1969 - Stokke wins season championship at Boone

Boone, Iowa (August 30, 1969) - Del Stokke of Ames won the 30-lap Season Championship race at Boone Speedway on Saturday night.

Stokke, who finished the year runner up in points to Gene Schattschneider, picked up his second championship at the Boone Speedway in the last three years.

He finished the 1967 year at Boone by winning the point battle and also the season championship.

Saturday night, Stokke, grabbed the lead on the very first lap from the man who had started on the pole, Gene Schattschneider, when Gene went too high coming out of the number two corner.

Schattschneider, stayed close behind Stokke for several laps until he lost control of his car and spun out coming out of the fourth turn on lap seven.

After this, Schattschneider, went to the back of the pack and lost any chance of winning the race. Gene watched the last few laps of the event from the pits after being black flagged for not yielding to a pull over flag.

Arnie Braland, of Boone, after the departure of Schattschneider, picked up where Gene left off and battled Stokke all the way to the wire in finishing runner-up. It was Braland's best finish during championship competition at Boone in three years. He also finished fifth in points this year.

Two veteran drivers, Jerry LeCroy, Des Moines and Joe Rasmussen, Ames, finished third and fourth with Merle Leonard, Marshalltown, rounding out the top five.

Heat winners Saturday night were Joel Rasmussen, Ames, Jerry LeCroy, Des Moines and Bob Bonzer, Liscomb. Merle Leonard, Marshalltown, won the B-Main, while Don Hilbert, Algona, won the Special event.
Results –
First Heat: Joel Rasmussen, Ames
Second Heat: Jerry LeCroy, Des Moines
Third Heat: Bob Bonzer, Liscomb
B-Main: Merle Leonard, Marshalltown
Special Race: Don Hilbert, Algona

Feature:
1. Del Stokke, Ames
2. Arnie Braland, Boone
3. Jerry LeCroy, Des Moines
4. Joel Rasmussen, Ames
5. Merle Leonard, Marshalltown

1976 - Bubby Jones wins 100-Mile Dirt Car Race at Du Quoin

Norman "Bubby" Jones

Du Quoin, Ill. (August 29, 1976) - When they began the 100-mile USAC championship dirt car race at the Du Quoin State Fair, it looked like it was going to be Tom Bigelow’s day.

Bigelow, the 1975 Du Quoin champion, shattered the track record in the qualifying round by zipping around the one-mile oval at 109.20 miles per hour.

Once the race began, it continued to look like Bigelow’s day. But when the race ended, it was a relatively unknown racer by the name of Norman “Bubby” Jones in victory lane collecting the kisses, trophy and first prize money of $9,000.

Jones, a barber from Danville, Ill., started the race in the third position behind Bigelow and Pancho Carter. Bigelow led the first 20 laps of the race plagued by two accidents. Carter led for 26 laps. The fourth fastest qualifier Joe Saldana led for 12 laps and Jones led for the final 32 miles.

Bigelow, driving the Leader Card Racer, was sailing along with a sizeable lead over runner-up Carter when the race was stopped on the 15th lap because of an accident involving Sleepy Tripp and Jackie Howerton.

Tripp’s car went over the turn three wall and it took about a half hour to repair the damage to the guard rail. Neither Tripp nor Howerton was injured.

Carter managed to stay with Bigelow on the restart and then passed him six laps later. Pancho sailed along in fine fashion for 20 laps. Then he caught the cars at the back of the pack, got in heavy traffic and collided with Roy Hicks. The accident occurred in the same third turn as the first collision. Both cars were heavily damaged but neither driver was injured.

Again, the race was stopped and again it took workers about a half hour to get the track in shape for the restart.

With Carter out of the race, Bigelow, who was running second at the time the race was halted, should have been at the head of the field when the cars pulled back out of the pits. But Bigelow couldn’t get his car started until a lap later after the restart.

That gave Joe Saldana the lead with Jones second and Larry Dickson third. Saldana led laps 47 through 58. He made a pit stop on the 59th lap that allowed Jones to take the lead.

Jones was hard-pressed by Dixon for the remainder of the way but never relinquished the lead.

Veteran USAC driver Jim McElreath finished third while newlywed Larry Rice was fourth and Johnny Parsons was fifth.

Parsons drove a brilliant race. He started 23rd in a field of 24. He got up to third place in the late stages of the race but dropped to fifth after his engine started acting up.


