The Good Die Young

When I make posts that I don’t write, and that are illustrated with images that I didn’t take, I do so because of my love of auto racing and racing history. I especially enjoy sharing history that I remember such as with the drivers below.

The bios of both Bobby Marshman and Billy Foster come from Wikipedia. The photos of both drivers all came from Google photos. They are not mine.

I would add that Bobby drove a few USAC stock car races, usually on the 1 mile dirt tracks although I believe he ran at Milwaukee once. I never saw this young superstar race, but I was told he was one of the best ever. I do remember the news reports when he died.

Foster drove the entire USAC stock cars series and was an “up front” driver there. It is perhaps ironic that this open wheel driver died in a NASCAR stock car at Riverside, CA. I viewed Foster racing in both the USAC Indy Car and Stock Car series on many occasions during his brief career in major auto racing. Such a talent

Bobby Marshman (September 24, 1936 - December 4, 1964), was an American racecar driver

Bobby was the son of a race driver, George Marshman who morphed into a promoter, notably at Hatfield Speedway. Bobby started racing in URC sprints because you didn't have to be 21 to drive. Improving and being named URC rookie of the year. He moved on to ARDC driving for Harry Hespell 4 car team. In 1960 he changed over to Bruce Hoymeyer's Konstant Hot team, notably winning the Trenton 300. In 1961 he was driving the Iddings sprint car at the start of the season, posting fast time at the Reading opener. The Iddings car tried to run the champ car circuit as well, (see previous Mac Miller articles on the car). Bobby qualified the Iddings for the April Trenton champ car race, but got on his head after about30 laps. Spent a few nights in the hospital with a concussion.

He got called by the Hoover Motor express team between first and second weekend of indy qualifying, passed his rookie test and made the field as 33rd starter. He stayed clean and finished 7th earning co rookie of the year honors with Parnelli Jones.

This opened the door to a full time ride in Wally Meskowski's cars for this season and the start of 1962, where the other thread picks up.

His Lotus was the chassis that Dan Gurney crashed in 1963 at the speedway. Damaged goods to start with. The car was the trail horse for the new Ford 4 cam engine and Firestone tire testing. Bobby had been on the Firestone tire test team in 1963 as well

The story on the oil plug was, he was lapping Johnny White when White changed lines going into three, forcing Bobby low on the apron. The car bottomed out.

The rest of the season this car did not finish a race, mostly for chassis reasons. At the Pheonix race he broke the A frame.

They stayed in Phoenix for more tire testing after the race.

Something broke on the car on the backstretch, the car hit the wall and the gasoline fire was horrific. It melted the concrete wall. Bobby lived about 6 days after. He had been transferred to the Brooke Army Burn Center in San Antonio.

Bobby

 

The first reace track Bobby competed at...Hatfield Speedway

  Billy Foster (September 18, 1937 - January 20, 1967), was a Canadian racecar driver.

Born in Victoria, British Columbia, Foster died in a crash during practice for a Nascar stock car race at Riverside International Raceway in Riverside, California. He drove in the USAC Championship Car series, racing in the 1964-1966 seasons, with 28 career starts, including the 1965 and 1966 Indianapolis 500 races. He finished in the top ten 10 times, with his best finish in 2nd position in 1966 at Atlanta.

Billy and Mario Andretti became best of friends, building a close relationship which Andretti claimed he would never do again with a fellow racer because Foster's death so significantly affected him.

Billy was cousins with musician, producer, composer, arranger David Foster and with Canadian stock car driver Jim Steen.

He was inducted into the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame in 1993.

“Billy Foster was killed just in front of me, before I was ready to go qualify at Riverside. I was the next guy to go out to qualify and my best friend got killed.” Mario Andretti

 

Billy

 

Supermodified

 

Indy Car

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I may continue these articles of 1960s stars who died behind the wheel. NASCAR’s Billy Wade and Joe Weatherly will likely be next.





Why Not!

I have nothing particular to say today, so why not show a few pix. As is normal they are selected from the small group of images that I made in 2003-2007. These were my only years photographing races in the digital format. They were all made at the same six tracks, both dirt and asphalt, open wheel cars and stock cars. None of these photos have been shown before. I still search for old film images including b&w and color negatives, b&w and color prints, as well as slides. Those were made from 1971-2002 and if I locate any in good enough condition to copy into digital files, they will appear on these pages,
The Outsider

Pavement Late Model

Lake Geneva raceway

MARS Pavement Limited Late Models

Lake Geneva Raceway

Dirt Late Model

Hales Corners Speedway

USAC Pavement Midget

The Milwaukee Mile

 

 

Badger Dirt Midget

Sun Prairie

 

 

MSA Sprint Car

Sun Prairie

 

 

 

Some of the possibilities I am looking at for future articles include early Formula 1, California mods/supermods, Pacific Northwest stock car racing and more.

