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Tying some racing history together
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Jerry Sneva, 1949-2018

Monday, 29 January 2018


Robin Miller / Images by IMS archive



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ABOVE: Jerry Sneva (right) and Larry Rice (middle) being honored at the 1978 Indianapolis 500 Last Row Party by a clean-shaven Robin Miller (left).


He was usually referred to as Tom Sneva's younger brother and got the hand-me-downs most of his racing life, but nobody drove any harder or was any braver than Jerry Sneva.
The 1977 Indianapolis 500 rookie-of-the-year, who died suddenly over the weekend at the age of 68, only made 28 IndyCar starts from 1977-82 and never had anything resembling a top-shelf ride, yet managed to qualify for five Indy 500s and impress the competitors with his racecraft.


A standout on the CAMRA modified circuit and part of the fast family that included Jan, Blaine, Babe and the 1983 Indy winner, Jerry first came to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1976 when Tom found him a car to take his rookie test. It was a homemade chassis that looked dangerous sitting still and he quickly abandoned that to take over a three-year-old Kingfish, but crashed trying to get up to speed.
The following May he showed his savvy by sticking a five-year-old McLaren into Row 4 and finished 10th to earn his rookie award.
But his best drives didn't show in his results.
In 1979, NASCAR regular Neil Bonnett dumped his AMC/Spirit ride in May to go drive for the Wood brothers, and Jerry stepped in to replace him. With very little practice he promptly put it in the show, but not without some drama.


His throttle stuck on his first lap so he headed for the grass and used up all the track going into Turn 1. He somehow made it without crashing so that's how he negotiated all four laps and made the show.
"I told the crew they wouldn't be able to take the nose off for tech inspection because the throttle pedal was jammed in it and they all laughed," recalled Sneva many years later. "I was chugging beers after that and then they came in all wide-eyed and said I was telling the truth."
His finest moment at Indy came in 1980 when he qualified fifth fastest in a two-year-old Lola (pictured above) that drew praise from its former owner Jim Hall, who said Al Unser had hated that car. In the race, Sneva ran among the leaders until pounding the wall in Turn 1.
Yet nothing sums up his racing luck like 1981. Driving a three-year-old Vollstedt-Offy for all it was worth in the new era of ground effects, he was the last qualifier on the fourth day and bumped Jerry Karl. But a member of his crew had jammed a bolt into the waste-gate to give the car more power and when he pulled it out after Jerry's run, a few eyewitnesses told USAC officials. There was a 90-minute protest hearing and Sneva was disqualified – with Karl reinstated.


He qualified for his final Indy 500 in 1982 and made what turned out to be his last IndyCar start at Michigan that fall.
In 1983, Sneva returned to IMS with a car that would not handle. He crashed at 5:57 p.m. on a practice day, the car was fixed overnight and he hit the wall again shortly after 11 a.m. the next morning.
"It's a new track record for the two fastest crashes ever," joked the likeable veteran following his adventure. "My crew chief keeps telling me there's an invisible 200mph barrier that I've got to drive through and I keep telling him there's nothing invisible about that wall in Turn 1."
When the car was repaired again, Sneva got in and the throttle stuck as the engine was fired up. He hit the kill switch and nothing happened so they finally stuffed a few rags into the injectors to kill the power. "Giles," (his middle name) calmly climbed out of the car, took off his helmet and headed for lunch. He returned, got back in the car and made one more lap at 40mph before retiring on the spot.


"They've been trying to kill me all month and that's enough," he said.
His best-ever finish was a fourth at Pocono but Giles always got high marks from his fellow drivers.
"Jerry was very underrated as a racer and never got to drive the best equipment but he was damn good," said Bill Vukovich, one of his best friends. "A great guy and a good racer."


Sneva is survived by his wife of 35 years, Kathy, his daughter Shelby and son Trevor and there will be no public services.

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Tough Guys - Bill Cheesbourg
This is a remarkable Video!
Monday, 05 February 2018

Robin Miller
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfoUY7KoCfI

He holds the record for the most cars passed on the first lap of the Indianapolis 500 and soldiered home 10th once in the Novi but Bill Cheesbourg will best be remembered as a skilled journeyman driver who would give anything with four wheels a try.
'Cheese' competed six times at Indy from 1957-65 with his best finish of 10th in 1958 in Andy Granatelli's Novi, despite being involved in the multi-car, first-lap accident that wound up breaking his sway bar. He began his Indy career the year before at age 30 and overcame the emotional trauma of losing his 2-year-old son to a reaction from penicillin and came back to qualify for his first race.

He started 30th in 1959 but wasn't there for long as he swept past 17 cars on the opening lap and got all the way into the top 5 before losing a magneto.


Bill's best ride came in 1961 when he drove the Dean Van Lines Special for Clint Brawner and qualified ninth but was eliminated in a crash. His final start came in 1965 and after missing the show with a couple of clunkers in 1966, he went back to his home in Tuscon and began racing stock cars – winning a feature when he was 73 years old. He died in 1995 at age 86.

