1966 USAC Langhorne 100
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- Опубліковано 5 жов 2024
- Dave Despain opens the video vault at ABC/ESPN to review the 100 mile USAC National Championship race at Langhorne PA held on June 12th 1966.
The race offers a look at the diversity of cars on the USAC 'Championshp Trail' in the mid 1960's. While the rear engine revolution was already in full swing, the race features a good look at some front engine holdouts like Don Branson in a Watson 'championship dirt' car and Jim Hurtubise in a Kuzma "roadster". You can also catch glimpses of other front engine cars driven by Carl Williams, Sam Sessions and Larry Dickson.
Noticeably absent from this race is A.J. Foyt who was recovering from 2nd and 3rd degree burns suffered in a practice crash at Milwaukee the previous weekend.
This was the 3rd USAC National Championship race held on the 1 mile paved surface at Langhorne . Jim McElreath swept both races on the new pavement in June and August of 1965 and is going for the three-peat at this event.
Back when ESPN was the number station for autoracing and SpeedWorld was a must watch for all motorheads. Miss you guys and the greatest racing show on the planet.
They really need to bring this back!
I was there and it was a great race and Don Branson was absolutely fabulous. A three wheeling dirt cart! Wow!
Great Race, I'm sure glad they saved these races...
I love the casualness of that era of racing, such as seeing race driver Roger McCluskey smoking a cigarette in the infield area, surrounded by the race cars with all the fuel being around. xD
You also notice the drivers, back then, aren't constantly yammering away with the names of sponsors.
I remember seeing this and taping it. My ABSOLUTE FAVORITE RACING VIDEO. GREAT coverage, GREAT storyline, LOVE the commentary THANKS FOR THE GREAT transitional post. I love the ending too...
If I'm not mistaken, veteran Indy & dirt car driver, Don Branson was killed in a race that year (1966). Mario was on a role that year. A.J. Foyt had he not been injured at Milwaukee (?) Would have given Andretti a good run for the Indy Championship...granted, had A.J. had a better car than his first year Coyote model.
In a sprint car.
Like Branson, A.J. brought his upright dirt champ car to run at this race, but felt he couldn't prepare it properly, and withdrew.
Yes..sadly at a 30 lap sprint car event at Ascot Park near Los Angeles in November 1966.
And Art Pollard was killed at Indy in 1973
Mario was one of best race car drivers who ever lived. AJ. too. I am a big fan of Foyt, but Mario was great also.
Saw A.J. pass both Bobby Unser and Mario Andretti to win the California 250 at Marchbank Speedway in Hanford, California in Nov.1968.(a most historical race for other reasons). Nobody could stop A.J. Foyt from leading when A.J. Foyt wanted to lead a race. He was either gonna take the lead or the guy running in third was.😂
Foyt got most of his wins in the 60's but after that except his 4th Indy win in 1977 he didn't do much Mario was very competitive into the 90's so although i was a Foyt fan i think Mario was a better driver and had a better record, his bad luck at Indy speaks for itself i think he won in 1981 but they gave it to B.unser also in 1985 danny Sullivan got lucky on that spin and won but he had the better car, Mario took better care of himself also!!
Andretti and Michael were best at whining, pointing fingers, blaming others every time something went wrong....which for them was often.
Defend them all you want, they whined their entire driving careers.
@@12B4Christ yes. But behind the wheel, Mario was great.
@@healthyone100 A.J.'s poor final decade can be blamed on (1) his loss of interest after his father's death in early 1983 and (2) his insistence on running his own operation which meant he was driving in equipment far inferior to the kind of equipment Mario was racing with at Newman-Haas. If A.J. had been driving Penske or Newman-Hass equipment in the 80s, he still would have been at the top.
thanks for the post!
Didn't Nigel Mansell win F1 title & Cart/IndyCar championship in the 90's, not just Mario but 25 years later. Then Jacques Villeneuve the same in the mid to late 90's.
Such an awesome sight to see the new era rear engine cars, full length roadsters & a dirt track car race competitively. Nowadays it's solely Dallara chassis with choice of only Honda or Chevy power (racing again when the pandemic is over).
You are correct. Mansell is the ONLY driver to win CONSECUTIVE titles: the F1 World Driving Championship (1992) and CART Championship (1993). Villeneuve almost did the same in reverse, taking the CART championship in 1995 and the F1 championship in 1997. Among Andretti's numerous accomplishments are 2 USAC championships (1966 &1969), A CART championship (1984 )and the F1 Drivers championship (1978). Thanks for watching!
@@HODIUSDUDE I was there at Laguna Seca in 1993 when he clinched the CART Championship driving that insanely fast Ford engined car. No Honda or Brand 'X' cars(although little Al won the race in a Penske/chevy)were able to hang with him that year. Just that really fast Texaco Ford back then with him, Mario and Michael Andretti as teammates. Fun day as I got to meet my hero at his trailer one on one, A.J. Foyt.
@@plantfeeder6677 He actually clinched the championship at Nazareth. But they awarded the trophy in Laguna. I was at Nazareth when they broke open the box of "1993 Series Champion" hats. Got a photo of him signing autographs post race wearing the hat.
They won the Cart Championship not USAC
I grew up not far from Langhorn speedway. It was a great place. Trenton was not far away.
I'm shocked how well Don Branson held his own against the superior mid-engine cars in a roadster dirt car! That was the drive of the race.
Finished fourth.
Claimed his type of car was better at this type of track than the rear engined cars.
