13 replies to this topic

[Bob Riebe]

I started this to not take up space on Barry's thread.

 

This is from the site Jim Thurman most graciously dug up for me at Track Forum.

 

Racewriter:

My '65 yearbook has some shots. If I get time this weekend, I'll see if I can get them scanned and posted somewhere. And speaking of that yearbook, I pulled it out this evening and now must correct myself.

The Peach Blossom 200 (miles) was held on October 11, 1964, and was promoted by American Raceways, Inc. Greg Weld was not the winner, but did win the pole at a tour of 157.434 MPH; the fastest IMCA sprint lap in history. It's entirely possible that this was the fastest average speed ever turned for a lap by anything classified as a "sprint car," anywhere. Leo Caldwell won in a Ford-powered upright in a field mixed with uprights and roadsters. Other top finishers:

2nd - Clare Lawicki
3rd - Curly Boyd
4th - Sam Sessions
5th - Red Amick
6th - John Logan

Average Speed - 124.998 MPH (probably also a record for a long sprint car race).

Caldwell won $4,125 of a total purse of $25,000; 28 cars started the race. Six of the year's 13 USAC National Championship races paid a lower purse, if that gives you an idea of the significance. Looking at the picture of the pace lap, the stands appear to be around half full. Remember that Atlanta struggled quite a bit in its first decade.

Talking to my dad, who was running some IMCA Stock races at the time, there was talk about IMCA returning to Atlanta in '65 with both Stock cars and Sprint cars, as the Peach Blossom 200 was universally considered a success at the time. It never happened. Instead, Atlanta went with USAC National Championship races in '65 and '66, then dropped open wheel entirely until the late 70s. As the USAC purses at Atlanta were more than double the PB200's, one wonders what might have happened had IMCA brought a doubleheader back in '65.

Carl - I have the Topeka Daily Capital clipping from the '49 race (I'm from Topeka), and interestingly enough, it refers to previous "IMCA Sanctioned Stock Car" races. For whatever reason, IMCA chose to reference that Topeka race as their first "official" New Model Stock Car race. Could have been a promotional dispute, as the use of the IMCA name was in some flux at the time.

 

He won the equivalent of, $34,648.40 in todays dollar value, which would be a large payout even today.

 

Purse was $209,990.32 which is huge by todays standards for a sprint car race..

Winner had a Ford which shows that this was still before Chevy dominated sprint car racing though in areas where sprints could run big  blocks, Fords were not uncommon through into the seventies.

Big tracks and high speed half-mile tracks are disappearing so youths of the future will not know, first hand, just how challenging sprint car racing once was and why it led to Indy.

[DCapps]

Gawd. I remember that race. It was the same weekend as the Grand National race at North Wilkesboro (where I was that weekend as a stinger). I remember wondering what in the world Sprint Cars were doing on the Atlanta Raceway. I did not realize until I read something in one of the racing tabloids that it was an IMCA race and not USAC. If I remember correctly, not much of a crowd and those who were there were jammed into the area around the start/finish area. Sorry I missed it since that must have been something to see. Wow, Bob, I had not thought about that odd race in ages. The Sprint Cars and Modifieds of that day were simply amazing to watch.

[Bob Riebe]

If they ran a 50 mile race, ala the now gone Copper World Classic, with the 410 winged sprints there now, it would probably show that Indy Car ain't so spectacular any more.

[Michael Ferner]

I don't have any visceral first-hand experience to share, but can provide some background, and statistics. I will split this into several posts, to make it easier to digest - and to write up!

 

Let's start with a bit of historical background, to set the scene: this was 1964, still in the pre-"Sport of the Seventies" days, but the change that led to this proposed new image was already in the air. And it was less than half a year after the Indianapolis inferno, that singular horror scenario that drove the message home like no other event in the history of auto racing: if motor sport was to survive and prosper as a spectator sport in the USofA, it'd better adopt to the realities of post-WW2 America. While the fifties may still have looked and felt much like an extension of what went on in the US before the big conflict (with a few actual improvements, and a lot of hope for the future!), the sixties had pretty much dawned as an entirely new age: society had changed from a generation traumatized in a series of hardships and wars, to a wealthy industrial nation with an unblemished youth ready to take on the world in (mostly) peaceful terms - well, we all know this didn't happen overnight, but consider the respective stances of the US public on the wars in Corea and Vietnam, and you'll see the difference. With that change in society came a change in the media, and the way they portrayed sports in particular, but also the sheer scope of the news that suddenly came in through the TV set every day and every night. For many Americans, not least from the large rural areas in the Midwest, life suddenly expanded in a way never experienced before. In motor sport terms, this meant that there was suddenly a whole new world to discover beyond the local state and county fairs, and the annual radio transmission from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway!

