The history of Alamo Downs the short-lived Texas pre-war midget racing venue

The history of Alamo Downs  

the short-lived Texas pre-war

midget auto racing venue

Wes Saegesser 

On September 1 1933, the State of Texas legalized pari-mutuel wagering on thoroughbred racing. Shortly thereafter,  businessman Raymond Russell built the Alamo Downs one-mile horse racing facility on Culebra Road northwest of downtown San Antonio.  Alamo Downs opened its first racing meet on April 23 1934 with 14,000 fans in attendance which included Texas Governor Miriam A. Ferguson.

Horse racing at Alamo Downs ended on September 24 1937 after the Texas legislature again outlawed pari-mutuel thoroughbred wagering after several scandals. There were still horses boarded and trained on the Alamo Downs property but the facility sat largely unused until late 1940.

Famed automobile racing promoters O.D Lavely and his son Ray, through their company,  Lavely Racing Promotions Enterprises, signed a five-year lease in August 1940 to present midget racing at Alamo Downs. Lavely Promotions built the 1/5-mile banked oiled clay dirt track which measured 40 feet wide through the corners and 30 feet wide on the straightaways in front of the existing grandstands.  

The track construction included an innovative 36-inch high outer crash wall and an inner “hub rail.” Rather than locate the pit area in the infield, officials located the work area for the race cars underneath the grandstands in the paddock area.   

The Texas Oklahoma Racing Association (TORA) which sanctioned the Alamo Downs races, also presented races at the 1/5-mile Fair Park Speedway on the grounds of the Texas State Fairgrounds in Dallas, the Lavely’s 1/5-mile Houston Speedbowl and the ¼-mile Gold Mine Race Bowl in Dallas. TORA race tracks included Jefferson-Davis Speedway in Fort Worth, the original dirt Pan-American Speedway in San Antonio and the Panhandle-South Plains Speedway in Lubbock. TORA also raced in Texas at the Reaser Park track in Victoria as well as the Lions Field Speedway, a track which the author has been unable to locate.   

Admission to the first midget race at Alamo Downs on Sunday afternoon October 6 cost race fans 40 cents plus tax with free parking. Due to the late season opening, many midget drivers from the Midwest came to San Antonio to race against that local drivers that included Al Slaughter, Dick Word and the one-armed wonder, Wes Saegesser.

Other Texas entries came from Doster ‘Doc’ Cossey (AJ Foyt’s first racing hero), the 1939 Texas midget racing champion Mel Wainwright and Elmer “Rabbit” Musick, the youngest of five racing brothers from the Dallas area - his brothers were named Ben, Morris, Lyn and Leland.

 Al Slaughter won the very first Alamo Downs race, the 2-lap helmet dash over Abilene’s Cleo Glaze who set quick time in time trials at 17.31 seconds. Dale Burt, Word and Wainwright each won one of the eight-lap heat races, and Cossey won the second 10-lap semi-main event from eighth starting position.

During that second semi-main race, Denver driver Warren Hamilton took what the San Antonio Light article described as “a spectacular spill” on the first lap after he tangled with the car of JD Parks and Hamilton's car rolled over into the infield.

Slaughter took the race lead into the first turn of the 25-lap feature pursued by ‘Doc’ Cossey. ‘Doc’ pressed Slaughter hard until his car fell out on the ninth lap with electrical trouble, and Slaughter easily won by a half a lap over Glaze.     

The following Sunday, October the 13^th, the 1/5-mile track was much faster.  Jim Ward set quick time at 16.75 seconds, for a new lap record, while ‘Doc’ Cossey won the two-lap Helmet Dash in  34.88 seconds, then Al Slaughter won his eight-lap heat race with a new record time of 2 minutes, 19.26 seconds.

Cossey captured the 25-lap feature win over Ward in a record time of seven minutes, 37.76 seconds to score his second feature win in four nights, to go along with his Thursday night win at the Houston Speedbowl. Cossey’s Alamo Downs win on the 13^th marked his tenth midget feature win of the 1940 season.

Late in feature on the 13^th, three of the top cars driven by Dick Word, Lou Turberville and Earl Simmons tangled in front of the grandstands after Word’s car blew its water hose, and Word and Turberville both suffered facial cuts in the accident.  

Cossey became the first Alamo Downs repeat winner as he won on October 20^th in a program that extended the heat races to ten laps in length, and stretched the feature to 30 laps.  

The field on October 27^th featured new entries from Charlie Miller, the 1940 American Automobile Association (AAA) eastern midget series champion and the AAA Eastern midget runner-up George Fonder.

Al Slaughter scored his second Alamo win in the 14-car “Fall Championship” 30-lap race on October 27th, as he again went wire-to-wire to beat the $3000 'Jackson Special,' an Offenhauser powered car driven by Dallas’ “King of the Midgets” William Ben ‘Red’ Hodges.  

On November 3^rd, Slaughter won his heat race then powered to his third Alamo feature win over the helmet dash winner Miller. Car counts at Alamo Downs continued to increase such that on the 3^rd, the 10-lap Class ‘B’ feature featured an eighteen-car starting field.

On November 17th, Kansas City’s Vito Calia captured his 8-lap heat race in a new record time of 2 minutes 16.84 seconds, then finished  close second place behind Jim Ward in the first semi-main. Slaughter took the point for the first three laps of the 25-lap feature until Calia took over the lead and went on to set a new track record as he won with a time of seven minutes and 7.43 seconds.

Rain cancelled the races scheduled for November 25^th and before the next race on December 1, ‘Doc’ Cossey bought a new Elto outboard-powered midget and installed Mel Wainwright as the driver.  

Many of the Alamo Downs racers took part in the Thanksgiving night 100-lap “Southern Grand Prix” race in Houston won by ‘Red’ Hodges, and as a result only 20 cars signed in at Alamo Downs on December 1. To compound the low car count, only about 1400 fans showed up to watch the program won by ‘Red’ Hodges in the Jackson Offenhauser powered midget. 

The afternoon of December 8^th marked the final scheduled race at Alamo Downs for the 1940 season as the Lavely clan planned to head to the Pacific Coast to sign up more drivers for the 1941 Alamo Downs season set to open in February.  The 50-lap Class A championship race topped the December 8th program supplemented by the 15-lap Class B championship race.

