or the "6th Annual Tony Bettenhausen 200 Mile Big Car Race" as it's listed on the program I bought for 50 cents.
A couple of recent threads here on IOW, one of which had to do with the "NOW and THEN" of Indy Cars, prompted me to whip out yet another retro results posting from "THEN". I won't list all of the time trial results like I do on the sprint car retros. Suffice it to say that Mario Andretti won the pole with a 32.288 (not a new TR). I'm sure the finish of this race can be found elsewhere on the internet but I'll add a few comments, likely of interest only to me and my Boston Terrier. Your time loss but I need to do this to tread water until the "NOW" finally arrives for me at Eldora (4/2 & 4/3).
Lineup - 26 Cars - - - - - - - Finish
-1 Mario Andretti................
The WINNER - Time 1:55.19.088
72 Gordon Johncock....................2
-6 Joe Leonard...........................3
-8 Roger McCluskey....................18
43 George Snider........................10
76 Art Pollard.............................7
24 Al Unser...............................20
29 Lloyd Ruby.............................9
27 Billy Foster............................5
-3 Jim McElreath.........................4
56 Jim Hurtubise........................26
12 Chuck Hulse..........................21
98 Dick Atkins............................12
53 Gary Congdon........................6
-7 Larry Dickson.........................17
74 Wally Dallenbach....................15
39 Bobby Grim............................13
38 Al Smith................................24
95 Greg Weld.............................14
22 Bud Tingelstad.......................11
96 Bobby Unser..........................8
-2 A. J. Foyt.............................25
94 Mel Kenyon...........................22
85 Al Miller................................19
81 Bob Harkey...........................16
-4 Don Branson..........................23
+Also in the pits that day but too slow to make the show were Sammy Sessions, Arnie Knepper, Gary Bettenhausen, and Ronnie Duman. Another, Carl Williams crashed hard into the front stretch outside wall in George Walther's car and caught fire. Scared the crap out of everyone. Thankfully, the track crew was quickly on the scene extinguished the flames and helped Carl exit the car in good condition. I had seen Carl kick some butt on several Saturdays at The 'Burg in one of Dizz Wilson's creations.
+You might assume that this was a parade what with cars starting 1,2,3 finishing 1,2,3. Ahh, but not so ye of chronic complaining tendencies. While there was much dicing back in the pack, you needed to look no further than the Andretti and Johncock duel for some of the best all day racing for a win that I've seen in Indy Cars.
+This was the first time I had a chance to be up close to all the action and the participants at a Championship Trail event. I went up with a good racing friend who was the fire chief here and seemed to be known by every fire department in every town with a race track from Milwaukee to Daytona. He worked Indy, Darlington, Daytona, etc. The man in charge of fire and safety crews for this race told Dusty that they were well covered for the day but we should come on in (at no charge) and enjoy the race. Well, if you insist.
We roamed all over the place.
+We spent the bucks we had saved on concessions.....program shows:
Popcorn .25, Hamburger .35, Hot Dog .30, Pepsi (large) .25, Cigarettes .40 and Beer .35.
+Most of the cars were, of course, RE. Exceptions were Greg Weld in a Watson roadster, Bobby Grim in the Racing Assoc. roadster, and Wally Dallenbach in Ken Brenn's dirt car. All were Offy or Ford powered.
+This Saturday race was originally scheduled for the previous Sunday during the WI State Fair but was rained out.
+You'll be even less interested in this, which is why I saved it for last. On the previous night we had attended a 100 mile USAC Stock Car event on the IFG mile, again on the house courtesy of IFG fire chief Cletus Reynolds (also then head basketball coach at an Indy college). Race was won by Don White, over Norm Nelson, A.J. Foyt, Sal Tovella, Jim Hurtubise, and Gary Bettenhausen.
+After the stocker, we drove on up and spent the night (again for free) at a firehouse in Milwaukee.....or was it Wawatosa......or was it West Allis......I dunno. I do know those Wisconsin folks are very hospitable.
+Is it April yet???