[Michael Ferner]

In general, racing promoters and sanctioning clubs all over the US in the sixties were busy shedding the image of motor sport as a fairground attraction, so prevalent in the period between the two big wars, and in practice that meant: leaving behind the circus atmosphere, the shady carnie type deals, the smells and, well, ultimately the dirt of the fairground tracks as such. USAC, having begun this process ten years ago already with the paving of the "Milwaukee Mile", were well advanced in 1964 with a National Championship schedule consisting of more races on paved tracks than dirt tracks, for the first time since the days of the board tracks back in the twenties, while other nationwide bodies such as NASCAR had similar developments going on. The IMCA, however, largely regarded as the number two open-wheeler club in the US, were in a bit of a pickle, because its tradition and identity were intrinsically linked to the very existence of auto racing at the fairs - basically, it was part of their DNA! Not that the IMCA had resisted change in general, no, not at all - it was in the very midst of a complete overhaul of all the values and ideals it held dear for more than three decades, and had largely shed its image of "Show Biz Auto Racing" for a new one as the "Cradle of Champions", successfully providing the big leagues with fresh talent, epitomized by USAC's latest super star driver A. J. Foyt who spent a season or two touring the IMCA in the mid fifties before embarking on his exceptional career at Indy and on the various USAC circuits. Also, with the (largely cosmetic) changeover from the old Contest Board of the AAA to USAC in 1956, the IMCA could now boastfully claim to be "America's Oldest" (Sanctioning Body), and mimicked USAC by running seperate divisions for Midgets and Stock cars besides the "Speedway type" Sprint cars.

[Michael Ferner]

But, giving up on the fairgrounds was not really on the cards for the IMCA, and its core area of State and District Fairs in the rural Midwest was very reluctant to the idea of converting existing dirt tracks, as had been done very successfully in the East, for example at Trenton in New Jersey. Eventually, the Tennessee State Fairgrounds paved their half-mile track in 1958, and the showcase Minnesota State Fairgrounds followed suit in 1964, but in the meantime, if IMCA wanted to race on pavement, new venues had to be found, and for the most part, the club had to rely on "crumbs" falling off the USAC table, such as tracks not wanting to cough up the money to satisfy USAC's safety standards, or less popular dates with marginal crowd expectancies at regular USAC tracks. One such track was, by means, the Atlanta International Raceway near Jonesboro, some 20 miles south of Atlanta/GA, and reputedly home of the ficticious "Tara" in Gone with the Wind - did you know that? At least, that's what The Knoxville News-Sentinel in Tennessee reported in January of 1960. Anyway, when USAC scheduled a 250 mile race at AIR for July 9, 1961, Eddie Sachs came by a fortnight earlier for tyre testing and lapped the track in 35.15", for an average of 153 mph - that was way faster than the Indy track record, then at 149 mph, and only 20 mph slower than the speeds achieved at the very much longer Daytona and Monza tracks in the fifties! In public statements, Sachs confessed that the track had "frightened" him, but that he was still looking forward to the race, yet the Firestone technicians nixed the idea after evaluating tyre performance in the test, and USAC duly cancelled the event on the next day, while the track management quickly substitued a NASCAR event. That appeared to be it for the open wheelers at AIR, until IMCA promoter Frank Winkley and his ARI (Auto Racing Inc.) promotional group got in the act and scheduled the "Peach State 200" Sprint car race for October 4 in 1964.

[Michael Ferner]

