a stupid mistake.”

Grant seemed a bit underwhelmed by his accomplishment. “Going 200 MPH to say you’ve gone 200 MPH is not the object. I want to get a good starting position in the race and any of the three in the front will be fine with me.”    

Meanwhile, the AAR crew replaced the engine in Unser’s car in time for him to make his time trial run later on Saturday, but rain showers in the area kept Unser off the track and therefore he was ineligible to make a run for the pole position. The next day, Sunday August 27, Unser’s Eagle blazed to a new track and world’s record with a lap of 201.965 MPH and a four-lap average of 201.374 MPH but because his run came a day too late, Unser started the 1972 ‘California 500’ from the twenty-third starting position.

If there was any question of the level of animosity between Grant and Unser, it was answered by Grant’s quote printed by the Associated Press after Unser’s record-setting run. “Isn’t it ironic?” said Grant, “the B team is sitting on the pole and the A team is back in 23rd?”  Unser later told Preston Lerner "that record should have been mine.  Letting Jerry get the record irks me like hell because I did all the development work on the car.”

In pre-race publicity, AJ Foyt predicted race laps would be in the 175-180 MPH range with engine turbocharger boost levels reduced and the cars carrying full fuel loads. In final practice on September 1, Grant ran a lap with full tanks at 190.779 MPH, and Unser practiced at 192.028 MPH. In an article published the day before the race the Long Beach Press-Telegram ranked Grant as a 10-1 favorite to win the race to be held on September 3 1972.  

Jerry Grant’s “Mystery Eagle” failed to complete the first parade lap of the third annual $700,000 “California 500” before a rod bolt in the Offenhauser engine broke. The magical flight of the "Mystery Eagle" at Ontario was over.


In an interview days later with Ohio sportswriter Rick Yocum, Grant revealed “I never felt more confident about a race in my life than I did about Ontario. Usually we change the engine after qualifying, but mine was running good, and you hate to fool with something that’s working so well. We changed pistons, valves and bearings, but not the bolts.” 

 Grant ran the two final 1972 USAC races - the penultimate event at Trenton New Jersey where the engine failed after 53 laps, then in the season finale at Phoenix were he was flagged as the eighth place finisher. While the 1972 season certainly did not have the results Grant and Gurney hoped for, Grant will forever be remembered as the first man to post an official lap in an IndyCar at over 200 MPH. 

Fellow historian Jacques Dresang noted that the original "Mystery Eagle" was sold to Bruce Crower in 1973 who still owns the chassis. The car shown at the Lyon Air Museum is a tribute built up with a NOS (New Old Stock) tub.     

All photos by the author except as noted

The historic1967 LeMans winner

 

Deservedly the centerpiece of the Ford Motor Company exhibit  at the 2017 SEMA (Specialty Equipment Market Association) show was the 1967 24 Heures du Mans (24 hours of LeMans) winning Ford GT40 Mark IV chassis  number J-5.

 

 

This car represented the ultimate development of the Ford GT40 series which first appeared at LeMans in 1964, as Henry Ford II was driven to beat the Italian Ferrari team. The initial Ford Advanced Vehicles Limited effort with British built chassis originally designed by Lola Cars powered by Ford’s 260 cubic inch V-8 engines managed by John Wyer did not perform well, and for 1965 management of the program moved to Carrol Shelby’s Shelby American Racing Team.

In 1965 Shelby American was still pushing its Cobra Daytona coupe program and after a difficult 1965 LeMans appearance in which both the Mark IIs entered retired with transmission failure, in 1966 the Shelby American GT40 Mark IIs powered by Ford 427 engines dominated at LeMans. 

The 1966 finish was botched as Ford tried to stage the 1-2-3 finish and the team of Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon were declared the winners of race over the team of Ken Miles and Denis Hulme.  The next iteration of the GT40 known as the “J-car” (chassis J-2) was destroyed in testing and killed Ken Miles and Ford dropped its development.  GT40 Mark III were cars built for road use.

Six (6) GT40 Mark IV chassis were built at Kar Kraft Inc. in Detroit powered by the mighty 427 Ford V-8 engine with cast iron block and aluminum cylinder heads fed by a pair of Holley four barrel carburetors that developed an estimated 530 horsepower and carried the Mark IV to terminal speeds of 212 miles per hour on the 3-1/2 mile long Mulsanne Straight. Lessons learned from the deaths of Walter Hangsen and Ken Miles meant the Mark IVs were more stoutly built with a steel roll cage.

