Thank you sir!

Is that an AMAX decal I see on the hood?

I ask because my uncle, Melvin Lucas, was one of the top people at AMAX for a long time from the 1960s till the 90s. He was a mine supervisor and also worked for the Tony Bettenhausen, Jr. CART team for a long time as a fuelman and PR guy, among other things. He also worked for a few racing teams before that.

I wonder if he was associated with James McElreath's sprint car team as well? My uncle passed away a handful of years ago, so I can't ask him. Or is there no connection with my uncle? Maybe AMAX was close to the McElreath family and decided to sponsor the CART team of Tony Bettenahausen, Jr. There was a connection there. After all, Tony Jr. was married to James' sister, Shirley, for a long time until they both died in the terrible plane crash in 2000. :crying:

Sorry, I am just wondering out loud. :wink

No problem. BTW, racingfromthepast.com has a few older shots of James. One in a supermodified? (looks like a dirt champ car with wierd bodywork). They have a good photo section, James is on "lap 7". Also in the memoriam section.
David.

Yup it's the same AMAX. They were associated with the McElreath's for years. Like you said, after James passed away, and Tony married Shirley, AMAX sponsorship migrated to Bettenhausen Motorsports for a bunch of years. I snapped these at Indy. Maybe your Uncle is in one of them? Never know! :thumb
David.

Thank you David for the reply. :thumb My uncle is not in either of those pictures, but thanks. As it turns out, he did have something to do with the sponsorship.

I have gone into my racing archives and found an article about my uncle entitled "Luke" written by Mary Andrew from the old Indy Car racing magazine (April 1992 edition, pages 24-25). I found the exact origin of the AMAX sponsorship for the McElreath's and the Bettenhausen's.

Here's an excerpt from that article:

"Luke's (Melvin Lucas's) interest in racing began when four men who worked at AMAX, including himself, wanted to pool $75, go to the Hulman Classic and give it to a driver to help him out.

Luke's friend, Mike Rogers, public relations director for AMAX, heard about their plan and Rogers thought the company might be interested in sponsorship. Luke put together a program telling how many people would be in the stands and that it was going to be on ABC Wide World of Sports. From that, AMAX decided that they were willing to get involved, so the original group of four men never had to put in their own $75.

That particular year, 1977, James McElreath was sponsored by AMAX at the Hulman Classic. "He won his heat race, but I think he dropped out of the feature," Luke recalled. Meanwhile, AMAX officials watched it on national television.

"I figured that was it, but I got a call the following Monday morning asking how much it would take to sponsor the sprint car for the rest of the year," Luke says. "That's how I got started in sprint cars and how I got my start in auto racing."

Interesting stuff. I did not know that! I think he's wrong about the result, though. Didn't McElreath win the Hulman Classic in 1977, unless he's referring to the 1976 race? Anyway, he worked for Bettenhausen's team from 1980 to 2000. Here's a picture of him.

I was shooting in the first turn that awful day. I did not see the accident begin, but heard the tires skidding and the cars crashing just a few laps into the feature. and then saw McElreath's car flipping down the first turn and over the wall. My photo of debris (but not the car) flying through the air after it went over appeared in Sprint Car Pictorial. It was also my photo in Sprint Car Pictorial of him winning the Hulman Classic.

From what I remember, at least part of the cause for the fatal injuries was the bolts holding the safety harness to the cage. It was the third had flip the car had suffered that year and the theory was that the bolts were brittle from the stress of the first two crashes and snapped during this one.

Jim Morrison

Jim, you are right on that one. His shoulder harness broke. The car landed nose first against a big tree. You could tell they were broke then. I will never forget that. Will never forget the dana carter-billy cassella crash either. The 2 worst crashes i've seen on pavement...

Remember the Brian Hayden crash at Winchester? The fuel tank blew up when he hit at the end of the front stretch. I felt the heat from it up in the stands. That was pretty wicked.

Jim,

You are right. The car had been involved in three flips. I was present at all of them. The first occurred on July 2 at the Indy mile. If I remember correctly, the car left the track in the first turn, (or am I getting the McElreath accident confused with Mark Alderson's), the second was at Eldora on Oct. 9, just one week prior to his Winchester crash. I heard the same thing about the bolts breaking.

Dana Carter is Pancho's brother? Also, Pancho's eldest son Dane was named for his uncle? Another question - what is Dane Carter doing these days? Thanks.