Johnny Rutherford
St. Paul, Minn. (August 28, 1965) – Seventeen blood-thirsty sprint cars pursued a mechanical rabbit in the 30-lap feature race at the Minnesota State Fair on Saturday afternoon. Their chase around the half-mile oval ended, of course, in frustration.
The rabbit stole the show and took home the $1,250 top prize before 15,560 customers, shivering in the sunny, but 60-degree weather.
The rabbit – known in racing circles as Johnny Rutherford – started on the pole positions and led all the way, setting a new track record for 30 laps – 10 minutes and 21.65 seconds.
The hottest of the hounds after Rutherford, who was driving a Chevy racing conversion, was Don Branson of Champaign, Ill., the United States Auto Club’s defending national sprint car champion.
“I felt him breathing down my neck until the 20th lap,” Rutherford said.
Branson, driving the only Offenhauser in the field of 18, was nuzzling Rutherford’s rear tires for 20 years. Then his right rear tire began to blister, and Rutherford had the race to himself, finishing one-half lap ahead of Branson.
A.J. Foyt, two-time Indianapolis 500 winner, gave a gallant try and finished third – barely. Foyt’s right rear tire had begun to blister on the sixth lap. As he passed the waving checkered flag for the 30th time, Foyt was riding on the wheel’s rim.
Foyt nosed out Italian-born Mario Andretti by a hood-length. Andretti had started in the tenth position and displayed daring moves to advance steadily.
Al Smith of Dayton, Ohio, was fifth.
Rutherford, the recent winner of the Atlanta Speedway’s 200-lap, $17,500 race, broke the track record held by Jud Larson, who was prevented from participating when his auto popped a valve in warmups.
Larson set the record on August 30, 1964. His time was 10 minutes and 25.18 seconds.
Right rear tire trouble was the order of the day and Rutherford himself didn’t steer completely clear of it.
“Somewhere around the 24th lap, my right rear started getting ‘wormy’,” he said. “But I saw I was pretty far ahead and played it straight – giving the car just enough throttle without over working it.”
“Wormy” in racing parlance, means “wobbly due to blistering”.
Rutherford, 27, of Fort Worth, Tex., won a total of $1,460 for the day. Besides the feature cash, he picked up $200 for being top qualifier (20.32).
Heat winners were Bob Pratt of Union City, Ind., Chuck Engle of Columbus, Ohio, and Sam Sessions of Nashville, Mich. Roger McCluskey of Tucson, Ariz., won the 6-lap trophy dash.
No comments:
Post a Comment