Jerry Blundy of Galesburg, Ill., would race to victory through the muck and mud, collecting a $590 payday for his efforts. The 40-year-old air conditioning engineer beat Jim Moughan and Chuck Lynch, both of Springfield, Ill. Blundy, who started in the front row alongside Moughan, headed his Illinois rivals by five car lengths most of the way in an accident-free race. The remainder of the field was a quarter mile or more back from the familiar # 33 red Chevy.
Bill Puterbaugh of Roxana, Ill., was a surprise in fourth place. He qualified badly and did not place in any of the preliminary heats. But he managed to slip into the last row of the field for the 30-lap feature as the alternate.
Blundy was something of a surprise himself, turning in a dominating performance despite the track conditions. He set fast time in qualifying (27.39 seconds) and then wheeled to a track and Futurity record of 12 minutes and 53 seconds in the 30-lap main event. Since it was the first time the 15-mile feature had gone without a yellow flag, the time was well under the 14 minute and 54 second time set by Johnny White in the ’63 race.
White, was in the pits on that Sunday afternoon but as a car owner. Paralyzed from the neck down as a result of a 1964 race crash, White’s luck wasn’t much in his debut as owner. His Offenhauser-powered rig was piloted by Jay Woodside of Topeka, Kan. Woodside would make the big show but exit early with a blown piston.
The highly anticipated duel between IMCA point leader and defending national champion Jerry Richert of Forest Lake, Minn., and his rival Rollie Beale of Toledo, Ohio would never materialize as planned. Beale, the recent winner of the Little 500, went to the sidelines with his Kenny Lay-Don Harrell Chevrolet on lap 18 and Richert was forced out on the twenty-fifth lap with overheated engine as a result of a mud-clogged radiator.
The Black Deuce had more years on it that the Hawkeye Futurity did itself. The famous car was introduced in 1952 and the first Futurity took place in 1955. It was considered practically an antique among the current sprint cars competing then. Once it got ahead of a field of cars, though, there was no catching the old buggy that was the pride and joy of Hector Honore.
When Honore and his sprint car pulled into the state fairgrounds on June 4, 1967, the car had seen victory lane over 400 times in its career. Honore believed it had a few more wins left in it. He believed that Jim Moughan, the runner-up in the '66 Futurity, was the guy who could get one in the Hawkeye Futurity. Honore was correct on both accounts.
Jim Moughan of Springfield, Ill., took Hector Honore's Bardahl Special for one last victory lap, winning the 1967 Hawkeye Futurity. - Bob Mays Collection
Despite a broken front axle and more yellow caution lights than you’d see on an Interstate 80 detour, Moughan took the Black Deuce to a hard-fought victory in the 11th annual Hawkeye Futurity.
Moughan, a 37-year-old interior decorator, toured the 30 sunbaked laps in 15 minutes and 39 seconds. The defending champion, Jerry Blundy, was a close runner-up. Or, as Moughan put it later, “I could hear him coming. That was a lot of competition behind me.”
A crowd of 6,600 watched the program in ideal weather, which was a real switch compared to the last couple of years. Des Moines Register sportswriter Ron Maly said it best, “It had rained so much in previous Futurity races that folks were wondering if anyone would know how to drive on a dry track.”
Moughan got off to a great start, touring the half mile in 23.95 seconds, but things turned from sweet to sour in a hurry. The Black Deuce’s front axle broke after the qualifying run, and no one was quite sure if repairs could be done in time. Moughan, in fact, was so uncertain that he borrowed a car from Bill Myers of East Alton, Ill., and attempted to qualify that, which he did in the time of 24.85 seconds.
Moughan’s pit crew, headed by the tireless Honore, sprang into action when the Black Deuce limped in. The axle was replaced in about an hour and Moughan had it back in time to race in the second heat. He finished seventh in the eight-car race. The four-car match race was next for Moughan – and he managed a second place showing behind Blundy, but in the 10-lap consolation, Moughan took the win over Blundy.