The midget track on the other side of San Antonio on Seguin Highway also scheduled a race on that Sunday afternoon which diluted the field of entries at Alamo Downs to just 25 cars. ‘Red’ Hodges captured the 50-lap Class A feature but fell short of winning the 1940 track championship by six points, as Slaughter passed “Rabbit” Musik on the last lap to claim second place and secure enough points to win the championship. 

The Lavely’s ambitious plans for the 1941 Alamo Downs midget racing season never materialized and there is no evidence of another race held there. In January 1942 a fire swept through a stable on the Alamo Downs grounds and killed five race horses, then in September 1947 another fire partially destroyed the wood, concrete and steel paddock and grandstand. The area once occupied by the Alamo Downs track is now part of the Alamo Downs Business Park.

 

Hanford Motor Speedway‘s heyday

Part four of the rich history of the first superspeedway west of the Mississippi

In early 1964 KS Racing Enterprises Inc. (KSRE) signed a 20-year lease with track builder and owner Bircha Lewis “B.L”. Marchbanks for the facility, which included a paved ½-mile, oiled dirt 1/3-mile and 1-3/8-mile high banked paved tri-oval, on property located southeast of Hanford California. KSRE operated by Kalmon “Kal” Simon and T L “Tommy” Francis renamed the facility Hanford Speedway and aimed to book USAC (United States Auto Club) National Championship Indianapolis car races for the big tri-oval

For the 1964 and 1965 seasons, Hanford Speedway hosted a late season USAC stock car race, but was unable to land the desired National Championship race. In 1966, the facility reached its nadir of racing activity, with no major events reported in news outlets.   

Finally, in 1967 the newly re-named Hanford Motor Speedway landed a USAC National Championship race but only because the race was promoted by Joshua “JC” Agajanian, owner of the 1952 and 1963 Indianapolis winning cars and the West’s foremost racing promoter. Agajanian, a founding USAC board member, famed for his promotion of the half-mile dirt Ascot Park track located at 183^rd Street and Vermont Avenue in Gardena, also promoted annual USAC National Championship races at the Phoenix International Raceway and the California State Fairgrounds in Sacramento.   

The new Hanford Motor Speedway date became part of a four-race western swing that comprised the final two months of the 1967 USAC schedule, along with Phoenix, Sacramento and the addition of a new date and venue for the season finale ‘Rex Mays 300’ booked for the Riverside International Raceway. Agajanian proudly proclaimed that the inaugural ‘California 200’ at Hanford would be the first time for rear engine Indianapolis cars to race in California.  

The initial entry list released in late September listed AJ Foyt, who had won his third Indianapolis ‘500’ in May, joined by Mario Andretti, Bill Vukovich Junior, Roger McCluskey, Jim McElereath, Joe Leonard, Al and Bobby Unser and Gordon Johncock. Agajanian stated that the 26-car starting field would include “most of the Indy 500 field,” and that Parnelli Jones would make pre-race speed runs in the STP turbine car and then would pace the start of the race.

Both the major tire companies conducted pre-race tire testing at Hanford. AJ Foyt in his Ford-powered Coyote tested Goodyear tire compounds and ran multiple laps at 151 miles per hour (MPH). Agajanian, ever the great promoter claimed in newspaper interviews that Foyt told him that “it was the finest track he had ever raced on.” Art Pollard ran the Firestone tire tests in Fred Gerhardt’s turbocharged Offenhauser powered Gerhardt chassis with his faster lap reported as 154 MPH.

Days before the race, the Bakersfield Californian announced that four additional drivers had been added to the entry list – USAC regulars Chuck Hulse, Johnny Rutherford, Ronnie Duman and Wally Dallenbach.

When the gates at Hanford swung open at 9 AM on October 22, 1967 there were 7,000 general admission seats still available at $6.00 apiece. Qualifying runs for the 31 cars entered began at noon with the race scheduled to take the green flag at 3 PM.

Art Pollard in Fred Gerhardt’s turbocharged Offenhauser powered ‘Thermo King Auto Air Conditioning Special’ ran the fastest lap clocked at 154.816 MPH as Gordon Johncock in his similar Gerhardt chassis, the ‘Gilmore Broadcasting Special’ powered by a DOHC Ford engine, ran the second-best lap with an average speed of 154.26 MPH.  Al Unser in the Retzloff Chemicals Lola/Ford was third fastest, with Mario Andretti in the Dean Van Lines Ford-powered Brawner Hawk in the fourth starting position.

Towering above the field of 25 low slung rear-engine cars was the ‘Joe Hunt Magneto Special’ a Lujie Lesovsky built Offenhauser powered front engine dirt car driven by Gary Bettenhausen in just his third USAC championship start. Tommy Copp, Bob Harkey and Sonny Ates failed to qualify, while Bruce Walkup crashed in practice and Dempsey Wilson’s car broke a piston in practice. To confirm JC Agajanian’s pre-race claim that most of the Indy ‘500’ field would be Hanford for the ‘California 200,’ 20 of the 26 starters had competed in the 1967 Indianapolis 500-mile race.   

Race day dawned with cold temperatures and valley fog, but the sun broke through just before the command to start engines. At the drop of the green flag, Pollard rushed into the lead and led the first 108 laps, while challengers Al Unser and Andretti were both eliminated in a first turn crash on the 18^th lap.

Pollard was passed by Joe Leonard in the ‘Vel’s Ford Sales’ DOHC Ford powered Mongoose on the 109^th lap, and Joe led until he spun in turn one on the 129^th lap, which handed the lead to Johncock. Gordon led the final four circuits around the 1-1/2-mile tri-oval to claim his first USAC championship victory and a $15,000 check out of the total $60,000 purse.

Bobby Unser in the Rislone Oil Treatment/Leader Cards Eagle/Ford crossed beneath Shim Malone’s checkered flag five seconds behind Johncock. Lloyd Ruby in the American Red Ball Special was third one lap behind with Foyt fourth and Pollard in fifth position as Leonard recovered from his late race spin to finish seventh as he had lost two laps.

