17 replies to this topic

[teegeefla]

I have searched without success on the TNF archive and the internet to find individual race results from the USAC stock car series; specifically the sporadic races Dan Gurney ran from 1958 (Meadowdale) to IRP (and others?) in the sixties. Any suggestions? Thanks.

[WINO]

The only source I can think of are the USAC Yearbooks or the back issues of Racing Pictorial, although the latter may not have covered all USAC stock car races.

WINO

[gerrit stevens]

Until 1968 the USAC yearbooks don't give specific results, only points standings
I only thing I found of Dan Gurney was in 1958 (which would be Meadowdale) when he had one start (no points) in whihc he won a purse of $ 50.

Gerrit Stevens

[humphries]

Gleaned from NSSN, 22 October 1958

The USAC race at Meadowdale was held on the 19 October, 1958 over 70 laps of the 3.3 mile circuit; approx 226 miles in total ( or 222 miles in Meadowdale parlance!). A crowd of 38,000 turned up to watch the spectacle.

The race was won by Fred Lorenzen in a '58 Ford in two hours and 47 minutes, at 89.87 mph, for which he received $4100. This victory clinched the 1958 USAC Stock Car Championship for Fred.

In second place was Jimmy Bryan ('57 Mercury), having only his third race of the year having won the Indy 500 and coming second in the 500 at Monza.

Third was Chuck Daigh despite rolling the car on to its side during the race and yet losing only one place. He was in a Holman-Mooody '58 Ford, usually raced by Curtis Turner, which he put on pole.

4th Les Snow ('58 Pontiac)
5th Marshall Teague, car type not mentioned, after a protest and a recheck of the lap scoring.
Then came Whitey Gerken ('57 Pontiac), Norm Nelson ('57 Mercury), Bill Lutz ('57 Chevrolet), John Rostek ('57 Ford), Rod Duvall ('57 Ford) etc. There were 42 starters.

Lance Reventlow, the Scarab boss, was also a team-mate of Chuck Daigh's in this race. From a lowly grid position he worked his way up into the top ten but retired after 24 laps.

Of Dan Gurney it was written " A surprise entry was West Coast sports car ace Dan Gurney. He secured a '58 Ford and was the sensation of the race during the early laps only to be forced out with mechanical difficulties".

The sight of these big, wallowing cars thundering round the Monza Wall then cascading down the long undulating downhill straight into Greg's Corkscrew must have been very spectacular. I can imagine the drowned-out yells of "Geronimo" and "Holy S***!" from the drivers!

Hope this helps.

From the other side of the pond, John.

[ensign14]

This is the forgotten series par excellence. Boasting the likes of AJ and Parnelli and Freddie Lorenzen, very competitive in the 60s, yet is there info around about it? Is there bogroll.

[billthekat]

Let's be very blunt: outside a very, very, very small community generally composed mostly of the participants themselves, not much of anyone really cared or even wondered about these sorts of events or series then or later. For years upon years, The Real Motor Racing Historians would scarcely acknowldge that such events even existed much less were of interest. The AAA and then later the USAC focus was the International Sweepstakes, the other events on the National Championship Trail or other divisions not really getting much attention. The column that Michael T. Lynch wrote, "Dude, Where's My History?" really sums things up quite well. If Dan Gurney had not participated in the event, would we even be mentioning it? Perhaps not, but few other places would even give it much thought, much less try to dig into the archives and see what is there. The value of this forum is it understands the limitations of the past and tries to see what it can do about it.

[Bob Riebe]

The USAC stock car races were reported in AutoWeek & Comp. Press.

If you can get ahold of those you will have all the records up through at least 1979.

In 1978 AutoWeek reported that the USAC stock car series was challenging NASCAR in national attention, most people now do not know that up to the eighties NASCAR was just another regional series.
ASA and IMCA, plus ARCA were just as well known as NASCAR through the sixties and into the early seventies.
With the opening of tracks in Mich. and Texas, plus Pocono, USAC had tracks to compete with Daytona and Talladega.
With the death of the board of directors in 1978, USAC lost people who were making USAC a leading santioning body.
With their death died Indy cars and stock cars.

It took CART another ten years before Indy cars totally fell apart but the stock car series had no driving force behind it and the bad financial times of the eighties put a kabosh to it.

Many of the "famous" NASCAR boys drove in some of the USAC races, when they had time, plus in those days tracks would vie against each other by offering appearence money, which is why sometimes drivers "crossed over".

What NASCAR offers now is pissant compared to the old, make vs. make, tire vs. tire, sanction vs. sanction of the sixties and early seventies.
One reason the Trans-Am was so popular, the cars and drivers fit right in with all the other regional/ national stock car series.

