[FishBurger]

What the heck....with nothing better to do, I decided to throw up one more of these retro threads. Maybe by moving forward 6 or 8 years with a different cast of drivers (for the most part), a bit more interest might develop, as opposed to my previous offerings.

Time Trials - 38 Cars - Track Record 17.81 by Don Nordhorn

60 Bruce Walkup..........18.28
12 Bill Puterbaugh.........18.51
42 Gary Ponzini............18.44
-6 Johnny Parsons, Jr....18.14
82 Fred Linder..............18.42
25 George Snider..........18.24 - Winner of Eldora Feature on 4/1/73
26 Bill Koepfer..............19.08
-8 Steve Schultz...........19.13
-4 Larry Dickson...........18.46
54 Darl Harrison............18.47
-5 Larry Cannon...........18.22
75 Jim McElreath..........18.57
28 Pancho Carter.........18.29
21 Chuck Booth...........18.44
51 Sonny Ates.............18.78
56 Danny Johnson........19.48
45 Dee Jones...............18.64
29 Billy Cassella............18.31
34 Benny Rapp.............18.80
17 Steve Cannon..........18.44
33 Jackie Howerton.......18.21
25xJerry Poland............18.38
77 Jerry Mann..............18.89
96 Johnny Toth............19.36
-3 Lee Kunzman...........18.19
98 Mel Cornett.............18.61
61 Rich Leavell.............18.56
59 Steve Chassey.........19.13
-7 Don Nordhorn...........18.68
14 Joe Saldana.............18.44
73 Johnny Batts............19.03
-1 Sammy Sessions........18.09 Quick Time Defending USAC Sprint Champ
-2 Rollie Beale...............18.10
74 Tony Simon..............18.39
53 Bobby Kinser.............19.14
16 Jerry Nemire..............19.41
27 John Hubbard.............DNQ
91 Billy Engelhart............DNQ

First Heat - 10 Laps - No Time
No.Driver.................Finish

-7 Don Nordhorn.............1
61 Rich Leavell...............2
14 Joe Saldana...............3
82 Fred Linder................5
28 Pancho Carter............7
33 Jackie Howerton.........4
-1 Sammy Sessions.........6

Second Heat - 10 Laps - 3:09.74

51 Sonny Ates...............7
75 Jim McElreath............1
-4 Larry Dickson.............4
42 Gary Ponzini..............6
29 Billy Cassella.............5
-5 Larry Cannon.............2
-2 Rollie Beale................3

Third Heat - 10 Laps - 3:14.83

34 Benny Rapp..............5
98 Mel Cornett..............1
54 Darl Harrison.............7
21 Chuck Booth.............6
25xJerry Poland.............2
25 George Snider...........3
-6 Johnny Parsons, Jr.....4

Fourth Heat - 10 Laps - 3:12.20

77 Jerry Mann...............6
45 Dee Jones................4
12 Bill Puterbaugh..........7
17 Steve Cannon...........3
74 Tony Simon..............5
60 Bruce Walkup............1
-3 Lee Kunzman............2

Semi-Feature - 12 Laps - 3:52.74

-1 Sammy Sessions........1
28 Pancho Carter...........2
29 Billy Cassella.............3
74 Tony Simon..............6
82 Fred Linder...............5
42 Gary Ponzini..............7
21 Chuck Booth.............8
54 Darl Harrison.............4 - Flipped Big Time
12 Bill Puterbaugh.........11
51 Sonny Ates.............12
34 Benny Rapp..............9
73 Johnny Batts...........10

Feature Race 40 Laps - No Time

-5 Larry Cannon...........12
33 Jackie Howerton.......13
-3 Lee Kunzman.............3
-6 Johnny Parsons........19
-2 Rollie Beale...............2
-1 Sammy Sessions..WINNER
25 George Snider..........18
60 Bruce Walkup............8
28 Pancho Carter..........17
29 Billy Cassella.............5
25xJerry Poland.............7 - Flipped on Lap 2 - Restarted to Run 7th
17 Steve Cannon..........16
14 Joe Saldana.............10
-4 Larry Dickson............20
54 Darl Harrison.............15
61 Rich Leavell...............6
75 Jim McElreath...........14
98 Mel Cornett...............9
45 Dee Jones................11
-7 Don Nordhorn.............4

+'73 was a good/bad season from my perspective. At the opening race of the season at Salem (at least it was my first of the year) two gosh awful rear-engined uglies ran. Greg Weld was in a new Leffler RE creation and Larry Dickson wheeled a Carl Gelhausen RE skateboard. Later in the season Tom Sneva won a bunch of races and Dave Roahrig won a snoozer at Tri-County, both in RE cars. I hated RE cars then and haven't changed my opinion of them almost 40 years later. Some, apparently believing USAC's purpose was primarily to be a feeder series for Indy cars tolerated the RE stuff that year. Others, like myself, who attended USAC pavement racing because they loved USAC pavement racing hated them.......huge majority according to my year long informal polling. We won, as they were later banned.
+In the above race, Jerry Poland flipped Knepper's Elder Cadillac #55, but was able to restart and did a heck of a job to run 7th.
+Darl Harrison really did a number on Steve Benovich's #54 which, if memory serves, had been previously owned and driven by Bud Tingelstad of Dayton.
+The '73 Championship came down to the finale at Eldora (Twin 50 lappers) which got off to a terrible start when easterner Carl Bergkvist (sp?) was killed in hot laps. That day was further dampened for me by an acquaintenance who cajoled me into taking him along. He wasn't ready to go when I arrived to pick him up.......drank like a fish......err, I mean he drank a lot, couldn't handle it, and proceeded to embarrass the crap out of himself, and by association, all of us seated around him. Had to stop on the way home for him to barf. At least that shut him up. NEVER AGAIN for that loser (or is it looser?).
+Rollie Beale was able to secure the championship by driving 3 different cars on that last day of the season, including one assigned to teammate Duke Cook. He flipped one, blew up another, and ran sixth in the final 50 lapper to beat out Lee Kunzman for the title.
+Gary Bettenhausen had competed in the 4/1/73 Eldora race in Willie's #24, but nothing in my notes or in my ever less reliable memory as to why he didn't run on this day.
+Back to the '73 season recap, I just remembered what a bummer the Indy 500 was that year. Took three days to run a shortened version, got my Torino GT sideswiped by a van load of tree burning hippies and worst of all, Swede Savage and a crewman named Armando Teran (I think) were fatally injured.
+Yep, the racing detailed above was exciting I'm sure, but the '73 season for me is one best forgotten.
+Didn't I say at some point I wasn't doing any more of these and further, that when I did, I was not appending any remarks?

