Return to Events
Home
Events
In the Press
eStore
Contact Us
July 2-3, 1966 - SCCA National
Return to Events
To Page 3
Back To Page 1
- From the July 2, 1966 Des Moines Register
Indianola, Ia. - Several of the drivers who chased winner Mak Kronn in the June Sprints at Elkhart Lake, Wis., hope to get another shot at their rival in the main feature of the national sports car championships at Greenwood Roadway today and Sunday.
Challengers include Dick Durant, Florissant, Mo., aircraft engineer who won the midwest C Modified title last season, Ralph Salyer, Jack Hansen and Charles Cox, the C Modified winner a year ago.
The program of seven races, divided according to classes, starts at 1 o'clock each afternoon on the three-mile paved course eight miles southeast of here on Highway 65. Officials expect to grid 150 cars. Entries already have been received on 111 with more expected this morning.
Durant, Salyer, Hansen and Cox all figured in the big duel at Elkhart June 18. This is the third of eight sprints scheduled by sports car groups in the Central division.
Hansen, Minneapolis stock broker who put his Chevy-powered Wolverine on the pole, was forced from the race early with an overheated engine. Salyer and Cox had a hot duel before Salyer, a veteran contender at Greenwood, also was forced out with motor ills. Cox was on Kronn's rear when he flipped on the thirty-fifth lap.
Durant, who has won several of the big-bore features here, was back in a challenging position but never got closer than fourth, leaving the race all to Kronn in the late stages. Durant now drives a Chevy-powered roadster.
Other entries include Tom Payne, a C Production winner at Elkhart Lake recently; Jack Hurt of Indianapolis in a Cobra 427; and John Cannon driving the Vingeroon Special, a Chevy-powered creation owner by Dan Blocker of TV "Bonanza" fame.
Iowans racing include Terry Matheny of Newton, with his H Modified SAAB, and Gary Stephenson of Des Moines in a 2-liter Elva Porsche.
- From the July 3, 1966 Des Moines Register
Indianola, Ia. - Bob Clemens, of Roseville, Mich., and John Egley, of St. Louis, Mo., straightened out most of the corners on the Greenwood Roadway course Saturday.
Both set lap records for their respective classes in the opening session of the national sports car races on the refurbished 3-mile paved course.
Programmed for the grid today are five races of 15 laps each, with the big-bore outfits appearing in the feature. The first race is scheduled at 1 p.m.
Saturday's opening session included the new Sedan class added to sports car racing this year. John Marshall, of Dayton, Ohio, won it going away in his Cortina-Lotus for the first over-all in a contest which drew only five entries.
Clemens, 34-year-old chassis designer for Chevrolet, put his Triumph Spitfire 1100 through a record 2-minute 25.8 second lap in pacing the combined G and H Production field by as much as 15 seconds in the early laps.
Battle for Second
The other record was a 2:33 lap by Egley, an aircraft manufacturing plant tech writer, in his Austin-Healey Sprite. He was sixth over-all and the fastest in class H.
Clemens had the race all to himself from the opening lap. Dick Brexler, who led the qualifiers to win the pole position, pulled into the pit on the parade lap with fouled plugs and missed the first five laps.
That left the competition between Don Hamilton of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., and Barney McCray of Kansas City in a battle for second. Hamilton put his TR Spitfire in front of McCray's Austin-Healey on the seventh lap and took the second over-all spot in the race and class.
Best Race
Fred Baker, Twin Cities car import dealer, drove the best race of the day, coming from the fourth row on the inside to finish fourth over-all in his Japanese Datsun.
Headliners in today's races include Richard Jacobs of Okemos, Mich., national point leader in H Modified; James Spencer, 1964 national champion in D Production and Ron McConkey of Cedar Falls, Central Division D Production winner last year.
Others are Jerry Henry of Ft. Wayne, Ind., current point leader in C Production; Jack Hurt of Indianapolis, Dick Roe of Minneapolis and Daniel Gerber of Freemont, Mich., all in Cobra-powered A and B Production outfits.
In the C Modified class are such entries as Jerry Hansen of Minneapolis, Budd Clusserath and Ralph Salyer, both of Hammond, Ind., and William Cooper of Racine, Wis. Dick Durant of St. Louis, scheduled to appear, was absent and running at Ponca City, Okla.

Sedan Class Results
  1. John Marshall, Dayton, Ohio, Cortina-Lotus; 2. Robert Kerns, Waterloo, Ia., Chevrolet Corvair; 3. Stephen James, Indianapolis, Ind., Mini Cooper; 4. Gene Greb, Iowa City, Ia., Volkswagen. Average speed 67.42 mph, 45 miles. Jerry Moerwald, Milwaukee, Wis., did not finish.

