Historical: $ Million$ in Jaguars on a stock car track

 

Looking like the fleet of Jaguars had been attacked with baseball bats from nose to tail, TWR USA honored its word and performed miracles — once more, the first of many — to return the big cats to IRP for the second event in functional condition.LINGNER: Now they just went to work. As again, for anybody that’s listening that even remotely knows Tony [Dowe], he is relentless and a brilliant man, not always the most fun to be around, but a lot of times the brilliant guys aren’t. But he was same deal. It’s like we made this deal, we’ve made the commitment to the Jaguar board.DOWE: Don’t forget all the panels were aluminum. There was no [carbon fiber] composites anywhere. There was some large areas of aluminum panels. We had zero spares, so we were beating them out. The ones that finished up were 50-percent Bondo in them… They were aluminum-Bondo composite…Although it was Lingner’s series in every way, a sanctioning body was still needed to officiate the Fast Masters. USAC — the United States Auto Club, whose stewardship included decades of facilitating the Indy 500, and sprint and midget short-track oval racing that normally featured at IRP, was hired to govern Lingner’s events.USAC boss Johnny Capels, who hailed from New Mexico like Uncle Bobby, and spent plenty of time around Unser as a mechanic on the Indy car trail, had become a target. Fears of the made-for-TV racing series being artificially manipulated by Capels to amuse ESPN’s audience continue to draw the Albuquerque native’s ire.UNSER: I told [Capels] what the rules were going to be for the drivers, that means for me, in the race. If you don’t like the way I start the race, we’ll run ‘em until we run out of gas. So I told Capels off. I know what Johnny was going to try and do. He thinks all of a sudden he’s a big shot. He’s gonna sit up there and dial it like NASCAR; ‘time for a NASCAR yellow. Boom.’ They did the same thing.Despite his reservations for Capels and USAC, Uncle Bobby sailed through his heat races and faced off against Follmer, who earned pole, Pearson, Redman, Hobbs, and Jones in the six-driver, 12-lap finale. Starting outside Follmer on the front row, Unser put USAC’s officials through one hell of a stress test on the way to visiting the rebuilt victory lane.UNSER: I just got meaner and worse. I did my tricks worse, and harder. And you’d think Capels would learn, and I’m not going for it. I told Lingner that. I don’t like fixed things. NASCAR was always good to me, but I don’t like the concept of NASCAR yellows.With his lead over Follmer erased, Uncle Bobby got his revenge.UNSER: So when the green does come out, man, I walked them so g**damn bad. I got everything back that they took away from me and went on won the race. If it’s gonna make it a television thing, I’m gonna make sure they see what’s going on. And they didn’t like it. It’s Capels. He knows what he wants, and he wants it to be real close. Pardon my French, but close my ass! A hundred thousand bucks for winning it!Fully aware the XJ220Cs were in their final race, Unser didn’t mind leaving Dowe’s team some work to do in the weeks that followed.UNSER: That Follmer and I had a knock-down drag-out [fight], because first place, George is really good, and he really understands that type of deal and the cars ended up handling really well on that track. [But] we used those cars really hard.We’re out there doing our pace laps, Follmer is alongside of me. I just ran my car over one time, scraped the whole mirror off. I mean, really messed up the right side of the car. I just run my car right down the side of his, took off his rear mirror and everything. And what was that for? That was to show him I’m serious. Hey, I’m here. You know, this is going to be a terrible battle. This is what this is about.Talked to George later, who’s obviously a good friend. I didn’t hurt the car that much. But the mirror, I know how much that mirror cost, but I’ll guarantee it cost a bunch. But that’s the way I did all the guys there. It was just going to be a hell of a battle, so get ready.LINGNER: Bobby showed how good he was, but I mean Parnelli was in. Brian Redman, David Hobbs. I mean, there was nobody that skated into the final. Parnelli, if I already said him. People may not know this, but Parnelli broke a rib, and Hobbs was trying to go down underneath in [Turns] 3 and 4 and push Parnelli up, and he hit a lot harder than when we first realized, but man, they were really good. Obviously, all the other people in the final accused Bobby of trying to work Tony Dowe and getting the good car…With inflation factored in, taking the Fast Masters title paid more than the upcoming winner of January’s Rolex 24 At Daytona, or the polesitter for May’s Indy 500 will earn.LINGNER: I mean, we had $100,000 in cash afterwards, and Bobby was very happy to receive that. But yeah, as I say, I think some people may have questioned some of the people we invited, but ultimately, what I thought about, is that the guys that were really good, that had a lot of wins, still made it to the final.UNSER: That’s a lot of money. Poor Follmer, he got knocked out, and I happen to know how bad George needed the money. I felt sorry for him, but I don’t really feel sorry for him. Looking back 25 years Later, Lingner is still amazed his wild idea actually came to life.LINGNER: I just think, honestly, the circumstances were so unique to be able to pull this off. I think we extended the [broadcast] air window by like a half hour is all [we needed] to accomplish this. Because again, if people remember, we’re running either with Sprints or Midgets as well. How much further than a USAC Midget can you get from than a super car?It was just so ironic. It was so unique. I don’t think anybody thought we were going to go do this year after year. It almost didn’t [survive for Race 2]. It was pretty hairy after the first one…