The racing life and times of Jerry Grant

Part nine – 1977 and retirement

 

 

Courtesy of Hemmings

 

 

In a May 1977 interview with Bob Gallas a sportswriter for the Chicago area Arlington Heights Daily Herald Grant revealed that he had been bothered by a fever all during the previous summer which he treated with aspirin. Grant shared that he had raced to a tenth place finish in the 1976 “California 500” at Ontario Motor Speedway while suffering with a fever of 102 degrees.

Grant said after he got home after he finished the race in Fred Carrillo’s American Motor Corporation (AMC) 209 cubic inch turbocharged “stock block”-powered Eagle, he slept for two days. When he awoke he said he had a 106 degree temperature so he drove himself to the hospital.

While in the hospital Grant nearly died twice before doctors diagnosed a severe gall bladder infection which had spread to his liver and lungs. Once he recovered and was released Grant rehabilitated and rebuilt his stamina by riding his off-road trail motorcycle for hours each day.  Unfortunately he was ill during the time of the year that car owners sign up their drivers for next year, so Grant said “I’m lucky to have a ride at all.”  Grant mused “I’ve always been religious… my recovery brought home the fact that the man upstairs has more for me to do down here. I look forward to winning the ‘500’ and getting paid for it this time, all my bill collectors are counting on that.”

Jerry Grant was entered as the driver for the “Hoffman Trucking Special,” a turbocharged Offenhauser powered 1973 Eagle chassis, a far cry from the top-flight equipment he had commanded just a few years earlier. According to fellow historian Allen Brown, the Eagle owned Richard and August “Gus” Hoffman carried All-American Racers (AAR) chassis tag # 7223 had been driven in the 1973 Indianapolis 500 by David Hobbs for car owner Roy Woods.

The Hoffman family, involved in racing since 1929, purchased the car from Woods in 1976 and fielded the “American Financial Special” Eagle for John Mahler in seven races during the 1976 United States Auto Club (USAC) championship season, including the Indianapolis 500-mile race.

In his 1977 interview with Bob Gallas, Grant admitted that it was “tough competing against these new entries with a five year old car,” but added “our engine is reliable.” Grant counted on the track getting oily on race day as then “the difference in horsepower won’t mean as much.”  In practice early in May, Grant posted a best lap speed of 187.797 miles per hour (MPH) which was considered marginal by the “railbirds,” but in fact would have easily been fast enough to make the 33-car starting field.

Grant made two attempts on the first day of time trials, May 14, but waved off each attempt after just one lap had been completed. In practice late on Friday afternoon, May 20, Grant’s Eagle hit the third turn wall with the right side of the tub, and tore both wheels away. The wounded Eagle then slid 1000 feet across the north short chute and hit the wall again with the right side of the tub before it came to rest in the middle of turn 4.

Grant climbed out of the wreckage of the Eagle and was transported to the infield hospital where he was checked and released. USAC officials reported that the right side of the Eagle was “extensive damaged” and the Hoffman team deemed the car as “not repairable” particularly since the crash came on the eve of the final weekend of qualifying.

Grant picked up a ride in the Alex Foods #75 1974 turbocharged Offenhauser powered Eagle, car originally driven by Mario Andretti during the 1975 season for the Vel’s- Parnelli Jones Racing Viceroy sponsored team. Purchased by Alex Morales after season’s end, the Eagle served as Billy Vukovich’s primary car during the 1976 season, and served as the Morales  team’s backup car for the 1977 Indianapolis 500-mile race. 

Grant took practice laps in the #75 on Saturday May 21, and took the green flag for his first qualifying attempt but pulled into the pits before he completed a lap. On a busy “bump day” on Sunday, May 22, Grant was one of two drivers, along with Daniel “Spike” Gehlhausen eliminated by an accident as Jerry crashed the Alex Foods Eagle on the second lap of his second qualifying attempt.

After Indianapolis, the Hoffman team bought a 1973 Eagle, chassis tag number 7221, originally a Leader Card Racing team car primarily driven by Mike Mosley for two seasons. The Hoffman team bought it from car owner Patrick Santello, and this Eagle became Jerry Grant’s entry for the balance of the 1977 USAC season. Hoffman Racing fielded a championship car beginning with the 1973 Indianapolis 500 for Larry Cannon, and would start seven Indianapolis 500-mile races, but the 1973 season was not a good one for the Cincinnati area team. 

Grant’s next USAC race appearance came at the end of June in the “Schaefer 500” at Pocono Raceway in Long Pond Pennsylvania. Grant started the race 29th in an admittedly weak 33-cars starting field after he qualified for a four-lap average of 173.160 MPH compared to pole winner AJ Foyt’s average of 189.474 MPH.  

Foyt was in rare form that weekend in Pennsylvania. An unnamed source close to the race organizers told some newspaper reporters that Foyt had demanded “appearance money,” which Foyt denied – he termed it as “expense money” to reimburse his travel expenses. When the money went unpaid, Foyt became uncooperative and did not practice his Gilmore Coyote at all on Wednesday, and told reporters that the car was entered for a rookie named “Sam Houston” and went so far as to add yellow rookie stripes on the rear wing.  

On Thursday Foyt delayed his qualifying run then he won the pole position with a run in the last half-hour of time trials. After his run Foyt refused to be interviewed on the public address system, and as the crowd continued to boo Foyt, the hot-tempered Texan responded by showing the crowd an obscene gesture.  Foyt refused to pose for a “front row” photograph with Rutherford and Mario Andretti, and then skipped the pole winner’s banquet which 250 fans had paid $60 a head to attend.