 

 

 

Four Mark IV chassis were entered for the 1967 LeMans 24 hour race, two cars by Shelby American on Goodyear tires consisted of the driver team of three-time Indianapolis 500-race winner AJ Foyt and Dan Gurney in the red #1 car and the other team of 1966 LeMans winner Bruce McLaren and Mark Donohue in the yellow #2 car.

The other two Ford GT 40 Mark IVs were entered by the Holman Moody team shod with Firestone tires driven by teams of Lucien Bianchi and Mario Andretti in the bronze #3 car and the other by Denis Hulme and Lloyd Ruby in the dark blue #4 car.  The red #1 car chassis J-5 was visually different from the other entries because of the “Gurney Bubble” over the driver’s seat to accommodate Dan Gurney’s 6-foot-3 inch height.

The car #2 of Donohue and McLaren finished fourth while the #3 car assigned to Bianchi and Andretti and the #4 car of Hulme and Ruby were both eliminated in accidents during the 19th hour.   Foyt and Gurney in the #1 car led the race for the last 23 ½ hours and completed 388 laps (3251 miles) at a record breaking average of 135.48 miles per hours and won by four laps over the Ferrari 330 P4 driven by Ludovico Scarfiotti and Michael Parks.

 

The car that crossed the finish line on June 11 1967 was truly “all American”- car built in Detroit powered by an American-built Ford engine riding on American Goodyear tires driven by a pair American drivers.  This car chassis J-5 only ran one race and today the conserved car is part of the collection of the Henry Ford Museum in Detroit, Michigan.

To learn more about Ford Motor Company’s racing program at LeMans in 1967 and view historic photographs visit https://www.thehenryford.org/collections-and-research/digital-collections/expert-sets/101482

The Eagles have landed at the Petersen

The author recently visited the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles and toured one of the featured exhibits “The Eagles have landed” in the gallery funded by the author’s friend and single engine wheel-driven Land Speed Record holder Charles Nearburg. The exhibit focuses on the cars and accomplishments of Southern California racing legend Dan Gurney  and we will take a look at several of the open-wheel cars on display.

 

 

From left to right – the All-American Racing (AAR) Gurney-Weslake V-12 Grand Prix car, the 1968 AAR Gurney-Weslake Ford powered Indianapolis car, and the AAR-modified Mclaren “McEagle” Can-Am car.

 

From left to right- the 1971 turbocharged Offenhauser powered Eagle, the 1975 turbocharged Offenhauser powered Eagle, and the 1977 Eagle SCCA Formula Ford.

1968 Eagle

Dan Gurney only drove the 1968 AAR Eagle in five United States Auto Club (USAC) races; four road course races and the Indianapolis International 500-mile Sweepstakes.  The Eagle’s season started at the Stardust 150 at the windswept Stardust international Raceway outside Las Vegas Nevada. Gurney qualified his new Eagle powered by the 303-cubic inch Ford stock block V-8 engine fitted with aluminum Gurney-Weslake cylinder heads for the pole position, but the front suspension of the car broke before Dan took the green flag. 

 

At the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Gurney qualified the Eagle in the tenth position with a four-lap average nearly five miles per hour slower than Joe Leonard’s pole-winning STP Lotus 56 turbine. During the race, Gurney never led but brought the Eagle home in in second place followed by his teammate Denis Hulme in fourth place. Two weeks later on June 15 1968, at the 2-1/2 mile Mosport road course in Canada, Gurney and the Eagle started from the pole position for both the 98-mile heat races. Gurney totally dominated the races, and led all 80 laps and won both the heat races.

Gurney and the Eagle did not appear in other 1968 USAC races until the season ending Rex Mays 300 at the Riverside International Raceway. For the second year in a row, Gurney qualified for the pole position and won the Rex Mays 300 for the second year in a row. Unlike the previous years, Gurney and the Eagle were totally dominant, as he led all 112 laps around the winding 2.6 mile road course.  In retrospect, the 1968 AAR Eagle has to be considered a success; three race wins and one second place in a limited five-race season

1971 Eagle

Dan Gurney retired as a driver in 1970, and he later admitted that the transition was difficult at times as rather a seat of the pants engineering evaluation, Gurney had to rely on feedback from new AAR driver. Bobby Unser.  The 1971 Eagle Indianapolis car was a revision of the 1970 Eagle fitted with a turbocharged Offenhauser power plant. The 1971 Eagle was brutally fast and Unser was the fastest qualifier at seven races and set four new lap records.

