Indy Dispute Is Big, but Hardly the First

Call it a boycott, lockout or whatever you like, but the decision by Championship Auto Racing Teams to withhold its Indy car drivers from Sunday’s Indianapolis 500 is not without precedent in motor racing.

On the day of the new Indy Racing League’s Indy 500, CART will run its own race, the U.S. 500 in Brooklyn, Mich.

A similar situation occurred with the National Hot Rod Assn. in 1972 when drag racing pioneer Don Garlits formed a rival organization, the Professional Racers Organization, and ran an event in Tulsa, Okla., on the same day the NHRA U.S. Nationals were being run in Indianapolis.

The issue then was money. The PRO purse more than doubled the NHRA’s.

Little-known Gary Beck of Edmonton, Canada, driving in his first national event, won the top-fuel championship at Indianapolis, a victory that PRO called a sham because the big names were at Tulsa. Beck proved it was no fluke the following year when he beat Garlits in the first round and went on to win his second U.S. Nationals title.

PRO continued to run its own schedule after 1972, but never again on the same day as an NHRA event. And it won its point, after a fashion, because the NHRA increased its purse.

Several car owners, notably Don Prudhomme and Tom McEwen, elected to drive at Indy, but in support of the PRO also sent drivers to Tulsa with their backup machines--similar to what is being done this year by Indy car owners Rick Galles and Derrick Walker.

Galles’ reserve driver, Davy Jones, surprised Indy car followers by putting his Lola-Mercedes on the front row at Indy with a speed of 232.882 mph; and the team’s regular driver, Eddie Lawson, qualified 18th for the Michigan race at 221.618.

Walker will have Mike Groff at Indy, starting on the outside of the fourth row, and No. 1 driver Robby Gordon 21st and Fredrik Ekblom 22nd at Michigan. Ekblom is sitting in for the injured Scott Goodyear, who is recovering from a back injury suffered while practicing for a race in Brazil in March.

In September 1969, when the Alabama International Motor Speedway--now the Talladega Superspeedway--was scheduled to open, most of NASCAR’s big name drivers, including Richard Petty, David Pearson, Cale Yarborough and Bobby Allison, refused to drive.

Safety was the bone of contention, drivers protesting that their tires were not made to handle the 200-mph speeds on the high-banked tri-oval. They predicted the tires would shred.

Bill France, who ran NASCAR with an iron fist, responded by climbing into a Ford and running a few laps at 175 mph to demonstrate that what was safe for a 59-year-old retired racer should be good enough for those still active. The tire was one that Bobby Unser and Mario Andretti had campaigned on the U.S. Auto Club’s stock car circuit.

When most of the regulars still refused, France rounded up drivers from NASCAR’s Grand Touring series and the Automobile Racing Club of America to fill the field. The entry included 13 Winston Cup--then known as Grand National--regulars and 36 others, including little-known Richard Brickhouse, who earned his only Winston Cup victory.

For the next race, all the regulars returned.

The CART-IRL rift is not even the first rebellion involving the Indy 500.

In 1947, a group of the leading drivers, spearheaded by Ralph Hepburn and Rex Mays, formed the American Society of Professional Auto Racers and called a strike against the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

As with the drag racing split, the issue was money. ASPAR was demanding 40% of the gate receipts, a deal agreed to by promoters of 100-mile championship races on mile ovals.

Wilbur Shaw, a three-time 500 winner who had been hired as general manager by Tony Hulman, the track’s new owner, talked tough to his former peers.

“An agreement such as you are demanding could kill the 500-mile race in a single year,” Shaw told Hepburn, a 14-race Indy car veteran who had been elected ASPAR president. “And if you kill it, you’ll be killing all auto racing.”

Shaw offered a guaranteed $75,000 purse, plus $20,000 in lap-prize money, which did not appease the striking drivers.

The impasse was resolved when a mediator--Bill Fox, sports editor of the Indianapolis News--negotiated in an around-the-clock meeting. It was finally agreed that striking drivers could have an extension of two days to qualify, providing all 35 of the original entrants agreed, which they reluctantly did.

With a minimum requirement of 115 mph in the time trials, only 30 cars managed to qualify. Hepburn, who was killed while practicing for the 1948 race, was one of those who failed. Mays, the other ringleader, finished sixth.

Motor Racing Notes

STOCK CARS--Featherlite Southwest Tour drivers will be at Mesa Marin Raceway in Bakersfield for a 300-lap feature Saturday night. . . . Also Saturday night: Winston Racing Series sportsman and street stocks at Cajon Speedway, followed by a destruction derby; street and sportsman cars, plus train races, at Kern County Raceway; pro and hobby stocks at Blythe Speedway.

SPRINT CARS--Double winners Mike Kirby, J.J. Yeley and Rip Williams will headline the Sprint Car Racing Assn. program Saturday night at Perris Auto Speedway. . . . Winged IMCA sprint, dwarf and legend cars will run Saturday night at Ventura Raceway.

MOTORCYCLES--Sidecars will join speedway cycles Friday night at the Costa Mesa Speedway on the Orange County Fairgrounds.