40 replies to this topic

[fines]

In 1971, USAC forsook road circuits and split up the Championship trail in an "Oval" division ("Gold Crown") and a "Dirt" division ("Silver Crown"). The Gold Crown lived on in the guise of the National Championship until 1979, while the Silver Crown is still contested today.

However, I've found references to a USAC Gold Crown series from 1981 to 1984, the winners being A. J. Foyt, George Snider, Tom Sneva and Rick Mears. The latter two were the Indy 500 winners from those years, but what about Snider, who didn't even finish the 1982 500? Did USAC run more events for Champ Cars in those years? I'm only aware of the Indy 500 and the Pocono 500 in 1981, but can't find a reference to a Gold Crown series in 1980. Can anybody enlighten me on that subject?

[_Hink]

The 1981 Pocono 500 had Champ Car and Gold Crown cars in it at the same time. It was Foyt's last win against somewhat diluted competition.

[fines]

Back to the top! I can't believe this to be too difficult for TNF.;)

[FLB]

It's probably because there was an attempt to patch things up between USAC and CART in 1980 (sorry Fines, I don't remember any details, but there's a short bit in Cimarosti's Complete History ). The resulting CRL (Championship Racing League) didn't last very long, not even the full season IIRC.

The same, what do you know about the Mini-Indy series from the time? Hungness's 1982 annual makes a mention that Micheal Chandler had won it (1980?) and that Herm Johnson had run in it, but I've always thought that Indy Lights was the successor to Super Vee?

What exactly was Mini-Indy? Was it a USAC series? What were the specs?

[fines]

You're probably right about 1980, although it could be that USAC awarded the Gold Crown still after the collpase of the CRL?

About Mini-Indy, I've never heard of such an animal! USAC sanctioned their own Super Vee series between 1977 and 1979 (winners: Tom Bagley/Herm Johnson, Bill Alsup and Dennis Firestone), and the SCCA continued their series until 1990, while the ARS (American Racing Series, the forerunner of Indy Lights) started in 1986 already. The ARS actually stumbled into a market hotly contested by Super Vee and Formula Atlantic, and took a few years to settle in. There was not enough room for three formulae, so eventually Super Vee went out. It looks though as if Indy Lights and Formula Atlantic will follow pretty soon.

[_Hink]

I believe that Mini-Indy and Super Vee was the same thing, Mini-indy was a nickname. Please realize that I am relying on 20 year old memory from a time when I was under 10 years old.

USAC still had the Gold Crown after the CRL collapse. The CRL did not even last a year (1980) and Gold Crown made it until at least 1981, possibly 1982.

[Don Capps]

I am still digging for something more definitive on the Gold Crown after 1981. Somewhere I came upon a reference which gave info about the Gold Crown and one thing I remember was that the Indy 500 was the main event around which it was based, but there were some other items which I don't recall that also played a factor as well -- naturally, I wasn't looking for such info at the time and now I have no idea where I saw it! Perhaps Carl Hungess had something in an annual?

BTW: since Hingess is apparently persona non grata with Tony George and the rest of the folks at Indy, what is he up to?

[fines]

I've now found positive proof that Mini-Indy and USAC Super Vee is the same. In 1980, the SCCA included the oval events into their Gold Cup, maybe USAC continued to sanction these events and issued the Mini-Indy award to the most successful oval driver? A similar thing happened with the SCCA/USAC co-sanctioned Formula Ford championship in the mid-nineties!

I've also found a few passing references to the Gold Crown in the early eighties day-by-day reports, but no conclusive answer todate. I'll keep digging!

[ensign14]

Hungness' 1982 yearbook records that George Snider earned 15 Gold Crown points for his 21st at Indy in 1982, which were enough to give him the Gold Crown Title. This is despite Gordon Johncock getting 1000 points for winning Indy, but some dirt track races were included as well.

