1976 – No Brakes, but Bigelow Still Wins

 

Tom Bigelow won the Tony Bettenhausen 100 at the Springfield Mile. - Terry Young collection

Springfield, Ill. (August 21, 1976) – Tom Bigelow, despite driving without brakes for nearly the entire race, won the Tony Bettenhausen Memorial 100-mile race for USAC championship dirt cars at the Illinois State Fair.

The race over the one-mile dirt oval drew a crowd of about 10,000 and kicked off the 1976 United States Auto Club dirt car circuit which moves to the Du Quoin State Fairgrounds on August 29.

Bigelow, a native of Whitewater, Wis., who finished second in the 1975 championship dirt car standings, was followed by Johnny Parsons of Speedway, Ind., and Bill Cassella of Weirton, W.Va., who moved up from his 11th starting position.

Bigelow stated that his mechanical issues started on lap 10 when he was running third.

“I had absolutely no brakes for 90 laps,” he told newsmen afterwards. “The left front brake hose was apparently hit by a clump of dirt which pushed it into the spring which cut it. This very seldom happens.”

Rollie Beale of Toledo, Ohio, finished fourth and Jerry Miller of Indianapolis took fifth.

Bigelow’s winning time was 1 hour, 4 minutes and 42.20 seconds – far off the track record of 1 hour, 1 minute and 8.33 seconds set by Johnny Thomson in 1958.

Bigelow’s first place prize was $6,840 and he earned 200 points towards the circuit championship.

Once Bigelow took the lead on lap 20 in his Foyt-powered Leader Card racer, he fell back only once – on lap 78 – when an ordained minister, Jan Opperman of Noxon, Mont., pulled into the lead and Parsons moved into second two laps later.


Results –

1. Tom Bigelow
2. Johnny Parson
3. Bill Cassella
4. Rollie Beale
5. Jerry Miller
6. Roy Hicks
7. Ronnie Burke
8. Jim Hurtubise
9. Bobby Olivero
10.Larry Moore
11.Joe Saldana
12.James McElreath
13.Jim McElreath
14.Jan Opperman
15.Larry Rice
16.Sheldon Kinser
17.Bill Engelhart
18.Pancho Carter
19.Gary Bettenhausen
20.Chuck Gurney
21.Larry Dickson
22.Arnie Knepper
23.Bubby Jones
24.Roger Rager