Bobby Ball
By Kyle Ealy
Phoenix,
Ariz. – The Bobby Ball Memorial was a tribute to a young driver who had a
promising racing career snuffed out at the age of 25.
Bobby Ball
started his racing career in roadsters, competing in the Arizona Roadster
Association. The skinny 6-foot-1 inch, 140-pound driver won so much and so
often, promoters begged him to back down.
He switched
from roadsters to midgets, which in 1949 and 1950, was weeping the nation. Once
again, success came naturally, with Ball winning the Arizona State Midget
Association championship in 1949 and ’50.
In 1950 he
got his first opportunity to get behind the wheel of an American Auto
Association (AAA) championship car. Competing in the 100-miler at the Arizona
State Fairgrounds, Ball won the pole and led the race until a crankshaft sent
him to the sidelines.
That
performance got Ball to Indianapolis in 1951. Driving the Blakely Oil Special,
he barely qualified for the 33-car field, but made the most of it, charging
from his 29th starting position to finish fifth. Great things were predicted
for this young driver.
His run on
the 1952 championship trail continued to fulfill his potential. He scored a
victory at San Jose and had seven more top-five finishes.
The 1953
season was full of expectations but on January 4, at a midget race in Los
Angeles, Ball was involved in a multi-car crash. He would survive but suffer
massive head injuries. He fought off death for more than a year but finally
succumbed on February 27, 1954.
In October
of 1954, it was decided that the traditional 100-miler held every November at
the Arizona State Fairgrounds’ one-mile dirt oval would be aptly named The Bobby
Ball Memorial.
To give a
little background on the race itself, the event started on November 11, 1948.
Under the sanctioning rules of the American Auto Association (AAA), Rex Mays
would win the inaugural event.
Jimmie
Davies would take the second annual event on November 12, 1950, while Johnnie
Parsons would follow with two wins in two years, November 4, 1951 and November
11, 1952. Tony Bettenhausen would win the fifth annual event on November 11,
1953.
The Bobby
Ball Memorial would get the green flag on November 7, 1954 but wave the
checkered flag on November 8.
The race
would be halted at lap 28 to water the track and then suspended after 35 laps
because of excessive dust. Gordon Betz, a AAA supervisor for the western zone,
decided the dust was a danger to drivers and decided to put a halt to the race.
At the time, Jimmy Bryan, the hometown favorite and defending national AAA
champion, had a quarter of a lap lead on Sam Hanks, the 1953 AAA national
champion.
On Monday
afternoon, the green flag waved again but it was Manuel Ayulo of Burbank,
Calif., jumping ahead of Bryan and taking the lead. Ayulo would continue to
lead with Bryan in tow until lap 89 when Bryan powered past Ayulo and led the
final 11 miles to score the victory.
Bryan’s win
paid $2,500 but more important to Bryan was winning the race named after his
good friend Bobby Ball. He won the race in 1 hour and 6 minutes.
Ayulo
settled for second place while Bob Sweikert of Hayward, Calif., who led the
first 3 laps of the race, finished third. Andy Linden of Los Angeles grabbed
fourth and Sam Hanks took fifth.
Jimmy Bryan accepts his trophy after winning the 1955 tragedy-marred Bobby Ball Memorial.
Tragedy
would come to the second annual Bobby Ball Memorial on November 6, 1955. Jack
McGrath of Los Angeles, a 35-year-old driver who held track records at
Indianapolis, was killed when his car when into a spectacular flip on the 86th
lap of the 100-mile race.
McGrath was
running third when his car struck a heavy shoulder in the turn and sprang into
the air. Witnesses said his front axle folded. Sadly, the accident happened
only 14 laps away from the end of his dirt track career. Before the race
McGrath had stated that the Bobby Ball Memorial was his last race and he was
entering private business in 1956.
The race
stopped, after 97 miles and four cautions was won by Jimmy Bryan, the defending
champion, in 1 hour and 9 minutes. Bryan collected $3,100 of the $12,100 purse.
Johnny
Thomson of Springfield, Mass., took runner-up honors, George Amick of Los
Angeles was third, Andy Linden, now of Indianapolis, fourth and Pat O’Conner of
North Vernon, Ind., finished fifth.
The other
news of the day was the American Auto Association’s decision to end its 46-year
run of championship racing. The AAA stated that there was too much emphasis on
speed, power, and driver endurance and those objectives were not in line with
AAA’s safety program.
