The 47th Indianapolis 500-1963

24,888 views
•Mar 16, 2013

1146Share
Save

cjs83172
2.96K subscribersNo copyright infringement is intended with this, or any other video I upload. The purpose of uploiading this video is for the viewing pleasure for those that watch it. This is the 47th Indianapolis 500, run on May 30, 1963. While the big-name stars of Indy were running the old roadsters, the appearance of the Lotus team with drivers Jim Clark and Dan Gurney, and the smaller, lighter rear-engine cars they

brought, raised more than a few eyebrows. However, even with the backing of the Ford Motor Company, they just couldn't match what the Offenhausers could produce, and like the year before, Parnelli Jones led the charge, breaking his records set in 1962. Joining him on the front row were Don Branson and Jim Hurtubise. Hurtubise was driving one of the three Novis entered by Andy Granatelli, as the Novi was making it's

first start at Indy since 1958, and their engines were just as powerful as ever. Another of the three drivers on Granatelli's team was one of two future three-time Indy winners that made his debut in 1963. His name was Bobby Unser. The other future three-time winner that made his debut was Johnny Rutherford, but neither of them lasted long. In fact, Unser was the first out, crashing on the second lap and was soon joined on the

sidelines by Rutherford and fellow rookie teammate Art Malone. Meanwhile, Jones dominated the race, leading 167 laps, but needed to make three pit stops, while the Lotus cars made only one pit stop each for the race, which put Clark in a great position. But this was a race marred by a major controversy. About two-thirds of the way through the race, Jones' car developed a crack in it's external oil pan, causing it to lose oil.

Two other cars in the race, one driven by Hurtubise and the other driven by Bobby Grim, ran out of oil, and both were black flagged. Late in the race, there were several spins and crashes on the oily track, including two by Eddie Sachs and another by Lloyd Ruby, causing the USAC officials to be so concerned that they considered black flagging Jones, but were apparently talked out of it long enough for Jones to win,

becoming the eighth pole sitter to win the race and the first to do so since Pat Flaherty in 1956. This race also sparked a rule change, which was partially born from the controversy. Trying to unlap himself on the last lap, Roger McCluskey, who was running third, spun out and couldn't get restarted. Because the rules required all competitors to complete all 500 miles, regardless of how far behind they were, McCluskey was

scored 15th. That rule was changed for 1964, as when the leader got the checkered flag, the remaining cars got up to five minutes to complete the race, or as many laps as they could before they would be flagged in. Clark took second place, while 1961 winner A.J. Foyt was third, followed by Rodger Ward, who finished fourth despite trouble with his brakes all day, with Don Branson taking fifth.

Next was Jim McElreath, which was a minor miracle considering he spun in the pits twice, once with another car, while Dan Gurney was seventh in the other Lotus. All credits go to SPEED (SpeedVision, the forerunner to the current SPEED network, originally aired the content of the video), the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, USAC, and Championship Racefilms.

If there are any others who I'm forgetting, please let me know so I can add them to the list of those to credit.

 

The 48th Indianapolis 500-1964

27,163 views
•Mar 20, 2014

945Share
Save

cjs83172
2.96K subscribersNo copyright infringement is intended with this, or any other video I upload. The purpose of uploading this video is for the viewing pleasure for those that watch it. This is the 48th running of the Indianapolis 500, run on May 30, 1964. This race will go down forever as one of the blackest in racing history, as two drivers were burned to death and two others were seriously burned.