Results –

 

 
1. Bubby Jones
2. Larry Dickson
3. Jim McElreath
4. Larry Rice
5. Johnny Parson
6. Jim Hurtubise
7. James McElreath
8. Bill Cassella
9. Jerry Miller
10. Ronnie Burke
11. Clark Templeman
12. Joe Saldana
13. Tom Bigelow
14. Bobby Olivero
15. Sheldon Kinser
16. Chuck Gurney
17. George Snider
18. Gary Irvin
19. Pancho Carter
20. Jan Opperman
21. Roy Hicks
22. Jackie Howerton
23. Sleepy Tripp
24. Dana Carter

1961 – Hutcherson – Folse - Derr top Minnesota State Fair races

St. Paul, Minn. (August 28 - 31, 1961) – Dick Hutcherson, a 29-year-old construction company owner from Keokuk, Iowa, nosed out Ernie Derr, also of Keokuk, to win the 100-lap IMCA new model stock car race at the Minnesota State Fair on Monday afternoon, August 28. Hutcherson beat Derr to the finish line by less than 30 yards and set a new track record for 50 miles by touring the half-mile in 46 minutes and 44.39 seconds beating the old mark (47:44.96) set by Johnny Beauchamp in 1956.

Hutcherson wheeled a 1961 Ford while Derr piloted a ’61 Pontiac. Hometowner Harold “Buzz” McCann finished third, more than a lap behind the two leaders while Beauchamp, driving a 1960 Ford finished fourth and Oelwein, Iowa’s Chub Liebe (’61 Ford) took fifth.

On Tuesday, August 29th, defending IMCA national sprint car champion Pete Folse of Tampa, Fla., outran a 14-car field to win the 20-lap feature. Folse charged out front on the first lap and held the lead all the way to the $850 first prize.

Russ Long of Yupica, Calif., driving the Hansen Chevrolet, took second but had to stave off challenge after challenge by Jim McElreath of Arlington, Tex., in Dizz Wilson’s Offy. Finishing right on McElreath’s bumper was Johnny White of Warren, Mich., in the Ernie Johnson Offy.

Jumping into the lead on the first lap, Folse scored his second straight “big car” feature win the following day, August 30. The husky little fellow from Florida was behind the wheel of Hector Honore’s #2 Offy.

Jim McElreath started to whittle away at Folse’s big lead until a blown tire knocked him out of action on the 22nd lap.

Ernie Derr, the defending IMCA stock car national champion, gunned his ’61 Pontiac to a win in the 200-lap feature on Thursday afternoon, August 31. Derr, who won the same event in 1960, set a new track record traveling the distance in 1 hour, 36 minutes and 51.92 seconds erasing the old mark (1:38:53.57) set by Johnny Beauchamp in 1956.

Lennie Funk of Otis, Kan., took the early lead in the race and held it on lap 23 when engine trouble sent Funk to the sidelines. Chub Liebe of Oelwein, Iowa inherited the point and then had the inevitable task of holding off Derr, which he did until his motor let go on the 37th circuit. Derr took over at the point and never looked back in winning.

Mert Williams of Rochester, Minn., Eddie Harrow of Corpus Christi, Tex., Bob Reynolds of Edmond, Okla., and Ole Brua of Albert Lea, Minn., rounded out the top five.

August 27, 1972

This Week in Racing History

2000 – Scott Bloomquist of Mooresburg, Tenn., swept the United Dirt Track Racing Association Hav-A-Tampa dirt late model “Hawkeye Tour” with a victory in the 60-lap main at West Liberty (Iowa) Raceway on August 24. The only driver to challenge Bloomquist was home track hero Steve Boley of West Liberty who passed Bloomquist for the lead on lap 2 but fell out of contention on lap 16 with a cut tire. Bloomquist put his car on the point for the restart and then cruised to his seventh series win of the year. Brian Birkhofer of Muscatine, Iowa, came back from a car-destroying flip the night before in Corning, Iowa, to finish second. Birkhofer ran the high line on his home track but was unable to challenge the low riding Bloomquist for the $10,000 payoff. Point leader Steve Francis of Ashland, Ky., rallied to take third, Gary Webb of Blue Grass, Iowa finished fourth and Wendell Wallace of Batesville, Ark., took fifth.