 

Thanks for stopping,

The Outsider



The 1966-1972 Trans-Am Series

My personal memories of the Sports Car Car Club of America's Trans-Am Series was from 1968-1972 and again in the 1980s.  I spectated a Trans-Am race at Elkart Lake Wisconsin, at Road America in 1969 and photographed one in the mid 80s at the same track. The info below is from Wikipedia.  Please forgive the odd paragraph breaks and spacing but doing a copy and paste from Wiki does not work very well.

The Trans-Am was essentially a stock car series on road courses.

The Trans-Am Series is an automobile racing series which was created in 1966 by
Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) President John Bishop. Originally known as the Trans-American Sedan Championship it has evolved over time from its original format as a manufacturers championship for modified racing sedans to its current form as a drivers championship open to GT style cars.
The series was formed at the dawn of the pony car era and was derived from the SCCA's A & B Sedan amateur Club Racing classes,[1] based upon commercially produced cars which had been modified for racing competition. Originally the series was open to FIA Group 2 Touring Cars[2] and it featured two classes, Over 2.0 Liter and Under 2.0 Liter, with both classes running together. The series was best known for competition among American V8 sedans such as the Ford Mustang, Chevrolet Camaro, Plymouth Barracuda, Mercury Cougar, AMC Javelin, Pontiac Firebird, and Dodge Challenger in the 1960s and early 1970s. Marques such as Porsche, Alfa Romeo, Datsun, Mini Cooper, Saab, and Volkswagen competed in the series' Under 2.0 Liter category.

Beginnings (1966–1967)
Kwech/Andrey 1966 Trans-Am Championship Alfa Romeo GTA
At first, the Trans-Am cars were modified versions of their road version. The competition was divided into two classes- an "Under 2-Liter" class (predominantly European sedans) and the "Over 2 Liter" class, 111 inch wheel base or less and displacement limited to 5.0 liters (primarily American pony cars).
The first race was in 1966 at Sebring International Raceway. The overall win went to Jochen Rindt driving an Alfa Romeo GTA (an Under 2-Liter entry), with Bob Tullius (driving a Dodge Dart) taking second overall and first in the Over 2-Liter class.
Allan Moffat in a 1600 cc Lotus Cortina won the third race at Bryar. Ford of Britain had full factory effort with the Alan Mann Lotus Cortinas. In 1966 the Over 2-Liter manufacturers' champion was Ford and the Under 2 Liter manufacturers' champion was Alfa Romeo, with Horst Kwech and Gaston Andrey's GTA scoring 39 of the 57 manufacturers' points for Alfa.
In 1967 Porsche lobbied the SCCA to reclassify the 911 as a sedan. Then dominated the Under 2-Liter field winning the manufacturers' championship over Alfa Romeo. In Over 2-Liter, Ford edged out Mercury to win the manufacturers' championship.

Golden era (1968–1972)


The Ford Mustang driven by George Follmer in the 1970 Trans-Am series.
Penske Racing campaigned Chevrolet Camaro Z28s through 1969, when he signed with American Motors to race the Javelin in 1970 and 1971. Mark Donohue would chalk up 20 race victories between 1967 and 1970.
In 1970, all of the American pony car manufacturers were represented with a factory team and top driving talent: Chevrolet had the Chaparral Team Camaro Z28 driven by Jim Hall, Ed Leslie, and Vic Elford. Ford's factory team was run by Bud Moore Engineering with Parnelli Jones and George Follmer the drivers. Plymouth hired All American Racers for their team, driven by Dan Gurney and Swede Savage. Dodge used Ray Caldwell's Autodynamics team; Sam Posey and occasionally Tony Adamowicz drove. Jerry Titus ran the Pontiac Team Firebird Trans Am. Penske Racing ran the effort for AMC Javelin, driven by Mark Donohue and Peter Revson. In 1971 all the American manufactures pulled out of the series except for AMC.

Below you see the Bud Moore owned,Parnelli Jones driven,Boss 302 1970 Ford Mustang. The image came from Hot Rod Magazine.