Bettenhausen in the Hunt dirt car finished in 11^th place, five laps in arrears just ahead of McElreath in the second Leader Cards entry which was the final car to finish. The race was completed in one hour 34 minutes and 34 seconds with an average speed of 127.531 MPH for the 201-mile race distance.

Post-race press reports were enthusiastic as JC Agajanian reported gate admissions of $121,000, with the crowd count reported as both 18,000 and 20,0000.  Jack Lattimer with the San Mateo Times newspaper reported the higher head count and stated that “on more times than we can recount, we watched the cars race three abreast” but eluded to some complaints from drivers regarding dusty track conditions that caused several of the cars to spin. 

Lattimer claimed that “when the drivers get the ‘feel’ of the track Hanford is in for some headlines, although a little more time and money must be spent to put the grounds in shape, but the superspeedway is excellent.”  Lattimer claimed that Agajanian told him that he planned two visits per year of the Indianapolis cars in the future. Larry Press’ column in the Bakersfield Californian newspaper reported 18,000 attendees and noted that “seating, concession and restroom facilities all are temporary and there is room for improvement in those areas.” 

True to Agajanian’s promise following the October 1967 race, the USAC championship cars were booked for two races for the 1968 season, with dates that bookended the season with races scheduled in February and November to avoid the intense heat of California Central Valley summers. The 1968 USAC season opener, the second annual ‘California 200,’ was set for Sunday March 17, with reserved seats tickets priced at $10 for those closest to the start-finish line with advance sale seats at the ends of the grandstand available at $8 each.

In the weeks leading up to the race, Bobby Unser tested tires for Goodyear and reportedly recorded a lap in his turbocharged Offenhauser Eagle of 156.069 MPH, faster than Pollard’s 1967 pole-winning speed. Pre-race news articles quoted a press release that stated that “during the winter months many improvements have been made to the Hanford site.

New bleachers were brought in and placed farther from the track for better viewing. Many more restroom and concession stands have also been added for race fan’s convenience.” An article by Al Auger in the Hayward Daily Review claimed that “the track has been completely modernized with a new surface,” but this claim years later remains unsubstantiated.

In qualifying for the second ‘California 200,’ Bobby Unser set a new track record with an average speed of 155.709 MPH which outpaced Art Pollard, Mario Andretti, Lloyd Ruby and Roger McCluskey. Once again, Gary Bettenhausen put the ‘Joe Hunt Magneto Special’ into the starting field, but this time his upright dirt car was joined by sprint car veteran Charles “Sonny” Ates in a Turner chassis front engine upright dirt car and George Benson in the Vince Conze-owned Watson roadster.

The appearance of Conze’s Watson roadster, which had finished second in the 1960 Indianapolis ‘500’ driven by Rodger Ward, powered by a 220-cubic inch Offenhauser engine, marked the final instance of a Watson roadster in the starting field for a USAC race according to author Joe Scalzo.  In a field filled with cars equipped with Offenhauser and Ford engines, four cars powered by stock-block Chevrolet power plants made the 26-car starting field: Ates’ upright front engine machine owned by Hoosier muffler shop chain owner Boyce Holt, and the rear-engine cars of Max Dudley, Dempsey Wilson and Johnny Rutherford in the Jerry Eisert entry. 

USAC sophomore driver Jim Malloy in the ‘Jim Robbins Seat Belt Special’ Vollstedt was the only car that failed to record a lap fast enough to qualify, as Bob Hurt’s entry broke an oil line and drag racer Danny Ongais, in his first Indianapolis-car appearance, crashed the rear-engine Chevrolet-powered Mickey Thompson entry in practice after it caught fire.

The first twenty laps of the race saw furious action at the front, as Pollard, Bobby Unser, and McCluskey each took turns at the point until Unser established himself as the leader. Bobby led until lap 91, then with his pit stop, Pollard and McCluskey got past Unser and the pair exchanged the lead over the next 14 laps.

Unser’s Eagle reassumed the lead on lap 105 and Bobby looked to be cruising for the victory until he spun in traffic on lap 120 and Art Pollard hit the wall in the ‘Thermo King Auto Air Conditioning Special’ to avoid Unser’s spinning ‘Rislone Special.’  Bobby lost a lap with his spin and fell to sixth place with his brother Al and Gordon Johncock at the front of the field.   

Johncock assumed the lead and repelled Al’s late attempts to pass and led the final 14 laps to claim his second consecutive “California 200’ victory. Lloyd Ruby finished in third position, and AJ Foyt fourth as Bobby Unser recovered to finish fifth. Mario Andretti, now a car owner following the death of benefactor Al Dean, started what would be an unhappy 1968 season, a retired early when his Brawner Hawk broke a half shaft after just 40 laps.

Attrition was much less of a factor in the 1967 “California 200,’ as 17 of the 26 starters finished the race, which finished in an hour and 39 minutes with a record average speed of 155.709 MPH. The racing was good with ten recorded lead changes, but attendance was down from the inaugural event, with only 15,000 fans reportedly on hand.

There were apparently no other major races held at Hanford Motor Speedway during the Summer months of 1968, but a major event occurred that did not bode well for the long-term survival of the facility. On July 9, 1968, the sale of $25.5 million in mortgage bonds were completed to finance the construction of the Ontario Motor Speedway. The new facility west of the Los Angeles metropolitan area would feature a 2-1/2-mile oval and infield road course was planned to be the world’s most modern multi-purpose racing facility with seating for 95,000 fans. With the general contractor Stole, Inc. already under contract, the new facility was set to open with a USAC Indianapolis-car race in the Fall of 1970.

In the lead-up to the November 3, 1968 ‘California 250’ race, much of the publicity focused on the appearance of a pair of STP-sponsored Lotus 56 machines powered by Pratt & Whitney ST6N-74 gas turbine engines. The door-stop shaped dayglo red turbine cars had been a sensation in their debut at the Indianapolis ‘500,’ and a turbine car came within nine laps of winning the race.

