USAC - United States Automobile Club

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USAC - United States Automobile Club

Introduction



The 1955 Motor Racing Season was arguably the lowest point in motor sport ever recorded - even to this day. The 1955 Le Mans accident, in which 82 people died, had repercussions throughout the world. These extended to the other side of the world when, in August, two months following the tragedy, the American Automobile Association ceased to sanction motor sport in the United States of America, stating it was too dangerous. Almost overnight the chief interests of the AAA - the running of the Indianapolis 500-mile race and the supervision of land speed record attempts - were taken over by a new organisation, the United States Auto Club.

Road racing is the antithesis of oval racing, yet the USAC has been involved with the sanctioning of road-racing since early in its career. In fact, in 1958 the USAC sanctioned professional sports car racing for the first time in the United States, in direct opposition to the Sports Car Club of America which refused to soil its hands with money. At the first race at Lime Rock in September 1958 many SCCA members lost their licences as they competed for the $500 first prize, which eventually went to George Constantine, driver of a 3.9-litre Aston Martin DBR2/390. The USAC also co- sanctioned a major international sports car race at Riverside in October.

For the first time US oval-track competitors, US 'amateur' drivers and top European exponents raced against each other on equal terms. For a time road-racing dropped from the curriculum of the USAC, apart from occasional sorties to tracks such as Mosport Park and Riverside with USAC National Championship cars. In 1974, however, an agreement was reached (not without politics) with the Sports Car Club of America to co-sanction the American Formula 5000 Championship. The rules were amended to permit USAC National Championship cars to participate alongside conventional Formula 5000 machinery, but apart from Bobby Unser's turbo-charged Eagle-Offenhauser showing immense speed at Riverside the cars were not competitive. In any case Formula 5000 never enjoyed the popularity of USAC racing before it finally expired in 1976.

Thomas W. Binford



The USAC was formed at a public meeting at the State Fairgrounds at Indianapolis with Thomas W. Binford as President, a position he was to hold for the next twelve years. Naturally the new organisation took control of the running of the Indianapolis 500. (This involved the enforcement of rules and regulations plus supervision of practice runs, drivers' tests, qualifications runs and the actual race.) In addition, the USAC sanctioned the Pike's Peak Hillclimb, the Mobilgas Economy Run, record attempts on the salt flats and increased the programme of midget racing and USAC National Championship events.

The USAC has also sanctioned midget car racing, stock cars, sprint cars and, from time to time, road-racing machinery. The USAC, together with the Sports Car Club of America, the National Association for Stock Car Racing (NASCAR) and, finally, the National Hot Rod Association-the four largest sanctioning organisations in the United States-formed a joint committee, the Automobile Competition Committee for the United States - FIA (ACCUS) - in 1957. It became the American representative of the world governing body, the FIA. The combined front did not always work. The three members concerned with motor racing-the USAC, SCCA and NASCAR - were each jealous of their branch of the sport. Disagreements over permitting a driver from one club to participate in the activities of another occurred on several occasions.

Midget Racing



Lifeblood of the United States Auto Club for many years was its midget racing. Introduced in 1933, and sanctioned by the AAA the following year, this class of racing was usually run on dirt or paved tracks ranging from one- tenth of a mile to a full mile. Cars had to have a wheelbase between 66 and 76 inches and their engines were limited to a maximum of 1868cc for overhead-valve units or 2540cc for 'stock-blocks'. There were commonly around forty rounds in the USAC Midget Division. The 1974 championship winner, the Lebanese driver Mel Kenyon, was the first to win the title four times when he added to his wins in 1964, 1967 and 1968, and Shorty Templeman (1956 - 1958) and Jimmy Davies (1960 - 1962) both won the championship three times. While prize money can range from $2000 to around $10,000, there was an amazing prize fund of $60,000 for the 1969 Astro Grand Prix at Houston Texas.

The midgets set many well-known Indianapolis stars on the road to glory, as did the sprint cars. A step up the ladder, the sprint cars were and remain great crowd-pullers. They mostly run on the same type of tracks as the midgets, but were bigger (84 in wheelbase) and powered by more powerful, larger engines (4200cc for normally-aspirated racing units with other sizes for stock block and supercharged engines). While it used to be the case that USAC sprint cars were a stepping stone to the big USAC cars, the increasing sophistication of the large cars in the mid-1970s onwards meant that the two forms of racing were poles apart.

The USAC National Sprint Car Championship



Since 1961, the first year of the USAC National Sprint Car Championship, no one has won the title more than twice. Double winners have been rare, but Parnelli Jones, Roger McCluskey, Larry Dickson, and Gary Bettenhausen have managed the feat. Stock-car racing is chiefly the province of Bill France's NASCAR, but the USAC have also promoted the category since the club's inauguration in 1956. Tracks used ranged from half-mile dirt affairs to the full-blooded paved oval at Pocono. In the 1970s the USAC Stock Car Division star was Butch Hartman, a Ohio based driver who sped himself to a record number of championships in four consecutive years from 1971 to 1974.