There are 7 drivers at Indy in 1982 listed as not getting any USAC points (Carter, Fillip, Unser, Rutherford, Holmes, Ongais and Halsmer), but I wonder whether any others were later excluded from scoring points for running CART?

The nicest part is Ziggy got to run number 1 at the Speedway in 1983. Fitting tribute to an unsung hero.

And I'd like to know where Carl is, his yearbooks were far better than that glossy official rubbish. Not even a missed the show, dammit.

[fines]

Originally posted by ensign14
The nicest part is Ziggy got to run number 1 at the Speedway in 1983. Fitting tribute to an unsung hero.

Go Ziggy go!

Indeed it appears that USAC included some Silver Crown events here, maybe those run on asphalt? I don't have that much material at hand regarding Silver Crown events in 1982, just the list of winners:

04/25/82	USAC	Silver Crown	Eldora			  Danny Smith		 Spurlock Chevrolet

05/02/82	USAC	Silver Crown	Illinois FG		 Larry Dickson	   JO-OL Chevrolet

05/08/82	USAC	Silver Crown	Indiana FG		  Rick Hood		   Bill King Chevrolet

07/04/82	USAC	Silver Crown	Flemington		  Doug Wolfgang	   Bill King Chevrolet

08/14/82	USAC	Silver Crown	Illinois FG		 Bobby Olivero	   Leader Card Chevrolet

08/21/82	USAC	Silver Crown	Raceland CO		 Doug Wolfgang	   Bill King Chevrolet

09/06/82	USAC	Silver Crown	DuQuoin			 Gary Bettenhausen   Delrose/Holt Chevrolet

09/11/82	USAC	Silver Crown	Indiana FG		  Chuck Gurney		Transport Ctr Chevrolet

10/03/82	USAC	Silver Crown	Eldora			  Ron Shuman		  OFIXCO Chevrolet

12/04/82	USAC	Silver Crown	Nazareth National   Keith Kauffman	  DePalma Chevrolet

Anyone with more info?

[fines]

Found this in the 1982 day-by-day report (verbatim):

Note: Snider is leading for the Gold Crown into this race.
His closest competition, Brabham, Andretti and Foyt. All of whom are out
Foyt is the only one who lasted longer than he did. "I think I have enough
laps to get him. He was about 400 points behind me. Bigelows' got a wild
shot at it (Gold Crown) but I don't know how long that Chevy is going
to last."

This was apparently written while the race was in full swing, between Foyt's retirement (lap 96) and Bigelow's engine blowing up (lap 97!!!).

Confuses me even more! Surely no Silver Crown points then, but what races did count towards the Gold Crown????

[ensign14]

I'm guessing Pocono in 1981, in which George came 4th behind (IIRC) AJ, Tom Bigelow and Geoff Brabham, together with some dirt track events. AJ may have given these up by this time, Geoff Brabham did not run them and Tom I'm pretty sure was the kind who would have run them.

On that basis, AJ would have had 1000 going into Indy, Geoff Brabham 900, Tom Bigelow 800 + dirt track and George 700 + dirt track. With few points for AJ and Geoff from Indy, the dirt track events would have been crucial. (I think they used dirt trackers to fill out the Pocono field because there were so few entries - the likes of Duke Cook &c.)

Silver Crown = Sprint Cars? Still run today?

[Jimmy Piget]

There is a book (still available, I saw him some days ago in the Mill House web site) by Bob Gates, Pat Sullivan & Ed Watson, called "Dirt road to a silver crown" (Witness productions, 1998) which compile the USAC Silver Crown history from 1971 up to 1997;
There is mention of the USAC Gold Crown for the one and only year 1981.
Round 1 Indy 500.
Round 2 Pocono 500.
Round 3 Springfield (August 15), winner George Snider
Round 4 DuQuoin (August 30) winner Rich Vogler
Round 5 & final Hoosier 100 (Indiana Fairgrounds, September 12) winner Larry Rice

Gold crowned : George Snider

Rounds 3, 4 & 5 also qualified for the Silver Crown !

