National Speed Sport News

Plymouth is not a name often associated with Indy-car racing. On Aug. 24, 1969, however, not only did a Plymouth-powered car win an Indy-car race, it did so at the Dover, Del., famed Monster Mile.

The story began when flamboyant car owner Andy Granatelli decided to run three teams in 1969. Clint Brawner headed one team, winning Indy with Mario Andretti. Andy's brothers, Vince and Joe, had another.read more

NASCAR stock-car racing took a major step toward becoming a mainstream American sport on Sunday afternoon, Sept. 1, 1985, when Bill Elliott earned a $1 million bonus for winning the Southern 500 at legendary Darlington Raceway.

The bonus money, posted by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. and known as the Winston Million, was a publicity tool that would reward any driver who could win three of NASCAR's fourread more

50 Years Ago - August 24, 1960
Mario Andretti roared to his fifth-consecutive strictly stock feature victory Thursday night in a 25-lap event at the Nazareth (Pa.) Fairgrounds. The 20-year-old local racer took the lead on lap seven and his only close pursuer during the closing laps was Harp Wink, who settled for second-place money.

25 Years Ago - August 28, 1985
Groundbreaking ceremonies for theread more

Tommy Houston grew up in a North Carolina county that was tradition-rich in motorsports history.

A native of Hickory, N.C., in Catawba County, Houston is part of a legacy of stock-car racing legends that includes Bobby Isaac, Ned Jarrett, Glenn Jarrett, Dale Jarrett and Morgan Shepherd.

Houston helped rewrite the motorsports record book for the region. It wasn't something he set out to do. Most ofread more

Jim Clark forever altered the American racing landscape on Aug. 18, 1963, when the Scotsman drove a rear-engined, Ford-powered Lotus to victory in the Milwaukee 200 USAC National Championship race on the one-mile oval at Wisconsin State Fair Park.

A record crowd of 35,096 witnessed the milestone moment as Clark became the first driver in the storied of history of National Championship racing to winread more

50 Years Ago - August 17, 1960
Colorful Allen Heath, known to West Coast race fans as the "Seattle Screwball," claimed his third-straight California Racing Ass'n sprint-car victory Saturday night on Ascot Stadium's half-mile dirt track. Heath started eighth in the Famighetti Chevy, took the lead on lap 20 and beat Hal Minyard to the checkered flag.

25 Years Ago - August 21, 1985
Indy-car driversread more

One of the first midget racers to graduate to Indianapolis, Mel Hansen enjoyed great success on the nation's ovals until a crash ended his career.

Born in Redfield, S.D., in 1911, the Hansen family moved to Fontana, Calif., in the 1920s. Hansen began his driving career in nearby Riverside. At the wheel of a Ford roadster, Hansen competed in "modified stock car" races on a dirt track at the Graserread more

Roy Robbins, a 33-year-old mechanic from Louisville, Ky., earned $1,280 for winning the inaugural Super-Modified National Championship on Saturday night, July 29, 1961, at Iowa's Knoxville Raceway.

The brainchild of promoter Marion Robinson, race officials received 78 entries from 14 states and a turn-away crowd of nearly 14,000 watched as the eight-event program was run under nearly perfectread more

50 Years Ago - August 10, 1960
Police from 10 communities were called to New Jersey's Wall Stadium Saturday night to disperse a screaming, shoving mob of 400 customers after the stock-car races were abruptly canceled. A purse dispute between drivers and management caused the cancellation and the group gathered outside the stadium office demanding refunds.

25 Years Ago - August 14, 1985
Dr. Alanread more

The first stop for Will Power after winning the recent Camping World Grand Prix IZOD IndyCar Series race wasn't a champagne dinner in his honor, a trendy disco packed with beautiful people, or even a metropolitan TV studio. It was a rustic motel, restaurant and bar called the Seneca Lodge, about three miles from the track overlooking Watkins Glen and the lake, where racing history has been maderead more

The United States Auto Club lost its brightest star on Saturday night, July 21, 1990, when Rich Vogler was killed in a sprint-car crash on the high banks of Indiana's Salem Speedway.