Two weeks after the ‘500,’ ownership of the turbine cars shifted from STP Oil Treatment president Andy Granatelli to Parnelli Jones and they had appeared in a handful of USAC races, mainly road courses. The four-wheel drive turbines proved to be fast in qualifying but suffered from numerous mechanical maladies and brake problems in races which had limited their finishes.

‘California 250’ ticket prices increased over the Spring race, with starting line area seats priced at $12 each, with outer area reserved grandstand seats $10 and day of the race general admission seats $8 apiece. JC Agajanian who had posted a guaranteed purse of $25,000, featured the entries of three drivers in piston engine cars to battle the turbines – Roger McCluskey, Al Unser and Bill Vukovich Jr.  McCluskey a two-time USAC sprint car champion and Vukovich from Fresno, the 1968 Indianapolis Rookie of the Year were entered in cars powered by turbocharged Offenhauser engines, while Unser was entered in a Lola powered by 750-horsepower turbocharged Ford engine.

There was a three-hour practice session held on Saturday November 2, with qualifying on Sunday at noon followed by the start of the race at 2:30 PM. Defending champion Gordon Johncock crashed in Saturday practice and Pollard in one of the turbines broke a differential and neither car could be repaired in time.  In qualifying, Joe Leonard in the STP turbine obliterated the previous track record with a best lap of 163.093 MPH trailed by USAC points leader Mario Andretti, Lloyd Ruby and the 1968 Indianapolis ‘500’ winner Bobby Unser, as all four drivers posted laps which were faster than the old track record.     

At the drop of the green flag by JC Agajanian, Leonard in the #60 turbine seized the lead and led the first 93 circuits until he pitted for a kerosene fill-up and new tires on lap 94.  While Leonard was stopped, the yellow flag flew which allowed AJ Foyt, Bobby Unser and Andretti to pit under caution and dropped Leonard to fourth place. Unser and Andretti battled for the lead over the next 29 laps before AJ Foyt took the lead for good on lap 132 and led the final 36 circuits.

Foyt’s Coyote crossed the finish line three seconds ahead of Unser with Andretti in third one car length behind Bobby. Leonard wound up in fourth place on the lead lap, the best-ever finish for the STP turbine with Jim McElreath in fifth place three laps in arrears to the winner.

Foyt’s win marked the first USAC championship victory for the turbocharged Ford engine as Andretti’s points lead fell to 72 markers with two races remaining on the 1968 schedule. Post-race newspaper articles  the next day optimistically reported attendance of 15,000, but a later local newspaper article stated that “promoter Agajanian barely escaped with his shirt.”  

In our next installment, we will look at the 1969 season as the 18-year old Hanford Motor Speedway facility began to encounter serious financial difficulties.

Hanford Speedway – Hanford California

Part three of the rich history of the first superspeedway west of the Mississippi

From the debut of automobile racing with jalopy races in May 1951 through 1962, racing events on Marchbanks Stadium’s paved ½-mile, oiled dirt 1/3-mile and 1-3/8-mile high paved tracks had been promoted by the track builder and owner Bircha Lewis “B.L”. Marchbanks.

The racing facility southeast of Hanford California was managed during the 1963 season by Bakersfield boxing promoter Ed York’s Racing Associates Inc. then in late June 1964 it was announced that race driver “Caveman” Bob Christie and his partner Tommy Francis had signed a lease with an option to buy the facility.  Writer Jack Lattimer, who broke the story in the San Mateo Times newspaper, noted that the big oval with three 22-degree banked turns had seen very little use lately outside of some “small time races.”

Christie, a 40-year old racing veteran from Grant’s Pass Oregon had qualified for eight consecutive Indianapolis 500-mile races between 1956 and 1963 with a best finish of tenth in 1960. Outside of Indianapolis, much of Christie’s racing career was spent in AAA (American Automobile Association) and USAC (United States Auto Club) stock cars. Christie appeared to be an unlikely candidate for a race track promoter as when not racing, he traveled the country as an employee of JC Penney Automotive Centers.

Just over a month after that surprising announcement, a United Press International wire article revealed that KS Enterprises Inc. had signed a 20-year lease for Marchbanks Stadium. T L “Tommy” Francis, identified as the KS vice president and general manager, said that the facility would immediately be renamed Hanford Speedway.

Francis a former stock car racer from San Gabriel California had notably competed in the 1950 Carrera Panamericana Mexican road race. Francis and co-driver Jimmie Crum were initially reported as killed after their 1950 Ford crashed and rolled over in the final stage, but that report was corrected after the pair and their battered car appeared at the finish line in Chiapas after the time limit had expired.   

In an extended newspaper interview, Francis related that the newly-formed company headed by Kalmon “Kal” Simon planned to spend $200,000 over a two-year period to develop the track into “the Indianapolis of the West.”  Simon, a machinery dealer, was virtually unknown although he had been involved in racing previously as the owner of a late model stock car. The new business, KS Racing Enterprises, Inc. was registered as a California corporation on May 11, 1964 with the 12-story Taft Building in Hollywood listed as its official address.   KS also maintained business offices in an industrial section of the City of El Monte and the Yucca Vine Tower office building in Hollywood.

The new company’s plan was to bring Indianapolis-type cars to Hanford “possibly within six months” to race for a purse of $20,000 before projected crowds of 35,000 to 75,000. In the UPI article Francis stated that “California is the breeding ground for racing with 48 race car builders located in the state,” and he noted that “of the 311,000 fans at the Indianapolis ‘500,’ 48,000 were from California.” 

Francis also revealed that Henry Banks, the USAC Director of Competition, and Louis Meyer, the first three-time Indianapolis ‘500’ winner, had recently inspected the Hanford facility and given a “100% okay for USAC stock car racing” and that the pair of retired champions thought that the track would be suitable for Indianapolis-type cars with a “few minor changes.”   

On September 5, 1964, the California Racing Association (CRA) sprint cars ran a 100-lap feature on the Hanford Speedway paved half-mile track in a program with a purse of $3,500. The entry list for the 24-car starting field included local favorite (and three-time Hanford track champion) Frank Secrist in the #94 Boghosian Brothers car, but it was Bob DeJong from San Francisco who set quick time in qualifying.

