I know at one time the Hulman Classic was the richest purse on dirt for a Sprint car race. What was the biggest purse,and how much would that be in today's $$$$$$?.

The purse in 1971 was $28,538 which would be $176,766.38 in 2018 dollars.

You could have bought 10 Mach 1's for 29,000 that if still in sticker condition would be worth more than $600,000!

Since that question was answered now will someone post the total purse payout for Wednesday Hulman classic

This is the standard purse feature payout.
Someone can elaborate if this does not apply to TH.

Couple interesting tidbits I found in a quick internet search:

The first Hulman Classic was a 2-day show. Qualification runs and a non qualifiers race were held Friday afternoon at 3:00 pm to get field down to 28. Friday tickets were $1.50.

Another article said more than 45 cars attempted to make the race.

A banquet was held Friday evening at the Terre Haute House and a parade was held Saturday morning.

Four heats, a semi feature and 40-lap feature were held Saturday with warm ups at 2:30 pm and heats set to begin about an hour later.

Saturday ticket prices: $5 adult, $3 adult infield, $1 infield kids.

The newspaper article estimated 14,000 fans in attendance. It also speculated that ABC provided $11,000 of the purse.

Interesting, Thanks!!

There was not a whole lot more to do in 1971. Racing was pretty high up on the to see list.

Although nothing to do with this years purse, the early Tony Hulman Classics were day races because there were no lights at the Terre Haute Action Track. Several were also broadcast live on ABC Wide World of Sports in conjunction with the Kentucky Derby live TV broadcast. I was working the ambulance during those days and remember walking through the pits and seeing the likes of AJ Foyt, Al & Bobby Unser, Mario Andretti, Johnny Rutherford and many, many more. They also had a Calcutta dinner and auction the night before the race where they auctioned off drivers in a race pool. Those were the days of Tony Hulman being front and center at the Action Track with a tremendous amount of influence in the racing world.

Tony Hulman/Don Smith/ABC/ a lot of “high rollers”. Calcutta added a lot of money. Part of a full month of May activities. Hulman Classic, Night Before the 500 Sprint Cars at the Fairgrounds (twin 50 lappers if I remember right), Little 500, Sixteenth Street Speedway with Midgets. Everything changes - parties on 16th Street, the Snakepit, The White Front, etc. I guess the young people aren’t interested and the older crowd has matured - to bad.