 

 

Reliability proved to be a problem and between mechanical failures and crashes, Unser only finished five races on the 12-race Marlboro Championship Trail but in two of those races, at Trenton New Jersey and the Milwaukee Mile Unser emerged victorious. In August at the Milwaukee Mile, Bobby led all but nine laps, and at the Marlboro 300 held in October at Trenton, Bobby led the first 70 laps before he pitted and turned the led over to his brother Al for the next ten laps before Bobby in the #2 Olsonite Eagle took back the lead and led the rest of the way.  

1981 Eagle

For 1980, Gurney together with All American Racers designers Trevor Harris and John Ward created an amazing design that used the Boundary Layer Adhesion Technology (BLAT) ground effects system. Instead of using tunnels underneath the car as with other designs the BLAT concept used a twin vortex generating shape at the trailing edge of the rear bodywork. The routing of the naturally aspirated aluminum block 358-cubic inch Chevrolet engine exhaust system added further energy and downforce to the airflow.

 

By 1981 BLAT had reached its ultimate development with this Pepsi Challenger and driven by veteran Mike Mosely qualified at 197.141 miles per hour (MPH) to start in the middle of the front row for the Indianapolis 500-mile race. While former Eagle pilot Bobby Unser streaked away from the pole position on his way to a disputed victory, Mosley was the first car sidelined after just 16 laps with an oil radiator leak.

 

A week later at the Gould Rex Mays Classic, Mosely and the Eagle suffered an early engine problem and failed to make a time trial run, so the Pepsi Challenger started 25th in the 26-car field. Mosley worked his way forward through the field and took the lead on lap 106 and he built up more than a one-lap advantage over second place Kevin Cogan when the checkered flag dropped after 150 laps around the one-mile oval.

Sadly the Milwaukee race was the high water mark for the Eagle’s 1981 season, as in its remaining three appearances, the car was sidelined with mechanical troubles. Later in an ironic turn events the Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) organization, which Gurney had helped, found after displeasure with USAC rule-making outlawed both the BLAT concept and the use of aluminum stock-block engines.    

"The Eagles have landed" exhibit which includes the historic Moet champagne bottle from the 1967 24 hours of LeMans and Gurney's Bell ground-breaking full-face helmet worn in the 1969 Indianapolis 500-mile race continues at the Petersen Automotive Museum  through January 10 2018

Photos by the author    

 

 

 

BCRA racer Joe Leonard passed away

Joe Leonard began his racing career on motorcycles in 1951 and by 1953 he reached the expert class, but that season was cut short by severe injuries from a crash. Joe returned in 1954 aboard Tom Sifton’s Harley-Davidson and captured the American Motorcycle Association (AMA) Grand National Championship.
 

1954 marked the first season that the champion was determined by an eighteen race season rather than by the result of a single race. Those eighteen races included a mixture of road races, races on one mile and hall-mile dirt ovals and Tourist Trophy (TT) steeplechase races which are held on a modified dirt oval with at least one right hand turn and one jump.

Leonard won eight AMA races in 1954 (a record which stood for years), posted a win on each type of course, and over a ten-day stretch won four straight races and defeated Paul Goldsmith for the Grand National title. As the defending champion, in1955 Leonard won three motorcycle races and finished third in the AMA Grand National championship. That same year Joe Leonard made his debut with the mighty midgets of the Bay Cities Racing Association (BCRA) in a race at Contra Costa Speedway in Pacheco on May 14 1955, and finished sixth in the semi-main race.

During the early months of 1956, Leonard raced with the BCRA midgets indoors at the Oakland Exposition Building and captured two semi-main victories. Later that year, on his motorcycle Joe won two of the seven AMA races and repeated as the Grand National champion, and then in 1957 he won four of eight races to win his second consecutive and third career Grand National championship.

 

Click to enlarge

Joe Leonard is in the center wearing a stylish flannel shirt

in this page from a BCRA indoor racing program

 

Joe Leonard continued to race motorcycles as well as midgets with the BCRA and modified stock cars when his schedule allowed. In 1961, Joe won two BCRA main events at the Oakland Exposition Building on back-to-back nights January 20 and 21 both while driving Walter Booth’s “Booth Brothers Garage” Ford V8-60 powered midget. At the end of the 1961 AMA season, after he won three races and finished second in championship, Leonard retired from motorcycle racing to concentrate on racing on four wheels full-time.