1956 Bobby Ball Memorial program
Now under
United States Auto Club sanctioning, George Amick would stop Jimmy Bryan’s
domination of the Bobby Ball Memorial when he scored the win on November 12,
1956. Amick, driving Lindsey Hopkins’ Offenhauser, started on the pole and led
all 100 miles.
Bryan
started ninth in the 18-car field and gradually worked his way into contention
behind Amick but ran out of steam at the end and settled for second. Jimmy
Reece of Oklahoma City was third, Andy Linden finished fourth and Johnny Tolan
of Norwalk, Calif., rounded out the top five.
Finishing
second in the Bobby Ball Memorial not only didn’t sit well with Jimmy Bryan but
his hometown fan either. So, both Bryan and his followers walked out of the
Arizona State Fairgrounds happy on November 11, 1957, after Bryan won a
hard-fought victory on the one-mile dirt oval.
Rodger Ward #8 and Johnny Boyd #6 lead the field to green in the '56 race.
Johnny Boyd
of Fresno, Calif., would lead the first 55 laps from his outside front row
starting position. Pat O’Conner would slip by Boyd on the next lap and lead
defending race winner George Amick and Bryan. Bryan would break a three-way
scuffle and take the over the lead on lap 70.
Bryan would
continue to lead with O’Conner right on his bumper every lap. It was a tight
duel the rest of the way, one the two-time national champion almost lost.
Bryan,
attempting to lap Jim Rathmann of Miami, Fla., on lap 98, was forced wide and
crashed through several posts, tearing out sections of railing in the process.
O’Conner sped by Bryan and took the lead, but Bryan managed to recoup, and with
chunks of fence spewing from his racer, chased O’Conner down and win by a car
length at the wire.
Bryan’s
winning time was 1 hour, and 9 minutes and he collected $3,183 for his efforts.
With the victory, Bryan earned his third national championship, his second
under the USAC banner. Pat O’Conner would settle for second with Boyd in third.
Art Bisch of Phoenix finished fourth and Johnny Tolan took fifth.
1958 Bobby Ball winner Jud Larson (left) congratulates newly-crowned USAC national champion Tony Bettenhausen.
Tony
Bettenhausen and Johnny Thomson were racing for a national championship and Jud
Larson was just racing to win. Larson would do just that, winning the 100-mile
Bobby Ball Memorial on November 11, 1958.
Bettenhausen would finish five seconds behind Larson and clinch his
second national championship (1951 – AAA, 1958 – USAC).
A crowd of
more than 8,000 were greeted with intermittent showers in the morning which
delayed time trials but by race time the event was run in near-perfect weather.
Larson
grabbed the lead on the first lap, but first place was juggled back and forth
between Larson and Bettenhausen until the Tampa, Fla., hard charger tucked
it away for good on lap 31.
But Larson
had to hustle to keep ahead of Bettenhausen and Thomson, a 150-pound
lightweight from Boyertown, Penn. Thomson started 10th in the field of 18 but
was in the lead pack by lap 10. On lap 80, Thomson passed Bettenhausen for
second place, and trio battle lap after lap for the lead, often crossing the
start/finish line in a dead heat.
On lap 87,
engine trouble knocked Thomson out of contention and Larson started opening a
wider margin over Bettenhausen and was never in trouble the rest of the way. The
victory earned the crew-cut blonde $3,730 of a $12,090 purse.
Larson also
broke George Amick’s two-year old race record of 1 hour and 5.20 minutes with a
new time of 1 hour and 4.41 minutes.
Bettenhausen’s
second-place showing gave him the USAC national title, the first driver ever to
win a title without winning a race.
Eddie Sachs
of Center Valley, Penn., squeezed his way up from his 13th starting spot to
finish third, A.J. Foyt of Houston, Tex., driving Jimmy Bryan’s old car, took
fourth and Rodger Ward of Los Angeles was in fifth.
Tony
Bettenhausen would charge from the outside of fourth row to win his second
Phoenix 100-miler on October 18, 1959. The victory in 1 hour and 49 minutes was
worth $2,250 to the two-time national champion.
Bettenhausen
appeared in the top-five after only six circuits ad moved up to fourth by lap
10 when polesitter Lloyd Ruby of Houston, Tex., lost control, tagged the
guardrail and flipped four times. Ruby was unhurt, but his car was destroyed.