Early rear-engine technology had them very difficult to drive on tight courses. They tended to understeer quite badly where f/r roadsters where better suited to rotating in tight corners always being slightly on the loose side. The difference here was hp of Offy I-4 vs. Ford V-8
Mari-reo or Mar-io has always made me scratch my head. I remember early on it was Mar-reo and I always assumed that was Tom Carriage's influence. I was surprised to hear Chris Economaci was using Mari-reo in 1966. I wonder when it changed to Mar-io? I remember at Indy in 1965 he was always "MEARI-O" on the PA.
I watched this race live when I was 6 yrs. old
I was in the stands too.
You'da have to have been there cause watching this live on TV didn't exist then. Two years later, I got to see A.J. win in Hanford in the ONLY race that the Turbine car EVER FINISHED!
Truly the Golden Age of autoracing
26, 000 fannies in seats. If i get my hands on a time machine add one
Love the veriety of cars. And Hurk.
I was there as a young man to see this. Now, Langhorne is a mall.
I was in the stands too.
It’s so sad how many great American racetracks got destroyed for ugly and ridiculous small town shopping malls..
What hurts the most is Riverside in my opinion..
It was such a legendary track, that I will keep mourning!
I’m very glad that we at least have those great vintage tracks recreated in some racing simulators like Assetto Corsa and Rfactor2.
I dismissed it for a long time, but racing sims with a proper wheel, pedals and H Shifter feel very real on the computer and every pro nowadays trains with them.
I still enjoy my e36 tracktoy much more, but for a nice evening race and learning tracks or especially driving vintage stuff the simulations are unbelievably good!
An aspect why Mario Andretti was very dominant, in Champ cars, back in that era, had to do with the bodywork design of the Brawner-Hawk, that was based from a Brabham chassis: Which was Ground Effects! I read this past year, in Vintage Motorsport magazine, that the bodywork was shaped like an inverted wing, which gave the race car better downforce, at racing speed, than many of the other race cars of that era. The magazine article explained that the builders of the Brawner-Hawk, Clint Brawner and Jim McGee, were clueless about that aspect of race car aerodynamics in that era; where it was nearly pure luck that the finished product of the race car had that hidden aerodynamic advantage in the 1960s.
They ran the radiator pipes along the side of the chassis which Mario said acted like skirts on a ground effect car. Mario said he thinks it gave him about 1000 pounds of downforce. Of course nobody knew why back then.
Was wondering if anyone was going to point out the first ground effects race car in history. Back then the saying was...if it looked right, it probably was right and that Brawner-Hawk/Ford looked right.
And they didn't even know it!! Not even Brabham, or Clint Brawner😂
But a man who saw it would realize what was going on and revolutionize Formula One(and later, all of racing) in the next 12 years. Colin Chapman!
Don Branson was awesome, in a dirt champ car only I/2 second slower than Andretti.
Must have been great sitting at first turn, same as Milwaukee Mile
before my time but ohh it looks like a rocket like that pointed and cigar shaped streamlineing like that that first car driven , and the long wingless front, and large round rear and pipes, though not unlike what one would see in old racecars in cartoons, or the jet drag cars from the heyday of dragracing, especially with the huge opening boy mario sure had that fonzi eye squint thing down in his younger years, I have only seen him though as an old man in the mid 90's and onward never a younger picture of him in color untill today, 12/23/21 as for me I like the dirt racing even if paved is quicker it takes a bit more skill I think on the ever changing surface and the cool way the dirt sprays and flys as they slide the turns, and seemingly bank like a jet and is hallmark of short track racing for decades, even if the modern champ cars are faster but Mario looks like hes driving a rocket out there at least from the side
Glad to spread the joy to another generation! Thanks for watching and sharing your thoughts.
@@HODIUSDUDE I am from indiana born and raised, some just choose not to pay as much attention to the big race or how much the ecconomy depened on auto industry, I am just sarry I did not try to get to the hoosier 100 before it lost its home at the hoosier mile and the track changed for surface to only usable for harness racing and parking, but maybe one day I can get enough people to clammer for another big dirt race in indiana, we got two horse tracks and a half mile up in elkart though its used only for tractor pulling and demo derbys and of course horse racing , I think they could maybe be convinced to run at least usac midgets or put up barriors and a fence and run the crowns eh, its not compleatly undoable, but costs are always a factor and draw, after all the long champ car races just arn't as popular over all as they used to be
but its nice to see that transitional era when tradition still hung on at least by shape.
15:54 three wheelin into the corner
That track was like a poorly drawn circle. There's a good reason that's a 100 mile race.
Did he say indian file?
Sure sounded like it 😂
Are those trailers or houses on turn 3?
Those are houses. Levittown PA, my hometown.
Christopher Haas
Houses in Levittown, Highland Park section. They were built around the track in 1955-56. that'd be cool to watch the races from your roof!
Wasn’t longhorn dirt at one time ?
Until 1965
Too bad McElreath didnt get any rides after this like the Zink ride. Great driver.
Yes… Jimmy Mac didn’t win again until the 1970 California 500, at Ontario.... passing Art Pollard with two last remaining ...... he was driving an AJ Foyt back up car.
I remember Foyt had crashed late in the race and went wild trying to get the wreck crew to get his car towed off quickly so the race could resume and McElreath would get his chance to win. AJ was doing everything he could to get his car towed.@@thevmanvj
Umm this track was deadly cluldbt see far ahrad of you cause of the shape alot of drivers dies and hurt at this yrack only track andretti said that scared him
We're was A.J.?
A.J. was injured in a practice crash at Milwaukee the week after Indy causing him to miss that race and this one which was held on June 12, 1966 (the WWOS highlights in this program aired on July 1, 1966).
JH the charger.
The original "funny car"?
Should have left it dirt.