12 replies to this topic

[Martin Krejci]

First edition of IROC (International Race of Champions) was held during the winter 1973/74 and consisted of 3 Riverside races that were held on the same weekend as Can-Am 1973 race and a single Daytona race in 1974. I have got photos from one of those Riverside races and I need to recognize at which of the three races they were taken, i.e. in which particular race drivers had following race numbers (cars/chassis and numbers were swapped between the races!):

1 - Fittipaldi
2 - Donohue
4 - Follmer
5 - Pearson
8 - Foyt
12 - McCluskey

I have posted my results at: http://wsrp.wz.cz/iroc1974.html and it is not simply clear in which Riverside race they used numbers above due to lack of information. I could only exclude one race but two other still remain and it is not sure my current data are 100% reliable. Can anybody help?

[CJE]

Those numbers are the first race.

Race #3

Follmer 1
Pearson 2 blue
Fittipaldi 3
Revson 4
Foyt 5 orange
Unser 6 purple
Allison 7 lt. blue
Hulme 8 green
Johncock 9 red
Petty 10 white
McCloskey 11 dk. blue
Donohue 12 black

Race #2

Fittipaldi 12 white
Allison 11 purple
Johncock 10
Pearson 9
McCluskey 8 lt. blue
Petty 7
Foyt 6 green
Hulme 5
Follmer 4 black
Revson 3 red
Unser 2
Donohue 1

[CJE]

BTW: I obtained the numbers directly from watching the races. A DVD of the original ABC television 'Wide World of Sports' broadcast is/was available. Quality is so-so. Looks like a video of a video of a video ...... still fun to watch though.

[Martin Krejci]

Thank you very very much. Could you please add missing numbers and all colors also from race #1? Would be great help too.

Martin

[CJE]

Martin - I will try to review the video again tonight and see what else I can come up with. -- Curt

[CJE]

Qualifying:

1 yellow - Fittipaldi

2 white - Donohue

3 yellow - Revson

4 dk blue - Follmer

5 light purple - Pearson

6 blue - Hulme

7 purple - Unser

8 black - Foyt

9 lt blue - Allison

10 green - Petty

11 red - Johncock

12 orange McClusky

That's the way the cars lined up for the first race and those were their numbers. Except ..... Fittipaldi and Follmer were forced to start from the back because they were 5 minutes late for the drivers meeting. The colors noted are as close as I can get - the video quality is not good and it's difficult to tell red from purple, etc.

[Martin Krejci]

Many thanks for all. I have now all I needed for the purpose I started the thread and even could recognize some more chassis numbers thanks to the colors you put there. There are still some blanks but generally I am more than happy with it.

I've posted updated results at the link above (http://wsrp.wz.cz/iroc1974.html).

Martin

[CJE]

No problem. Also, for the 2nd and 3rd races they swapped cars. The last place finisher got the winner's car, the winner got the last place finisher's car, etc. So maybe, you can go thru that procedure and fill in some of the blanks on colors???? The car numbers represented the driver's current standings in the points.

Also, there was US$175,000 in prize money for the series. The winner of each race got $6000 and then there was some sort of bonus if more than one race was won. I think they mentioned that if a driver won all the races and the series, he would recieve a total of $41,000. There were 65,000 spectators in attendance for the first race.

Nice job on the website!

[Martin Krejci]

Hello CJE,

that would be a good way to discover more chassis numbers. I've started to it between races 1 and 2. It works well for following changes:

1. - 911 460 0025 - Mark Donohue => Emerson Fittipaldi
2. - 911 460 0116 - Bobby Unser => Bobby Allison
3. - 911 460 0016 - Peter Revson => Gordon Johncock
4. - not
5. - not
6. - not
7. - 911 460 0042 - Richard Petty => A. J. Foyt
8. - 911 460 0090 - Roger McCluskey => Denny Hulme
9. - not
10. - not
11. - not
12. - 911 460 0100 - Emerson Fittipaldi => crashed or damage => spare 911 460 0037 to Mark Donohue

According to my current data, instead Foyt's car (6th in R1) went to Follmer (4th in R1) for race 2. My data aren't quite reliable but in this case I based it upon that the car was black (911 460 0124).

Another obvious problem is 911 460 0035 (light blue) that was Allison's in R1 (11th) and was used by Roger McCluskey (8th in R1) during race 2. Cluskey should have rather 911 460 0075 in race 2 but in this case his car wouldn't be light blue in race 2 but just blue.

My chassis are partly based on John Starkey incomplete data, partly on color that you put here and partly on the table of all chassis in the meeting.


911 460 0016 Engine 684 0021, Bright Yellow
911 460 0025 Engine 684 0022, Grand Prix White
911 460 0035 Engine 684 0024, Gulf Blue
911 460 0037 Engine 684 0027, Pistachio Green
911 460 0040 Engine 684 0023, Light Green
911 460 0042 Engine 684 0025, Bright Green
911 460 0050 Engine 684 0028, Aubergine
911 460 0059 Engine 684 0029, Acid Blue
911 460 0075 Engine 684 0033, Mexican Blue
911 460 0085 Engine 684 0035, Indian Red
911 460 0090 Engine 684 0031, Orange
911 460 0100 Engine 684 0024, Sahara Beige
911 460 0111 Engine 684 0033, Strawberry Pink
911 460 0116 Engine 684 0034, Carmen Red
911 460 0124 Engine 684 0026, Black


I think if we had enough color photos it would be a good conundrum but solvable. I also don't know which of the colors in the table couldn't be considered as 'dark blue', the color George Follmer used in race 1 and whos car remains unidentified.

Best wishes,

Martin

[CJE]

When I get a chance, I'll watch the DVD on my big screen TV rather than my computer monitor. Maybe the resoluton and color will be better and I'll be able to fill in the missing links. -- Curt

[Martin Krejci]

Dear Curt,

it would be nice. But I am not sure it would be possible to recognize colors according to the chassis numbers table, I've added. The swapping of cars 1st => 12th, 2nd => 11th, etc. should help to check if that rule was applied for all cars (it's only clear that winner of the first race raced spare in the second race, not 12th car). I am also not sure if between 2nd and 3rd race cars were swapped beased on results in race 2 or current standings in the series after two races. But it would be a lot of work to check that...
And what about race 4? Probably not applied that swapping rule, I suppose.
Thank you,

Martin

[Supersox]

Long shot I know but does anyone have a copy of the regulations for this series and /or any engine bay shots.I am trying to find out what was permitted or undertaken by way of modification to the cars during the series.

[Ted Walker]

Mr Socks call me I can help