This race also marked the apex of the competition between front-engine and rear-engine cars at Indy, as numerous teams, including those of Parnelli Jones and A.J. Foyt, had one of each, but both teams decided to go with the roadster for this race. Another veteran team, Leader Card Racers, decided to go with e rear-engine car for this race. Reigning World Champion Jim Clark was the man to beat, destroy the old track

qualifying record by more than 7 MPH, with Bobby Marshman and 2-time winner Rodger ward completing the front row, all n rear-engine cars, with Parnelli and A.J. Foyt qualifying fourth and fifth. When the race started, Clark took the lead as expected, but at the end of the second lap, rookie Dave MacDonald, driving one of Mickey Thompson's low profile cars, lost control exiting turn four and hit the inside wall where it angled,

and the car, full of gasoline, exploded on impact, careened across the track, and hit both the outside wall and Eddie Sachs at the same time. Sachs' car, like MacDonald's, exploded on impact. Sachs was killed instantly and MacDonald died two hours later. Ronnie Duman was also seriously burned in this crash. Others involved included Johnny Rutherford, Bobby Unser, Chuck Stevenson, and Norm Hall.

Mickey Thompson's team withdrew the car of Eddie Johnson in deference to MacDonald one lap after the restart. Incidentally, the lemon-necklace that Sachs wore to alleviate some of the problems drivers of that period had with a dry mouth ended up on one of the axles of Rutherford's car, which rode over the top of Bobby Unser's in the crash. Think of how Indy history as we know it could have been forever altered,

as both Rutherford and Unser would win the race three times each. That crash, along with the one six days earlier in the World 600 that would eventually take the life of Fireball Roberts, and one not long after is race that seriously burned Jim Hurtubise, would lead to the invention of fuel cells by both competing tire companies, Goodyear and Firestone. Clark and Marshman dominated the race after the restart, but both ran into

trouble. Marshman lost an oil plug as a result of running on the apron, and Clarks' rear suspension collapsed while leading. That, plus a botched pit stop, would lead to the Lotus team withdrawing Dan Gurney not long after the halfway point. The other contending rear-engine car, driven by Rodger Ward, had a fuel mixture control jam, giving him such poor fuel mileage that he would have to make five pit stops in this race.

The misfortunes of Marshman and Clark handed the lead to Parnelli Jones, but as he left the pits after his first pit stop, his on-board fuel tank exploded, knocking him out of he race and giving him serious burns, as well. After that, Foyt had virtually no competition the rest of the way, and Ward's extra pit stops resulted in Foyt eventually lapping him on route to, by far, the easiest of his four Indianapolis 500 wins.

Ward took second, the sixth consecutive year in which he finished fourth or better (1-2-3-1-4-2), a streak bettered only by Ted horn, who piled up nine consecutive finishes of fourth or better from 1936-'48. (But unlike Ward, Horn never won the race.) This would also be the last time that a front-engine car would ever win the Indianapolis 500, and just three years later in 1967, there would not be a single front-engine car in the

entire field, and the last time a front-engine car would qualify for the Indianapolis 500 would be in 1968. Interestingly, every driver behind ward in the top third of the field, except Johnny Boyd, who finished fifth, scored his best Indy finish in 1964. Lloyd Ruby finished third, which despite the numerous times he would come close to winning the race in later years, was to be his best finish at Indy.

Johnny White took fourth place and top rookie honors, while behind Boyd were Bud Tinglestad in sixth, 1958 Indy pole sitter and 13-time NASCAR winner Dick Rathmann in seventh, Bob Harkey eighth (a finish he would match in 1974), Bob Wente ninth, Bobby Grim tenth, while Art Malone brought one of Andy Granatelli's Novis home in 11th place.

All credits go to FOX and SPEED (SpeedVision, the forerunner to the SPEED Channel, originally aired the material seen in the video), the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, USAC, and Championship Racefilms.

 

MILLER: Heroes of Bump Day

Images courtesy of Greg Littleton
203 shares
share
tweet
emailBy Robin Miller | 5 hours ago

This should be qualifying weekend at Indianapolis, so to honor this dramatic part of American motorsports history, here are three ballsy stories of Bump Days gone by that illustrate what a driver was willing to do under the gun. And thanks to Greg Littleton’s book The Race to Make The Race for bringing them to my attention.

In 1954, likable Bob Scott thought he had his third-straight starting line-up made until he was bumped with 90 minutes to go. So he began looking for something to drive, and wound up with the Ray Brady Special.