.
What do the three pictures below have to do with this? Absolutely nothing. I just decided to share some images from the now gone Lake Geneva, Wisconsin Raceway. 2007 I believe. Tim Sauter of the famous Wisconsin racing family drives the #52, and I have lost track of the other two chauffeurs.

USAC Championship Dirt Cars (Silvercrown)

It was hard to beat the thrills of the old USAC Championship Dirt Cars of the 1960s-80s. They raced exclusively on one mile dirt tracks and were a part of the same points championship (through the mid 70s) as the rear engine (roadsters before that) asphalt cars that ran the Indy 500. Even after they put cages on the cars they remained a part of the Indy Car series. Eventually they became a series of their own, and that began the slide into what is left today the “odd” looking mostly asphalt cars

I photographed them in 100 mile events on the one mile dirt tracks in the fairgrounds in Indianapolis, Indiana, and Springfield, Missouri in the early 1980s. In the early 1990s and again in around 2004 and 2006 I photographed them on the blacktop at the Milwaukee Mile. A good show anywhere, but they were special on the mile dirt tracks.

You will find some good vintage pictures on the Auto Racing Memories site. Mitch G made the post including the photos.

Auto Racing Memories, USAC Championship Dirt Cars of the 1960s Photos by Mitch G

The photos below are mine from the Milwaukee Mile. They have not been shown before. The lone b&w dirt shot was from Springfield in 1987.

Current USAC Silvercrown Series

A Few From Wilmot, May 24, 2003

Wilmot Speedway is located in southeastern Wisconsin in Kenosha, county.  It is a 1/3rd mile dirt oval.

Qualifying….sprint car

Outside pass for the IMCA Modified Feature

The winner

A mess in the sprint car feature

#11 Darrell Dodd and friend in the sprint car feature.

Poster Child

Classic Modifieds at Slinger in The Dirt Days

The two tiny pictures below are mine and I took them way back when Slinger Wisconsin Speedway was still a flat ¼ mile dirt. Since the mid 1970s Slinger has been a well known super high banked ¼ mile asphalt. The recent version of the Slinger Nationals saw Matt Kenseth beating Kyle Busch and Ross Kenseth.

I apologize for the tiny size of those two images, but these digital files are all that remain from the original b&w prints/negatives and the original digital copy.

In its hay day, this style of mod had 13 tracks in the northern Illinois (1 track) Upper Peninsula of MI (2 tracks), and Wisconsin’s 10 tracks. All 13 were quarter miles with 3 asphalt and ten being dirt. The Milwaukee Stock Car Club at one time raced six nights a week, and they raced five for many years. Mondays were the only night that race tracks were dark in Wisconsin. Eventually several of these tracks switched to late model stock cars, while at others the modifeds morphed into roofless and winged super modifieds. Those “supers” usually became sprint cars in due time.

The first driver below is the legendary Billy “The Cat” Johnson. This was the first year that local mod tracks allowed the roof to be removed from their cars. I think it ruins the class of the car as can be witnessed by the second image of Wally Jorsmodifieds and 100 sportsman ( low buck stock car) on any given Saturday night.

Names (not official names) of those early mod tracks. They are dirt unless noted asphalt.

Waugegan, Illinois Speedway (now gone)

Wilmot Speedway, Kenosha, county, WI (now a 1/3^rd mile sprint car track.)

Lake Geneva Raceway, WI asphalt (now gone)

Hales Corners Speedway, WI (now gone)

WI State Fair Park, WI ( now gone but this was a ¼ mile dirt inside the Milwaukee Mile)

Capital Speedway asphalt, WI( changed a long time ago to a ½ mile banked with late models )

Cedarburg Speedway, WI (now gone)

Slinger Speedway, WI ( now asphalt high banked ¼ mile with late models)

Beaver Dam Raceway, WI ( now a high banked 1/3^rd mile racing sprints, midgets and IMCA mods)

141 Raceway, WI asphalt ( I believe this track is now dirt and racing stock cars)

Plymouth Raceway, WI ( now 1/3^rd mile racing sprint cars)

Norway, Michigan ( now a 1/3^rd mile asphalt with late models)

Escanaba, MI ( now a 1/3^rd mile asphalt with late models)

There was also (14^th track) Hayden, Ontario Canada. A ¼ mile dirt a short way from the U.S. border. I have no idea if this track still exists.