Foyt’s behavior brought to a head a controversy that had been brewing all season long between Foyt, the reigning four-time Indianapolis ‘500’ winner and Fred Stecher, the President and self-appointed Director of Racing of Citicorp Services, Inc., at the time the title sponsor of the USAC Championship Trail.  The dispute between the two strong-willed men presented a crisis for USAC officials.  

USAC's biggest star exchanged barbed comments with the series title sponsor for which they searched in vain for several years. The USAC national championship trail had gone without a title series sponsor since the end of the1971 season when Marlboro cigarettes terminated their sponsorship program after just two seasons when USAC allowed the Vel’s Parnelli Jones Racing team to sign Viceroy Cigarettes as the main sponsor on two of the team’s entries.

The loss of Marlboro combined with the Energy Crisis brought about a financial crisis in late December 1973 that led to the layoffs of USAC series directors Shim Malone and Bob Stroud. The USAC Board of Directors then forced out Executive Director Bill Smyth in January 1974 in an awkward situation that day before the club’s annual banquet. The Indianapolis Star quoted USAC president Reynold C. MacDonald’s statement as “the board is appreciative of the effort and contribution Bill has made to USAC and will prepare a letter of commendation for his services." When the Star reporter asked if Smyth felt that he was forced to resign, he replied with a terse "no comment."

The sponsorship search went on for two years before on the eve of the 1976 Indianapolis ‘500,’ USAC Executive Director Dick King and James A. Melvin, assistant vice-president of Citicorp Services, Inc. announced that First National City Travelers Checks would be the official sponsor for the championship division trail with $35,000 added to division point fund for 1976 while King said the two groups were “still working out the details for 1977.”

At the end of the 1976 USAC season, the Citicorp Services contract with USAC called for the national champion (Gordon Johncock) to receive $20,000 from Citicorp, the second place finisher (Johnny Rutherford) $10,000, and third place driver (Wally Dallenbach) would get Citicorp check for $5000.

While now they are largely obsolete, from the nineteen fifties through the nineteen eighties, traveler’s checks were a safer way to travel with money versus carrying large amounts of cash. If the checks were lost or stolen, the issuer replaced them for free. The issuer standard fee was one to three percent of the check value plus one to three percent when the check was cashed. In the late nineteen seventies the $20+ billion-a-year traveler's check industry consisted of multiple giant banks who each spent millions of dollars annually on advertising. 

The second largest player in the field with 22 percent of the market was First National City Bank, whose holding company was named Citicorp. Citicorp Credit Services, Inc. a wholly owned division, provided travelers checks processing, marketing and distribution services for Citicorp. In 1976 Citicorp began a major drive for international growth which included motorsports sponsorships.

First National City Travelers Checks first appeared as a race cars sponsor at Indianapolis in May 1976 as the sponsor of Tassi Vatis’s Eagle driven by Steve Krisiloff. Like many sponsors through the years, Citicorp expanded from car sponsorship to series sponsorship which carried the potential of more visibility.

For the 1977 season, Citicorp increased its USAC participation and rewarded top finishers in each race on the First National City Travelers Checks Championship Trail with cash for race qualifiers and then points for their finish towards the Citicorp Cup and a $20,000 season ending award.  Citicorp also established a rookie program that paid the top-finishing rookie of each race $500, and the season’s rookie of year $10,000, and $1000 in appearance money at each race they appeared in the following season.

Wearing this patch on the drivers uniform

was required to get Citicorp's money

 

All this money came provided the drivers and their cars carried the required First National City Travelers Checks stickers and the driver’s suit sported the company logo. The exact amount of the 1977 deal was never released but in an interview Stecher said that “$350,000 to $400,000 would not be inaccurate,” although some of the awards required matching funds from the race promoters. In addition to the series sponsorship, First National City Traveler’s checks provide race car sponsorship for Roger McCluskey in Lindsay Hopkins’ entry and Johnny Rutherford in the Team McLaren entry.

Foyt had earned the ire of Fred Stecher at the second race of the year, the Jimmy Bryan 150 at Phoenix International Raceway, when Foyt engaged in a post-race physical confrontation with McLaren team boss Tyler Alexander. On national television Foyt grabbed Alexander’s collar and shook him as he claimed that Alexander had used the team radio to instruct race winner Johnny Rutherford in the Citcorp-sponsored McLaren to block second-place Foyt in the final laps of the race.

Stecher called USAC President Dick King after the Phoenix race and told King that Foyt should be penalized. Stecher later claimed King agreed to do so, but USAC did not penalize their most famous driver.  Foyt retaliated against Stecher at Indianapolis and refused to carry First National City Travelers Checks stickers on his #14 car or wear the uniform patches. Stecher told the press “that’s not the way we intended this to work when we became involved,” so despite scoring his historic fourth Indy win, Foyt did not earn the 1000 “Citicorp Cup” points for the victory.  Foyt told Roger Jaynes of the Milwaukee Journal. “I’m not required to carry stickers; they say that I need to use stickers to be eligible but I don’t care.”