Earlier in the month this car had been described as a “Model T” by Ernie McCoy before he got out of it, and there wasn’t a big line waiting to hop in it. But Scott, despite never having sat in the car, was game and pulled away at 5:51 p.m. to try and do the impossible.

The bump speed was 137.673mph (Frank Armi) and Scott’s first flyer was an “astounding” 138.419 mph (according to The Indianapolis Times). His second lap was even faster at 139.018mph and Bob Sweikert ran out to the pit wall to cheer on his pal. Lap 3 was down to 136.778mph, but his average speed was still plenty fast enough.

Scott supposedly saw Sweikert with his hands clasped over his head in a victory salute as he completed Lap 3 and the crew jumping up and down while the grandstands were standing and screaming.

But then came the unthinkable. Instead of finishing his run, Scott slowed and pulled into the pits, mistakenly thinking his third lap had been his fourth. Armi had been spared, but the 25-year-old Californian was inconsolable for the next two hours as he wept openly in his garage about his mistake and apologized 100 times to his crew.

It turned out to be his last hurrah at IMS, because he was killed two months later when Indy cars raced at Darlington.

A similar scenario developed in 1957, when Chuck Weyant was bumped with 25 minutes remaining in time trials. Weyant had changed into his street clothes and was preparing to head back to Springfield, Ill., when a friend ran into his garage and told him that Pete Salemi’s Central Excavating Special was near the head of the qualifying line with no driver.

So Weyant sprinted out to the pits, and after introducing himself to crew chief Andy Dunlop, climbed into the four-year-old car he’d never turned a lap in and roared off to tempt fate at 5:50 p.m.

Rookie George Amick was on the bubble at 139.443mph but got his heart ripped out when Weyant (pictured above celebrating afterward) strung together an amazingly fast and consistent run of four laps at 141mph!

“We changed the gear, poured in a little nitro and prayed,” said Dunlop to The Indianapolis News.

Added Weyant: “I drove it down in the corners pretty deep and it felt good so I kept my foot in it.”
His crew makes plain what they thought of Jim Hurtubise’s Bump Day heroics in a completely unfamiliar car in 1962. Image courtesy of Greg Littleton

By the time 1962 rolled around, Jim Hurtubise had become one of the fastest, most fearless and popular racers at the Speedway after shattering the track record as a rookie in 1960 and then leading the first 33 laps of the 1961 race from the outside of Row 1.

Herk was back in the Demler Special in ’62 but the month had been a disaster as he crashed heavily twice – the second time on the third day of qualifying – and wiped out the car. Because of his status, teams that hadn’t made the show were offering him $1,000 to jump in their car for the final day of time trials, and he accepted Joe Hunt’s offer.

At 4:30, Hurtubise went out and ran a damn good warm-up lap of 147mph, but didn’t take the green and pulled in because he didn’t like how the car felt and wanted to make a couple of adjustments. But he didn’t calculate the long line of cars in the qualifying line, and suddenly realized he wouldn’t have enough time to go back out in Hunt’s No. 47.

So, he started car hunting and chose Jim Robbins’ roadster, an original A.J. Watson creation modified by Floyd Trevis. He’d had zero laps in No. 97, but his buddy Parnelli Jones leaned in and gave him some encouragement before Herk took to the track with 15 minutes remaining.

The whole Speedway (with the understandable exception of Ronnie Duman, his crew and family, since he was on the bubble at 145.908mph) was rooting for the kid from North Tonawanda, N.Y., to do something special, and he didn’t disappoint. His four-lap average of 146.963mph turned out to be the 15th fastest of the 33 qualifiers.

“I feel like a race driver again,” he told Jep Cadou of The Indianapolis Star after his run. “It’s been a long month and I need a beer.”

Of course, those were the days when a race driver’s whole year usually depended on making the show at Indy. The 40 percent he could earn from the purse outweighed any logic or fear of going out to qualify with no practice in a strange car and the clock ticking.