Now that we know where we stand in the greater scheme of things, it's perhaps a good idea to recapitulate what had happened on America's speedways in 1964, and for much of the year one name will suffice: Foyt! This was the last year before A. J. had his first serious accident (at Riverside in early '65), and he was, to put it simply, at his very best, standing head and shoulders above everyone else. He won his second '500', ten out of thirteen National Championship races and his fourth title in five years, and with it a record 220,000 USD to push his USAC career total to a staggering 700,000 USD in just eight years; he won in Sprint cars, Midgets, Stock cars and SCCA Sports car racing, yes, even a NASCAR Grand National race at Daytona International Speedway on July 4th. At 29 years of age, he was nigh on unbeatable - if his car held together under his heavy right foot, everyone else was running for second! Competing in nearly sixty races over all categories, however, he didn't go for the lesser points titles, and so Sprint car honours were fought out between veterans Don Branson and Jud Larson, with Parnelli Jones claiming the USAC Stock car championship - all three of them, like Foyt, former IMCA competitors, incidentally. A third-year USAC driver from Iowa, Mel Kenyon started his domination of Midget racing with his first title, while Sprint car Champions in the East (Earl Halaquist in URC) and West (Hal Minyard in CRA) began similar (if shorter) streaks of fortune. The large area in between was still dominated by the IMCA, enjoying some of its best years, with the all-out domination by one single car (the Hector Honore/Offenhauser, Champion from 1955 till '61) now a thing of the past. Johnny White from Michigan had narrowly beaten veteran Pete Folse in the Honore car for the 1962 title, and looked set to repeat in '63 when, leading the standings midway through the season, he was offered a USAC car and decided to make the switch, following in the footsteps of Jim Hurtubise (1959), A. J. Shepherd (1960), Jim McElreath (1961) and Johnny Rutherford (1962), who had made the exact same move while in the running for the IMCA points title - sometimes, being the "Cradle of Champions" had its downsides! The benefactor of White's forfait had been Gordon Woolley, a veteran "hired gun" from Texas, who drove three different Chevy-powered Sprint cars to the IMCA Championship, the first ever for a production engine. Woolley, however, was slightly injured in the 1964 IMCA season opener at the Florida State Fair, and had a dreadful season as a result - not until round 17 in early August did he win his first (and only) race of the year, and later that month a Midget crash put him in hospital for the whole of September, IMCA's busiest month. That left the stage open for an entirely new cast of drivers, clamouring for the limelight!

Edited by Michael Ferner, 03 December 2020 - 21:15.

[E1pix]

Thanks, Michael.

[Bob Riebe]

Interesting Michael , very.

 As you were not here in the sixties, no way you could know,  you are forgetting how important County Fair  tracks and races were through most of the seventies.

There was a LOT, I mean a LOT of races beyond the better known ones, which is one reason there used to be dozens of local/regional motorsport rags covering the dirt short tracks.

 

A friend of mine was the horse racing director in my area when I was young; horse racing was still going strong in the sixties on short tracks and the auto races paid a great deal of the up keep for these half-mile tracks.

So the horse people wanted auto races and full grand stands they brought. (I still remember the Carnival type posters they put on lamp posts advertising the races)

When horse racing faded so did a LOT of the  County Fair tracks.

Edited by Bob Riebe, 03 December 2020 - 23:35.

[Michael Ferner]

Thanks, Bob, for the additonal information. I am aware, though, that auto racing at the fairs did not vanish completely in the seventies, but was trying to convey the general outlook in the mid sixties, as I perceive it to have been. Today we know that dirt track racing was not, in fact, doomed, but made a big comeback in the late seventies and thereafter, but I think that at the time around the late sixties, and during the "Sport of the Seventies" furore, many people must have believed that the days of dirt track racing were numbered, at least so far as major crowds and national recognition were concerned? I wasn't there, and can only judge from reading between the lines of period newspapers, so I may be wrong, though.

 

One thing I was never totally clear about is, when did horse racing at the fairs stop, did it ever? I know, this was probably not a linear development, but can you (or somebody else) give at least a rough overview?

[Michael Ferner]

Meanwhile, back in 1964...

 