[fines]

Silver Crown cars are actually Champ Cars, bigger than Sprints. I'm not sure of today's specs, but the ancestry is actually the dirt track cars that ran on the championship trail until 1970. In 1971, Ziggy Snider won the inaugural Silver Crown, last year's champ was second-generation racer Paul White iirc. Today's races are half dirt, half paved. I'm not sure when they started racing on asphalt, but I think it was the early eighties.

During a couple of frustrating hours searching the web I found the following info:

1989 Gold Crown Champion: Emerson Fittipaldi (!, probably just Indy)

1982 Rich Vogler winning the Gold Crown dirt track event at DuQuoin, the Ted Horn 100!!! (Strange, I would've thought that was Gary B. in the Silver Crown event!!!?)

[fines]

Ah, thanks Jimmy! My info obviously mixed up the years. So it would seem they included the one-mile dirt events, just like the old days! But it still doesn't explain why Snider won the 1982 Gold Crown, maybe it should read 1981/2? And what about Andretti, I don't think he still ran on dirt in the eighties!!!?

[fines]

Jimmy, do you have that book? Would you mind posting the results of these three dirt races here???

[Gerr]

This is all I have, with some corrections to fines' dates.

USAC National Championship 1979:
1st ....Foyt........................3320 points
2nd....Vukovich.................1770 "
3rd.....Bigelow..................1305 "
7 events, all Champcar, counted towards the championship.

USAC National Championship 1980:
1st.....Rutherford...............2740 points
2nd....Sneva......................1970 "
3rd.....B.Unser...................1334 "
5 events, all Champcar, counted towards the championship.
Ontario 200, Indianapolis 500, Milwaukee 150, Pocono 500 and the last, Mid-Ohio 250KM (July 13,'80), I think these were the CRL races, some sanctioned by USAC, some by CART.

USAC National Championship (Gold Crown) 1981/82:
1st.....Snider......................1395 points
2nd....Brabham..................1310 "
3rd.....Bigelow....................1280 "
Snider ran five events in Champcar, Sprints and Midgets that won him the Gold Crown. Indy was one of these and Pocono, I assume. The others???
He had a win, a third, a fourth and one other top ten in these races.
Snider was also fourth in the Silver Crown Championship in '81, entering 3 races, getting a win and a third place. I don't if these were the races that counted towards the Gold Crown points.

USAC National Championship (Gold Crown) 1982/83:
1st......Sneva.......................1000 points
2nd .....A.Unser.....................800 "
3rd......Mears........................700 "
Only Indy counted towards Gold Crown points as it did in 1983/84, 1984/85, 1985/86, etc. .

[fines]

The picture's getting clearer!

But what about Foyt winning the Gold Crown in 1981? Bad info?

[Don Capps]

The Championship Dirt Division was created in 1971 with four events being run:

Nazareth, 20 June: 1st, George Snider

Springfield, 22 August: 1st, A.J. Foyt

DuQuoin, 6 September: 1st, George Snider

Indianapolis, 11 September: 1st, Al Unser

1. George Snider, 520 points
2. Jim McElreath, 420 points
3. A.J. Foyt, 360 points
4. Billy Vukovich, 360 points
5. Don Hawley, 340 points

Displacement limits that first season were: 305.1-cubic inches for stock blocks (push-rods) and 256.284-cubic inches for engines using overhead camshafts.

When the Championship Racing League collapsed after only one season, 1980, CART went its way and USAC its way. The CRL was a combined series with some events only counting for the USAC championship (the first 5, after which USAC withdrew from the CRL) and all 12 for the CART championship.