After the Pocono incident the dispute between Foyt and Stecher further escalated and the two men went to war in the press.  After USAC declined to reprimand Foyt, Stecher threatened to file a lawsuit against USAC and Foyt for breach of contract. “Foyt behaved in a manner detrimental to the sport of auto racing. Foyt is a leader and hero in sports and that presupposes he’ll behave in a gentlemanly manner,” said Stecher. He then blasted USAC President Dick King "Foyt’s actions Thursday and USAC’s inability or unwillingness to the take action was the last straw.”

Foyt fired back “The man’s a damn fool and a liar. I’m an independent contractor and have nothing to do with his (Stecher’s) contract agreement with USAC. I resent him telling me how to act without the facts. If Fred is looking to get out of sponsoring USAC, then I’m the goat.”  As an aside, Foyt was correct: in 1977, USAC did not have a rule that tied the drivers to any series or sponsor requirements.

After all the pre-race fireworks, the “Schaefer 500” itself was fairly exciting.  Foyt and Johncock dominated the first sixty laps, and then six drivers took turns leading until Foyt’s turbocharged Foyt engine burned a piston on lap 1118 and retired. After Foyt’s retirement, the race fell to the two Penske Racing drivers Tom Sneva and Mario Andretti who between them led 73 of the race’s final 75 laps, as they both held a lap lead over the third and fourth place Patrick Racing cars driven by Johncock and Dallenbach.   After he started 29th, Jerry Grant and the Hoffman Racing Eagle finished 13th, the last car running 55 laps behind Sneva, mainly due to the remarkable high attrition rate that saw 22 of the 33 starters fall aside with mechanical failure.     

The whole ugly Pocono affair was reported in detail in an article written by Sam Moses in the July 4 1978 issue of Sports Illustrated magazine. Stecher was quoted on his threatened cancellation of the First National City Traveler’s Checks series sponsorship. "I don't think that it is in the best interest of Citicorp to be identified as a sponsor with a professional sports series where the conduct of the participants and the tolerance of that conduct isn't governed by rules within the sanctioning organization. I'm in no position to dictate to USAC, but on the other hand I don't have to sit down at a riot and pay the bills, either."

Grant made an uncharacteristic appearance at a USAC road course event, his first in over seven years, with the Hoffman Eagle at the Mosport Park Road Course in Canada. Grant qualified seventeenth in the puny 19-car field for the “Molson Diamond Indy” race, and finished in fifth place, three laps behind Foyt after 75 laps over the 2.46 mile road course on July 3.

Two weeks later at Roger Penske’s 2-mile high banked Michigan International Speedway, Grant and the #69 Hoffman Eagle were too slow to make the 22 car field for the “Norton 200.” The week following that race, won by rookie Danny Ongais in his benefactor Ted Field’s Cosworth-powered Parnelli chassis, Citicorp Services Inc. announced its surprising decision about sponsorship of the USAC national championship trail for 1978. 

Given the recent controversy, few would have expected Citicorp to expand its involvement, but that’s just what it proposed- but with stipulations. Citicorp proposed a nine-fold increase over 1977 to half a million dollars, with prize fund enhancements at fifteen races, a $275,000 appearance fund, and the continuation of the rookie incentive program provided the USAC board accepted the stipulations. “We feel our association with USAC is very beneficial,” said Fred Stecher, “we want to take a step to protect our investment.”

The previous year's Citicorp Cup champion (in 1977 Tom Sneva) was scheduled to receive $1,500 per race, while the defending Indianapolis ‘500’ winner would get $1,000 a race while the Pocono and Ontario winners $500 each. Interestingly, all other past series champions or USAC “Triple Crown” race winners were scheduled to $250 per race for each honor.  This meant that in 1978, six-time USAC titlist, four-time Indianapolis 500 winner, two-time Pocono victor and single-time Ontario winner A.J. Foyt was guaranteed $3,250 every time he rolled his Coyote through the pit gate.

At the end of July, Grant and the Hoffman team appeared at the Texas World Speedway in College Station Texas for the “American Parts 200” a race sponsored the Houston based   American parts system Inc. the distributor of auto parts, licensed and sold under the "Big A" brand. The track record at the two-mile high-banked oval billed by track president RC Conole as the “Indy of the Southwest” of 214.158 MPH was set by Mario Andretti in 1973. Grant did not make a qualifying run either on July 30 or the pre-race session held the morning of the race on July 31 but Ongais won the pole with a lap of 205.141 MPH.

Three weeks later at the ‘Milwaukee Mile’ for the “Tony Bettenhausen 200,” Jerry Grant and the Hoffman #69 Eagle edged out USAC sprint car regulars James McElreath and Todd Gibson to start dead last in the 22-car field. After Johnny Rutherford took the checkered flag, Grant was the last car running and was flagged home in sixteenth 35 laps down.

Grant showed up at Ontario Motor Speedway over Labor Day weekend in search of a ride but was unsuccessful. Shortly thereafter, Grant a long time member of the Champion Spark Plug Highway Safety team that toured schools around the country retired as a driver and accepted a full-time position with Toledo-based Champion as a field representative for the 1978 season.  

In a 1980 interview with Bob Longwith of the Kokomo Tribune newspaper, Grant reflected on his final USAC racing season after his recovery from the near gall bladder infection in 1976. “When I came back there were no equipment around, so I drove cars that were also-rans. There is no way you can be competitive in an also-ran car no matter how good a driver you are. There is no enjoyment in being an also-ran”’

Later in the month of September 1977, the USAC Board of Directors accepted the Citicorp contract and adopted a new rule known as the “Foyt Rule.” Beginning with the 1978 season, USAC officials had the authority to withhold points in any USAC division if a driver failed to comply with the requirements of the series and its sponsor. 