Speedway General Manager Francis reported paid attendance of 7,156 fans who watched Paul Jones (Parnelli Jones’ younger brother) flip down the backstretch during the feature and suffer a broken leg and collarbone in the crash. Hal Minyard in his Leonard Surdam owned Chevy-powered sprinter beat defending CRA champion “Lover Boy” Bob Hogle to the checkered flag with the race completed in 42 minutes 41.3 seconds.   

Due to the success of the first CRA visit, Hanford Speedway hosted the sprint cars again on Sunday afternoon October 11, with additional grandstands erected to accommodate up to 12,000 fans. In the penultimate CRA race of the 1964 season, things were not much different as DeJong again set quick time and Minyard won the feature again - this time Hal edged out 1961 CRA champion Jack Brunner who had started the 100-lap feature from eighteenth starting position.

In notching his tenth CRA feature win of the season on a warm 90-degree day, Minyard also shaved two minutes off the track record for the 50-mile distance. Bob Hogle second in points raced the Morales Offenhauser powered sprinter with an arm injury suffered in a crash the week before, but soldiered on to finish sixth after he stopped twice for new tires.  Two weeks later after the CRA season finale at Ascot Park, Minyard at age 40 was crowned the 1964 CRA driving champion as his car owner Leonard Surdam from Rialto California won the car owner’s title.

On Sunday afternoon November 29, 1964 the Hanford Speedway, which was now referred to as a mile and half long track, hosted the USAC stock cars, with qualifying held on Saturday the 28^th. 1964 Indianapolis ‘500’ winner AJ Foyt won the pole position with an average speed of over 109 miles per hour (MPH) followed by Joe Leonard and Rufus “Parnelli” Jones, who three days earlier had won the Turkey Night Grand Prix for midgets with Bobby Unser in the fourth starting position.    

Other USAC ‘stars’ in the field included Lloyd Ruby, Bob Christie, Norm Nelson, defending USAC stock car champion Don White, Dempsey Wilson and Eugene “Jud” Larson who made an unusual stock car start.  With Hanford the penultimate event on the USAC schedule, Jones, the 1963 Indianapolis ‘500’ winner held a 300-point advantage over Nelson for the title of 1965 USAC stock car champion but Parnelli needed a solid finish to clinch.    

Bobby Marshman, who shared Rookie of the Year honors in the 1961 Indianapolis 500 with Jones, was scheduled to appear at Hanford but he suffered critical burns on November 27 in a tire-testing crash of his Pure Oil Firebird Lotus 29-Ford at Phoenix International Raceway. Marvin Porter winner of the 1960 NASCAR Grand National Marchbanks race was called upon to substitute for Marshman.  

KS Enterprises predicted more than 20,000 fans would attend the 200-mile ‘Billy Vukovich Memorial’ race, but only 6,500 fans passed the turnstiles.  Foyt in a 1964 Dodge charged into the lead trailed by Leonard, and the top remained static until the pair pitted around halfway through the race. Jones who had pitted earlier around lap 50 took the lead on the pit stop exchange but was forced to the stop for more fuel on lap 105.

When Jones stopped, Foyt regained the lead and raced to the win over Jones, Leonard, Unser and Marvin Porter with Lloyd Ruby in sixth place. Jones had secured his 1964 USAC stock car championship earlier in the race when the engine in Norm Nelson’s Plymouth blew up on lap 39. With his third-place finish at Hanford, former AMA motorcycle champion Joe Leonard clinched the USAC stock car division’s Rookie of the Year honors.  

During the 1965 season Hanford Speedway, which KS Enterprises billed as “Big H” that they advertised offered racing that included “stock, Indy Cars, sprint, sport and unlimited,” hosted two CRA sprint car races, both 50 lap events. The first CRA event was held on Sunday February 21 on what was now billed as Hanford’s 5/8-mile track. In practice on Saturday, Ernie Koch in Ben Zakit’s rear engine Offenhauser-powered sprint car from Oregon crashed and the crew was unable to make repairs in time for the car to compete in the next day’s races.

Ray Douglas in the Fisher Chevrolet-powered car topped the 31 cars that presented for qualifying and he set a new track record of 21.95 seconds. Second and third qualifiers Dick Atkins and Dee Hillman, teammates on the team owned by John Pestana and Bob Lang that used the former Fike Plumbing machinery, also eclipsed the old track record.  Don Thomas, Tink Elenberg, and Billy Wilkerson were the winners of the three five-lap preliminary heat races.

Douglas started the feature from the pole position and led the first 16 laps of the feature which was slowed by four caution flag periods for oil on the track, spins and crashes. Atkins powered past Douglas on the backstretch on the 17^th lap and then held off his teammate Hillman to win by two lengths. Bob DeJong the former track record holder finished third trailed by Hal Minyard and Bob Hogle.  

In the week following the CRA sprint car race, San Mateo Times writer Jack Lattimer reported that with new financial backing, Hanford Speedway manager Tommy Francis was remodeling the “poorly designed” 1.8-mile track. “Parts of the track are being rebuilt and the racing groove stretched to two miles,” Lattimer’s article claimed “the turns will be 65 feet wide with two short and two long straightaways similar to Indianapolis. All turns will be equal and banked 15 degrees.” According to Lattimer, Francis hoped to have the new track ready by April 7 for a 200-mile USAC national championship race.

A month later, Lattimer wrote in the San Mateo Times that Hanford would host a 200-mile USAC championship race on the two-mile oval on November 7, followed by a 150-mile USAC stock car race on November 27.  There is no confirmation that the USAC schedule actually planned on a 1965 Indy Car race, but neither the race or the promised track construction ever occurred.  A planned 1965 American Motorcycle Association (AMA) 125-mile championship road initially scheduled for April or May 1965 was cancelled during the month of March according to the AMA “due to the promoter’s failure to confirm date.”

Hanford Speedway hosted an open-competition 200-mile race for cars with “early late model stock bodies (1950 to 1962) with big late model mills” for the weekend of April 17-18, 1965.  The $5000 purse event, run over the track’s 15-turn 1.8-mile road course was sanctioned by California Auto Racing Inc (CAR), the successor to the California Jalopy Association.