It was the risk of their profession, and they were more than willing to take them.

Bump Day, Indy 500, IndyCar

 

The story of King Hiro Image by Motorsport Images
220 shares
share
tweet
emailBy Marshall Pruett | 5 hours ago

The tale of ‘King Hiro’ ranks as one of the best to come from the 1990s CART IndyCar Series. Formula 1 world champion and Indy 500 winner Emerson Fittipaldi and his former Team Penske crew chief Chuck Sprague share the story of how IndyCar driver Hiro Matsushita earned his infamous nickname.

 

Talks with Tony: Al Unser Sr

Image by Motorsport Images
98 shares
share
tweet
emailBy SVRA | May 21, 2020 2:02 PM

“It’s an interesting story how your life forms coming up through racing.” – Al Unser, Sr.


Tony Parella, CEO of the Sportscar Vintage Racing Association (SVRA), talks with four-time Indy 500 winner, Al Unser Sr. during this episode of “Talks With Tony” presented by NetJets Inc.

These friends and former VROC co-drivers talked about everything from Al’s desire to race watching his three older brothers to being told he was too young to compete at Albuquerque Speedway Park. He shares about racing on “Unser Mountain” at Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, entering his first Indy 500 with AJ Foyt, his NTT IndyCar Series career, winning the Indianapolis 500 on four different occasions, competing in IROC, and opening the Unser Racing Museum near Albuquerque, N.M.
Videos, Vintage Motorsport / Historic

 

Robin Miller's Tough Guys: Sammy Sessions

Image via IMS
561 shares
share
tweet
emailBy Robin Miller | May 18, 2020 12:04 PM


If anyone ever looked like a sprint car driver it was Sammy Sessions. A raw-boned native of Michigan with a flat-top haircut and a nose for adventure, Sessions started out in stock cars and supermodifieds before heading for USAC in the mid-60s. He was instantly successful in that rough-and-tumble era and his prowess on dirt and pavement earned him a ride for Indianapolis.

Sessions qualified for six consecutive Indy 500s (1968-73), finishing fourth in 1972, and his final start came in 1975.

The USAC sprint champ in 1972, Sammy raced snowmobiles in the winter to make ends meet and he lost his life on one in 1977 where it was believed he suffered a heart attack before crashing.



Sammy Sessions, IndyCar, Videos, Vintage Motorsport / Historic

 

50 years on, Unser to receive Baby Borg for first Indy win

597 shares
share
tweet
emailBy Robin Miller | May 30, 2020 5:01 AM

Fifty years ago today, Al Unser’s life changed in a way he could never have imagined a few years earlier.

“When I came to Indianapolis as a rookie (in 1965) they tried to throw me out,” recalls the four-time Indy 500 winner. “Harlan Fengler (chief steward) was not going to let me take my test because I only had one Champ Car race and one dirt race under my belt.

“But Rodger Ward was the driver’s rep, and he went in and argued for me, and Fengler finally agreed to let me try. But he called me in his office and told me if I made one mistake, he would send me home instantly.”

By 1968 though, Unser was one of USAC’s newest stars, and on May 30, 1970 he drove into Victory Lane at IMS for the first time after one of the most dominating victories on record. Now, he’s being honored with a Baby Borg trophy by the BorgWarner Company.



“It’s a neat thing, for sure, and unbelievable to still be here,” said the 81-year-old legend. “I’m honored to get it, and want to thank BorgWarner for remembering us old guys.”

Unser will receive the trophy this summer at the Unser Racing Museum in Albuquerque.

Unser’s career rocketed to the top in 1968 when he joined master mechanic George Bignotti and scored five consecutive victories. He broke his leg in May of 1969 and missed three months, but came back in August and knocked off five wins to still take second in points.

“I got along with rear-engine cars but George was the best thing I could have hoped for at that stage of my career,” says Unser. “He had a way about him that nobody understood, but he very clever and surrounded himself with good people, and it was a great team.