Now he was ready…
Starting on the front row alongside fast qualifier Tom Custer of Rock Island, Ill., Moughan waited patiently while two first-lap spinouts delayed the feature and then shot into first place, never letting it go after that. Another spin on the thirteenth lap caused the yellow to light up again, but if anybody hoped to stop Moughan from winning by then he’d have needed a stop light and a police escort.
Ray Lee Goodwin of Kansas City, Tom Corbin of Carrollton, Mo., and Lee Kunzman of Guttenberg, Iowa would follow Moughan and Blundy across the finish line.
It was the fifth career Hawkeye Futurity victory by the Black Deuce. Pete Folse and Bobby Grim had steered it to 2 victories apiece and now Moughan grabbed one for the thumb. Honore’s car had now posted 426 feature victories, 746 heat race triumphs and has been responsible for 201 track records.
After two successful Hawkeye Futurity’s, the event would come to a standstill once again. The race, scheduled for June 9, 1968, became a dark mark on the IMCA’s calendar of events with the untimely assassination of Robert Kennedy that shocked the nation. The Futurity was cancelled, and rightly so, when newly appointed President Lyndon Johnson declared a day of mourning.
Part of a grand old lady returned to haunt the Hawkeye Futurity on Sunday, June 8, 1969.
Jan Opperman of Hayward, Calif., won the 30-lap feature before an estimated crowd of 5,500. His Chevrolet - powered sprint car had the frame of the machine the late Bob Slater drove in winning the 1954 International Motor Contest Association championship. It was also the same frame on the sprinter that he was killed in during the 1955 Hawkeye Futurity.
Opperman, 29, led all the way in the feature and pocketed $500 for winning the feature. Second place, worth $400, went to Dick Sutcliffe of Kansas City, Mo.; Jay Woodside, also of Kansas City, finished third; Roy Bryant of Wichita, Kan., was fourth, and Bill Utz of Sedalia, Mo., took fifth.
Jan Opperman accepts his trophy from Iowa State Fair President Kenneth Fulk after winning the 1969 Hawkeye Futurity. Car owner Bill "Speedy" Smith looks on with approval.
Still, Opperman was never in danger of being passed. He mentioned after the race that the softer tires gave him a better bite than the regular tires.
There were few changes in the 30-lap feature until the last five laps. Jerry Blundy of Galesburg, Ill., Earl Wagner of Pleasantville, Iowa and Kenny Gritz of Lincoln, Neb., all saw their chances to finish in the top five end within that brief period. Blundy was running fifth and Wagner was fourth when Blundy tried to pass going into the third turn on lap 28. Blundy apparently lost control and hit Wagner. Blundy rammed into the wall and both cars were eliminated.
Gritz was a surprise performer. He qualified fourth fastest, finished second in the match race for the six fastest cars, and started the feature in the second row. He was in second place until Sutcliffe and Woodside passed him on the twelfth lap. He was still in fourth place when he spun out on the twenty-fifth lap.
Unfortunately for Gritz, it would be the last Hawkeye Futurity he would ever compete in. Two months later, Gritz would win the Knoxville Super-Modified National Championships at the Marion County Fairgrounds, then a couple of weeks later, lose his life in a race-related accident at the Nebraska State Championships in Lincoln.
Jerry Richert of Forest Lake, Minn., erected a one-half lap lead in the early stages of the Hawkeye Futurity sprint-car feature on June 7, 1970, and it would turn out to be a good thing.
Just after he took the white flag, Richert’s engine went sour and to the estimated 5,200 fans in attendance, it appeared he wouldn’t make the checkered flag. But Jerry nursed the Chevrolet-powered racer along and won the 30-lap event by approximately 150 yards over Dick Sutcliffe.
The victory was worth $500 for Richert, who missed most of last season while recuperating from chest surgery and to that point in the ’70 season, had won only one other feature: at the Florida State Fair in February.