CAR president and race promoter Art Atkinson, a used car dealer and former race car driver, explained that the race was part of a “new trend of road racing stock cars which is spreading fast.” Advertised entries for the “Cotton Picker 200” included Frank Secrist, Jim Cook of Norwalk, Marshall Sargent of San Jose Speedway fame, and drivers from the nearby towns of Bakersfield, Shafter, Oildale, Porterville and Delano. Practice was scheduled for Friday with qualifying on Saturday to determine the “100 fastest cars to start.”

The promotion was a disaster as only 31 cars entered with some of the entries Atkinson described as “so bad we warned them not to run over 30 miles per hour.” Atkinson claimed that a “calculated cold-blooded plot” was the reason for the failure, because “other minor league local clubs called mandatory inspections for Sunday to sabotage my program.”  Bobby Mills of Porterville won the race despite that fact that during a pit stop an excited crewmember accidentally poured two gallons of water into the car’s fuel tank. 

The CRA sprint cars returned on Saturday night May 29 1965 for a scheduled 24-car 50-lap feature race. Entries included earlier winner Atkins and Frank Secrist, but Jay East drove Leonard Surdam’s orange #1 car to victory in place of regular driver Hal Minyard, who was “back East” as sale representative for his ‘McHal’ line of racing helmets. East started the feature from eighth place and made a daring last lap pass in turn two to claim his first career CRA feature victory.    

The November 28 race at Hanford Speedway was the final date on the 1965 USAC stock car schedule, and the Rookie of the Year honors had already been awarded to Canadian phenom Billy Foster but the driver’s championship still hung in the balance. Norm Nelson held a 260-point advantage over second-place driver Paul Goldsmith with 400 points available to the race winner. Behind the lead pair, Don White and Jim Hurtubise were separated by just 215 points in their battle for third place.   

Other big-name USAC drivers entered for the 200-mile included Sal Tovella, Bay Darnell, 24-year old Gary Bettenhausen and the 1965 Indianapolis 500-mile race rookie of the year and new USAC National Champion Mario Andretti in a 1964 Ford sponsored by Hanford Speedway promoter Kal Simon. Other entries included midget racer Tommy Copp, Dempsey Wilson, Lloyd Ruby, and USAC stock car rookie and three-time race winner Bobby Isaac although none of that quartet was able to crack their way into the 31-car starting field which was led by fast qualifier Goldsmith in Ray Nichels’ 1965 Plymouth.

The race day crowd of over 9,000 fans saw Foster start second in a 1965 Dodge and Hurtubise from third in Norm Nelson’s #56 1965 Plymouth. Hurtubise, Foster and Goldsmith all lead early but each retired with engine failure, and Goldsmith’s retirement on the 87^th lap not only handed the lead to Norm Nelson, but clinched Nelson’s second USAC stock car championship.  Nelson crossed the finish line several laps ahead of Scotty Cain to claim the $2,000 winner’s check with Mario Andretti in third, five laps behind Nelson, with only 11 cars were still running at the finish.  This marked the USAC stock cars final appearance at Hanford, and it would be four years before the CRA sprint cars would return.    

AJ Foyt’s four Indy '500' winning cars at PRI 2017

 

 

 

This year’s Performance Racing Industry (PRI) trade show, the thirtieth annual event, honored four-time Indianapolis 500-mile race winner Anthony Joseph “A J” Foyt with a display of his four Indianapolis winning cars that were shown courtesy of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum.

 

The 1961 winning “Bowes Seal Fast Special” carried the number 1 that denoted Foyt’s United States Auto Club (USAC) drivers’ championship in 1961. The tubular chassis built by Youngstown Ohio’s Floyd Trevis from AJ Watson blueprints is powered by a 252-cubic inch 4-cylinder Offenhauser engine and completed the 200-lap race around the 2-1/2 mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway in three hours and thirty five minutes at an average speed of 139.130 miles per hour.

Foyt started the 1961 “Golden Anniversary” race from seventh position and first led the race on lap 73 and for the balance of the race carried out a spirited duel for the lead with Eddie Sachs and Rodger Ward. Foyt made his last scheduled pit stop on lap 160, but due to a fueling malfunction the car did not received a full load of fuel. Foyt led the race when crew chief George Bignotti signaled via the sign board that another fuel stop was needed. Foyt’s lap 184 stop for a splash of fuel seemingly handed the victory to Sachs, but Eddie pitted with three laps to go to replace a badly worn right rear tire and Foyt claimed his first '500' victory.

 

 

The 1964 winning “Sheraton-Thompson Special” built by AJ Watson with Offenhauser power that carried Foyt to victory had already won the first two 1964 season races at Phoenix International Raceway and Trenton international Speedway, and the Indianapolis ‘500’ win for Foyt was the third of seven USAC championship race wins in a row.  Foyt started the 500-mile race in fifth place slotted behind the front row which was comprised of all rear engine cars powered by Ford double overhead camshaft (DOHC) engines and all of whom had shattered Parnelli Jones’ one year old track record.

At the drop of the green flag, the pole winner Jim Clark  and second qualifier Bobby Marshman set the pace but they were eliminated; Clark by tire failure and Marshman by a broken oil pan. Defending winner Jones took the point but his #98 roadster was eliminated by a pit fire and Foyt took the lead on lap 55 and dominated the rest of the way. Foyt won by over a minute and a half over Rodger Ward and averaged over 147 MPH in the last victory at the Brickyard by a front engine roadster.

 

 

For the 1967 Indianapolis 500-mile race AJ Foyt drove a new rear-engine creation known as the “Coyote” with the aluminum monocoque chassis built by metal craftsmen Lujie Lesovsky and Eddie Kuzma covered by a fiberglass body crafted by AJ’s father Tony.  The new car powered by a DOHC Ford engine operated “under the radar” for most of the month of May 1967 as everyone’s interest was focused on the STP (Scientifically Tested Products) Granatelli four-wheel-drive turbine-powered machine.

Foyt’s “Sheraton-Thompson Special” qualified fourth and along with the rest of the starting field watched as Parnelli Jones and his turbine “Silent Sam” motored into the distance.  Jones led four times for a total of 171 laps, but while on his 196th lap a bearing in the transmission failed and Jones rolled into the pits.