In the 1964 season, Leonard raced full-time on the United States Auto Club stock car circuit and scored his first win at the one-mile Illinois State Fairground dirt track at DuQuoin on September 6 behind the wheel of Ray Nichels’ 1964 Dodge.

 

The next day, Joe took his first ride in a USAC championship car on the same DuQuoin track in Bruce Homeyer's “Konstant Hot Special” and finished fourteenth. Leonard drove in four more championship races for legendary car owners George Walther, Joe Hunt and Ernie Ruiz, while on the stock car trail he scored six top ten finishes with four top ten finishes and was named the USAC stock car division’s Rookie of the Year.

The following year, 1965, Joe arrived at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and after a problem passing the vision test, he qualified Dan Gurney’s Halibrand rear-engine car to make his first of nine Indianapolis 500-mile race appearances. Barely a month later at Langhorne Pennsylvania, Leonard became a hero to many for his bravery as he helped to pull an unconscious Mel Kenyon from the inferno of his burning roadster and saved Kenyon’s life.

On August 14, 1965 in only his twelfth USAC championship car start Joe was victorious on the paved one mile at Milwaukee. While it would not be until 1970 that he notched his second USAC championship win, in 1968 Leonard started from the pole position for the Indianapolis 500-mile race and came within nine laps of victory in the STP wedge-shaped Lotus turbine car.

Joe was crowned the 1971 USAC National Champion on the strength of his very consistent season in his “Samsonite Special” as he recorded one victory, five top five and two top ten finishes. Leonard repeated as the USAC National Champion in 1972 as he tallied three straight wins at Michigan International Speedway, Pocono Raceway and the Milwaukee Mile. Leonard finished out of the top five twice in his eight 1972 USAC race appearances which included his best finish of third place in the Indianapolis 500-mile race.

After two championships, Leonard suffered through a rough 1973 USAC championship season and finished fifteenth in the season points, then suffered a brutal crash during the 1974 California ‘500’ at the Ontario Motor Speedway after it appeared that his car’s left front Firestone tire failed. Leonard suffered a compound fracture of his lower left leg with his ankle was crushed and his foot nearly severed in the accident, and it reportedly took rescuers nearly half an hour to extract him from the destroyed Vel’s/Parnelli Eagle.

Joe Leonard missed the rest of the 1974 USAC racing season as he recovered from his injuries, and after eight months in a full-length cast, he attempted a comeback in March 1975 at age 42.  Before practice opened for the 1975 ‘California 500,’ USAC officials tested Leonard’s level of physical fitness and found that his left foot was not sufficiently healed as he could not fully depress the brake pedal of AJ Foyt’s backup car.  That failed physical brought a sad end to Joe Leonard’s brilliant racing career that included three AMA Grand National Championships, two USAC National Championships, and two BCRA main event indoor victories.  After several years of health problems, Joe Leonard passed away on April 27 2017.

The author thanks historian and author Tom Motter for supplying many key historical details used in this article.

The racing life and times of Jerry Grant

Part five –1972 after the Indianapolis ‘500’

While car owner Dan Gurney’s appeal of the 1972 Indianapolis ‘500’ penalty of ten finishing positions and over $71,000 by United States Auto Club (USAC) officials for a pit violation was being addressed, the “Mystery Eagle” team moved to Milwaukee for the 150-mile ‘Rex Mays Classic’ on June 4. Grant’s teammate, Bobby Unser qualified his 1972 All American Racers (AAR) Eagle #6 for the pole position with Grant alongside in the purple and white #48.

Bobby Unser led the first 45 circuits on the flat Wisconsin State Fair Park one-mile oval before he pitted and yielded the race lead to Grant for one lap while the field ran under the caution flag. While Unser went on to lead the last ninety laps and win the race, the turbocharger on the four-cylinder Offenhauser engine in Grant’s car failed and the “Mystery Eagle” retired on lap 86.

Three days after the Milwaukee race, Gurney and Grant learned that their appeal of the Indianapolis penalty had been rejected, and rather than a minimal fine which they had hoped for, Grant was awarded twelfth place. Around that same time, Grant and Gurney discovered that their Indianapolis sponsor, Chris Vallo of CV Enterprises, rather than being a millionaire as he claimed was a scam artist who had dropped of sight owing the AAR team and Grant tens of thousands of dollars.