In the opening paragraph of his story in the July 25 issue of NSSN, veteran journalist Bill Hill aptly described the milestone moment:

"Rich Vogler is gone. If Vogler had planned his own departure from this world, itread more

Indianapolis 500 winner Rodger Ward drove an 11-year-old midget to victory in the USAC Formula Libre event on July 25, 1959, at Connecticut's Lime Rock Park, topping a 19-car field that included several of the world's premier sports cars.

The midget, an Offenhauser-powered Kurtis-Kraft model owned by Kenny Brenn of Millington, N.J., was built in 1948 by the late Johnny Ritter and had raced almostread more

50 Years Ago - July 27, 1960
Gordon Johncock, of Hastings, Mich., went the full 200-lap distance without a pit stop and won the MARC-sanctioned supermodified event Sunday afternoon at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio. Johncock earned $2,000 for the victory while Jim Cushman settled for second and Bob Pratt came home third in the 32-car race.

25 Years Ago - July 31, 1985
"They ought to try himread more

Long before Ohio-born Eddie Rickenbacker was America's Ace of Aces, a Medal of Honor winner and the president of Eastern Airlines, he was a racer.

As a hero of early American auto racing, he helped popularize the sport with his smiling persona and penchant for winning. He competed for the Vanderbilt Cup, ran Indianapolis four times and raced at dozens of other tracks across the nation.

Rickenbacker'read more

Perhaps the best-known short track in the Chicago area during its run, Santa Fe Speedway operated between 1953 and 1995.

Located at 91st Street and Wolf Road in the Chicago southwest suburban area, the speedway featured a quarter-mile and a "short" half-mile clay oval. Howard Tiedt built and operated the speedway on the property where his father, Frederick, had built the original Santa Fe Park, aread more

The roar of NASCAR Winston Cup stock cars echoed through the hallowed grounds of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway June 22-23, 1992, as nine teams tested Goodyear tires at the legendary 2.5-mile track.

Ironically, the first day of the test session dawned with the coldest temperature ever recorded on June 22 in the Circle City.

"Everybody always said it'd be a cold day in hell when we raced atread more

50 Years Ago - July 20, 1960
Don Branson, of Urbana, Ill., became the first driver to officially top 100 mph on a half-mile track Sunday during qualifying for the USAC sprint-car event at Dayton (Ohio) Speedway. Branson circled the newly repaved oval, which measures exactly 70 yards longer than the half-mile distance, in 18.53 seconds at 104.861 mph.

25 Years Ago - July 24, 1985
The Michigan 500read more

Manny Ayulo is sadly forgotten today, but "The Peruvian Flash" was one of the top Indy-car drivers of his era.

The son of the Peruvian Consul to Los Angeles, Ayulo was born there Oct. 20, 1921. The Ayulos were oft found on the society pages, but like many Southern California youngsters, Manny got interested in hot-rodding.

By 1938, the teenager entered dry lake speed runs, first with the Idlers Carread more

Two female drivers - Bev Griffis and Patty Moise - made auto-racing history by winning major races during the same week in the summer of 1986.

On Thursday night, July 24, Griffis became the first woman to win a United States Auto Club feature. The milestone victory came in a USAC Regional Midget Series race at the Indianapolis Speedrome.

Griffis held off repeated challenges from Mack McClellanread more

50 Years Ago - July 13, 1960
Johnny Roberts, the 1953 NASCAR sportsman champion from Brooklyn, Md., roared to victory in the 50-lap modified stock-car feature at Alcyon Speedway in Pitman, N.J. The victory ended Al Tasnady's streak of six-consecutive wins at the D-shaped dirt track as Tasnady settled for second with Bob Malzahn third.