The USAC's 'shop window' was, of course, the USAC National Championship in general and the Indianapolis 500 in particular. The USAC were very jealous of their annual Indy 500 in May and over the years were loathe to change the format. The race was in a rut when, in the early 1960s, the European influence was felt. Jim Clark and Graham Hill, British winners of the Indianapolis 500 in 1965 and 1966 respectively, had no intention of competing seriously in the USAC National Championship and promotors of races other than the Indianapolis 500 were upset they could not advertise the current Indy winner as a star attraction.

When the USAC was formed in 1956 the National Championship, formula was set at 4500 cc un-supercharged or 3000 cc supercharged for racing engines or 5500CC for diesel motors. Turbine engines were encouraged with no limitations set. In practice, the four-cylinder Offenhauser engine reigned supreme with only the ultra-powerful, but-unlucky, supercharged Novi V8s representing a challenge. Most cars were identical in layout, being of the so-called 'roadster' -type chassis -large, heavy, front-engined single-seaters equipped with rear-wheel-drive. In 1957 a decision was made to try to reduce the speeds at Indianapolis. Engine sizes were cut to 4200cc un-supercharged and 2800cc supercharged, although the limit for diesels remained at 5500cc and the turbine category continued unrestricted.

Union Pilotes Professionale International



Shortly after the USAC club was invited to send a team of Indianapolis-type machinery to race on the banked Monza track near Milan, Italy, against the fastest European cars. Of course, there was no equivalent European formula to the USAC National Championship. In Grand Prix racing the limit was 2500cc un-supercharged, although there were in theory several sports car engines which could have been utilised in adapted Grand Prix chassis. The idea, originated from Monza's director Giuseppe Bacciagaluppi, was warmly received by the USAC. But it had a very different reception in Europe. The newly-formed Union Pilotes Professionale International, which represented Europe's Grand Prix drivers, decided to boycott the event, claiming that the banked Monza track was extremely dangerous, and that tyres would overheat, burst and precipitate accidents.

The Race of Two Worlds



It appeared as though the brightly-painted American machines would have the track to themselves until the Scottish Ecurie Ecosse team, winners of the previous week's 1957 Le Mans 24-hours, decided to enter three Jaguar D-type sports cars. Maserati entered two cars as Frenchman Jean Behra refused to participate in the UPPI boycott. The 'Race of Two Worlds,' as the three-heat event was dubbed, was naturally dominated by USAC cars, Jimmy Bryan's Offenhauser-powered machine averaging over 100 mph and recording fastest lap of 54.1 seconds, 175.74 mph. No tyre failures were reported, although the retirement rate was high due to the bumpiness of the circuit. European honour was salvaged by the Jaguars which, displaying impressive reliability, finished fourth, fifth and sixth.

Behra's Maseratis, a 3.5- litre V-12-engined single-seater and a 4.2-litre sports machine both failed in practice. The UPPI relented for the repeat in 1958. Ferrari entered two cars, a 4.2-litre V-12 and a 2.-0-litre V6, while Maserati ran a 4-2-litre V8 single-seater for Stirling Moss paid for by Eldorado ice cream. Ecurie Ecosse built a special Jaguar-powered, Lister-based single-seater in addition to entering two Jaguar D-types. A six-year-old Ferrari was handled by Franco-American Harry Schnell. In addition, the USAC arranged to make available two Indy-type machines for European drivers. One was entrusted to five-times World Champion Juan Manuel Fangio and the other to French veteran Maurice Trintignant.

Fuel contract problems solved at the last minute, Fangio was beset with engine problems which kept him out of the first two of the three heats, and then his fuel pump failed. Trintignant, unable to understand instructions from the American owner of the car, was replaced by a young USAC driver named A.J. Foyt midway through the meeting. (Foyt was to become an Indianapolis legend, the most successful driver in USAC history.) This time the Europeans put up a strong challenge, especially Luigi Musso in the 4.2 Ferrari who set best time in practice and battled for leadership until overcome by exhaust fumes from the American cars.

Moss put up a brave fight in the ill-handling Eldorado Maserati until its steering failed on the banking and the car spun crazily, hitting the top retaining wall and demolishing three concrete posts before slithering to a halt. Moss was not hurt. The ultimate winner was Jim Rathmann, Jimmy Bryan took second place and the Ferrari shared by Phil Hill, Luigi Musso and Mike Hawthorn, third place. It was an exciting race and one which angered well for a common racing formula for the United States and Europe. Sadly, this was not to be. The USAC continued unchanged, while in Europe the trend went to smaller and less-powerful cars. (USAC racing was also 'exported' to events being run in Japan, Argentina and Canada.)

Jack Brabham, World Champion



USAC racing slumbered on, hardly noticing a European entry in the 1961 Indianapolis 500 which was to revolutionize the format of the National Championship car. Jack Brabham, the 1959 and 1960 World Champion, drove a 2.7-litre Coventry Climax-engined Cooper T54, a beefed up version of the firm's Formula One car. The only rear-engined machine in the race, it outhandled the traditional 4.2-litre Offy-engined 'roadsters', but was severely handicapped by lack of power. Brabham drove steadily into ninth place. In 1963 Dan Gurney, the American Formula One driver, introduced Ford to Colin Chapman of Lotus. The result was a small machine, the Lotus 29, powered by a powerful Ford V8 engine.