“We’d run a Lola in 1968 and 1969 and it was a good car, but George had some ideas. He wanted to strengthen the tub in certain areas and make it larger to carry more fuel. It held less than 75 gallons, so he made a side tank for 1970 and then some little suspension tweaks.”

Unser captured the 1970 season-opener at Phoenix in his new Colt chassis with Ford power, but didn’t know it was going to be such a dominant combination.

“I don’t think anyone ever thinks that,” he says. “You always want that edge, but you don’t know you’ve got it until the race is over. We knew beforehand if everything went good we had an advantage. And winning Phoenix told us we had a strong team and a good chance at Indy.”

‘A good chance’ turned out to be total domination as Big Al led 190 of 200 laps after winning the pole position in his Johnny Lightning Special. “I never knew I was going to dominate and I’m still surprised, but that car was really, really good – especially that day at Indianapolis,” he says.

By season’s end Unser had amassed 10 wins and taken the USAC title by almost 3,000 points over brother Bobby. He would go on to triumph again the following May, and added two more in 1978 and 1987. And now he’s being rewarded with a miniature copy of one of the most famous trophies in sports, and BorgWarner seems as pleased as Unser.

“It’s important for us to keep that tradition going, and it’s very humbling to call the drivers and hear the emotion in their voices when we tell them they’re getting a Baby Borg,” said Michelle Collins, director marketing and public relations at BorgWarner. “We see how much it means to them, and we’re honored to be a small part of the greatest race in the world.”



This is the 30th-straight year that sculptor Will Behrends has put the winner’s likeness on the BorgWarner trophy, and Unser’s will be the third retro Baby Borg.

“The thrill of this year is that I watched Al win Indy on the Wide World of Sports and then I got to meet him last May in Indianapolis,” said Behrends, who has created 30 of the 34 images at the base of the BW trophy from his studio in Tryon, N.C.

“I don’t think it could get any better to do images of my childhood heroes like Parnelli, Mario and Big Al. I love doing it.”

Al Unser, IndyCar

 

RETRO: Lee Kunzman beats the Grim Reaper

Image by John Mahoney
1.6k shares
share
tweet
emailBy Robin Miller | June 5, 2020 6:59 AM

It was June 5, 1970 at a USAC sprint race in Odessa, Mo., that Lee Kunzman first bitch slapped the Grim Reaper. At that point in his career he was not only a rising star in the toughest open-wheel racing in the country but one of the most versatile drivers since A.J. and Rufus.

A year earlier he’d won the first USAC midget race he entered against the likes of Kenyon, Tattersall, McGreevey and Wente and run second or third 10 times in sprinters. He passed his rookie test at Indy in ’70 but neither car he drove had a chance to make the show so he wound up winning the Night Before The 500 midget main at Indianapolis Raceway Park.

A week later he was fighting for his life at I-70 Speedway – broken, battered and engulfed in flames.

“It’s been 50 years?” says the 75-year-old Kunzman when informed of that fateful night. “Damn, I am getting old but I remember all of it — I never lost consciousness.”

He’d gone to buy his pit pass for the USAC sprint show that night when informed he’d been fired from his steady ride. So he hopped in a strange car and was making the best of it. He started last in his heat race and was passing Gary Bettenhausen for the lead when the throttle stuck.

The car hit the wall, then climbed it and tore down a 10-foot fence before bursting into flames. Kunzman had no way of knowing but the impact broke his neck, his right arm and fractured his right wrist while his left arm was tangled in the fence.

“I knew I was on fire and soaked with fuel and I kept saying, ‘Stay conscious, don’t breathe or you’ll die.’ When I finally crawled away from the car I tried to run to a fireman to have him put me out and that’s when I knew my neck was broken because my legs went one way and my head went another.”

But in the midst of this ghastly accident, an angel emerged. Dr. Ward Dunseth, who had sponsored Lee’s sprint car in 1969 (pictured above, with Kunzman in the cockpit), thankfully was at the track that night and his quick thinking likely prevented paralysis.