Foyt in second place nearly a lap down inherited the lead and looked bound for victory but the race was far from over. As Foyt steered his Coyote through the final turn on his last lap, the crashing cars of Chuck Hulse, Carl Williams, Bobby Grim, Bud Tinglestad and Larry Dickson nearly blocked the main straightaway. Foyt slowed dramatically and carefully picked his way through the wreckage to claim his third Indianapolis victory.

 

 

In 1977, ten years had passed since Foyt’s last Indianapolis victory though he had finished third in 1975 and second in 1976 in rain-shortened races at the Speedway. The latest iteration of the “Coyote” chassis designed by Bob Riley which first debuted in 1973 was powered by a turbocharged 159-cubic inch version of the Ford DOHC engine, known as a “Foyt” engine after AJ had purchased the rights after the Ford Motor Company pulled out of racing in November 1970.    

AJ in the Poppy Red #14 sponsored by broadcaster Jim Gilmore started from the fourth starting position and Foyt first appeared at the head of the pack on lap 21. Foyt remained in the mix but the race was dominated by Gordon Johncock in the STP Wildcat who led Foyt by 10 seconds when he made his last scheduled pit stop on lap 180.

Johncock regained the lead from Foyt on the exchange of pit stops but on lap 184 the crankshaft in Johncock’s Offenhauser engine broke and a huge plume of smoke signaled the end of Johncock’s race.  Foyt inherited the lead with a cushion of over 30 seconds over second place Tom Sneva and he cruised to claim his historic fourth victory, the first man to conquer the Brickyard four times.

Foyt would continue to race in the Indianapolis 500-mile race until he retired before the race in 1993 with a record 35 consecutive starts, a year after he set the record as the race’s oldest starter at 57 years and 128 days old.  Foyt held the record for the most years between wins (10) until it was surpassed by Juan Pablo Montoya with 15 years between wins in 2000 and 2015. 

Foyt holds the record for the most Indianapolis 500-mile races led with thirteen and leads all drivers with a remarkable 12,272-1/2 miles completed in competition at Indianapolis to go along with being the first man to capture four Indianapolis 500-mile race wins.  

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 early history of

Indianapolis Raceway Park

 

 



This article originally appeared in the Classic Racing Times (CRT), and is offered for those who do not subscribe to CRT. The author encourages readers to visit the CRT website at http://www.theclassicracingtimes.com/ and consider subscribing to CRT.

The original plans for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS), announced in February 1909, called for an outer 2-mile banked 50-foot wide track and an inner 3-mile road 25-foot wide course which when connected would result in a five-mile course. In March 1909 after the purchase of additional property along Crawfordsville Pike the plans changed to a 2-1/2 mile long oval with an inner 2-1/2 mile long road course.  

 

This 1911 newspaper drawing shows the

intended IMS layout with infield road course

 

Construction crews rushed to complete the facility in time for the inaugural racing events, a motorcycle meet on August 13 and 14 followed by the first automobile races held between  August 19 and 21 1909. During those disastrous first races the track surface treated with 235,000 gallons of coal oil mixed with gravel failed badly, and the planned construction of the inner 2-1/2 mile road course was superseded by the necessity to re-surface the oval track with bricks. 

The IMS infield was used as an aircraft repair and training facility during World War One and then in August 1929 the Speedway’s second owner, Captain Eddie Rickenbacker opened a 9-hole infield golf course designed by native Hoosier course architect William Diddel. In the latter 1990’s an infield road course was built at IMS to allow the track to host the 2000 United States Formula One Grand Prix. 

Anton ‘Tony’ Hulman who bought and rehabilitated the once-dilapidated Indianapolis Motor Speedway after World War Two, dreamed of transforming the Speedway into a multi-use racing facility but at that time he viewed that the construction of a road course inside the big oval was not feasible.  Instead Hulman assembled a group to build Indianapolis Raceway Park (IRP) east of the town of Clermont, a six-mile drive from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Crawfordsville Pike.

IRP’s articles of incorporation were signed at the downtown Indianapolis Athletic Club and filed at noon on November 9 1959. In addition to Hulman, who was the IRP Inc. Chairman, the group was comprised by fourteen businessmen who each invested at least $5,000 up to a maximum of $25,000.

The incorporators included United States Auto Club (USAC) President Thomas Binford who was named IRP’s President, two-time Indianapolis ‘500’ champion Rodger Ward, broadcaster Charlie Brockman as secretary, car owner and promoter extraordinaire J.C. Agajanian, car builder A.J. Watson and New Bremen (Ohio) Speedway owner and promoter Frank Dicke as vice-president.  

The roster of the remaining investors who were all board members was comprised of engineer and USAC official Rhiman Rotz, Connersville physician Dr. Gerald Watterson, Howard Fieber, an Indianapolis insurance executive, construction executive Lee R Ford, former steel executives John H. Holliday and  Charles Harvey Bradley Jr., attorney Robert D Morgan, and James H. Coover.   

The centerpiece of the site located in Lincoln Township in Hendricks County was to be a ½-mile oval track, which the group initially was unsure would be dirt or paved. Other IRP features included a 10,000 seat grandstands, a 4,300-foot drag strip and a 2-1/2 mile road course. In an interview with the Indianapolis Star, Binford explained the plan called for the oval track to be banked a maximum of 12 degrees on the turns and be at least 60 feet wide.  Binford added “that all the most modern safety precautions will be made a part of the plant including super-strong guard rails at least four feet high.”

“We’re not seeking the fastest auto racing track in the United States," Binford emphasized, "Instead, we want to have the safest and most competitive," and said that plans were for an oval with long straightaways and relatively tight turns. "We don’t want them to be able to run flat-out all the way around like they can on some tracks," Binford said "we want a multiple groove race track-we want them to have to accelerate and decelerate so that driving skill will play a greater part."

Binford said that construction would start as soon as zoning clearance was obtained from Hendricks County authorities with the target date for the opening racing program in mid-June of 1960 or July 1 at the latest. However before the $780,000 construction project could begin the group had to settle a lawsuit filed in Hendricks County Superior Court by Alvin and Henryetta Haverkamp owners of a trailer camp on an adjoining 130 acre parcel. On April 8 1960 the Haverkamp suit was withdrawn after IRP officials promised that there would be no night racing.