 

 

 

For the 1978 racing season, First National City Travelers Checks dramatically expanded its motorsports activities. In addition the USAC series sponsorship, the firm continued to sponsor the entries of McLaren and Lindsey Hopkins and added Jim Hall’s Chaparral entry driven by Al Unser. Citicorp also sponsored three cars on the National Association of Stock Car Racing (NASCAR) circuit driven by Benny Parsons, Caleb “Cale” Yarbrough and Ricky Rudd as well as support of the NASCAR rookie program. Citicorp’s diverse sponsorship included Doug Caruthers’ USAC midget and a 45-foot offshore racing boat.

For sports car racing, the company sponsored the SCCA Citicorp Economy Challenge series, the revitalized SCCA Canadian-American Challenge (Can-Am) series and International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) competitor David Hobbs BMW race cars. In Europe after previously sponsoring Roger Penske’s entries, in 1978 Citicorp supported Ken Tyrell’s two-car team.

In short, the red-white and blue colors of First National and their logo appeared in some form in virtually every professional racing series in 1977 and 1978. Fred Stecher was no longer involved in racing, as the Citicorp has a triumvirate in charge of racing - Ralph McEldowney, Don Porter, and Rich Lewis.      

Unfortunately at the end of the 1978 USAC season, Citicorp did not renew its sponsorship of the USAC national championship trail and also withdrew race team sponsorship. Dropping USAC was a precursor as over the next few years, Citicorp withdrew from all motorsports involvement.

Left without a major series sponsor, no national television contract, and the organization still reeling from the death of seven of USAC’s leaders in an April 1978 plane crash, the stage was set for USAC’s loss of control over championship-car racing with the formation of Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) in late 1978.  

In early 1979, Jerry Grant replaced Don Garner as the Director of Racing for the Champion Spark Plug Company after Garner left to work for the new CART organization as its chief steward.  Grant led Champion's racing division for ten years, during which time he ran the Champion Sparkplug Challenge IMSA series, originally started as the IMSA RS (Radial Sedan) series in 1971. Grant also was involved as Champion took over the NASCAR rookie program from Citicorp.

Factory brochure drawing of  the Jaguar XJ220

 

In 1993, Grant got a chance to return to the seat of a racing car for the 1993 Fast Masters Championship promoted by ESPN sports network producer Terry Ligner to air as part of the “Saturday Night Thunder” broadcast. The tournament matched a group of over 50 year old drivers in identically prepared $750,000 Jaguar XJ220 mid-mounted twin turbocharged V-6 engine powered sports cars modified for racing by the Tom Walkinshaw Racing shop in Valparaiso Indiana.

Grant, who in pre-race publicity tour admitted this his participation was “all about ego,” raced in the first of the series of five weekly heat races held on the Indianapolis Raceway Park (IRP) 5/8-mile banked oval on Saturday June 19.  Nine drivers drew for positions in the first ten-lap heat race after the scheduled tenth driver, Gary Bettenhausen, had withdrawn after he crashed and destroyed his assigned Jaguar during practice on Friday afternoon.

As the field completed the second lap Jim McElreath tried to go “three wide” coming out of turn four, but spun and the ensuing crash took out both McElreath and retired NASCAR driver Dick Trickle. Then on lap three, former AAA and USAC roadster driver Troy Ruttman spun and crashed in turn three. Grant started seventh avoided the carnage and finished fifth. The race can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xv7Ku53jhIQ

Saturday night’s second ten-lap heat race used a majority of the oval with an infield dog-leg to create the quasi “road course.”  Only six cars started less the damaged cars of McElreath, Trickle, and Ruttman. As the field entered the “road course” for the first time, Grant locked up the brakes on his Jaguar, ran into the back of Bobby Allison, and damaged the front end too badly to continue. A video of the second race can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KflOiyUIuVQ&feature=related

After the disastrous first round, with two of the cars damaged beyond repair, the format of the Fast Masters Challenge was completely revamped with eight competitors each week that raced on the so-called IRP “road course.” Grant’s former AAR teammate and rival Bobby Unser won the inaugural Fast Masters championship finale and the $100,000 purse. The series was never repeated.

At the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1994, Grant contributed to an Associated Press article on the progress of race car engineering. “The cars are so safe it’s beyond my wildest dreams. When I started here, the drivers would limp into the garage and that’s how the crowd knew who they were.” In response to another question, Grant offered his opinion that in 1994 the drivers at Indianapolis were "10 percent responsible for the overall performance of the car," and  then stated that he would "like to see it go back to the other side of 50 percent."

After retirement from Champion Spark Plug Company, Jerry founded his own boutique public relations firm, Motor Sports Unlimited PR and did branding work for Prolong oil treatment and the Honda Motor Company.  Jerry Grant died August 12, 2012 from liver failure and diabetes at St Joseph Orange County Hospital at the age of 77, survived by his wife, sister, two daughters and five grandchildren.

Dan Gurney told Road &Track magazine "Jerry Grant was a natural; he was brave and playful and always could rise to the challenge. Apart from being an excellent racer, he was an accomplished story teller and after dinner speaker, an ability which served him well in his business career after his retirement from active driving. In the middle 60's we shared many adventures on and off the track here in the US and in Europe. We stayed friends ever since and many Sundays went riding our motorcycles in the Southern California countryside. We extend our condolences to his wife Sandy and his family. Farewell Jerry, we will miss you."

