1965 – Derr and Stott cars roll again

Des Moines, Iowa (April 30, 1965) – Those Plymouths which Ramo Stott and Ernie Derr used last year to chase Dick Hutcherson to the International Motor Contest Association stock car title are operating again this season, but with different drivers.

Lewis Taylor of Shawnee, Kan., has Derr’s 1964 hemi-hummer and Blaine Morrow of Joy, Ill., is behind the wheel of Ramo's car. Both will be driving against the former owners in the Hawkeye 200 at Knoxville this weekend. Morrow finished fourth behind Derr in the Pelican 200 at Shreveport, La., on April 4th. Taylor finished 15th in the same race. Derr is now driving a 1965 Dodge and Ramo is back in a current model Plymouth.

After the Knoxville race, the IMCA late model drivers will start preparing for the Iowa 300 at the Iowa Fairgrounds May 23 and the Gopher 300 at St. Paul, Minn., on June 13.

Since Don White, United States Auto Club stock car driver, has indicated he won't drive at Knoxville this week, IMCA promoters hope he will use two of his remaining three temporary permits to run in the 300’s.

We can expect from a new field of contenders in the sprint car division comes May 15 in the qualifying trials for the Little 500 at Anderson, Ind. Former champion Jerry Richert, runner-up Jim McCune, Jerry Daniels, Jay Woodside and Greg Weld are all running USAC now. Weld already has a ride in the Indianapolis 500 in Wally Wier's Mobil Oil Special and a year's contract. Richert or Daniels may get to run a new rear-engine Hallibrand in the same race.

“We’ll have plenty of drivers,” predicted Gene Van Winkle, vice-president of National Speedways, who opened that organization’s headquarters tent at the Iowa Fairgrounds this week. Gene will supervise the Iowa 300. Al Sweeney, president, is presiding over the Little 500 and other sprints on asphalt tracks in Indiana and Ohio next month.

Darrell Dake of Cedar Rapids, who is in the Mid-Continent stock car race Saturday night at Hawkeye Downs Speedway, will be in his 1962 Ford as usual. Dake said he had made no changes, commenting, “I outran all of them last year, so I think I’ll just give it a good wash job.”

In a practice session on the newly-lighted half-mile oval, Waterloo’s Red Droste reportedly beat Bill Zwanziger in a $400 10-lap winner take all affair in his new 327 Chevy engine.

Marion Robinson is hiking the price of his claim stocks from $150 to $300 in order to get a better looking class of cars running on both the Oskaloosa half-mile and the Newton quarter-mile this season.