G and H Production Results
1. Bob Clement, Roseville, Mich., TR Spitfire (G); 2. Don Hamilton, Bloomfield Hills, Mich., TR Spitfire (G); 3. Barney McCray, Kansas City, Mo., Austin-Healey Sprite (G); 4. Fred Baker, Mound, Minn., Datsun (G); 5. Jerry Hinkle, Middleton, Ohio, MG Midget (G); 6. John Egley, St. Louis, Mo., Austin-Healey Sprite (H); 7. Tom Varner, Rochester, Mich., A. H. Sprite (H); 8. John Brace, Ft. Wayne, Ind., Sprite ME-1 (H); 9. Donald Schlueter, Davenport, Ia., A. H. Sprite (H); 10. John Carson, Urbana, Ill., MG TF (H); 11. Dan Murphy, Fond du Lac, Wisc., A.H. Sprite (H); 12. Thomas Kennedy, Minnetonka, Minn., A.H. Sprite (H), 13. Ron Sharp, Des Moines, Ia., MG Midget (G); 14. Gary Wood, Monroeville, Ala., TR Spitfire (G); Average speed 72.29 mph for Clemens; 69.54 for Egley.
- From the July 4, 1966 Des Moines Register
Indianola, Ia. - Jerry Hansen, 28, a Minneapolis stock broker, and Ralph Salyer, of Hammond, Ind., Sunday drove one of the hottest duels ever at Greenwood Roadway.
Hansen, wheeling a 370 Chevrolet-powered outfit, nosed out his veteran rival by slightly less than a car length at the end of a thrilling 45-mile battle.
A paid crowd of 7,108, largest attendance since the U.S. road race here in 1964, saw five, seven-lap races concluding with the national championship over the paved three-mile course.
McConkey in C, D, E
Winners included Bill Mitchell, 29, of Lansing, Mich., who led the H Sportsman and F production classes in the opening race of the day. He clocked a 2-minute 18.3 second record lap in a Sunbeam Alpine.
Ron McConkey, Cedar Falls, in an 8-year-old Jaguar XK140, finished in front of C, D, E production outfits and turned a record 2:12 lap.
Jack Hurt of Speedway, Ind., a five-year veteran of sprint, late model stocks and championship cars before entering sports car competition last year, led the A and B Production field in his Cobra.
He averaged 80.38 miles per hour for his 45 miles of twists and turns.
James Beltnick of Flint, Mich., headed the Formula B's in his green Lotus with a 76.22 m.p.h. average.
Hansen and Salyer, the Central Division point leaders, ran away from the field in their duel in the modified feature.
3rd-Place Duel
The pair was more than a minute ahead of Budd Clussereth of Hammond, Ind., and Roy Kunnick of Rolling Meadows, Ill., battling almost by themselves for third place after the sixth lap.
Clussereth, sitting on the outside pole, beat Salyer to the No. 1 corner. But by the time the field roared into the tenth station, before the "S" turns, Salyer took over.

He put his Olds ahead of Hansen by a five-second margin in the early going.
It was too tough a pace for Bill Kirtley of Minneapolis in his Lotus-powered rig. He coughed into the pits after the sixth lap.
Ferrari Fizzles
The widely-publicized Ferrari, a V-12-engined car driven by William Cooper of Racine, Wisc., was battling to stay fifth overall and was a full lap behind the leaders.
Hansen closed in on Salyer in the ninth lap and they started dicing - sports car jargon for dueling - to the tenth lap. They were side by side going into the ninth corner of the thirteenth lap.
Hansen slipped past Salyer going into the twelfth corner after the two went bumper to bumper through the rugged hair-pin No. 11 turn.
Hansen came up over the crest of the hill in the home stretch by six car lengths. But that margin faded fast on the backstretch and they were back bumper-to-bumper again at the torturous eighth corner of the final lap.
Hansen squeezed gradually ahead on the "S" turns and pushed his Chevy ahead of Salyer at the finish line.
Hansen clocked an average speed of 87.88 m.p.h. Salyer was timed in a near-record lap of 2:00 several times during the race.

F production and H Sportsman Results

  1. Bill Mitchell, Lansing, Mich., F-Bobsy-Imp (H-S); 2. Richard Jacobs, Waukegan, Ill., Jackal (H-S); 3. John Wetherbee, Milwaukee, Wis., Jabro-Saab (H-S); 4. Richard J. Hull, Lansing, Mich., Volvo 1800 (F-P); 5. Terry Matheny, Newton, Ia., Scripps-Booth Special (H-S); 6. Charles B. McGuire, Des Moines, Ia., Triumph TR-3 (F-P); 7. Pete Mye, Madison, Wis., Triumph (F-P); 8. Don Poskin, Jefferson City, Mo., Triumph TR-3 (F-P); 9. George Bacheider, St. Paul, Minn., Jabro-Saab (H-S); 10. Carl Jensen, Des Moines, Ia., Triumph (F-P); didn't finish - Gregory Upsotone, Rockford, Ill., winner's average speed - 76.92 m.p.h.

C-D-E Production Results

1. Ron McConkey, Cedar Falls, Ia., Jaguar XK140 (D); 2. Arnold Meyer, Cedar Rapids, Ia., TR-4 (D); 3. James Spencer, Chicago, Ill., Yenko Stinger (D); 4. Ted Rand, Glen Ellyn, Ill., Lotus S-7 (C); 5. Jerrell Henry, Roanoake, Ind., Lotus S-7 (C); 6. Don McIntosh, Viroqua, Wis., Porsche (E); 7. Alan Marsh, Ottawa, Ill., Alfa-Spyder (E); 8. John Wilson, Aurora, Ill., Austin Healey 3000 (D); 9. Dick Kantrud, Watertown, Minn., TR-4 (D); 10. Jerry Fry, Madison, Wis., Porsche S-90 (E); 11. William W. Timm, Minneapolis, Minn., Austin Healey 100-6 (E); 12. Walter Hotchkiss, Des Moines, Ia., Porsche Speedster (E); 13. Leonard Jankie, Pender, Neb., Austin Healey (E); didn't finish - Walt Biddle, Fond du Lac, Wis.; Jerald Scrabeck, Rochester, Min.; Dr. Paul D. Penny, Des Moines, Ia.; Don Stracker, Independence, Mo.; James Johnson, Champagne, Ill.; Robert McIntyre, Wayzata, Minn.; Fred Baker, Mound, Minn.; Douglas R. Harding, Minneapolis, Minn.; winner's average speed 76.70 m.p.h.
Greenwood's Sports Cars Race Today
Two Crack Greenwood Lap Records
Big Sports Cars on Today's Program
Car-Length Triumph at Greenwood