As we have traced through the previous eight chapters, Jerry Grant had a varied career in one of the most exciting period of Indianapolis car racing, and came close to grabbing the win on “the greatest racecourse in the world” once in 1972.  Grant was one of eleven drivers that debuted as rookies in the 1965 Indianapolis ‘500,’ along with such familiar names as Mario Andretti, Al Unser, Gordon Johncock , Joe Leonard, and George Snider. Combined that august group is responsible for seven Indianapolis ‘500’ wins and seven USAC national championships.

Jerry Grant competed in ten races at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and failed to qualify twice- his first year 1964, and his last, 1977.  The official record which does not include the final 12 laps of the 1972 race shows that Grant completed 1,275 laps of which he led 16 with a total of $166,403 in IMS prize money.  Sadly, the versatile Grant never had the opportunity to run for the USAC national championship; the year with his most entries was 1967 when he entered 11 of 20 races for Tom Friedkin.

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 seven – the 1974 season

Early in 1974, Jerry Grant signed to drive for Phoenix Arizona tire magnate Robert L. “Bob” Fletcher for the 1974 United States Auto Club season (USAC) as a teammate to sophomore driver Jimmy Caruthers and rookie Duane “Pancho” Carter.

Caruthers was the Cobre Firestone Tire team’s primary 1974 USAC national championship trail driver, while Carter ran an abbreviated schedule of eight championship races as he (successfully) chased the 1974 USAC National Sprint Car title, and Grant ran just five races during the 1974 USAC season.  

Both Caruthers and Carter  both sons of famous racers came up the USAC open-wheel ranks, having driven midget and sprint cars. Caruthers won the 1970 USAC National Midget Championship and finished runner-up in 1971 to his brother Danny, while Carter won the 1972 USAC national midget championship.   

Among the three drivers, the Cobre team had four cars - one updated 1972 All-American Racing  (AAR) Eagle, one updated 1973 AAR Eagle, and at least two 1974-spec AAR Eagles chassis, all powered by turbocharged Offenhauser engines.  Racing historians have been unable to determine conclusively which Fletcher Eagle was assigned to an individual driver at a specific race. 

Operating out of the team’s shop on 32nd Avenue in northwest Phoenix, for 1974 the Cobre team had three chief mechanics; Jim McGee, who had started out in racing working for Clint Brawner was assigned to work with Jimmy Caruthers, while Mike Devin worked with rookie “Pancho” Carter, and Ron Falk, who had worked for the STP Racing team from 1963 through 1973, was assigned to work with Jerry Grant. 

Fletcher, whose Cobre Tires chain in the American Southwest was at the time the largest Firestone tire distributor in the United States, fielded his teams with major financial support from the Firestone Tire & Rubber Company.  Fletcher entered USAC racing as a car owner in 1973, but at the team’s third race, Art Pollard crashed fatally at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway the morning of the first day of ‘500’ time trials.

The Pollard crash destroyed one of the Fletcher 1972 Eagles, so the Cobre team operated for much of the 1973 USAC season as a single car team with Clint Brawner as the chief mechanic for Jimmy Caruthers. In September after the Cobre team received a replacement Eagle chassis to replace the car destroyed in the Pollard crash, Bob Fletcher hired Ron Falk with work with newly hired driver Lee Kunzman of Guttenberg Iowa beginning with the 1973 ‘California 500.’

Lee Kunzman in 1970

photo courtesy of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection

 IUPUI University Library Center for Digital studies.

 

 

Lee Kunzman’s blossoming career had been interrupted by a serious accident at I-70 Speedway in Odessa Missouri on June 5 1970 when the throttle of his sprint car hung open. The car tumbled over the wall and Lee received severe burns over 20% of his body as well as a broken neck and broken arm. 10 months later, Kunzman triumphantly returned to racing as he won a 40-lap sprint car race at I-70 Speedway. In 1972, Kunzman made his first Indianapolis ‘500’ start as he drove Myron Caves’s turbocharged Offenhauser powered Gerhardt chassis.

Kunzman joined forces with Coca-Cola millionaire Lindsey Hopkins for the first Milwaukee race in 1972 and completed that season and the first part of the 1973 USAC season with Hopkins. Lee was hired away by Bob Fletcher for the Cobre Firestone team beginning with the 1973 California ‘500.’ After a successful 1973 season which ended with two top five finishes, Fletcher, Kunzman, and Falk looked forward to the 1974 season.

On December 11 1973, during an off-season Firestone tire test at Ontario Motor Speedway, Kunzman crashed into the second turn concrete wall at an estimated 190 MPH, which destroyed the Cobre Tire 1973 Eagle and left Kunzman seriously injured for the second time in career. Initial news reports immediately after the accident indicated that Kunzman was in a coma with severe head injuries and paralysis of his left side. By Christmas, newspapers reported that Kunzman was awake and had moved his arms, but doctors thought he faced a long rehabilitation. 