After years of trying, Minnesota's Jerry Richert would finally win the Hawkeye Futurity in 1970. - Bob Mays Collection
Richert, the four-time International Motor Contest Association champion was in tears as his family gathered around to congratulate him. The kisses from his wife and two young daughters were probably more appreciative to Richert than that of the speed queen in victory lane.
Richert also received $100 for his qualifying run, $50 for winning his heat and $15 for the trophy dash position. Sutcliffe was paid $400 in the feature, third-place finisher Jay Woodside took home $300, Jerry Blundy $200, and Eddie Leavitt $150.
Blundy made several attempts to pass Woodside for second place, who was driving a car owned by Hank Smith of Mount Ayr, Iowa but the IMCA point leader was unable to accomplish the feat.
Richert, who had things his going his way most of the afternoon, said he didn’t know what happened to the engine. “The temperature started rising about midway in the race,” he said. “Then, just after I took the white flag, it started missing. It may have been the magneto.”
Richert was the fastest qualifier with a 24.12 second clocking around the half mile. He easily won his 10-lapheat race after starting last in the field He also started last in the five-lap trophy dash, an event for the six fastest cars, and finished second. He started in the third row of the feature.
The track condition was dry-slick and under those circumstances, there was little passing and few changes in the top five after the first lap. However, Dave Ross of Jetmore, Kan., was not content to sit back. He put on an excellent driving performance, starting back in the eighth row and finishing in sixth place.
The last hurrah for Hawkeye Futurity would come on Sunday evening, May 30, 1971. The grand race, however, would not be at the historic State Fairgrounds this year but two hours East at Hawkeye Downs Speedway in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
And while the crowd was a disappointing (2,299 paid) for the sprint car classic, few could have been disappointed in the racing itself.
Earl Wagner, the “Pleasantville Plumber”, and Jerry Blundy, the defending IMCA national champion, had everybody on their feet as they raced wheel to wheel in a fierce duel for the final 10 laps on the half-mile dirt oval.
Wagner, piloting a new Chevrolet-powered sprint, won by a car length and in the process established an IMCA world record of 11 minutes and 46 seconds over the 15-mile distance. The old mark of 12 minutes and 25 seconds was set by Pete Folse and his Offenhauser at Kansas City in 1961.
Earl led all the way, but by the 15th tour it was a three-car battle including Dick Sutcliffe of Kansas City and Blundy of Galesburg, Ill. Sutcliffe was forced to drop back on the 18th lap after peeling a right rear tire. Then Wagner and Blundy went at it.
Several times Blundy went low going into the first turn and actually was even with Wagner coming out of two, but Earl had the groove and couldn’t be pulled from it.
“Yes, I'm a full-time plumber; I just have to take time to go racing," remarked Earl Wagner after winning the very last Hawkeye Futurity in 1971 at Cedar Rapids, Iowa. - Bob Mays Collection
“That Jerry sure was pushing me,” drawled Wagner, “and I want to tell you I was getting super tired.”
“I've only been in the car four or five times, and I've had trouble getting used to it. It just didn’t fit me. They’ve really worked hard on it and tonight it was great.”
“It’s not that the car was bad before - it just didn’t feel good to me. So tonight, we changed the rear shocks and jacked some weight around and that did the job.”
Wagner, who also won the second heat, pocketed $500 for his efforts in the feature, while Blundy earned $400. Sutcliffe had to settle for eighth in the feature. But he did win the trophy dash and the third heat and set fast time in qualifying with a 22.26 second clocking.
Dick Forbrook of Morgan, Minn., won the first heat and Dick Jones of Whitewater, Wis., topped the consolation. The seven-event program was accident free.
The Iowa State Fairgrounds was the stage; names like Larson, Grim, Folse, Blundy, Opperman and Richert were the artists. For 15 years they created excitement, drama, tragedy, thrills, and sheer brilliance. The Hawkeye Futurity was an act like no other.
Bravo…
Special thanks to Bob Mays and Lee Ackerman in writing this story - Kyle Ealy