[Bill Gardner]

Considering I was 2 years old back in 1973... It is pretty interesting to see that qualifying times haven't changed that much. Do you remember what the track conditions were like?

[Gregg]

Originally Posted by Bill Gardner Considering I was 2 years old back in 1973... It is pretty interesting to see that qualifying times haven't changed that much. Do you remember what the track conditions were like?

In may of that year conditions were usually not the best. One day I tried to go to Indy for practice from Cincinnati on a little Honda 175cc motorcycle. I made it to the Sunman-Milan exit. and stopped. The wind blew me everywhere but the lane I intendeed to drive. I turned around to go home believing that it was a much better choice than to risk becoming a grease spot on the expressway.

May seemed to be windy most of the entire month. The Indy cars in 1973 still had the huge rear wings that spanned from centerline to centerline of the rear tires. We went to pole day and it was windy and somewhat overcast, something repeated several times that month. There was a snafu to get in the track and they had us reroute to 16th street east of the track right past the vicinity of Gene Whites garage almost a mile away. While inching our way toward turn two practice had already started. Art Pollard who had been quick all month hit the short chute wall and wound up upside down in turn two. By the time we parked our car inside the track Lou Palmer announced Pollard's passing whiched cast a pall on that day. My guess is he caught a gust of wind and with that huge wing he was along for a fateful ride. Conditions didn't improve much much of the month and I'm sure the wind might have been a factor in the Savage race day accident.

As for 1973 short track, what Marv said. There are those who said USAC made a huge mistake and effectively cut the route to Indy. It may have done that but it was no mistake at all. Had this continued it would have changed the course of sprint car racing to eventually being part of a Super V, Formula 2000 or Atlantics series but that's my opinion. Unlike Marv I thought the Rohrig victory at Tri County Speedway was kind of exciting. But it eventually was like listening to a record on the radio you like. Once it hit number one and played 500 time you got sick of it. Once Carl Gelhausen got the old rear engined Huffaker figured out and put super mod driver Tom Sneva in it they couldn't be beat. Then road course racer Jerry Hanson reworked one of his Formula A Lolas to USAC specs and won a feature. USAC didn't make a mistake. the bowed to the wishes of their fans who were tired to the rear engined sprinters. Back in April the rear engined sprint cars were interesting but harmless oddities that had many a driver scratching their heads. The leffler sprinter had a bunch of drivers including Weld, Dickson, JP and I think Ziggy.

But of course the local scene was very good. No Larry and Gary show but we did have what seemed more or less like the Dick and Butch show, at Lawrenceburg at least. I'm sure Butch could elaborate.

Gary Bettenhausen on 4/29. My guess is Roger Penske may have clipped his wings on order to get ready for Indy.

[FishBurger]

Originally Posted by Bill Gardner Considering I was 2 years old back in 1973... It is pretty interesting to see that qualifying times haven't changed that much. Do you remember what the track conditions were like?

That race, like many/most USAC shows I attended in the 60's and early 70's was on a Sunday afternoon. While the racing was some of the best I've ever seen, those sunny afternoon deals didn't help a lot in producing tacky super fast surfaces.

I'll have to do a little research. I don't recall exactly when they went from the 305 c.i.d.'s to 410's and from the skinny tires to the big wide rear tires (mac miller calls them cartoon tires ), but of course those new specs resulted in lower TR's when they were introduced as well.

In the 60's there had to be ideal conditions before we would see sub 18sec. laps at the Big "E" on a Sunday afternoon. That said, you just had to be there to believe the racing provided by Foyt, B. Unser, Branson, McCluskey, Larson, et al and of course Hurtubise.

[Ovalmeister]

Originally Posted by FishBurger What the heck....with nothing better to do, I decided to throw up one more of these retro threads. Maybe by moving forward 6 or 8 years with a different cast of drivers (for the most part), a bit more interest might develop, as opposed to my previous offerings.

Marv, I love these posts....brings back memories of guys I haven't thought of in years. I have tons of photos I can post of those days. In the next day or so I will try to post some. I've been going through boxes of photos and need help with some ID's. Maybe you guys can help. It's fun to look at them anyway.
Thanks for the posts and don't stop!
David.

[Mud Packer]

Marv,

Keep them coming. Since I missed this era (too young you know) it is interesting to see the results. So many names that I have forgotten about over time.

David,

Any pictures you can provide would be wonderful. Great to see the machines of the day. Glad that you and Marv take the time to spread your wealth of knowledge. Thanks.

[racerjim2]

To some of us those results seem like only yesterday. Love it! Keep them coming.