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Robin Miller's Tough Guys - Bentley Warren

Monday, 19 February 2018


Robin Miller


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https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_c...&v=_BIW6INvMuM

Bentley Warren only competed twice in the Indianapolis 500 but we'll always wonder what might have been if he hadn't been hurt in 1971.
A star at Oswego in the big-block modifieds in the late '60s, Warren caught the eye of owner Tassi Vatis and his chief mechanic Bill Finley and they brought the native of Glouchester, Mass. to Indianapolis in 1970. He got bumped on the final day of time trials but immediately impressed everyone by finishing sixth at Langhorne and fourth at Milwaukee.
In 1971, he was badly burned in the IndyCar race at Argentina while battling Lloyd Ruby for third place but recovered in time to qualify 15th for the Indianapolis 500 (pictured) and was moving up before being KO'd by a mechanical failure.
But, just as people were really starting to acknowledge his ability, Warren suffered gruesome injuries in a July sprint-car accident in Dayton. Both legs and feet were broken and they talked of amputating his right foot. He spent three months in the hospital and suddenly he wasn't on anyone's radar.
Bentley tried running his own low-buck team in 1972 and '73 but had no chance and finally qualified again at Indy in 1975. From that point he concentrated on Oswego where he was a six-time champion, in addition to winning the Little 500 when he was 57 years old. He won his first race at Oswego in 1966 and his last one in 2006 at the age of 66.

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Larry Dickson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_c...&v=cZXiEzJb5Zg

In the late 1960s and early '70s there was no better measure of a race driver than how he performed in USAC's sprint division and nobody performed better than Larry Dickson.

"Lightning Larry" scored 45 victories and three championships in a seven-year span that was highlighted by his rivalry with Gary Bettenhausen.
USAC became the Larry & Gary Show as they swapped the title four times in four years from 1969-72 and packed the house from Terre Haute to Reading to Winchester. It also became known as the Thunder (Bettenhausen) and Lightning (Dickson) division.
Dickson made eight starts in the Indianapolis 500 but only finished once (ninth in 1969) as he was plagued by mechanical trouble and less than top notch equipment until Russ Polak bought him a McLaren chassis in 1978 and he qualified ninth.
Now 79, Dickson resides in Indianapolis where he continues to refurbish houses.

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TR's new format is not cooperating with separate videos, darn it!

senor honda

Tying some racing history together
See last post in thread:
See it before it goes away.

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A Tribute to Dan Gurney
https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/a...can-racer.html

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[h=2]Foyt recovering after another killer bee attack[/h] Thursday, 15 March 2018


Robin Miller / Image courtesy of A.J. Foyt Racing


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He mastered the treachery of Langhorne, nearly suffocated at Riverside, got burned badly at Milwaukee, survived a blood clot in Michigan and came back from devastating foot and knee injuries at Road America.

But A.J. Foyt's great escapes in race cars almost seem tame compared to his battles with killer bees.
The first four-time Indy 500 winner is recovering at home in Houston after being savagely attacked on Wednesday at his ranch in Texas. He was repeatedly stung in the face, eyes and neck, but managed to find shelter and survived.
For those of you scoring at home, it's either the 29th or 30th time the 83-year-old legend has dodged death.
"It was scary, I won't lie," Foyt told RACER on Thursday evening while sitting in his race shop in Waller, Texas. "I pushed down a tree with my bulldozer and thought I saw a bunch of honey bees, but they weren't.
"So I threw it in reverse and got away from them. At least I thought I did. I got off the dozer and had about a block to walk to my truck when they came swarming down on me.
"I started running and made it to my truck and I got the windows down going about 60 mph trying to keep them off my face but they're stinging my eyes and my neck, and I'm glad I had a jacket on."
He slammed on the brakes, ran into the ranch house and turned on the cold water. "I stuck my face in ice water because it was burning and it felt like about 500 degrees," he exclaimed.
"I was lucky because those bees sting you until you quit breathing."
He went to the hospital, where his blood pressure was 260 over 116 and the doctors were worried because this was the second encounter IndyCar's all-time winner has had with these Africanized bees (he was attacked in 2005).
This attack was worse, but he was stabilized and out of the hospital by Thursday afternoon. Then he got revenge.
"They sent my airplane for me but I told them I wasn't going home until I killed those bees," he said. "We got 15 gallons of diesel fuel and dropped it and set those bastards on fire. I felt a lot better after that."
Besides his pain and facial decorations ("I look like I fought Mike Tyson and lost"), the other tough part of this latest drama is that he won't be able to go to Sebring this weekend and be the grand marshal or be inducted into the Hall of Fame on Friday night.
"I feel bad about that but they've got me on a lot of medication and I don't really feel up to traveling," said the American racing icon. "It's been a tough couple days and I need to rest."
Just another chapter of great escapes from what has to be one of the toughest men alive



















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