“Doc held my head up and soaked my body with damp cloths, which probably saved some third-degree burns,” recalled Kunzman. “Then he found one of those tanks at state fairs where they kept apples and it was full of water, so he got some help and they laid me into the tank for buoyancy while he held my head and neck as we drove to the hospital. He’s the only reason I’m not paralyzed.”

The handsome 25-year-old from Guttenberg, Iowa suffered second-degree burns on his face and neck. His nose was nearly burned off along with his eyebrows and he couldn’t shut his eyes for long periods of time. After six weeks in the hospital, he was released and began thinking about 1971.

“I knew I’d be scarred but I also knew I could still race and that helped motivate me all winter,” he reasoned. “A bone specialist told me I’d never race again but I was happy to prove him wrong.”

On April 25, 1971 at Cincinnati’s Tri-County Speedway Kunzman made his comeback in a midget and it was spectacular. USAC would not grant him a license because they said he wasn’t physically recovered, so he borrowed another driver’s helmet for practice and qualifying.

Even though he looked like hell (think Phantom of the Opera) that’s also how he ran in the feature as he captured the 40-lapper. When he pulled into victory lane, he was so tired he couldn’t pull the car out of gear and damn near ran over a couple USAC officials.

“But you should have seen the look on their face when I took off my helmet,” says Kunzman with a laugh. “Then they said I could have my license back.”
A.J. Foyt with Lee Kunzman at Indianapolis in 1973. Image by David Phipps/Motorsport Images

Of all the tough guys in racing, only A.J. Foyt rivals Lee for setbacks, comebacks, broken bones, burns and that amazing ability to erase bad memories and go speeding back into life.

From 1971-73 he was brilliant on the high banks at Salem and Winchester, always formidable at Terre Haute, Williams Grove or Eldora and lost the ’73 USAC sprint title by a few points. It was so obvious he was a special talent and finally Bob Fletcher gave him a first-class IndyCar ride halfway through ’73 — he was on the front row with Mario in his first start.

But Kunzman would face his biggest challenge that December when he was critically injured while testing Fletcher’s car at Ontario. He had to relearn how to read, write, walk and talk after a severe brain injury. It took nearly two full years to recover but he was back in a race car in 1975 and almost won the 1979 IndyCar race at Atlanta.

He missed three of his prime years with injuries yet still scored 14 USAC sprint wins and 16 midget victories in what totaled about five full seasons. He never complained or moaned about bad luck, inferior Indy cars or all his challenges. He doesn’t move too fast these days but he’s always got a smile or a story at team lunch.

And 50 years ago he crawled out of an inferno in Missouri and never lost that fire to stand on the gas.

Lee Kunzman, IndyCar, Vintage Motorsport / Historic

 

Tying some racing history together
See last post in thread:
See it before it goes away.

 

Vale: Norman "Bubby" Jones

Image by Gene Crucean
2.3k shares
share
tweet
emailBy: Robin Miller | January 19, 2020 4:00 PM

He went from the anonymity of cutting hair in a little town in Illinois to a respected national stylist in a sprint car. His library consisted of Speed Sport, USAC News and Carl Hungness Indy 500 yearbooks, but nobody could read a dirt track better. He made it from motorcycle scrambles to the starting field at Indianapolis. Nobody talked slower or drove faster. And he finally figured out marriage on his third attempt and raised six great kids throughout the years.

Norman “Bubby” Jones, at the age of 78, was an old-school racer who should be remembered as one of the great sprint car drivers of all time and an endearing character that always gave you a helping hand as well as his unfiltered opinion.

“I was fortunate enough to go up and down the road with him and he won hundreds of races, but his greatest achievement was picking up two mph on the last day of qualifying at Indianapolis on his third and final attempt to make the show,” said Tim Coffeen, one of Jones’ best friends for the past 50 years who worked on sprinters and Indy cars for him.

