Larry Dickson exits his car after winning the Pride City 50 sprint car race at Terre Haute.
Terre Haute, Ind. (August 11, 1968) - Larry Dickson won the Pride City 50 sprint car race at the Action Track Sunday afternoon, but it was a decision hard -reached by United States Auto Club officials after George Snider and hundreds of the fans protested the official finish.
Dickson, who is the current point standings leader, failed to qualify for the feature event and borrowed Johnny Rutherford’s sprinter to make the 50-lap finale.
He started in the 17th starting position but found his way to the lead in 19 laps, according to officials of USAC, finishing ahead of Carl Williams.
The fans and Snider had thought the all the time he was in the lead. After all, Snider was still ahead of Dickson as they finished lap after lap.
Not so, said USAC. Snider had spun on the first lap of the feature, and that caused the race to be restarted. According to officials, the race had gone one lap, and Snider was supposed to have re-started last, instead of sixth, the position he for which he qualified.
USAC issued a statement which read; “Snider lost a lap due to the fact he stalled on the second turn – on lap 1, when he had to slow to avoid contact with other cars, and was mistakenly allowed to re-start in sixth position, rather at the end of the pack.”
Due to the controversy, the settlement of which should come early this week, the purse has been held up.
Rutherford, who will get the winner’s share of the purse – Dickson wanted only the points that go toward the sprint title, won the semi-feature, while Gary Bettenhausen, Sammy Sessions, and Karl Busson were the heat-race winners.
Bettenhausen won the first go-round in 3 minutes and 23 seconds while Busson won in 3 minutes and 34 seconds. No times were kept for the other heat, the semi-feature or the feature due to the yellow flag.
Don Brown was top qualifier for the day with a lap at 23.61 seconds, but he posed no threat in the feature event. He was followed on the track by Wib Spaulding with a 23.76, Snider with a 23.85, and Bettenhausen with a 23.92.
Brown held the lead in the first race for three laps when Bettenhausen took it from him and held on for the win.
The other two heat winners had little trouble. Rutherford took the lead on the first lap of the semi-feature and was never headed to take the checkered flag.
Approximately 4,000 fans were on hand for the race, which had a guaranteed purse of $6,500.
Results –
1. Larry Dickson
2. Carl Williams
3. Don Thomas
4. Karl Busson
5. Bill Puterbaugh
6. Sonny Ates
7. George Snider
8. Gary Bettenhausen
9. Mickey Shaw
10.Bill Koepfer
No comments:
Post a Comment