25 Years Ago - July 17, 1985
Stock-car star Dick Trickle, hisread more

Not many operating race tracks are listed as State Historical Sites. The SCRA Dragstrip in Great Bend, Kan., is such a facility.

Operated by the Sunflower Rod & Custom Ass'n, the quarter-mile drag strip located on the landing strips of the Great Bend Municipal Airport has a history that stretches back to the very beginnings of organized drag racing.

Now held at O'Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis,read more

When Richard Petty won his 200th NASCAR Grand National race on July 4, 1984, with President Ronald Reagan on hand at Daytona Int'l Speedway, it was not only a milestone moment for auto racing, but for all of sports.

Veteran auto-racing journalist Benny Phillips artfully painted the picture in his race report that appeared in the July 11 issue of National Speed Sport News.

"It was a plot worthy ofread more

50 Years Ago - July 6, 1980
The racing Unser brothers, of Albuquerque, N.M., claimed two victories and a runner-up finish during the annual Pikes Peak Hill Climb. Bobby Unser established a hill record of 13 minutes and 28.5 seconds in winning the championship division with Al Unser settling for second. Louie Unser topped the stock-car class.

25 Years Ago - July 10, 1985
New York modified racerread more

There was a time when a small, brick-front building in an industrial section of L.A., lodged between Helen's Café and Jim Narin's Machine Shop, housed the most important race shop in America.

The only indicator of its purpose was a large, fading Champion Spark Plug sign that filled most of the front facade's upper half, and above that, in smaller script, "Traco Engineering."

Traco built racingread more

50 Years Ago - June 29, 2010
Roger Penske, a former Lehigh University football player, scored a clean sweep during the Florida Regional Sports Car Club of America races at Daytona Int'l Speedway. Penske won each of his three preliminary heats and then drove his Porsche RS60 to a convincing victory in the 20-lap, 62-mile open-class finale.

25 Years Ago - July 3, 1985
In a surprise announcement,read more

At a time when hand forming metal was an integral part of building a race car, a few in that unassuming profession rose to the level of artisans. Joe Silnes was one.

With neither patterns nor dies to guide him, and with only the concept of what the completed piece should look like in his mind, he'd meticulously work a piece of sheet aluminum for hours until the finished intricate piece was exactlyread more

Bobby Brown's racing career has spanned the half century from 1960 to 2010. He has raced Corvettes and Cobras in the heyday of SCCA club racing, Lolas and Eagles in Formula 5000, and Dan Gurney's McLeagle in the original CanAm Series, not to mention a wide variety of formula cars since the mid-1970s.

Today Brown handles a hybrid Ralt RT4 Formula Atlantic car upgraded to Formula 2 engine specs,read more

The worst accident in auto-racing history, one that forever changed the sport, took place on June 11, 1955, during the 39th running of the 24-Hour Grand Prix of Endurance in Le Mans, France.

The crash happened at approximately 6:26 p.m. local time, a little more than two hours after the start. Eyewitness reports said Mike Hawthorn's Jaguar was ahead of Lance Macklin's Austin-Healy with Pierreread more

50 Years Ago - June 22, 1960
Jimmy Bryan, a three-time National Champion and winner of the 1958 Indianapolis 500, was killed June 19 in a violent end-over-end crash at Langhorne (Pa.) Speedway. Bryan was running second on the opening lap of the National Championship race when his car slid sideways, dug into the track and started flipping.

25 Years Ago - June 26, 1985
Another chapter was added toread more

Donnie Moran claimed the richest prize in short-track racing history June 9, 2001, when he earned $1 million for winning a 100-lap dirt-late-model race at Eldora Speedway.

Known as the Eldora Million, the unprecedented event was the brainchild of Earl Baltes, owner and promoter of the legendary half-mile dirt track in Rossburg, Ohio. The race was originally scheduled for Oct. 6-7, 2000, but rainread more