With more than 50 race dates scheduled, winning an IMCA Championship was no easy undertaking in those heady days. The season started, like almost every year since 1924, at the Florida State Fairgounds in Tampa, with four afternoons of racing on the rough half-mile dirt track in early February. As usual, accidents were aplenty on the historic Plant Field track, and the injured included one past (Gordon Woolley) and two future IMCA Champions (Jerry Blundy and Karl Busson). Missing altogether was one familiar team and car, the 1956 Mocca/Offenhauser "Circle Deuce", after owner Pete Mocca had died (Jan 22) of a heart attack while preparing the car for Tampa back home in Saint Louis/MO, only 25 months after his co-owning brother Phil (Dec 24, 1961), also a victim of a heart attack. An IMCA stalwart since the late thirties, the team and its speedy gold and blue car with the famous circle around its #2 had propelled Michigan's Don Carr to a runner-up points finish in 1958. The team's latest driver, Jud Larson decided to skip the Florida races, and eventually landed a USAC ride to kickstart his "second career" at Indy & Co. instead. Jerry Richert, a star in Modified racing back home in Minnesota, took most of the honours, winning the first two preliminary days and the big final in the 1958 (updated in '61) Dave Beatson/Chevrolet, Johnny Rutherford's breakthrough car of 1962, now owned by a consortium of Saint Paul businessmen going by the name of WJW Inc. (Jim Wilson, Les Johnson and Frank Wagner). Richert had been an up and coming future IMCA star for years, finishing third in points in 1962 by winning as many races as both drivers ahead of him in the standings together (!), until a Modified crash in the summer of '63 had set him back; now he was ready to pick up momentum again. Second in the final, and winner of the third preliminary feature was three-time Champion Pete Folse (1959 - '61), a Cajun living and racing out of Florida since the late forties. After five years of driving the 1953 Honore/Offenhauser to three titles and a couple of runner-up finishes in points, Folse had quit the team when owner Hector Honore decide to swap the Offenhauser engine for a Chevrolet stock block conversion in the old Hillegass chassis during the winter. For his hometown races, Folse made a deal to run the 1957 Roy Thomas/Offenhauser, updated in '60 with a new Hillegass chassis but retaining the old ex-Malamud (Bill Holland, Bob Slater etc.) engine, then quit the Sprint car circuit except for a short and unsuccessful comeback here at Tampa in 1967. The Honore ride was taken over by another Minnesota hopeful, Jerry "Scratch" Daniels (brother of Donald "Itch" Daniels, but that's for another time), fourth in 1963 points driving the Wagner=Beatson/Chevy, but the best he could do in four days was one second place finish in a preliminary, so third overall went to a veteran from Kansas, Harold Leep, third in IMCA points in both 1959 and '61, and still driving the same old car, the 1953 (updated in '56) Chet Wilson/Chevrolet "Offy Killer". Fifth in three of the four races was a youngster from New Mexico whose brother had thumped the IMS walls last May, while third on the first day was a 19-year-old kid from Missouri - Al Unser and Greg Weld certainly looked like two to watch for the future!

[Michael Ferner]

A peculiarity of the IMCA season was always the big gap between the Florida State Fair and the bulk of the races during fair season in August and September. 1964 was no different, although over the years some "still dates" were added, and by the sixties a mini series of asphalt races as well, but it was still almost three months until the next race at Winchester Speedway in Indiana, opening a run of four races on paved tracks in as many weeks. All four races were won by drivers who would normally be considered "asphalt specialists": Jim McCune of Ohio, Dick Good of Indiana, Al Smith of Ohio and Bob Pratt of Indiana. Incidentally, Bob Pratt was the younger brother of sometime USAC driver Dick Pratt, while Al Smith was not related to Hal Smith, though both lived and raced out of Dayton/OH during this time, and shared the driving of the fourth-placed car at the "Little 500" in Anderson/IN, which was part of the IMCA circuit for ten years between 1962 and '71. The other two races were held at the new West Virginia International Speedway in Huntington near Charleston/WV and at Winchester, again, though only the Little 500 attracted a proper crowd (13,642) and car count (49). Of the dirt track regulars, only Jerry Richert kept his nose clean by finishing third at the first Winchester race, and second at the Little 500, then stretched his point lead to over 500 by winning at Knoxville/IL in June, two days before rain cancelled the prestigious "Hawkeye Futurity".at Des Moines/IA. July opened with a win by former AAA and USAC driver Buzz Barton at Cedar Rapids/IA - a three-time runner-up in IMCA points, Barton (of Oklahoma) was now entering the final decade of his career, still sharp at 47 years old and still easily one of the top ten drivers on the circuit. Richert was second from Scratch Daniels, who now took over second in the points, roughly 600 behind, but won four of the next six races (twice at Minot/ND, La Crosse/WI and Knoxville/IL) to close the gap to about 300 in early August. The other two races were won by Richert (also at La Crosse) and another AAA/USAC refugee, Red Amick of California (on the Winchester pavement, again). After Woolley's one win (Knoxville), Richert won four of the next seven (Chippewa Falls/WI, twice at Austin/MN and West Union/IA), with Greg Weld (at Eldon/IA), Wisconsin's Bill Horstmeyer and Harold Leep (both at Mason City/IA) winning the other three, and Daniels dropping away again to minus 550. The two Minnesotans shared the next two wins (Wausau/WI and Des Moines/IA), then Weld took his second (at Sedalia/MO) the same day that Horstmeyer was killed driving in his first USAC race at Springfield/IL. Amick took the second Des Moines race, becoming the first driver to win on both dirt and pavement in '64, with Richert (Owatonna/MN and Albert Lea/MN) and Leep (Des Moines and Sedalia) both winning two more to close out the month of August. Leep's wins came in two of the most prestigious races of the year, the Iowa State Fair final and the Missouri State Fair "Futurity" over the one-mile track.