Bettenhausen
would pass Rodger Ward on the lap 15 restart and settle in behind race leader
Len Sutton of Portland, Ore., and Don Branson of Champaign, Ill. On lap 43,
Sutton was forced to leave with ignition problems, giving Branson the top spot.
Bettenhausen
would trail Branson for three laps before pulling past him for the lead. From
there, it was all Bettenhausen behind the wheel of the Lindsey Hopkins Special.
Branson would keep the pressure on Bettenhausen but by the time the lead duo
caught up with the tail-end of the field, Bettenhausen extended his margin. At
one time, Bettenhausen would have an 18-second lead and at the finish, he was
ahead by more than six seconds.
A.J. Foyt,
wheeling the Dean Van Lines Special, moved into fifth when Sutton dropped out,
worked his way to the front and finished second. Rodger Ward was third followed
by Gene Force of New Madison, Ohio, and Branson.
In the winner’s circle, Bettenhausen
spent several minutes washing the dust from his throat and cleaning up before
accepting kisses from his wife. “More water,” were his first words, but, he was
soon talking freely. “After I got in front, I didn't have much trouble,
although I did wear out a tire and have to slow down towards the end,” he said.
1960 Bobby Ball Memorial program
A.J. Foyt would be in the thick
of the chase for the USAC national crown in 1960 and when the 25-year-old
driver won the annual Bobby Ball Memorial on November 20, it clinched his first
national driving championship.
The Houston, Tex., speed demon
would take the lead on lap 25 and never relinquish it en route to victory
before a crowd of 10,000. Rodger Ward, only 120 points behind Foyt when he
entered the contest, was never a factor, finishing 10th in the race and placing
second nationally in points.
The race started with Al
“Cotton” Farmer of Tucson, Ariz., taking the lead from his outside front row
starting berth. He would hold that lead for the first four circuits before Jim
Hurtubise, of North Tonawanda, N.Y., who started fifth, took over the lead.
Foyt started on the inside of
the fifth row, moved to fifth place by lap 5, and had worked his way to the
front to threaten Hurtubise’s lead by lap 22. On lap 25, Foyt powered past
Hurtubise for the lead and never looked back, finishing the race in 1 hour,7
minutes, and 21 seconds.
As the finish was posted, a protest
was filed on the order of finish. Behind Foyt at the checkered was Don Branson,
Jim Hurtubise, and Wayne Weiler of Phoenix. Weiler was running second when
misfortune struck on lap 99 when his rear end went out, bringing up the
question whether the race was over before he quit running. After discussion
among officials, it was determined the order of finish would stand.
Numerous spinouts and accidents
left only 9 of 18 starters at the finish. Foyt earned $2,955 of the $11,820
purse.
1961 Bobby Ball Memorial program
Al Keller of Greenacres, Fla., never
saw the new set of tires and other prizes for setting fast time at the Bobby
Ball Memorial on November 19, 1961. Less than a half hour after hearing the
command, “Gentlemen, start your engines”, Keller lay dead under the wreckage of
his machine after a violent crash. The only movement was the spinning of the
wheel which landed on atop a chain-link fence in the infield.
Keller’s tragedy was “one of
those things” race fans sensed was coming. The track surface was lumpy on the
south side of the track and slick on the north. Almost as soon as the race
started, the surface began to break up, developing ruts and spewing clods under
the 100 miles per hour wheels of the 18 competing cars.
On lap 41, Keller skidded out of
the north turn and lost control. He went end for end, then his machine went
broadside in the air and continued to flip violently, landing on top of the
chain link fence.
Astonishingly, official slowed
but didn’t stop the race. The flagman gave the field the one lap to start
signal and to resume speed. It was explained later that the wreck was in the
infield and not blocking traffic.
But when other cars floundered
through the north turns on the restart, the race was stopped on lap 49. A
capacity crowd of 10,000 then went through an hour and a half delay as the
track was repaired.
With attention focused on the
wreck, few fans saw Parnelli Jones of Torrance, Calif., pass race leader Rodger
Ward on lap 45 for the lead. Along with defending winner A.J. Foyt, the trio
had waged a furious feud for 40 laps, lapping the entire field.
When the race finally resumed,
Jones almost met disaster, spinning in the first turn and losing almost four
seconds to Ward. Jones would get the lead back on lap 65 and maintain the lead
until lap 89 when officials halted the race because of darkness and
deteriorating conditions.
Jones, piloting J.C. Agajanian’s Willard Battery Special, earned
$3,539 of the $13,727 purse.