On April 15 1960 the group closed on the final 140 acres of property and Binford stated in an Indianapolis Star interview  that construction at Raceway Park was due to start in 30 days on the now 5/8-mile flat oval track and the dragstrip. Binford clarified that the new plan was to eventually build grandstands to accommodate 40,000 fans, but to start with a 12,000 seat grandstand and parking for 10,000 spectator cars.

During the winter of 1960-61 IRP Incorporated made flurry of announcements. First, IRP would also promote races at the ½-mile dirt oval New Bremen Speedway with Frank Dicke named to manage both tracks. In November 1960 IRP vice-president Lee Ford signed an agreement with Wally Parks of the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) which made IRP the permanent home for the NHRA U.S. Nationals beginning with Labor Day weekend 1961. Finally, Joseph L. Quinn Jr. the IMS Safety Director was named the director of racing and Robert H. Humphrey was named the superintendent of grounds and the drag strip manager.

 

This is the layout of IRP

 

Indianapolis Raceway Park’s first event, a Sports Car Club of America Indianapolis regional race, held on Sunday April 17 1961 was less than successful. The sports car racers were greeted by a snowstorm with 40 mile per hour (MPH) winds which delayed the start of racing for four hours while the track crew cleared ice and snow from the course. On the fifth lap of the first 10-lap race of the day, Andrew Barnes flipped his Turner sports car on the main straightaway (the drag strip) but was unhurt.

Two laps later an errant Alfa Romeo racer spun in the pit area and crashed into a parked Corvette. At that point Chief Steward Duke Knowlton called the day’s racing program complete and declared Bill Andrews the winner in his Morgan. Knowlton told reporters "we hated to have to cancel it, but we didn't want to press our luck.  It got so bad the drivers couldn't see in front of them even when it wasn't snowing because the muddy water from other cars was coming up in their faces.”

The new facility scheduled its grand opening known as the “Pre-500 Speed-O-Rama” from May 27 to May 29 1961. Advance advertising promised fans the chance to see “Drivers . . . Champions . . . Record-Breakers!”   

First up on Saturday May 27 were drag races held on the 7000-foot dragstrip with entries that included Ralph and Bob Musick’s “Musicmaker” 290-cubic inch non supercharged dragster which held the NHRA B/Dragster record at 145.16 MPH, as well as Ray Goodman’s 170 MPH supercharged Chrysler- powered ‘Tennessee Boll Weevil,’ and Mickey Thompson’s “Attempt,’ a four-cylinder supercharged Pontiac Tempest-powered dragster. Making a special static appearance was Dr. Nathan Ostich’s “Flying Caduceus,” the world's first jet propelled land speed car. 

The following day, Sunday May 28 the 5/8-mile oval which was still a dirt surface, opened with a United States Auto Club (USAC) 30-lap ‘big car’ race that featured such stars as Elmer George, Leon Clum and Bob Wente racing for a $5700 purse.  A total  of 30 drivers which included Indianapolis 500-mile race starters AJ Foyt, Roger McCluskey and AJ Shepherd signed in for time trials along with such established big car stars as Chuck Hulse, Alvin 'Cotton' Farmer, Johnny White and Rex Easton.

The program nearly spelled disaster for two of the ‘500’ drivers that day. McCluskey a 30-year Indianapolis rookie set quick time in qualifying with a best lap of 27.57 seconds but during the second 8-lap heat race McCluskey lost control in turn three hit the outside wall and the car rolled over twice. Roger escaped with bumps and bruises but the H-O-W #4 car was finished for the day.

On the first lap of the feature AJ Shepherd, scheduled to start 14th in the Memorial Day Classic, crashed the Sterling Plumbing #55 car but escaped injury. Two days later at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Shepherd and McCluskey were both involved in the spectacular six-car chain-reaction crash on the main straightaway that wound up with Jack Turner flipping his roadster high in the air.

A.J. Foyt, whose car carried the number 1 as the 1960 USAC Eastern 'big car' series champion, led 29 laps of the feature and won $819 as he finished ahead of Hulse and Bob Cleberg who drove in place of Jim Hurtubise.

On Monday May 29 the USAC stock car division invaded the IRP 5/8-mile dirt oval for a 90-lap contest. The defending USAC stock car champion, Paul Goldsmith, was on the grounds but not in action as he was qualified for the Indianapolis ‘500.’  

Likewise, ‘500’ starter Bill Cheesbourg chose not to drive his 1959 Ford, and entrusted it to 1956 500-mile race winner Pat Flaherty. USAC stock car regular Don White won $623 as he led 69 laps in his 1961 Ford ahead of Ernie Derr’s 1961 Pontiac. Shortly after the completion “Pre-500 Speed-O-Rama” races, the oval received its now-familiar covering of bituminous asphalt. 

The 15-turn 2-1/2 mile IRP road course hosted its first professional race a month later for the Hoosier Grand Prix USAC Road Racing Championship which was run in twin 100-mile heat races. The entry list included road racers Augie Pabst, Ken Miles, Bob Holbert and Bill Krause as well as such 500-mile race stars as Rodger Ward, Lloyd Ruby, Ebb Rose, Jimmy Daywalt, and Len Sutton.

Ruby who drove Frank Harrison’s Maserati 450S won the first heat over Miles and Pabst, and then Pabst in the Scarab Mark II won the second heat ahead of Ruby and Pabst was declared the Hoosier Grand Prix overall winner based on the lowest elapsed time.

The first few years for IRP Inc. were financially difficult; the company lost $54,000 before depreciation and interest in 1961 followed by a loss of $16,000 in 1962. In 1963, IRP turned the financial corner with a net profit of $46,000 before deductions for depreciation and interest.  

IRP Inc. continued to operate the facility and added appearances by the USAC championship cars and midgets until the facility was sold to the NHRA in 1979.  Under NHRA’s ownership there has been tremendous investment the addition of NASCAR racing and the facility’s annexation by the town of Brownsburg in the facility now known as Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis.