Hal Minyard 1948 Southern California Midget Racing Association champion

Hal Minyard

1948 Southern California Midget Racing Association Champion

The Southern California Midget Racing Association (SCMRA) formed early 1948 with 'Speed' Boardman as the club president while racer Jerry Curry served as the business manager.  Jim Rae, Offenhauser Engineering employee Al Long, driver Hal Minyard and car owner Willie Childers were board members.

This club appealed to racers whose equipment, typically powered by Ford V8-60 engines, was not quite fast enough to challenge the United Racing Association or American Automobile Association regulars, might best be characterized as the Southern California midget “minor league.”  The club scheduled races at 5-H Speedway and considered bookings at the Firestone Boulevard Motordrome (aka Don-Mar Speedway) and DeAnza Speedway in Riverside, but races at those two venues apparently never came to fruition.    

Boardman, from Burbank, was active in 1945 and 1946 with the United Midget Association, and won a midget race at the small Lincoln Park Stadium track in 1946. In September 1947 while racing at Balboa Stadium in San Diego with the URA “Red Circuit” for non-Offenhauser powered midgets, Boardman flipped in successive weeks and both times wound up in the same hospital room.   

Harold E ‘Hal’ Minyard born in 1925 in South Gate California, started his racing career in soap box derby cars, then before the war worked on and tested “junior midget cars” powered by modified washing machine engines. Hal enlisted in the United States Army in 1943 and after his military service, he raced during 1946 and 1947 with the United Racing Association (URA) in select “Red Circuit” races in a Ford V8-60 powered midget owned by Vern Boone. 

The SCMA (the group frequently dropped the “R”) scheduled their first race at the 5-H Ranch Speedway in Roscoe (today known as Sun Valley) at the corner of Sunland Boulevard and San Fernando Road north of North Hollywood. After World War 2 ended, real estate investor Paul Holland purchased the property and with his wife and three children developed it into a full-service equine facility.  The 5-H Ranch started by offering horse boarding and training then Holland added a lighted rodeo arena with bleacher seating for 7000 that also hosted open-air community dances. 

In late 1946 Holland added a restaurant and cocktail lounge to the 5-H Ranch complex then in early 1947 opened the “Pony Express Saddle Shop” that sold tack and western clothing.  During the winter of 1947-1948 the 5-H Ranch added a banked 1/5-mile dirt track with a 4000 seat grandstands. The track known variously as the “5-H Ranch Speedway” or simply the “5-H Speedway” opened in January 1948 with a 25-lap hot rod roadster race presented by American Sports Cars Inc.

The inaugural 5-H Ranch automobile race featured entries from the 1947 American Sports Cars Inc.  series champion Chuck Burness and runner-up George Seeger,  “Hook” Klein (the pride of Pacoima), Bob Bayer and local Roscoe racer Bill LaRoy who drove a “four-barrel Plymouth.”  Burness won the feature as he edged Bill Stevens and Grant Lambert in a time of 8 minutes 29.38 seconds for the 25 laps before a reported crowd of 4000 fans.

The inaugural SCMA midget auto race scheduled for March 14 1948 rained out and rescheduled for the following Sunday afternoon March 21^st.  Speed Boardman won the three-lap trophy dash over Carl Brown, then Seeger won the 15-lap semi-main event over Jack Jordan. Chuck Burness became a 5-H Ranch Speedway won the 25-lap main event over Joe Dehart and ‘Inky’ Ingram in a time of 7 minutes and 35.64 seconds.

The following Sunday in the second SCMA midget race at 5-H, Carl Brown won the trophy dash and the feature while ‘Speed’ Boardman won the semi-main race.  In the April 11 program Jerry Curry set a new three-lap record of 53.55 seconds to edge out Hal Minyard in the trophy dash but the results of the feature were missed in the newspaper reports.  

5-H Speedway official Bob Machado announced that beginning on May 4 the SCMA midgets would race on Friday nights. Before the next midget racing event on April 25, the track brought in an 8-inch layer of clay and placed it over the previous gravel base. 

The 1948 SCMA season formally opened on Friday night April 30 at 5-H with a 25-lap main event which Minyard won over Jackie Jordan and Jerry Curry. During the feature, Fred Hanson ran over the back of Chuck Burness’ car, his midget flipped and landed upside down on top of Kent Emmerling’s car.

Taken to Glendale Community Hospital in serious condition with a “brain injury,” Hanson survived but apparently never raced with the SCMA midgets again, while Emmerling miraculously escaped injury.  Jerry Curry won the May 7th trophy dash and the feature. In an unusual promotion, the drivers switched cars for the Australian Pursuit race, and Joe DeHart won that race in Curry’s midget.

On May 14^th at 5-H, Tommy Beverlin set a new track record in the trophy dash as he completed the three laps in 51.84 seconds. Joe DeHart captured the win in the 20-lap in six minutes and 45.52 seconds.  In late May on back-to-back Friday nights at 5-H Speedway, both the semi-main winners went on to score the feature victory -  Warren Sorenson on May 21^st and Hal Minyard on the 28^th.  As June 1948 opened, Curry, Minyard, and DeHart were the top three in the SCMA points.

Before 2700 fans DeHart won the shortened feature on June 18^th suspended after Beverlin hit the wall on the 16^th lap with Minyard scored in third place. The following week, Minyard won the trophy dash and the feature and just missed a clean sweep as he finished second to Jackie Jordan in the semi-main.  On July 3^rd at 5-H, Minyard finished second to Speed Boardman in the trophy dash then won the 25-lap main event ahead of Boardman.

The weekend of July 17 and 18 1948 proved to be a very successful one for Hal Minyard. On Friday night, Minyard topped Jordan and Boardman to win the 25-lap feature at 5-H Speedway. On Saturday night, the SCMA racers christened the new El Monte Speedway, a ¼-mile dirt oval on South Durfee Road which opened the week before with California Roadster Association (CRA) hot rod roadster racing.  

A reported crowd of 3011 fans watched Boardman beat Minyard to the line in the three-lap trophy dash, then Hal turned the tables on Boardman and won the 30-lap feature after he started in the eighth position for his fifth consecutive SCMA feature victory.

On Friday night July 24^th Jackie Jordan broke Minyard’s win streak as he just edged out Hal in the 25-lap race that finished in 8 minutes and 8 seconds, but Minyard returned to victory lane the following day at El Monte again after he started eighth. On Monday night August 2, the SCMA racers visited another new venue - Talbert Stadium in Huntington Beach at which the promoter broke with the URA.  Few of the 2200 fans were surprised when Minyard took the win in the 30-lapper after he started the feature in sixth position.   

Beverlin took the SCMA feature win at El Monte Speedway on August 8, as Minyard won the trophy dash. Five days later on Friday night August 13, Minyard cruised to victory in 50 laps over the decomposed granite at Huntington Beach in fourteen minutes to add to his commanding points lead. Minyard capped his successful 1948 SCMA championship campaign with a victory at El Monte on Sunday November 21, 1948.   

In 1949, Hal returned to run with the URA “Red Circuit” and he finished third in the 1958 URA season standings in the Bob Bogan-owned midget and he won the Kearney Bowl midget championship in 1960. During the nineteen sixties, Hal occasionally raced midgets but focused on sprint cars and won the California Racing Association title with ten feature wins in 1964 with Leonard Surdam and 1965 he scored four feature wins with three different car owners. In defending his title in 1966, Hal scored one win and finished seventh in overall CRA driver points.

Hal Minyard had a great racing career as a driver but his greatest racing accomplishment was his partnership in creating the “McHal” racing helmet in the early nineteen fifties which used state-of-the-art materials and a design lower across the front the sides and the back of the helmet which provided more protection for the driver. Due to the materials used, Minyard and his partner John McMurray could heat up the helmet in an oven and tailor it to fit the driver’s head for the best protection.

Hal got his only shot as a driver at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1966 at age 39 in the rear-engine 252-cubic inch Offenhauser powered 1964 Troutman-Barnes chassis owned by Louis Senter with sponsorship from Senter’s Ansen Automotive Engineering. JC Agajanian commissioned this one-of-one car for Parnelli Jones but Jones rejected it favor of the “old Calhoun” Watson chassis for the 1964 Indianapolis 500-mile race then crashed the Troutman-Barnes car at Trenton in July 1964.  

The Senter-led team struggled with engine issues all month and the white #49 car was in line to make a qualifying run on the final day of time trials when the clock ran out.  The following week at the Milwaukee Mile, Hal drove the rear-engine 252-cubic inch Offenhauser powered 1963 Vollstedt chassis #6 owned by Richard Compton of Portland Oregon.

Hal got the Milwaukee ride because the car owner had a dispute with his previous driver Art Pollard. Pollard and the red and white #49 car were bumped from the 33-car Indianapolis starting field by Ronnie Duman’s Eisert-Ford.  

Days later, car owner Compton swore out a theft complaint against Pollard.  Art was convicted in Marion County court in August, after he told the court that he had taken the equipment as “security” for the $4,450 owed him by Compton.

Hal missed the Milwaukee starting field on time, then crashed into the turn four inside guardrail during the consolation race. Though he was uninjured, the crash ended Minyard’s USAC championship driving career as Bruce Jacobi replaced him the following week in the race at Langhorne Pennsylvania.  

In May 1967 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, many drivers wore McHal helmets, but the final 33-car starting field contained only one driver with a McHal helmet – AJ Foyt, who led 27 laps and dodged a last lap crash on the front straightaway to win his third Indianapolis ‘500’ title.

Hal's last racing appearance came during the 1978 season  and Minyard retired in 1999 after 25 years of service as an employee of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He was  inducted into the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame in 2007, and passed away in Speedway Indiana on March 4, 2010 at age 85.

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.

 

The Rajo Jack story coming soon 

In his upcoming book due out May 5 entitled The Brown Bullet: Rajo Jack's Drive to Integrate Auto Racing, journalist Bill Poehler explores the often overlooked life and career of an African-American sports pioneer. Rajo Jack’s passion and talent fueled his ascent in early auto racing in the first half of the 20th Century.  

Jack faced challenges on and off the track throughout his career, overcoming prejudice to earn the respect of white competitors and become one of the most popular athletes on the west coast.  

The powers-that-be in 1920s auto racing, namely the American Automobile Association’s Contest Board, barred everyone who wasn’t a white male from the sport. But Dewey Gatson, a black man who went by the name Rajo Jack, drove into the center of “outlaw” auto racing in California, refusing to let the pervasive racism of his day stop him from competing against entire fields of white drivers.

In The Brown Bullet, journalist Bill Poehler uncovers the life of a long-forgotten trailblazer and the great lengths he took to even get on the track, showing ultimately how Rajo Jack proved to a generation that a black man could compete with some of the greatest white drivers of his era, winning some of the biggest races of the day.

 “Poehler has done a fine job of researching the life of Rajo Jack, relating his determination and poise in the face of discrimination.” – Library Journal

A pair of races at the Oakland Speedway and the death of Fred J Wagner

Part Two

Ironically, the next race for the AAA Pacific Coast big cars after famed racing starter Fred J Wagner’s death reportedly from the injuries he sustained at Oakland on New Year's Day 1932 was scheduled for Sunday November 12, 1933 at the Oakland Speedway.  Besides Wagner’s death (actually from heart disease), the face of big car racing on the West Coast had changed dramatically since January 1 1932.

Bryan Saulpaugh, who had set multiple world’s records at Oakland Speedway on New Year’s Day 1932 before his car swerved out of control and struck the judge’s stand, perished in a practice accident at Oakland Speedway on April 22, 1933.


Saulpaugh was practicing when he lost control of Danny De Paolo’s ‘Red Lion Special.’  Witnesses reported that Saulpaugh’s car appeared to clip the outside guardrail as Bryan exited turn four then overturned three times with Saulpaugh crushed beneath the car during the accident. 

April 1933 was a particularly deadly month in West Coast big car racing, as in addition to Saulpaugh, on April 2 Class B racer Tom Forsyth died in an accident at Legion Ascot Speedway, and the 1932 AAA National Champion Bob Carey was killed in a practice crash at Legion Ascot just six days before Saulpaugh’s fatality.

‘Babe’ Stapp, the winner of the 1932 Oakland New Year’s Day race, on the comeback trail after he suffered critical injuries in an April 27 1932 crash at Legion Ascot and missed much of the 1932 racing season, crashed in the October 22 1933 ‘big car’ race at Oakland after a tire blew out and his car hit the inside railing and rolled over.

‘Babe’ was thrown out of the car and fractured his right leg. Although he was only confined to the Fairmount Hospital overnight, ‘Babe’ was again out of racing action for several months but returned in time to race in the 1934 Indianapolis 500-mile race.       

As the AAA Pacific Coast big car championship competitors arrived in Oakland for the 100-mile race on November 12, 1933 there were three men at the top contending for the championship - Ernie Triplett, Rex Mays and Al Gordon.


Ernie Triplett, the 1931 and 1932 Pacific Coast champion had started the 1933 season strong and in the early stages appeared to be headed for his third title in a row, but in the latter part of the 1933 season, Triplett’s usually reliable car suffered a succession of mechanical failures, which opened the door for a young up-and-coming racer from Riverside California named Rex Mays.

After several troubled early 1933 season outings after he graduated from the Class B ranks, the 20-year old Mays served notice that he was for real when he scored a third-place finish at Oakland on April 23. At the next race at Legion Ascot on May 1, Mays qualified well but fell out of the 100-mile feature on the race’s 23rd lap with a broken axle.  On lap 40 Mays took over for veteran Art Boyce in the Sparks & Weirick "Poison Lil"  after Boyce lost the feeling in his left arm after he was hit by a rock and pitted.   Mays rejoined the race in seventh place but stormed back through the field to win in a time of 48 minutes and 14 seconds for his first big car win.

Mays continued to score wins, and before the October 22 Oakland race, Mays led the AAA Pacific Coast championship over Triplett by six points. During that race, both Mays and Triplett dropped out - Mays’ machine with a broken crankshaft and Triplett’s car with carburetor trouble. 

Their retirements opened the door for third place points man Edgar “Al” Gordon to grab the win and make it a three-man race for the 1933 Pacific Coast title. By the time they returned to Oakland in November, Mays led Gordon by 39 markers and Triplett by 74 points. A win at Oakland would reward the winner with 83 ½ points while the second-place finisher would earn 41 points.

During Saturday’s practice session, 18-year-old Oakland resident Lowell Lamoureux presented Ernie Triplett with a hand-built pine scale model of Triplett’s red Miller-powered machine owned by Bill White.  

Al Gordon was the day’s fastest qualifier and he re-set the world’s one-mile dirt track record, as he circled the one-mile oval in 33.86 seconds, with an average speed of 106.32 miles per hour.  Also spicing up time trials were incidents that involved Mac McCulley whose car lost a right rear wheel, and Bob Valla who spun but did not hit anything and finished his run.


Time trials were followed by a series of five-mile Class B races, with wins scored by George “Swede” Smith and Jim Wilkerson. Louis Tomei won the 15-mile semi-main event over Art Boyce and Ray Gardner.

In the 100-mile feature, Cavino “Kelly” Petillo jumped into the lead from his outside front row starting position and led the first eight laps before Gordon steamed by into the lead.  Triplett then got past Petillo, whose machine retired on lap 66 and surrendered third place to another newcomer Harris Insinger who earlier in the week had been named the pilot of the De Paolo ‘Lion Head Special’ formerly driven by Saulpaugh, as a replacement for George Connors.

Al Gordon who lived in Long Beach clinched the 1933 AAA Pacific Coast Championship after he won the postponed 150-lap (92 mile) race at Legion Ascot on December 10 an event during which he re-set the track record at 25.71 seconds. Gordon won again at Legion Ascot the following week, then the final race of the 1933 season a 200-lap race scheduled for December 31, 1933 was postponed by rain for one week to January 7, 1934.

Waldo Stein the acting AAA Western Zone supervisor announced that the points from the rescheduled race would count towards the 1934 tally, but controversy quickly erupted. The decision was reversed, and in an odd situation, the points earned in the first race of 1934 were awarded for 1933.

After all the buildup, Al Gordon breezed to his eighth consecutive victory in the Art Sparks & Paul Weirick owned "Poison Lil" Gilmore Blue-Green Gasoline-sponsored #5 machine.  Despite running out of fuel on the last lap, Rex Mays coasted across the finish line in second place ahead of Kelly Petillo and thus claimed second place in the 1933 AAA Pacific Coast Championship over Ernie Triplett who finished the 200-lap grind in fourth place.  

On January 18, 1934 Ernie Triplett announced that he was retired from ‘big car’ racing events and would restrict his racing activities to Indianapolis and road “stock car” races.  However, early March found Triplett back in a ‘big car’ on the one-mile Imperial Speedway in El Centro California, and he died in an accident that involved "Swede” Smith and Al Gordon that also claimed the lives of Smith and a mechanic Cambern “Hap” Hafley.

Al Gordon would later figure into another accident that claimed the life of another of the racers mentioned in this article. On the third lap of the 50-mile Sunday September 8, 1935 AAA Pacific Coast ‘big car’ race, Gordon’s car hooked wheels with the machine driven by Harris Insinger. Insinger’s ‘Garant Special’ cartwheeled down the back straightaway and Harris just 26 years old, suffered a fatal skull fracture with Gordon cast as the villain in the accident in newspaper reports.     

Al Gordon himself would lose his life in an accident four months later during the January 1936 ‘Ascot 150’ the second AAA championship car race at Legion Ascot Speedway. The grinding crash of Bill White’s cream and blue “Cocktail Hour Cigarette Special” also claimed the life of the riding mechanic William “Spider” Matlock. 

The unfortunate pair of Gordon and Matlock were last two racers to lose their lives at the dangerous oiled-dirt 5/8-mile high-banked oval,  as the track closed days later which brought a particularly dangerous era of West Coast racing to a close.

Prior to the 1938 Indianapolis 500-mile race,  Pearl, the widow of William “Spider” Matlock,  married race driver Al Putnam who had been married previously with two sons. Tragically, Pearl was widowed a second time as a result of an auto racing crash on Sunday September 15 1946 as Putnam perished in qualifying crash at the 'Indianapolis 100' held at the Indiana State Fairgrounds.
        

   

   

The CART-IRL Split

open wheel racing’s second civil war

 

Author's note: This article appeared in print in The Classic Racing Times. To subscribe to this excellent publication, visit http://www.theclassicracingtimes.com/

 

 

Several years after the contentious split with the United States Auto Club (USAC), in 1983 the Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) series began to include the results and award points from the Indianapolis 500-mile race. This was an odd arrangement as the ‘500’ was still sanctioned by USAC, but this unlikely marriage continued until the second American disastrous open-wheel racing civil war which erupted after the creation of the Indy Racing League (IRL).

 

The IRL was the brainchild of Anton “Tony” George President of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS). George was racing royalty, as the son of the 1957 American Automobile Association (AAA) Sprint car series champion Elmer George and the grandson of IMS Speedway’s savior Anton “Tony” Hulman. After he assumed the role of President of IMS in 1989 following the death of Joseph Cloutier, George used as the leader of world’s most famous auto racing course to push for changes in CART rules and the series’ direction.

 

 

During early 1991, George attempted to buy CART, but in his own words he later admitted that his offer was “too low and poorly presented.” After his offer failed, George floated a proposal to CART Chairman William Stokkan a former Playboy executive to reorganize the CART board from its frequently unworkable 22-member board to a six-member board comprised of three groups.

George suggested the board made of representatives of car owners, sponsors and race promoters, with the latter group to be represented by George. On November 15, 1991, following a meeting with the CART owners, Stokkan sent George a letter that rejected the offer which CART characterized as a “counter proposal,” but George branded it as a “complete failure of CART to do what was promised.”

In the middle of 1992, some peace was achieved when Tony George was placed on the reorganized CART five-man board as a non-voting member. In his new role George advocated that CART series become American-based, with lower costs and a schedule with more oval course races.  George became frustrated by CART’s direction the made championship car racing a more world-wide road racing sport and refusal to accept more track owner input. Even worse the CART board subsequent expanded back to 16 members which diluted George’s influence.

William Stokkan’s turbulent three-year reign ended on January 7, 1994 when CART hired British marketing executive Andrew Craig as the new CART President and Chief Executive Officer. George quit the CART board that same day; an IMS press release claimed that George's resignation had nothing to do with Craig’s hiring, that instead George was dissatisfied with CART's organization.  Steve Horne, himself a former CART board member told the New York Times that George’s resignation was “not a good sign; you can't make up with your wife if you're continually divorcing her."

On March 11, 1994 George announced the formation of the IRL as a “lower-cost, American-based oval series” set to begin competition in 1996.  In explaining his actions George explained that he felt that “the long-term protection of the ‘500’ depended on a solid series of top level open-wheel, oval track races. To that end, this league was created because CART provided no long-term guarantees to the ‘500’ or to oval track racing.” George also cited CART’s lack of long-term stability, as he pointed out that CART had “four different board voting structures and four different chief executives over just five short years.”

While the racing world was processing the implications of the new series, the team owned by one of CART’s original founders Roger Penske pulled off a stunning upset at the 1994 Indianapolis 500-mile race.  To fully understand the Penske coup, we must first review the history of the USAC “stock block” engine rule.

In some ways reminiscent of the American Automobile Association (AAA) 1920’s “junk formula,” for thirty years the USAC rulebook included a provision for "stock-block" pushrod engines limited to two valves per cylinder actuated by pushrod and rocker arms. The rule was promulgated under the guise of encouraging participation by automobile manufacturers, smaller teams and independents.  

Through the years, traditional "stock block" engines such as fuel-injected small-block Chevrolet engines were fielded by independents on occasion joined by factory funded attempts by Plymouth and American Motors, but a new “stock block” arrived at Indianapolis in 1984 – the 209-cubic inch turbocharged Buick V-6.

 

The Buick engines returned to Indianapolis year after year, and while the engines generally were fast over short runs due to the higher allowed turbocharger boost levels, the Buick engine’s reliability always remained a problem due to the mechanical stresses on components from those boost levels.

In 1991, USAC relaxed its previous rulebook requirement that “stock block” engines must use some production parts, intended to help the Buick teams to develop more robust parts to extend their durability.  As an unintended consequence USAC rule 1107 also opened the door for a purpose-built pushrod engine, but since USAC only sanctioned one race a season the construction of such an engine was not considered economically viable.

 

 

In an audacious effort during late 1993 and early 1994, Penske Racing in partnership with Ilmor Engineering designed built and test a “clean sheet” pushrod engine that carried the Mercedes-Benz nameplate. As related in Jade Gurss’ book Beast, the Mercedes 500I 72-degree V-8 engine was developed by Penske Racing in secret and was unveiled to the public just a month before the 500-mile race.

Upon arrival at Indianapolis, the dominance was obvious from the moment that the Mercedes-Benz powered Penske PC-23B cars appeared on track on the first day of practice. The dayglow orange and white PC23B cars consistently exceeded 244 miles per hour (MPH) in the back straightaway speed trap. The 209-cubic inch engine, with 10 inches more boost then the competing double-overhead cam racing power plants, developed 1000+ horsepower and over 580 foot/pounds of torque at 8000 revolutions per minute (RPM).

At the drop of the green flag on May 29, 1994 Mercedes powered cars of pole sitter Al Unser Jr. and outside front row starter Fittipaldi ran away and hid from the rest of the field, and “Little Al’ led the first 23 laps before he pitted. Unser stalled his engine in the pits which allowed Fittipaldi to assume the lead and “Emmo” eventually lead 145 laps.

 

At one point Fittipaldi the defending Indianapolis ‘500’ champion had Unser Jr. down one lap, but Unser battled back and unlapped himself on lap 183. On lap 185, Fittipaldi attempted to re-pass Unser and crashed hard into the outside retaining wall in turn four. Unser Jr. then cruised home to claim his second and Penske Racing’s tenth Indianapolis 500-mile race victory. Roger Penske had pulled off the ultimate ‘Unfair Advantage.’

In August 1994 Roger Penske already perturbed by the pending CART-IRL split was further angered when for the second time in three months, the USAC rule makers reduced the allowable maximum boost level for purpose-designed pushrod engines for the 1995 Indianapolis ‘500.’ USAC’s moves relegated the Mercedes-Benz 500I engine which had won the 1994 Indianapolis ‘500’ in dominant fashion to museum status after just one race.

In July 1995, the IRL announced its “25/8 rule,” which guaranteed 25 spots in the 1996 Indianapolis 500-mile race for the top IRL drivers, and no CART teams entered the 1996 Indianapolis ‘500.’ The CART teams claimed they were effectively locked out by new Indianapolis qualifying rules. While IRL stalwarts countered that the CART teams were boycotting the ‘500,’ in truth the IRL one-season carry-over rules package for the 1996 ‘500’ would not allow CART teams to use their 1996 Penske, Reynard and Lola chassis.

 

 

In December 1995 CART retaliated and announced plans for the inaugural “U.S. 500” race at Michigan International Speedway (MIS) to be held on the same day as the 1996 Indianapolis ‘500.’ Looking back through the lens of history, there was much ugliness exhibited by both sides leading up to Memorial Day but in the end neither race was an artistic success.

In qualifying for the 1996 Indianapolis 500-mile race, the apparent pole position winning car driven by former champion Arie Luyendyk was disqualified for being underweight.  On May 17 a pall was cast over the race when pole-sitter Scott Brayton was killed in a practice crash. With the 33-car starting field comprised of ex-CART Lola and Reynard chassis, only nine cars finished the race itself won by second-generation driver Robert “Buddy” Lazier who drove the race with a broken back suffered two months earlier in an IRL crash at Phoenix International Raceway.

The starting field for the competing CART ‘U.S. 500’ which aired live on cable television channel ESPN2, featured only 27 cars, as two cars driven by Teo Fabi and PJ Jones were withdrawn before the race. A  crash before the initial start involved eleven cars and in a bizarre turn of events, CART officials allowed five of the drivers involved in the accident to start the race in their original position in their back-up cars.

The 250-lap CART ‘U.S. 500’ race, contested on the wide high-banked MIS 2-mile oval, was also marred by a remarkably high attrition rate as eleven cars experienced engine failure. Pole-sitter Jimmy Vasser won the race and the Vanderbilt Trophy replica by eleven seconds over former Formula One driver Mauricio Gugelmin in the only two cars to complete the entire 500-mile distance.

 

CART officials considered the 1996 “U.S. 500” a success with a reported 120,000 fans in attendance but CART never again scheduled the ‘U.S. 500’ directly against the Indianapolis 500-mile race and instead scheduled the race in late July through the 1999 season after which the race dropped from the schedule.

In January 1997 the IRL unveiled its new cars and engines - competitors had the choice of a Riley & Scott, Dallara or G-Force chassis and the choice of an Oldsmobile Aurora or Nissan Infiniti V-8 naturally aspirated powerplant. On May 17, 1997 days before the running of the 1997 Indianapolis ‘500,’ the Indy Racing League abolished its controversial rule that guaranteed 25 of the 33 ‘500’ starting positions to IRL regulars of the new series, but still no CART regulars entered the Indianapolis ‘500’ until 2000 after CART became a publicly traded company stockholders and competitors began to complain about series mismanagement.