Jones was followed to the finish
line by Ward, Don Branson, Jim McElreath of Arlington, Tex., and Al Farmer.
After being in contention early on, Foyt developed engine problems on lap 55
and retired for the day.
Ward was hostile about the track
conditions afterwards. “Worst track I’ve ever run on,” remarked the former Indy
500 champ. “And I’ve run on a lot of ‘em.”
Elmer George's car dives over the guardrail and into the crowd of spectators during the '62 Bobby Ball Memorial.
Disaster would strike again at
the Bobby Ball Memorial on November 19, 1962. Elmer George of Speedway, Ind.,
would lose control of his racer in the north turn and flip over the guardrail
and into an overflow crowd of spectators, bring abrupt termination to the race
after 51 laps. The accident happened
almost directly opposite of where Keller had met his fate the year before.
George was severely cut around
the head and shoulders and 22 spectators were taken to area hospitals for minor
injuries but fortunately, no one was killed. The accident occurred on lap 49,
but the flagman waved the field around for two more laps to make the race
official, then stopped all cars.
After George was dragged from
his capsized racer, and the injured removed, USAC officials and promoter Mel
Martin announced the race could not continue because of the damage caused to
the guardrail in front of the grandstand.
Victory and the $4,800 prize
went to Bobby Marshman of Pottstown, Penn., hustling his Hopkins Special into
the forefront on lap 30 after a tight duel with polesitter and defending winner
Parnelli Jones and A.J. Foyt.
The three had made a runaway of
the race and had lapped the entire field by lap 21. Foyt was running hot on
Marshman’s tailpipe when the accident occurred. Jones got bogged down in
traffic chasing Marshman and was some five seconds behind Foyt when the race
was concluded.
The win was the first of the
season for Marshman who noted in victory lane, “I’m glad it was stopped. My car
was worn out and I don’t think I could’ve held A.J. off for 50 more laps.”
Johnny Rutherford #46 and Chuck Hulse #10 lead the field to start the 1963 Bobby Ball Memorial.
Rodger Ward, driving the Robert
Wilkie Offenhauser, would win the Bobby Ball Memorial 100-mile race on November
17, 1963. Ward passed race-leader Chuck Hulse of Tucson, Ariz., on lap 30 and
won by a five-second margin.
There was one second of
excitement as Ward powered past Hulse for the top spot, but the final 70 miles
were a foregone conclusion as the two-time Indianapolis 500 winner drove a near-perfect
race, earning his fifth win of the season on the USAC championship circuit.
A crowd packed to the rafters,
15,000, watched a race technically perfect, but what the Arizona Republic described as
“offering less wheel banging than a Sunday scramble for a choice picnic
table.”
Johnny Rutherford of Fort Worth,
Tex., set fast time, touring the mile in 36.62 seconds. Hulse was second with
36.95 seconds and Ward was ninth fastest with a time of 37.82 seconds.
Hulse, driving the Dean Vans
Lines Special, jumped into the lead with Rutherford following and by lap 6,
Ward was already in third and closing fast. Ward moved quickly past Rutherford
and chose to follow Hulse until the 30th mile when Hulse drifted high in turn
four and Ward cut under to take the lead as they roared down the front stretch.
Ward would slip in and out of
traffic, building a seven-second lead over Hulse. Rutherford’s power plant went
sick on lap 89, allowing Jim McElreath to move up and finish in third. Parnelli
Jones and Roger McCluskey of Tucson, Ariz., rounded out the top five.
Unlike the previous two years,
the track held together well although turns two an four were badly rutted by
the time the race came to an end.
The ‘63 Bobby Ball Memorial
would be the last on the one-mile dirt oval of the Arizona State Fairgrounds. The
state fairboard was already facing $1,200,000 in damage suits filed by
spectators injured in the 1962 race. Mel Martin, the long-time promoter,
proposed paving the one-mile dirt oval, but in the end, the commisssion decided
it wasn’t worth the time or investment.
The race would move to the new
one-mile paved oval Phoenix International Raceway for the 1964 race.
The following drivers won the
Bobby Ball Memorial at PIR…
1964 – Lloyd Ruby
1965 – A.J. Foyt
1966 – Mario Andretti
1967 – Mario Andretti
1968 – Gary Bettenhausen
In 1969, the race was changed to
the Bobby Ball 200 with Al Unser winning. In 1970, the race was shortened to
150 miles and renamed the Bobby Ball 150. Swede Savage would win that race.