In 1981, USAC created the Gold and Silver Crown series. The problems come in with the Gold Crown being initially spread over two season, 1981 and 1982. George Snider won the first "Gold Crown series" in 1982. Essentially, from what I have gathered, from 1983 until 1997 the Gold Crown was a one race deal -- the Indianapolis 500. It was the Gold Crown race. When the USAC sanction was dropped in 1997, apparantly so was the Gold Crown.

[fines]

Hm, are you sure the name "Silver Crown" was not introduced before 1981???

Checking the USAC yearbook of 1972, I find it actually refers to the "USAC National Dirt Track Championship", rather than the Silver Crown. Hm.

For the record, here are the top 6 of the inaugural championship races (finishing position, driver, #, entrant, laps):

1971-06-20, Nazareth 100, Nazareth National Speedway
1 Jim McElreath, #14 Jim McElreath, 88 laps, 1:01'06.58", 97.202 mph
2 Arnie Knepper, #44 CHEK Inc., 88 laps
3 Don Hawley, #22 Louis Senter, 88 laps
4 Billy Vukovich, #36 Don Rogala, 88 laps
5 Gary Bettenhausen, #24 United Championship Racers Inc., 88 laps
6 Bob Harkey, #65 (#52?) Bob Harkey, 88 laps

1971-08-22, Springfield 100, Illinois State Fairgrounds
1 A. J. Foyt, #9 A. J. Foyt Enterprises, 100 laps, 1:08'08.31", 87.557 mph
2 George Snider, #4 Leader Cards Inc., 100 laps
3 Jim McElreath, #14 Jim McElreath, 100 laps
4 Don Hawley, #22 Louis Senter, 100 laps
5 Jimmy Caruthers, #36 Don Rogala, 100 laps
6 Rollie Beale, #25 Ron Kilman, 100 laps

1971-09-06, DuQuoin 100, DuQuoin State Fairgrounds
1 George Snider, #4 Leader Cards Inc., 100 laps, 1:03'24.82", 94.617 mph
2 Greg Weld, #60 STP Corp., 100 laps
3 Billy Vukovich, #24 United Championship Racers Inc., 100 laps
4 Bill Puterbaugh, #15 Wib Spalding, 100 laps
5 Arnie Knepper, #44 CHEK Inc., 100 laps
6 Don Hawley, #22 Louis Senter, 100 laps

1971-09-11, Hoosier 100, Indiana State Fairgrounds
1 Al Unser, #1 Vel's Parnelli Jones Ford Inc., 100 laps, 1:01'52.80", 96.962 mph
2 George Snider, #4 Leader Cards Inc., 100 laps
3 Larry Dickson, #40 STP Corp., 100 laps
4 A. J. Foyt, #9 A. J. Foyt Enterprises, 99 laps
5 Billy Vukovich, #24 United Championship Racers Inc., 99 laps
6 Jim McElreath, #14 Jim McElreath, 99 laps

[Don Capps]

In 1980, it was still the Championship Dirt Car Division (1980 USAC Yearbook) -- in 1981, the term "Silver Crown" was given retroactively to the Dirt Car Championship. I also the USAC Yearbook for the first year of the Dirt Car championship, 1971 -- the (1972) edition.

[Don Capps]

Russ Clendenen, USAC Supervisor for the Silver Crown Series, On Track (28 May 1981)

“I had a lot of the car owners come to me and tell me they just couldn’t afford to support a car for so few races. So this year we instituted what we call the Silver Crown and the Gold Crown Series. The Silver Crown will involve Champ Dirt Car races on both the miles and the premier half-mile tracks. In the past 20 years, we’ve only run these cars on a half-mile one time.”

“This series (Gold Crown), which is run entirely on the mile tracks, will be accompanied by the Indy 500 which will be run in the rear-engined cars. Any driver with a license which lets him run at The Speedway will receive double points for any Gold Crown dirt race he enters.”

Also, some races were run for both the Gold & Silver Crowns with points being earned for each.... After DuQuoin, run for Gold and Silver Crown Cars, George Snider, was 20 back from Geoff Brabham for Gold and 100 back of Jack Hewitt for Silver...