On February 15 1974, Bob Fletcher hired Jerry Grant to replace Kunzman on the Cobre Firestone team for the California ‘500,’ as news articles at the time were optimistic about Kunzman’s return in time the 1974 Indianapolis ‘500.’ In fact, Lee Kunzman’s recovery from his head injuries took up the entire 1974 season. In August 1974 Lee had only regained 70% of the use of his left side, and suffered blurred vision. Jerry Grant was considered Kunzman’s replacement driver as Jerry drove the 1974 season with Kunzman’s previous car number, #55.    

The 1974 USAC championship car rules package reduced the size of the rear wings to a maximum width of 43 inches, and the wing could not extend more than 42 inches behind the center lines of the rear wheels and centered between the rear wheels.  For the first time USAC regulated the maximum “boost” level (turbocharger pressure) for Offenhauser engines to 80 inches of mercury (slightly more than 39 pounds per square inch) through the use of a pressure relief “pop off valve” mounted on the intake plenum. Additionally, to lower race speeds, the total fuel allowed to be used by each car to complete a 500-mile race was reduced to 280 gallons.

As outlined in a previous chapter, the financially troubled Ontario Motor Speedway and shifted the date of the ‘California 500’ which became 1974 season opening race but it came amid a nationwide crisis. The Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) instituted an oil embargo beginning in October 1973. The price of oil rose from $3 per barrel to $12, gasoline stations rationed their supplies, and the oil shortage triggered one of the worst economic downturns in modern history.

In response to the oil crisis, in January 1974, USAC announced a “fuel allocation formula” that also restricted the amount of methanol fuel that could be used in practice for Ontario to 200 gallons, 35 gallons for qualifying, and 55 gallons for the 100-mile qualifying heat races. It didn’t seem to matter to USAC that the race cars ran on methanol, not gasoline, their move made it appear to the general public that the club’s board was doing something.

In accordance with the recommendations of the National Motorsports Committee to reduce fuel consumption by 25 percent during the “energy crisis,” Ontario Motor Speedway for its part, cut back to four days of practice beginning February 26 with each practice session to last seven hours instead of the previous nine hours daily.  

After the completion of the March 3 qualifying heat races, teams would only have three hours of running time before the California 500 on March 10 1974. All these changes reportedly would reduce the California ‘500’ methanol use from 30,000 gallons to 23,000 gallons. “We feel this will make the race (the California 500) more competitive than it’s ever been before," Ontario General Manager Jim Cook told the Associated Press. “There will be less strain on the engines and combined with the milder March temperatures should keep more cars running longer.” 

Jerry Grant's official 1974 Indy 500 qualifying photo

courtesy of INDYCAR

During the final day of practice on Friday March 1, Grant lost control of the “Cobre Firestone Special” turquoise and copper colored #55 Eagle as he exited the fourth turn, executed a partial spin, brushed the inside retaining wall, and slightly damaged the left side suspension.  Grant was uninjured and the car promptly repaired for the next day’s qualifying session.

The start of qualifying for the 1974 California ‘500’ on March 2 was delayed five hours by rain, and lap speeds were indeed down as AJ Foyt won the pole position with a two-lap average speed of 190.617 MPH.  Foyt was the only car over 190 MPH, as second fastest qualifier Johnny Rutherford posted a 185.989 MPH average. Grant qualified tenth out of the twenty-nine qualifiers with a 183.150 MPH average speed. 

Grant was forced to run the 100-mile “heat race,” unlike 1973, when his front-row starting position allowed him the opportunity to sit out and preserve his equipment. On the positive side, whereas in 1973 the qualifying races paid no money, just USAC points, in 1974 the qualifying races offered a purse of $25,000 each, although the total purse for the California ‘500’ and the preliminary races remained at $300,000.

Grant started the second March 3 qualifying heat race from the fifth position but failed to finish the 40 laps, as the Offenhauser engine’s magneto failed on lap 14. That finish meant that Grant would start seventeenth in the middle of the sixth row between Gary Bettenhausen in the Penske Products McLaren and Gordon Johncock in the Patrick Racing Eagle.

In a local newspaper interview printed two days before the race, Grant told a reporter "we’re thinking that maybe things will swing around this time. The last two times I started from the front row, this time it’s the middle of the pack. Maybe we’ll break this spell I seem to be under.”  Grant said “I think we’re among the few cars that have enough mileage to finish the 500 miles. At the end of the race you’re likely to see a lot of people running out of gas.”

Drivers generally were critical of the USAC fuel cuts, as Al Unser told Bloys Britt of the Associated Press “they have finally cut the racing out of the race. All we do is go out and watch the fuel gauge.”  Eight cars ran out of fuel during the 100-mile qualifying heats, including Unser, Gordon Johncock, and Mario Andretti.

1974 California 500 race day program cover

The 1974 California ‘500’ featured seven yellow flag periods for a total of 39 laps, so fuel consumption proved not to be an issue. Pole position starter Foyt was out of lap 20 with a punctured oil tank, while Johncock and two-time USAC National Champion Joe Leonard were each eliminated in separate crashes. Leonard, who crashed after a left front tire failed, suffered a compound fracture of his lower left leg with his ankle was crushed and his foot nearly severed. It reportedly took rescuers nearly half an hour to extract him from the destroyed Vel’s Parnelli Eagle.  

At the finish of the 500 mile grind, Grant had moved up fourteen places from his starting position to finish third, one lap behind the brothers Unser, with his former teammate Bobby claiming the win. Grant’s new teammate Caruthers finished fourth a lap behind Grant who won $21,534 in prize money. The bad news was the reported attendance for the 1974 ‘California 500‘ was just 100,000 fans.