“There are a lot of different adjectives to describe the guy, but the easiest way is that he was as honest as the day is long, and he didn’t always tell you what you wanted to hear but he wouldn’t lie to you. And there was no finer person.”

‘Ol Bub would have probably been happy as an 8-5 barber in Danville, Ill. that raced super modifieds and sprints on the weekends until 1971 when trucking honcho M.A. Brown offered him a ride on the outlaw circuit. He quit his day job and became a professional racer as well as a prolific winner, averaging 35-40 wins a season.

From Little Springfield to Eldora to Knoxville to West Memphis, Jones carved out a reputation as a smart, smooth and fierce competitor. He became friends and rivals with the great Jan Opperman as his success spread to Manzanita Speedway and Ascot Park.

“I always figured Bubby was the guy to beat if I was going to win,” said Opp back in the mid-70s.

The cruel irony of Jones’ career came in 1976. Opp had convinced him to start running USAC, and after winning his initial Silver Crown race at DuQuoin, Bub watched his pal get gravely injured in the Hoosier Hundred. When Jan tried to make his comeback in the spring of 1977 it was obvious he wasn’t ready, so he asked car owner Bobby Hillin to put Jones in his Longhorn cars – which also included the Indy 500.

A dirt specialist, Jones only had five previous pavement races when he got to the Speedway, and admitted that when the turbocharger kicked in the first time going down the backstretch at IMS he seriously thought about pulling in. But he bumped his way into the field, and stormed from 33rd to ninth in the race before his engine pitched.
Image by Gene Crucean

Jones excelled in the Longhorn sprinter, racking up seven victories and also taking the prestigious Hut Hundred midget race.

“He had such a passion for race cars and not just driving them, but he was a big proponent of making the car do the work. His mechanical ability was second to none,” continued Coffeen. “Nobody knew more about tires, gears and suspension and how to make a car go fast.”

In 1979 he scored 11 wins for Don Siebert and Jim McQueen, but lost the USAC championship in the final race. Disillusioned by that and the reality that you needed money to get an Indy car ride, Jones packed up and headed west.

‘Ol Bub didn’t suffer fools and his hometown friend and longtime car owner Larry Henry once said that if he ever wrote an autobiography it should be titled: “Assholes, jerks and s*** boxes,” because that’s how he looked at racing and didn’t throw many compliments around.

From 1980-87 he became a master at Ascot Park’s famed half-mile and the California Racing Association – piling up 90 wins and two titles before “retiring” after ‘87. He returned briefly in 1990 and scored his final Ascot win in 1991 before taking over management of Perris Speedway.

Jones returned to Indianapolis in 2004 and worked for Tony Stewart’s team among others, sharing his knowledge with anyone smart enough to listen at Kokomo, Gas City, Bloomington, Putnamville, Paragon and Haubstadt. He built his own cars and they were always fast, but he began slowing down a few years ago with a myriad of health problems.

A cigarette and cup of coffee were his constant companions, along with a wry sense of humor. At a team lunch a couple years ago Lee Kunzman, Pancho Carter, Bill Vukovich, Merle Bettenhausen, Gary Irvin and Johnny Parsons were reminiscing about how much fun it was to race on the high-banked quarter mile of Little Springfield where Jones grew up and was a four-time champion. Asked how many races he won at Joe Shaheen’s famous bullring, Jones replied: “All of ‘em.”

He was a lover, not a fighter, and was knocked unconscious in his first and only bar fight at Champaign, Ill. by Bill Brown (the former Minnesota Viking). In between marriages, Jones was sweet-talking a woman one night and she suggested he come over and bring some coke, so he stopped at the 7-11 and got a six-pack. We laughed for days.

Third wife Patti was his rock and the best thing that ever happened to Jones and she gave him three daughters, Ashley, Jessica and Emily, to go along with his earlier children Gina, Davey and Tony. They cherished their old man like we all did.

There was only one ‘Ol Bub, and he certainly was an original in every way.

IndyCar