CART car owner Chip Ganassi, who had driven in the Indianapolis ‘500’ five times between 1982 and 1986, assembled a two-car team to compete in the 2000 Indianapolis 500. The Ganassi team sponsored by Target department stores dominated the race as winner Juan Pablo Montoya led 167 of the 200 laps. Although a CART regular team won the race, public sentiment became that the tide had turned and that the IRL was now winning the championship racing sanction war.

Two other CART regular teams entered the 2001 Indianapolis 500-mile race - Team Penske (formerly known as Penske Racing), and Team Kool Green, while Chip Ganassi returned  with a four-car team with a driver line-up that included NASCAR regular Tony Stewart, Jimmy Vasser, and rookies Bruno Junqueira  and Nicolas Minassian. 2001 marked the first appearance of a Penske race car at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) after a five race absence.

Penske’s 2001 Indianapolis driver lineup in the Oldsmobile-powered Dallara chassis included the 2000 CART champion Gil de Ferran who had driven in 1995 “500’ paired with Brazilian Helio Castro-Neves who had two years of CART experience but was an Indianapolis rookie.  In a startling result, Team Penske claimed the top two finishing positions, as Castro-Neves claimed his first of three Indianapolis ‘500’ wins.

Beginning with the 2002 season, Marlboro Team Penske competed exclusively in the Indy Racing League, and the championship was won by Castro-Neves. Team Penske’s defection as followed by Ganassi Racing and Andretti/Green Racing for 2003 after the package forwarding company Federal Express pulled their sponsorship of the CART series at the end of the 2002 racing season, and engine suppliers Honda and Toyota switched from the CART to the IRL series after the 2002 season. CART reportedly lost $100 million during the 2003 season and declared bankruptcy in early 2004 with the assets of CART scheduled to be liquidated.

IRL President Tony George made a serious attempt to purchase certain CART assets (the Long Beach race, the safety operation and the series’ engine contract) at the bankruptcy auction. George’s plan to acquire only select CART assets was designed to cripple the series and eliminate competition for the IRL

However, George’s effort was opposed by a trio of CART owners - Gerald Forsythe, Paul Gentilozzi, and Kevin Kalkhoven. George's bid of $13.5 million was not accepted as Southern District of Indiana United States Bankruptcy Court Judge Frank Otte ruled in favor of the three car owners who bid $3.625 million because their plan intended to continue the series which would satisfy the many vendors and sponsors still holding long-term contracts. 

 

 

The CART series, rebranded as the Champ Car World Series (CCWS) celebrated its’ 25th anniversary season in 2004 and carried on through the 2007 season, While the IRL concentrated on holding races at American oval track venues the CCWS staged races at tracks around the globe, that included races in Australia, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Mexico. In its final season of 2007, the CCWS series only averaged seventeen cars at 14 races with the cancellation of two races during the season.

While CART supporters derided the IRL series as a “spec series” with all the competitors piloting visually identical cars, the CCWS series became no different all the competitors in the 2005 and 2006 CCWS series all drove English-built Lola chassis powered by Ford Cosworth engines and in its the final year after the loss of Ford Motor Company as the series sponsor, all the CCWS cars were Panoz chassis powered by Cosworth XFE engines.

Following the troubled 2007 season, CCWS filed for bankruptcy on February 14 2008 and on February 22 2008, the CCWS and IRL series were reunited under the banner of IRL. The IRL purchased certain races (such as Long Beach) and assets from the CCWS with the remaining assets sold at auction on June 3, 2008. Most significantly for racing historians, as part of the agreement IRL became the owner of all CART and CCWS so all CART/CCWS history became part of the AAA-USAC-IRL history timeline.

For the 2008 racing season, after twenty-nine years of turmoil, American open-wheel racing was finally reunited under a single banner. Peace was restored in the top rung of open-wheel racing, but the Indy Racing League would experience growing pains in the coming years.