[fines]

Thanks Don, that is great info!!

I shall now refrain from calling the "National Dirt Track Championship" before 1981 the "Silver Crown", just as we all should avoid calling the "World Drivers Championship" for the same period the "Formula One World Championship"!

[Jimmy Piget]

At last, I just found (in my messed archives & library) the Silver Crown book I yet talked about.

It reads :
"In 1981, the emerging split between USAC, the sanctionning body for championship racing since 1956, and the [CART] had boiled over. In response, USAC created the Gold Crown series, which began with the 1981 Indianapolis 500 and continued with the Pocono 500, the traditional fair dates at Springfield, DuQuoin and Indianapolis, and concluded with the 1982 Indianapolis 500. Given the USAC/CART feud, 8 upright dirt cars competed in the Van Scoy Diamond Mines 500 at the 2 1/2 mile paved Pocono International Raceway in June of 1981. Snider won at Springfield in August, and posted top ten finishes at Pocono (in a rearengine car), DuQuoin, and the Hoosier Hundred, and finished 21st in the 1982 500, to capture the USAC Gold Crown title for 1981/82, as well as the 1981 Most Improved Championship Driver award." (p 40)

"Needless to say, the 'Gold Crown' idea lasted only a few years..." (p 131 - no more information of these "few years")

What is not precised in this book is the scoring system for the Silver Crown, hence not either for the Gold one.

[Don Capps]

George "Ziggy" Snider earned 15 points in the Gold Crown series when he finished 21st at the 1982 Indy 500.

Interesting that the 1981/1982 Gold Crown is often cited as having only the 1981 Indy 500, the 1981 Pocono Van Scoy 500, and the 1982 Indy 500 as rounds yet, at least three other rounds in the Silver Crown also counted -- Springfield, DuQuoin, and the Indianapolis Fairgrounds.

The Gold Crown points for the 1982 Indy 500 are in the Hungness annual.

[Disco Stu]

Hello, I've been reading this forum for quite a while, but this is my first post. I have always been a big fan of racing in general, and the Champ Cars are my favorite, so this thread was particularly interesting. I'd never known there were dirt track events as part of a championship in 1981, I always thought Indy and Pocono were just held as special events and not really counting towards anything that year. Anyways, about the time this thread was going, a whole batch of 1981 USAC newsletters went up for bid on eBay, and I was able to purchase them. Included were the issues with the results for the 5 Gold Crown races held in 1981. Once I get these scanned in and figure out how to post them, I'll put the results on this thread. They're not as detailed as I'd really like, there's no listing of chassis or engine, and no listing of DNQs, but it's still pretty good info to have. It is especially helpful in trying to figure out points, since not everybody scored Gold Crown points in the race. There's also I couple of interesting photos from Pocono I'd like to post. I'd like to meet the person who thought putting Indy Cars and Silver Crown cars on the same track was a good idea! Here are a couple of notes I came across:

The idea was that the final race of the season each season would be the Indy 500, that's why it's split as the 1981/82 Gold Crown championship. The season, and each following had there been others, would start on June 1 and end May 30. They used two Indy 500s that first season because there were no races scheduled before Indy in 1981, so instead of having it sit apart it was thrown into the 81/82 season.

There originally was a seventh race scheduled for the 81/82 season, in between Pocono and Springfield. It was to be held at Liberty Bell Race Course in Philadelphia. I can't find a single thing about this track, maybe somebody here knows? I don't know why that race wasn't run. I am guessing, however, that it was a road course. In an interview with the series director (can't remember who off hand) he said something to the effect that USAC was creating a true drivers champion, because they had a series running on paved ovals, dirt ovals, and road courses. Since none of the 6 races that were actually held were on road courses, I'm assuming Liberty Bell is the road course he's talking about.

