Jack
Bowsher (21) and Roger McCluskey (11) bring the field to green for the 1976
Governor’s Cup. McCluskey would go on to win the 250-miler.
McCluskey’s victory Sunday plus a victory by Ramo Stott’s Volare in the State Fair 150-miler and two victories by Butch Hartman in a Camaro this season at State Fair Park effectively spelled the end of the big Hemi’s and other full-sized cars on the tracks of a mile and less on the United States Auto Club's stock car circuit.
Small cars took the top four places Sunday as Stott finished ii seconds back in second place, Hartman was third, more than a lap down, and Dick Trickle of Wisconsin Rapids was fourth in Roy Darnell’s 1976 Camaro.
Trickle, well known in Midwest short-track circles, fought bad brakes for 200 of the 250 laps around the one-mile track, and finished about a lap and 13 seconds behind McCluskey.
Trickle was shaking his weary foot as he got out of his car in the technical committee’s impound area after the race. “I had to pump the brakes about 50 times a lap," he told Darnell. "I got such cramps I couldn’t do it sometimes.”
But though Trickle drove probably the best race of his spotty career at State Fair Park, neither he nor anyone else was a threat to McCluskey.
“The car ran better than any race car I’ve ever driven,” McCluskey said. McCluskey said Nelson's crew has done extensive work on the kit car, which was just built this season.
“We’ve done quite a bit of work on the chassis,” McCluskey said. “We were just trying to find out what it wanted. We haven't really run it that much. We got a late start this year.
“The guys just kept changing, changing, changing. Somethings helped, and some things didn’t help.”
McCluskey said his only worry Sunday was that changing track conditions as the race progressed would make the chassis setup handle poorly near the end of the race.
The only scare McCluskey had was around lap 200. He’d had a full lap lead on Stott on lap 190 but the yellow came out on lap 188 when Bob Brevak spun and McCluskey soon pitted. For 10 laps, until the 200-lap postings showed McCluskey to be just one second ahead of Stott, the Nelson crew thought there was still a lap difference. When they saw the two-second interim between McCluskey and Stott posted on the board, they ran back to Nelson’s pits and gave McCluskey the word.
“Go,” was Nelson’s command to McCluskey, and he went.
Gaining precious fractions of a second each lap, he put distance between him and Stott and won going away.
“When they gave me the signal that I was only one second ahead, I figured I’d better get hooked up and get out of there," McCluskey said.
When McCluskey decided to go, Stott, the defending USAC stock car division champion, said there was little to do but watch him go.
“He really had the superior car today," Stott said. "A couple of times, when I was running next to him, he’d gain about a quarter of a car length on me a lap. No matter what I did, he’d gain on me. My power was about right, and my handling was just about right, but I knew I wasn’t going to beat him if he finished."
Hartman, leading the point standings by 185 points over Stott (1850-1665) after Sunday’s race, said, “That was the hardest race I’ve ever run. Roger was running so well it would have been foolish to try to run him down. We really messed up when we pitted under the green."
Hartman, who finished a lap and 11 seconds behind McCluskey, lost a lap of that when his team gambled during an early yellow flag situation on the 90th lap of the race. Hartman passed up the stop hoping for a yellow about the 70th lap while McCluskey pitted. When Hartman finally couldn’t wait any longer, he pitted for fuel and right-side tires on lap 83. On the next lap the yellow came out.
Results –
1. Roger McCluskey
2. Ramo Stott
3. Butch Hartman
4. Dick Trickle
5. Sal Tovella
6. Terry Ryan
7. Harold Fair
8. Russ Peterson
9. Dean Roper
10.Gary Bowsher
11.Larry Nau
12.Johnny Parsons
13.Frank Cabrera
14.Wayne Watercutter
15.Ken Rowley
16.Fred Zack
17.Bob Brevak
18.Jack Bowsher
19.Rick Schmidt
20.Jen Backlund
21.Steve Drake
22.Larry Moore
23.Larry Phillips
24.George Giesen
25.Rich Sundling
26.Jerry Wolland
27.Dale Koehler
28.Dave Whitcomb
29.Ron Hutcherson
30.Ray Bolander
31.Herman Huffman
32.Bay Darnell
33.Boyce Sparkman
34.Dick Beinlich
35.Gary Cooper
36.Don White
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