[Michael Ferner]

Labor Day weekend traditionally saw the end of the Minnesota State Fair clash with the beginning of the Nebraska State Fair, and so it was again in 1964, but this year there were also two new variables to consider: for one thing, the State Fair track in the Twin Cities of Saint Paul and Minneapolis had been freshly paved with an asphalt surface, and the other, two of the five racing slots in the fair programme were given over to USAC for a pair of Sprint car shows, the first since 1953 (back then still AAA, of course). As a result, many of the dirt track regulars of the IMCA circuit gave the Minnesota event a miss, and all three races were duly won by asphalt specialists: Jim McCune winning the opener, Bob Pratt the final, and a "no name" from Michigan, Gene Bell winning the second preliminary. Bell, by the way, was driving a car from Wisconsin with a Buick engine, marking the second win for the GM make from Flint (after a 1-2 by Al Smith and Jack Lindhout in West Virginia). Incidentally, Pratt's car, though named the "Vivian Buick Special" after its sponsor, a car dealer from Richmond/IN, was powered by a Chevrolet engine, like most of the competition - of the 35 races so far, 29 had been won by a Chevy, and only 4 by the venerable Offenhauser, the most successful engine in IMCA until 1962. Jerry Richert had done well to finish fourth in the first preliminary, skipping the other two races to compete in Lincoln/NE instead, but unfortunately, the first race there was rained out, yet by winning the other two on the schedule he raised his total to fourteen, stretching his point lead on the way to over 1,000 and virtually out of reach. The following two weeks saw trips to Huron/SD (Buzz Barton winning), Kanada (London/ON, with wins for McCune and Don Guida of Minnesota, and another rain-out), Topeka/KS (winners Chuck Taylor and Jim Moughan, both of Illinois) and Spencer/IA, where Scratch Daniels overtook Richert on the very last lap for the win, but it was all too late, "Jumpin' Jerry" was home and dry, with only seven races remaining and the Oklahoma and Tennessee State Fairs running head-to-head again. Naturally, the paved track at Nashville/TN saw the specialists at work again, with Hal Smith making it three for Buick and Pratt three for the Chevy-engined "Vivian Buick", while Kansans Harold Leep and Dale Reed won the preliminaries at Oklahoma City, then Leep the final. Only two races remained, the Peach State 200 at Atlanta and a return to the Alabama State Fair for the first time since 1961, since when the track had also been paved - sign of the times.

[Michael Ferner]

"Auto racing is destined to grow much more rapidly with such fine facilities in existence. As popular as racing has become, especially the growth in the South, first-class facilities are a necessity." Thus spoke Nelson Weaver, president of the Atlanta International Raceway (AIR), in early September of 1964. Interestingly, Weaver was a real estate developer from Birmingham/AL, who got into racing purely as a business opportunity - shades of things to come. Frank Winkley brought in his Auto Racing Inc. (ARI) business to promote racing at AIR, and persuaded the IMCA to expand the wheel base from 96 to 100 inches to make it possible for Indianapolis roadsters to enter, and immediately car owners and drivers started to take an interest in these machines. Practice was to begin Wednesday, September 30, with an initial speed limit of 125 mph (à la Indianapolis) through Thursday morning, then 135 mph for the afternoon and next morning, and without any restrictions from 4 o'clock Friday. Time trials to begin Saturday morning, 10 o'clock, with the 33 fastest cars (best of two laps) to qualify for the 100 lap/150 mile final, and the rest eligible to start the 34 lap/51 mile consoltaion race Sunday at 1:00 pm, the winner of which to start the final at 3:00 pm in 34th position and last position. Amidst all the ballyhoo, The Charlotte Observer in North Carolina remarked on September 13: "Atlanta Raceway is riding a dead horse in that IMCA-sanctioned sprint car race on Oct. 4. Couple of weeks ago AIR sold $1,100 worth of tickets for its next year's 500-mile stock car race and just one $8 ticket for the Oct. 4 race" - ouch! Goodyear scheduled tyre test for Wednesday, September 16, then rescheduled for the following Tuesday to give the teams more time, and Floyd Abbott, owner of a Chevy Sprint for Red Amick, succeeded in purchasing an Offenhauser roadster, with which Amick then lapped the track in 36 seconds flat, for a 150 mph average that sounded splendid in advertizing! Amick did 78 laps, and Goodyear tyre technicians were satisfied with the performance, so the race could go ahead, but unfortunately most of the IMCA regulars weren't that keen anyway - of the top ten in points before the race, only Jimmy McCune (2nd in the standings after overtaking Scratch Daniels in a late spurt), Buzz Barton (6th), Dale Reed (9th) and Greg Weld (10th) entered, most of the dirt track regulars simply stayed at home!