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 41.  Before practice for the 1975 ‘California 500,’ USAC officials tested Leonard’s 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.  

Joe’s failed physical brought a sad end to his brilliant racing career that included three American Motorcycle Association (AMA) and two USAC national championships. Later in March 1975, Leonard’s attorneys James Boccardo and Bob Bohn announced to the Indianapolis Star newspaper writer Robin Miller that they had filed $1 million negligence suits against Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, Ontario Motor Speedway, Leonard’s physician, and Vel’s Parnelli Jones Racing, his car owner and employer at the time of the accident.    

Grant next raced in the ‘Trentonian 200’ at the New Jersey kidney-bean shaped one mile track nearly a month after the Ontario race. After he qualified twelfth, he officially finished in fifth place although the gearbox in his Eagle had broken and knocked him out of the race on lap 117 of the scheduled 134 lap race. Attrition was so high that April day at Trenton that only four of the original nineteen race starters were still running at the drop of the checkered flag.

As part of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s effort to address the nationwide fuel crisis the track did not open for practice until Monday May 6. The compressed schedule left teams with just five (5) scheduled 6-hour days of practice before “Pole Day” on May 11. Rather than the traditional four days of time trials, the 1974 schedule was reduced to two days on successive Saturdays.

In addition to the previously discussed changes to the cars, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway facility had changed. No longer was starter Pat Vidan stationed on a platform atop the wall that divided the racing surface from pit lane, instead Vidan was stationed on a platform attached to a new control tower perched high above the start/finish line on the outside of the track. The entry lane from the racing surface onto pit lane and the pit lane itself had been widened, the retaining walls around the track had been raised, and most importantly, the trackside seating on the outside of the main straightway had been removed.  

Jerry Grant’s #55 “Cobre Firestone Special” was scheduled to roll out fourteenth in the qualifying order on “Pole Day,” but after the typical scrambling with some cars pulled out of line, Grant’s Eagle was the eighth car out and he posted a conservative 181.781 MPH four-lap average. Shortly after Grant’s run, rain halted activity for three hours as the track dried. Five more cars qualified before rain fell again and closed the track for the day with 11 cars still guaranteed runs for the pole position. When the rain-shortened qualifying period was completed the following Saturday the 18th, Jerry Grant was slotted into the 17th starting position in the 33-car field, the middle of row six.

There were several controversies throughout and following time trials, the first of which concerned turbochargers and the boost limit. Patrick Racing team crew chief George Bignotti fitted the Offenhauser engines in his team’s cars with larger diameter turbochargers for qualifying, and intended to replace the larger turbochargers with smaller unit after qualifying.  

However, new Chief Steward Thomas Binford ruled that Wally Dallenbach’s and Gordon Johncock’s “STP” Eagles would have to race with the same turbocharger with which they qualified. Throughout the month many of teams publicly complained that the USAC-supplied “pop-off valves” opened before the 80 inches of Mercury pressure level was reached, and there were also numerous accusations of some teams “cheating” their pop-off valves.

As a result of the rain-shortened qualifying periods which further impacted the compressed schedule there eleven cars were left in line that had an opportunity to make a qualifying attempt when the final gun went off. Those teams were outraged as it had always been implied that everyone who wanted to make a run would at least just get a chance. Six of the wronged car owners threatened to file a lawsuit and in response, Binford offered to re-open time trials if the drivers of all 33 qualified cars agreed.  Binford’s compromise plan fell apart when Larry Cannon, driver of the Hoffman Racing “American Financial Special” the field’s slowest qualified car refused to sign the agreement.  

The lawsuit was filed which requested an injunction that will stop the 500-mile race from being held as scheduled. After a hearing held on Carburation Day, May 23, the following day Judge Frank A. Symmes of Marion County Superior Court threw out the suit and request for an injunction on the grounds that the plaintiffs had not exhausted all the available avenues in the USAC appeals process before they filed their lawsuit.

On Race Day, May 26, Grant and the Cobre Firestone Eagle, with injured teammate Lee Kunzman working behind the pit wall signaling on the signboard, struggled to a tenth place finish 25 laps behind winner Johnny Rutherford. Years later, it’s unclear what delayed Grant during the race, but the 1974 ‘500’ clearly was a race of attrition with a total of seven yellow flags displayed for 34 minutes and only twelve cars still running at the finish. Only second place finisher Bobby Unser was on the leader’s lap at the finish, 22 seconds in arrears.

To illustrate just how strange the 1974 ‘500’ was, the ninth place finisher, Lloyd Ruby, ran out of fuel on lap 187, and eleventh place finisher John Martin in the “Sea Snack Shrimp Cocktail Special” McLaren was six laps behind Grant, while the fourteenth place finisher Mike Hiss, the last car running, was flagged with just 158 laps completed.  At the ‘500’ Victory Banquet the next evening, Grant picked up a check for $21,266.06.

Two weeks after the Indianapolis ‘500,’ Grant and the #55 Cobre Firestone Eagle appeared in the Rex Mays Classic held on the Mile at the Wisconsin State Fairgrounds. In time trials, Grant circulated around the flat one-mile in 30.27-seconds which slotted him in eighteenth place in the starting field, while his teammate Caruthers qualified thirteenth.  AJ Foyt qualified for his second straight pole position start with a 27.91 second lap and then led the first eleven laps, but Johnny Rutherford, who spun on the seventh lap, dominated the later stages of the 150-lap race to score his second consecutive win. Jerry Grant finished nine laps behind Rutherford in thirteenth place and won $1375.00.   