Bob

[WINO]

Bob,

The only problem is that CP/later Autoweek did not exist until the Summer of 1959, so any race held before that would not have been covered.

WINO

[billthekat]

It was the Summer of 1958 and the focus of CP was road racing, with only the occasional nod towards any other from of motor sports until the changes that came about in the mid-1960s which broadened the coverage to USAC, NASCAR, and so forth. Even a USAC event for stock cars at Meadowdale might not have gotten much coverage, but since I don't have those issues readily at hand I will have to hope that some one will take a look.

[Bob Riebe]

I don't know where you will find them but Auto Racing Digest used to and should have a good deal of information as they used to have wrap ups for every major org.
Again, when were they first printed?

Speed Age magazine I know was around in the early fifties, but where to find them?
Bob

[billthekat]

There are lots of these resources at the IMRRC as well as the materials that some of us have in our personal collections. USAC was a challenging organization for much of anything in the way of detailed information outside the International Sweepstakes event for many years. The AAA was little better.

[theunions]

I remain unrequited in my quest for a color photo of Jerry Unser's 1957 championship winning car during an actual points-paying event (in other words, not Pikes Peak).

[Jimmy Piget]

For my 1967 records, can somebody provide me the list of USAC stock car races, each with race date and eventual winner ?

Thanks a lot by advance.

[gerrit stevens]

Originally posted by Jimmy Piget
For my 1967 records, can somebody provide me the list of USAC stock car races, each with race date and eventual winner ?

Thanks a lot by advance.

Here is the list
May 27: Clermont, Ind. (300 miles) Parnelli Jones (Ford)
June 3: Chicago, Ill. (11.5) Don White (Dodge)
June 9: Marne, Mich. (2x25) Jack Bowsher (Ford) heat 1 & 2
June 17: Chicago,Ill. (11.5) Don White (Dodge)
June 22: Chicago, Ill (11.5) Jack Bowsher (Ford)
June 24: Indiana State Faigrounds (100) Don White (Dodge)
June 25: Pikes Peak, Colo (12.42) Bill Daniels (Chevrolet)
July 8: Chicago, Ill (11.5) Norm Nelson (Plymouth)
July 9: Milwaukee, Wisc. (200) Don White (Dodge)
July 13: Chicago, Ill (11.5) Norm Nelson (Plymouth)
July 15: Chicago, Ill (11.5) Don White (Dodge)
July 29: Mosport, Canada (2x125) Mario Andretti (Ford) ht 1 & Parnelli Jones (Ford) ht 2
August 5: Chicago, Ill. (11.5) Don White (Dodge)
August 12: Chicago, Ill (11.5) Norm Nelson (Plymouth)
August 13: Milwaukee, Wisc (150) Jack Bowsher (Ford)
August 17: Milwaukee, Wisc (200) Parnelli Jones (Ford)
August 20: Springfield, Ill (100) Don White (Dodge)
August 25: Indiana State Fairgrounds (100) Don White (Dodge)
August 27: Wentzville, Mo. (200) Don White (Dodge)
September 3: DuQuoin, Ill (100) Norm Nelson (Plymouth)
September 17: Milwaukee, Wisc (250) AJ Foyt (Ford)

Top 10 standings
1. Don White 2686
2. Parnelli Jones 2410
3. Jack Bowsher 2220.8
4. Norm Nelson 2067
5. Al Unser 1562
6. Bay Darnell 1372
7. Mario Andretti 1120
8. AJ Foyt 840
9. Roger Regeti 635
10. Butch Harman 565


Gerrit Stevens

[billthekat]

Originally posted by gerrit stevens
July 29: Mosport, Canada (2x125) Mario Andretti (Ford) ht 1 & Parnelli Jones (Ford) ht 2

Remember, these were not "heats" but separate races, each having paying a separate set of points and a purse, there being no "overall" results.

[Jimmy Piget]

Googling was of no help on the following tracks used in 1967

- Chicago (a dirt short track ?)
- Wentzville (Mid-America ? paved ? lap distance ?)
- Marne (Berlin Raceway, paved .438 miles ?)

Who knows more ?

[Jimmy Piget]

I just discovered this link : http://www.shorttracknews.com/z5.html

which inform on the "Soldier Field" track of Chicago, used by USAC stock-car championship (but also midgets, sprints, etc.)

[lajolla1986]

Originally posted by Bob Riebe
I don't know where you will find them but Auto Racing Digest used to and should have a good deal of information as they used to have wrap ups for every major org.
Again, when were they first printed?


Bob

Bob......I have quite a few issues of Auto Racing Digest, although there are several years missing. The first issue was July 1973, and yes it does have the 1972 recap for the USAC stock car division. It also contains the 1973 schedule, with racing from half mile dirt tracks, to two mile superspeedways. Pretty diverse schedule.