At first thought of as mere 'toys,' the Lotus-Fords demonstrated they were trend-setters and Jim Clark took a close second place to Parnelli Jones' oil-leaking 'roadster.' Then the torrent began and people who had at one time tried to ban lightweight, rear-engined cars had to submit to progress. Indianapolis and USAC racing awakened from its slumber, came to the forefront of the international motor racing world once more. Leading racing car designers from throughout the world took up the challenge of building a potential Indy winner, while the rivalry between Offenhauser and Ford engines and drivers from Europe and America created intense interest and packed in the crowds.

The Pratt & Whitney ST6B-62 Turbine



Possibly progress was too quick. Into the late 1960s it suddenly seemed that turbine power would oust the piston-engined cars almost overnight, a move which once again worried the USAC traditionalists. In 1955 and 1961 early attempts at building turbine-powered cars had been seen to fail. In 1966 another turbine entry failed to qualify for the Indianapolis 500, but the following year extrovert Andy Granatelli decided to build a turbine car to the existing regulations which limited the engines to a 22-Sq inch air inlet. It was an advanced chassis and the engine, a Pratt & Whitney ST6B-62 turbine built in Canada, sat alongside the driver, Parnelli Jones. The smoothly-delivered power was transmitted via four-wheel-drive transmission.

Jones qualified on the second row of the grid and easily dominated the race until a gearbox bearing failed less than ten miles from the finish. Granatelli was back in 1968 with a team of Pratt & Whitney-powered Lotus 56s which were raced by Graham Hill, Joe Leonard and Art Pollard. They failed again, but were moral winners. Carroll Shelby, too, entered turbine cars, although these were withdrawn before the race. Despite a reduction of inlet annulus from 22 to 16 square inches, the turbines seemed the cars of the future. But what future? The USAC successfully argued that turbines were too expensive and lacked spectacle and noise and could, in effect, kill USAC racing.

The USAC Rules Committee proposed that turbines should be banned for 1969, but the USAC board (headed by retiring president Tom Binford) turned down the proposals. Instead, they reduced the turbine engines inlet annulus to 12 square inch, sufficient to make turbine propulsion totally uncompetitive .... In addition, our-wheel-drive - the essential transmission for turbines - was to be banned from 1970 onwards. (From 1969 the capacity of turbocharged or supercharged engines was reduced from 2.8 to 2.66 litres and stock-blocks increased from 5 to 5.5 litres.)

Death at Indianapolis



Andy Granatelli unsuccessfully challenged the USAC in the law-courts over the turbine question and later threatened steam- or Wankel-powered machinery, even women drivers, at Indianapolis. In 1969, however, Mario Andretti won the Indianapolis 500 in a Granatelli-entered Hawk-Ford and the two sides settled their differences. Speeds continued to rise at Indianapolis. The next major drama was in 1973 when Art Pollard and Swede Savage were killed at the speedway and Salt Walther seriously injured. A move was made to reduce speed and reduce fuel capacity. Almost immediately after the race wing area was reduced by 9 sq in to 55 sq in and the allowable fuel to be consumed in a 500-mile race reduced by 35 gallons to 340, all of which had to be contained in a double-skinned 40-gallon fuel tank, necessitating several fuel stops.

At the end of 1973 more restrictions were made: wings were trimmed further, to 43 in wide, while the total amount of fuel to be carried was reduced again to 280 gallons. 1976 really saw the end of the four-cylinder Offenhauser engine's long reign, despite the fact that Gordon Johncock's championship-winning Bignotti Wildcat was Offy-engined. Use of the turbocharged Cosworth DFX became widespread; Tom Sneva's McLaren M24, which took the 1977 championship, was Cos worth powered as was the Lola used by Al Unser in winning the first USAC Grand Slam of Indianapolis, Pocono and the California 500. Unser's success showed the increasing influence of British racing engineering on the American scene.

Not only was the Lola British, so was the Cosworth engine and Hewland gearbox. There was a further British connection in 1978 as the season was rounded off with two races in England, at Silverstone and Brands Hatch, and in fact the championship was virtually decided at Brands when Tom Sneva's second place in the Penske Cosworth behind team-mate Rick Mears put him in a strong position in the championship, and meant that Al Unser had to win the last race of the season, at Phoenix, to deprive Sneva of his second championship.

Increasing speeds spurred the USAC authorities to make certain changes in the regulations for 1979. It was decided that cars should average 1.5 mpg rather than the 1.8 mpg of 1978 and before, meaning that 333 gallons would need to be carried over the 500 mile events - a substantial increase compared with the previous 278 gallon requirement. Further measures were another reduction in wing width, from 43 in to 36 in, and the use of 'pop-off' valves was made compulsory to limit the amount of boost on the turbocharged engines. This measure meant that the four-cylinder Offys enjoyed a new lease of life.

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