1990 – Defending ARCA Super Car Series champion Bob Keselowski notched his first victory of the season in the Snap-On Tools 125 a Toledo (Ohio) Speedway on Sunday night, August 26. Bob Strait appeared to be the class of the field early as he paced the first 31 laps before blowing an engine and spinning in turns three and four. Jerry Cook inherited the lead and dominated the action until lap 94 when a collision with an errant wheel from Scott Stovall’s car produced an oil leak in Cook’s engine. Keselowski picked up where Cook left off and led the rest of the race to take the checkered by a comfortable seven-second margin. Chris Gehrke finished second on the same laps. John Wyman took third, one lap back, and Bill Venturini and Bob Brevak rounded out the top five, two laps back behind the winner. Keselowski collected $6,070 for the win as he averaged 76.923 miles per hour. Only nine of the 18 cars were running at the finish.

1984 – Marvin Carman outdistanced Dave Blaney to win the Coca-Cola 200 USAC Silver Crown event on Friday, August 24, at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds in Falcon Heights. Fast qualifier Rich Vogler jumped into the lead on the opening green flag and despite multiple cautions, stayed out front until lap 118. After a restart, George Snider worked his way into the top spot when Vogler began to slow with engine problems, eventually forcing him to retire for good. Snider maintained a fast pace until lap 148 when Carman reeled him in and took over the lead. Carman sustained a good groove throughout the remainder of the event and won by a comfortable margin at the checkers. Blaney, Tom Bigelow, Gary Bettenhausen and Ken Schrader were the top five finishers.

 
1979 – Bill Vukovich scored his first career USAC Championship Dirt Series win in the Ted Horn Memorial 100 at the Du Quoin (Ill.) State Fairgrounds on Sunday afternoon, August 26. In addition to scoring his first-ever win, Vukovich also surpassed Bobby Olivero in the circuit’s point standings 230 to 203. Vukovich opened Sunday’s show by setting fast time in qualifications, with a 32.72 second (110.024 mph) lap around the mile oval to earn the pole position. Front row starter Steve Chassey got the jump on Vukovich and was able to lead the first circuit before Vukovich took over on the second mile and led the way until lap 49 when Billy Cassella took over. Cassella continued to dominate through lap 78, but a gearbox problem forced the former USAC champion to the infield. That returned first place to Vukovich who never relinquished first place and went on to take the checkers about seven seconds ahead of Bill Puterbaugh. Larry Dickson, Larry Rice and Bill Engelhart rounded out the top five. Vukovich’s first career win earned him a Du Quoin record $7,952.

1968 - Andy Hampton Triumphs in 2nd Annual Redbud 500

Andy Hampton

Anderson, Ind. (August 24, 1968) - Andy Hampton of Louisville, Ky., driving with a broken axle for the last 24 laps, won the second annual Redbud 500 new car race at Sun Valley Speedway on Saturday.

A six-lap lead that Hampton had acquired over young Bennie Parsons of Detroit stood the Louisville veteran in good shape. When Hampton’s axle gave way on his ‘67 Dodge Charger, Parsons, in a ’68 Ford, started cutting the lead down. Parsons ran out of laps in which to catch Hampton’s red and white #2 Charger, though, and settled for second place.

Bill Clemons of New Albany, Ind., driving a ‘68 Ford, finished third in the 500-lap event. Iggy Katona of Willis, Mich., failed in his try for a second straight Redbud victory. Katona was running third in his Charger when mechanical trouble forced him out of the race on lap 155.

Hampton and Parsons dueled throughout most of the race. Hampton, who had started in third spot in the 34-car field, last acquired the lead on lap 361, taking over from Parsons.

Parsons had jumped in front from his second starting spot on lap one, and lost the lead to Les Snow of Bloomington, Ill., on lap 6. When Snow’s car hit the wall on the 26th lap, the lead was taken by Jesse Baird of Louisville.

Parsons had it back by lap 137 and held it until lap 302 when he had to pit for 12 laps with a cut tire. That was when Hampton first took over from the Detroit driver. On lap 355, Hampton pitted and Parsons took over the lead again. Hampton got out of the pits quickly and six laps later, was back in the lead. By lap 450, Hampton had a six-lap advantage over Parsons’ yellow #98 car.

Results -
1. Andy Hampton
2. Benny Parsons
3. Bill Clemons
4. Paul Wensink
5. Namon Martin
6. Iggy Katona
7. Les Snow
8. Jesse Baird

August 23, 1963