Grant’s promising 1972 USAC season ground to a halt for lack of sponsorship with the purple and white #48 AAR Eagle grounded for three months. In mid-August, Gurney’s primary sponsor Oscar L “Ozzie” Olson of the Olsonite Corporation, manufacturer of molded one-piece plastic toilet seats, announced that he had purchased the “Mystery Eagle.” Olson announced that Jerry Grant would run the final three USAC races on the 1972 schedule, starting with the third leg of the USAC ”Triple Crown” at the 2-1/2 mile “Indianapolis of the West,” Ontario Motor Speedway.

Practice at Ontario California began on August 22 and both the Eagles of Grant and teammate Bobby Unser soon posted practice lap speeds of over 200 miles per hour (MPH). Experts calculated that the turbocharged Offenhauser engines in the AAR Eagles had to produce nearly 1,100 horsepower in order to accomplish the 200 MPH feat.

That huge amount of horsepower from 159 cubic inches of engine displacement came at a price as the high level of boost pressure put a tremendous strain of the engine’s internal components.  Unser experienced two engine failures in practice and then in pre-qualifying practice on the morning of August 26, Unser’s car suffered another engine failure, which opened the door for Grant.

Jerry Grant’s first lap around the Ontario Motor Speedway in the purple and white #48 “Olsonite Eagle” lap was completed in 44.7 seconds, or 201.414 MPH. Jerry Grant was the first man to officially turn a lap in an Indianapolis-type championship race car at over 200 MPH. Grant’s lap broke Peter Revson’s day-old Ontario track record of 194.470 MPH and set a new world’s closed course speed record and took the two-year old "world’s closed course speed record" away from NASCAR stock car racer Bobby Issac.

Grant’s last three laps of his 10-mile time trial run were progressively slower, but he would start the ‘California 500’ from the pole position with a four-lap average of 199.600 MPH. In a post-qualifying interview, Grant explained “I didn’t want to push it so I backed off a little after that first lap. The track is slick and I didn’t want to make a stupid mistake.”

Grant seemed a bit underwhelmed by his accomplishment. “Going 200 MPH to say you’ve gone 200 MPH is not the object. I want to get a good starting position in the race and any of the three in the front will be fine with me.”    

Meanwhile, the AAR crew replaced the engine in Unser’s car in time for him to make his time trial run later on Saturday, but rain showers in the area kept Unser off the track and therefore he was ineligible to make a run for the pole position. 

The next day, Sunday August 27, Unser’s Eagle blazed to a new track and world’s record with a lap of 201.965 MPH and a four-lap average of 201.374 MPH but because his run came a day too late, Unser started the 1972 ‘California 500’ from the twenty-third starting position.

If there was any question of the level of animosity between Grant and Unser, it was answered by Grant’s quote printed by the Associated Press after Unser’s record-setting run. “Isn’t it ironic?” said Grant, “the B team is sitting on the pole and the A team is back in 23rd?”  Unser later told Preston Lerner "that record should have been mine.  Letting Jerry get the record irks me like hell because I did all the development work on the car.”

In pre-race publicity, AJ Foyt predicted race laps would be in the 175-180 MPH range with engine turbocharger boost levels reduced and the cars carrying full fuel loads . In final practice on September 1, Grant ran a lap with full tanks at 190.779 MPH, and Unser practiced at 192.028 MPH. In an article published the day before the race the Long Beach Press-Telegram ranked Grant as a 10-1 favorite to win the race to be held on September 3 1972.  

Jerry Grant’s “Mystery Eagle” failed to complete the first parade lap of the third annual $700,000 “California 500” before a rod bolt in the Offenhauser engine broke. In an interview days later with Ohio sportswriter Rick Yocum, Grant revealed “I never felt more confident about a race in my life than I did about Ontario. Usually we change the engine after qualifying, but mine was running good, and you hate to fool with something that’s working so well. We changed pistons, valves and bearings, but not the bolts.”

Grant struggled with engine problems at the “Trenton 300” held on the 1-1/2 mile dog-leg oval Trenton (New Jersey) Speedway; he qualified eighteenth and finished 21st after the engine failed on lap 53. At the season-ending ‘Best Western 150’ at Phoenix International Raceway, Grant qualified tenth and finished eighth, 11 laps behind his teammate Unser who won his second consecutive USAC championship race.

Next time we will tell the story of Jerry Grant's shortened 1973 season and his struggles against  the USAC hierarchy.