It was mentioned earlier that drivers licensed at Indy would receive double points in the dirt races. Not only did they receive double points, they were the only drivers to receive points. The dirt track only drivers scored Silver Crown points, but not Gold Crown. Only about 1/2 to 2/3 of the field at Indy and Pocono in 1981 scored points as well, a good number of drivers did not. This probably had something to do with "seasonal licences" USAC started granting that year. A driver could get a license that allowed him to compete in series outside of USAC as well as USAC races, but he would not score USAC points or earn any season-ending money from USAC. Not sure how this worked with the CART drivers running at Indy, since some of them still scored USAC points, and some didn't. Maybe there was a special "Gold Crown license" they bought, I don't know.

There was one interesting note from the DuQuoin event, where 51 drivers entered, and 24 started. The last line of the race story tells that "the championship car debut of Al Unser, Jr. was thwarted by mechanical problems during qualifying."

Again, once I get the result tables scanned in, I'll post them here, along with a (hopefully accurate) final points table including the 1982 Indy 500. The drivers who weren't awarded Gold Crown points were listed earlier in this thread, so I should be able to put it together without a problem. It's amazing how much I've been able to learn with all the info that's been posted in this forum, so it's nice to be able to contribute something back!

[Jim Thurman]

Originally posted by Disco Stu

There originally was a seventh race scheduled for the 81/82 season, in between Pocono and Springfield. It was to be held at Liberty Bell Race Course in Philadelphia. I can't find a single thing about this track, maybe somebody here knows? I don't know why that race wasn't run. I am guessing, however, that it was a road course. In an interview with the series director (can't remember who off hand) he said something to the effect that USAC was creating a true drivers champion, because they had a series running on paved ovals, dirt ovals, and road courses. Since none of the 6 races that were actually held were on road courses, I'm assuming Liberty Bell is the road course he's talking about.

Disco Stu, welcome...and thanks for the info

Liberty Bell was a horse track, so another dirt oval, probably a mile in length. Between USAC and AMA Motorcycles, several horse tracks not normally in the mix either had, or planned, motorsports events. I have no idea if Liberty Bell was still active as a horse track at the time or had closed. Recently closed horse racing tracks also figured into rumored (or even planned) race sites.

I'm not a big fan of the ponies, but it can come in handy to pay attention to their facilities since there has been so much cross-over use for motorsports.

Also, fines posted a list of Silver Crown races in 1982:

Eldora, Illinois FG (Springfield), Indiana FG (Indianapolis), Flemington, Raceland (Colorado), DuQuoin, Nazareth National.

These were all dirt tracks as well. Nazareth is of course the track that Roger Penske later bought and paved.


Jim Thurman

[fines]

Originally posted by Disco Stu
Once I get these scanned in and figure out how to post them, I'll put the results on this thread.

Welcome Stu!

If you need help posting these scans, I'm on stand-by. You'd need a website to upload the scans, and if you don't have one, you can send them to me (fines@gmx.de), and I'll post them for you!

[Disco Stu]

Fines, I've just e-mailed you those scans, thanks for posting those for me. In the meantime, here are the point standings for the 1981/82 Gold Crown season:

0 = Driver started but was ineligible for points
x=Driver did not start

81 Indy/Pocono/Springfield/DuQuoin/Indy Dirt/82 Indy - Total

1 George Snider x 600 400 280 100 15 - 1395
2 Geoff Brabham 500 800 x x x 10 - 1310
3 Tom Bigelow 20 700 20 320 200 20 - 1280
4 A.J. Foyt 25 1000 x x x 20 - 1045
5 Gordon Johncock 0 x x x x 1000 - 1000
6 Mario Andretti 800 x x x x 5 - 805
7 Rick Mears 0 x x x x 800 - 800
8 Rich Vogler x x 40 400 320 x - 760
9 Larry Rice x 0 320 10 400 x - 730
10 Vern Schuppan 700 20 x x x x - 720
11 Tom Sneva 10 25 x x x 600 - 635
12 Jim McElreath x 300 280 8 6 x - 594
13 Bill Vukovich, Jr. x 400 8 x 160 x - 568
14 Sheldon Kinser 400 x 6 10 120 x - 536
15 Harry MacDonald x 500 x x x x - 500
16 Jack Hewitt x 0 240 240 10 x - 490
17 Don Whittington 5 x x x x 400 - 405
18T Gary Bettenhausen 10 10 8 8 280 50 - 366
18T Joe Saldana x x 200 160 6 x - 366
20 Roger Rager x 250 100 x x x - 350
21 Tony Bettenhausen, Jr. 300 x x x x 10 - 310
22 Jim Hickman x x x x x 300 - 300
23 Herm Johnson x x x x x 200 - 200
24 Dennis Firestone 150 x x x x 10 - 160
25 Johnny Parsons, Jr. x 15 6 100 10 20 - 151
26 Bill Henderson x 150 x x x x - 150
27 Bobby Rahal x x x x x 100 - 100
28 Greg Leffler x x 80 x 0 x - 80
29 Michael Chandler 50 x x x x 20 - 70
30 Bill Whittington 15 x x x x 25 - 40
31 Larry Dickson 20 x 6 x 6 x - 32
32T Tim Richmond 25 x x x x x - 25
32T Jerry Karl 25 x x x x x - 25
32T Jerry Sneva x 10 x x x 15 - 25
32T Steve Ball x 25 x x x x - 25
32T Hector Rebaque x x x x x 25 - 25
32T Danny Sullivan x x x x x 25 - 25
32T Chip Ganassi x x x x x 25 - 25
39T Josele Garza 15 x x x x 5 - 20
39T Dick Simon x 20 x x x x - 20
39T Richard Hubbard x 20 x x x x - 20
42 Dean Vetrock x 15 x x x x - 15
43 Steve Chassey x x 4 x 10 x - 14
44 Salt Walther x 10 x x x x - 10
45 Bobby Olivero x x 8 0 0 x - 8
46T Kevin Cogan 0 x x x x 5 - 5
46T Tom Klausler 5 x x x x x - 5
46T Mike Mosely 5 x x x x x - 5
46T Roger Mears x x x x x 5 - 5
46T Jan Sneva x 5 x x x x - 5
46T Dale Whittington x x x x x 5 - 5

Drivers who started at least one race but were not awarded points:

Bobby Unser 0 x x x x x - 0
Steve Krisiloff 0 x x x x x - 0
Bill Alsup 0 x x x x x - 0
Scott Brayton 0 x x x x x - 0
Al Unser 0 x x x x 0 - 0
Bob Lazier 0 x x x x x - 0
Gordon Smiley 0 x x x x x - 0
Pete Halsmer 0 x x x x 0 - 0
Danny Ongais 0 x x x x 0 - 0
Pancho Carter 0 x x x x 0 - 0
Johnny Rutherford 0 x x x x 0 - 0
Chip Mead x 0 x x x x - 0
Mark Alderson x 0 0 0 0 x - 0
Smokey Snellbaker x 0 x x 0 x - 0
Bill Tyler x 0 x 0 x x - 0
Jeff Bloom x 0 x 0 0 x - 0
Paul Pitzer x 0 x 0 0 x - 0
Duke Cook x 0 x x x x - 0
Chuck Amati x x 0 x 0 x - 0
Johnny Coogan x x 0 x x x - 0
Art Bisch, Jr. x x 0 x x x - 0
Gary Gray x x 0 x x x - 0
Tracy Potter x x 0 0 x x - 0
Ron Shuman x x 0 x x x - 0
Ken Schrader x x 0 0 x x - 0
Larry Martin x x 0 x 0 x - 0
Manny Rockhold x x 0 x x x - 0
Bill Engelhart x x x 0 0 x - 0
Jerry Miller x x x 0 0 x - 0
Jerry Nemire x x x 0 0 x - 0
Jerry Weeks x x x 0 x x - 0
Sleepy Tripp x x x 0 x x - 0
Gary Hieber x x x 0 x x - 0
Arnie Knepper x x x 0 x x - 0
Chuck Gurney x x x x 0 x - 0
Steve Cannon x x x x 0 x - 0
Howdy Holmes x x x x x 0 - 0
Chet Fillip x x x x x 0 - 0