Two weeks later, Jerry Grant was one of five drivers who failed to qualify for the ‘Schafer 500’ at the triangular 2-1/2 mile Pocono Raceway. Qualifications were disrupted by rain with the second day of time trials on June 23 was washed out and somehow, Grant did not make the 33-car starting field. Though his USAC season was over, Grant stayed busy as a member of the Champion Spark Plug Company Highway Safety Team that toured the county speaking to high schools on driving safety and in the light of the energy crisis, Grant also offered tips on economical driving. 

Any chance that Grant had to re-sign with Bob Fletcher for another season evaporated in August 1974 when Firestone Tire and Rubber Company abruptly announced that it was quitting racing at the end of the 1974 season. Firestone’s decision ended the 10-year “tire war” with Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company which had led to a massive increase in USAC racing teams’ budgets and expenses.

The withdrawal placed several key USAC players such as team owners Parnelli Jones and Bob Fletcher, as well as leading drivers such as Mario Andretti who owned Firestone tire distributorships in awkward positions. Furthermore it appeared that it would take several years to untangle the mess, as several racing teams and drivers had long-term contracts with Firestone that ran through the 1977 USAC season.  

Firestone which had supplied tires used by Ray Harroun in the inaugural Indianapolis 500-mile race in 1911 stated that their withdrawal was a business decision, as their return on investment in racing tires no longer made sense to the Firestone Board of Directors.  “Costs have skyrocketed in the last few years and there seems to be no end in sight,” said A. E. “Scotty” Brubaker, Firestone's vice president of advertising and public relations.  Bill McCreary, the company's director of racing, told the New York Times writer Michael Katz that Firestone spent $386,000 for tire tests in one six‐month period from November 1972 to April 1973.

Consider that during tire testing sessions, the tire company had not only the expense of the tires, but also the track rental, safety personnel, and the salaries and travel expenses of its employees. Added to those costs were the travel expenses for the driver and his crew, and the rental cost for the race car which included the provision of the reimbursement to the car owner for any damage during testing. Firestone had an estimated racing budget in 1972 that ranged from $3 million to 8 million a year most of which was funneled to teams, earmarked for driver and crew chief salaries and engine development programs.  

Firestone’s departure along with the nation’s economic problems led to a financial crisis for many USAC teams such as Fletcher’s which without any outside sponsors was dependent on the “tire money.” By 1976, Fletcher’s “Cobre Tire” team shrank to a single car effort. Firestone’s withdrawal affected both Firestone and Goodyear teams, as without competition Goodyear no longer had to provide their teams with stipends.  Through the following years, the entry lists at USAC championship events shrank.

Officials from both the tire companies involved in racing had pressured USAC officials for years to reduce the costs of racing with ideas such as the replacement of the highly-stressed and expensive turbocharged racing engines with cheaper stock block-based engines. As discussed in a previous chapter, USAC officials during this time were negotiating with the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) on a joint car/engine rules package. 

Firestone’s departure should have been a red flag to the officials of both clubs, but it apparently was not and eventually those negotiations collapsed in October 1976. If even if an agreement could have been reached it would have come too late for Firestone which remained out of IndyCar racing until 1995.

In 1995, Firestone and Goodyear once again engaged in a battle for supremacy; with Firestone coming out of top in the second albeit shorter war when Goodyear withdrew from IndyCar competition after the 1999 season. Since than Firestone remained the exclusive INDYCAR tire supplier, some of the original “tire warriors,” such as AJ Foyt, still fight the war.

Foyt, who was instrumental in bringing Goodyear to Indianapolis in 1964, went so far as use a black Sharpie® pen to obscure his name on the special edition Firestone tires that listed all the previous winners of the race on Firestone tires used by his team in the 2016 Indianapolis 500. 

In addition to his Champion duties, Jerry Grant closed out his 1974 racing season as he raced Frank Arcerio’s Lola T-332 in the final three west coast rounds of the SCCA/USAC Formula 5000 series. In the 100-mile 1974 “California Grand Prix” event at the 2.9-mile Ontario Motor Speedway on September 1, Grant was one of five Indianapolis drivers entered along with Rutherford, Mario Andretti, Mickey Rupp, and Lloyd Ruby who raced in a turbocharged Offenhauser powered Eagle. Grant qualified 17th, finished ninth in his 17-lap preliminary heat and finished sixth in the feature to earn $1800 before a crowd of just 28,000 on a day when the daytime temperature peaked at 99 degrees.

At the penultimate 1974 SCCA/USAC Formula 5000 round at Laguna Seca Raceway near Salinas California in mid-October, Grant qualified the Arcerio Lola/Chevy 23rd fastest in time trials. Grant finished eighth in the first 27-lap heat race and eleventh in the 50-lap feature, three laps behind back-to-back winner Brian Redman. 

At the end of October Grant raced in the final 1974 SCCA/USAC Formula 5000 race held at the Riverside International Raceway but was the first car out of the feature race on lap four and finished in twenty-second position, scored ahead of two cars that failed to start the race.  Grant wound up scored in a three-way tie for nineteenth place in the 1974 USAC/SCCA Formula 5000 season point standings.

 In our next installment we'll look at Jerry Grant's time with Fred Carrillo's team