[fines]

http://members.atlas...es/pics/gc1.psp
Sorry, Stu, this doesn't work! Neither my computer nor the Atlas site understand the format of your scans! PSP????

[Disco Stu]

Oops, sorry about that. PSP is Paint Shop Pro, I thought it would be able to read it OK. I can convert it to another format easily enough.

[ensign14]

In the 1986 Indy 500 yearbook, in an article about Tony Bettenhausen Jr, there is reference to him being a little annoyed that 10% of his purse was being kept back to pay out the Gold Crown points, despite the fact that the Indy 500 was the only Gold Crown race. So I guess the fiction of a championship continued for a few years after 1982.

Certainly, in 1991 Arie Luyendyk (previous year's winner) had the number 1, rather than Al Under Jr (previous year's CART champion), who had the number 2.

[Disco Stu]

OK, I think I finally have something working. I've put the scans on a website, it's pretty cheesy looking but at least the info is there, that's all I worried about. You can see them here:

USAC Gold Grown Results

Hope this works for everyone!

[ensign14]

I thought 'Disco Stu don't advertize'?

Great stuff! Gold (crown) dust.

[fines]

Thanks Jason, they're great!

[brickyard]

Guess what?

The USAC guys are trying to bring back a "Gold Crown", and those are the proposals:

Look at this

I wonder why they dont use this instead?

BTW, what is really that good looking car on the photo?

Regards
Luis

[brickyard]

OK, OK,

I've found it!

Here

Regards
Luis

[Bob Riebe]

Originally posted by brickyard
Guess what?

The USAC guys are trying to bring back a "Gold Crown",
Regards
Luis

Why don't they just adapt a reduced off-set super modified?

[Buford]

Just goes to show that IMS and their USAC lackies were showing signs of lunacy even before Tony George tooted his first line. I recall they had a year end banquet for the "Gold Crown" stars even thought it was only one race and they already had a banquet for that race months before. You had to show up in Indy for the Gold Crown banquet or you didn't get the money you had rightfully earned 6 or 7 months earlier and the Speedway earned interest on your money all that time. And yet today some people still wonder why CART was necessary. I raced with those buffoons and am a Life member of USAC (high school graduation present). I recall quite vividly what a bunch of morons and tin horn dictators they were. Paper historians have no idea what it was like to deal with them in real life. Reading this thread reminded me stupid **** out of IMS and USAC didn't originate with Tony George. He was following a long time tradition of being clueless to market reality and just common sense.

[jkracing]

What you don't like this idea!

1981 Pocono 500 #50 Geoff Brabham Psachie Garza Racing 1980 Penske/Cosworth finished second. #97 Mark Alderson Dirt car finished 11th the highest placing USAC dirt car. #14 A.J. Foyt A.J. Foyt Enterprises 1981 March C04/Cosworth Finished 1st.

CART refused permission for its members to participate in this race.
USAC allowed Silver Crown Dirt cars to enter in order to fill the field, though the drivers were not eligible to score championship points. #84 George Snider A.J. Foyt Enterprises 1981 Coyote/Cosworth. Finished 4th. #25 Duke Cook had a DNF.

[JimInSoCalif]

I read someplace a long time ago that some of the Dirt Car field fillers at that Pocono race ran through one tank of fuel, collected $5k, and went home.

I would expect that they were around 20 mph off the pace of the rear engined cars. Did anyone here attend that race?