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1979 IndyCar Season
The 1979 SCCA/CART Indy Car Series was the inaugural season for the CART Indy car series. It was the first national championship season of American open wheel racing sanctioned by CART. The season consisted of 14 races. Rick Mears was the national champion, and the rookie of the year was Bill Alsup. The 1979 Indianapolis 500 was sanctioned by USAC, but counted towards the CART points championship. Rick Mears won the Indy 500, his first of four victories in the event. The 1979 season was filled with controversy on and off the track. During the offseason, several Indy car owners broke off from USAC, and formed Championship Auto Racing Teams, a new sanctioning body to govern the sport of open wheel Indy car racing. USAC continued to sanction their Gold Crown Championship, resulting in two parallel national championships for 1979. The controversy over the first "split" in Indy car racing came to its first climax at the 1979 Indianapolis 500, when USAC rejected entries by certain ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rick Mears
Rick Ravon Mears (born December 3, 1951) is a retired American race car driver. He is one of four men to win the Indianapolis 500 four times (1979, 1984, 1988, 1991) and is the current record-holder for pole positions in the race with six (1979, 1982, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1991). Mears is also a three-time Indycar series/World Series champion (1979, 1981 and 1982). Biography Early years Mears was born in Wichita, Kansas and raised in Bakersfield, California. He began his racing career in off-road racing. In 1976, he was recommended by a representative of Bill Simpson' helmet company, and Simpson gave him a ride at the USAC Champ Car's Ontario 500 on an old Eagle-Offenhauser, finishing 8th. Simpson then sold the car to Art Sugai, on condition that Mears would continue driving it. In mid 1977 he switched to Theodore Racing. His speed attracted the attention of Roger Penske. Although at the time Penske Racing had the services of Mario Andretti and Tom Sneva, Andretti was also raci ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Champ Car Teams
This is a list of all teams that contested the Champ Car World Series between its founding in 1979 to its demise in 2007. 2007 Teams This is a list of teams that contested the Champ Car World Series in 2007, the series' final year of operation. All teams utilized Panoz DP01 chassis and Cosworth engines. List of Champ Car Teams Key: Source'' {, class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:center;" ! Team ! Seasons ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Best Result ! First Race ! First Win ! Last Win ! Last Race , - , A. J. Foyt Enterprises , 1979-1995 , 161 , , 158 , , 27 , , 200 , , 0 , , 0 , , 44 , , style="background:#DFDFDF;" data-sort-value=2, 2nd (Multiple) , , 1979 Indianapolis 500 , , n/a , , n/a , , 1995 Laguna Seca , - , All American Racers , 1979-1981; 1983-1986; 1996-1999 , 134 , , 131 , , 19 , , 197 , , 1 , , 1 , , 6 , , style="background:#FFFFBF;" data-sort-value=1.1981, 1st , , 1979 Phoenix , , colspan=2, 1981 Milwaukee , , 1999 Fontana , - , Alsup Racing , 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alex Morales Motorsports
Alex Morales Motorsports was a racing team active in sprint cars and Indycars for several decades. The sprint car team won multiple championships between the 1950s and 1990s while their Indycar team was active from 1975 to 1989, winning three races. The team was owned by California businessman Alex Morales who sponsored the team with his Alex Foods brand in the earlier years and was managed by chief mechanic John Capels, who later served on CART’s board of directors. Early years and Sprint Cars Alex Morales, born in 1908, came from a family that had early success in the food industry with Tamale Carts in Los Angeles. Morales started entering sprint cars in California in the 1920s and continued for several decades. His “Tamale Wagon” sprint cars (named after one of his most popular products) enjoyed tremendous success around the tracks of California for many years, with their first championship coming in 1959 at the hands of Chuck Hulse. Morales continued to run Sprint Cars i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mario Andretti
Mario Gabriele Andretti (born February 28, 1940) is an Italian-born American former racing driver. One of the most successful drivers in the history of motorsports, Andretti is one of only two drivers to have won races in Formula One, IndyCar, the World Sportscar Championship, and NASCAR (the other being Dan Gurney). He has also won races in midget car racing and sprint car racing. During his career, Andretti won the 1978 Formula One World Championship, four IndyCar titles (three under USAC sanctioning, and one in CART), and IROC VI. To date, he remains the only driver ever to win the Indianapolis 500 ( 1969), Daytona 500 ( 1967) and the Formula One World Championship, and, along with Juan Pablo Montoya, the only driver to have won a race in the NASCAR Cup Series, Formula One, and an Indianapolis 500. As of 2021, Andretti's victory at the 1978 Dutch Grand Prix is the last Formula One win by an American driver. Andretti had 109 career wins on major circuits. Andretti had a long ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spike Gehlhausen
Daniel William "Spike" Gehlhausen (born November 19, 1954, in Jasper, Indiana), is a former driver in the USAC and CART Championship Car series. He raced in 11 seasons (1975–1982 and 1984–1986), with 79 combined career starts, including the Indianapolis 500 The Indianapolis 500, formally known as the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, and commonly called the Indy 500, is an annual automobile race held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) in Speedway, Indiana, United States, an enclave suburb of Indi ... in 1976, 1978–1980, and 1984. He finished in the top ten 15 times with his best finish in 4th position in 1980 at Ontario. Indianapolis 500 results External linksDriver DB Profile 1954 births Champ Car drivers Living people Indianapolis 500 drivers People from Jasper, Indiana Racing drivers from Indiana USAC Silver Crown Series drivers {{US-autoracing-bio-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Steve Krisiloff
Steve Krisiloff (born July 7, 1946 in Parsippany-Troy Hills, New Jersey), is a former driver in the USAC and CART Championship Car series. He raced in the 1969–1979, 1981 and 1983 seasons, with 111 combined career starts, and started in the Indianapolis 500 all but 1969–1970. He finished in the top ten 46 times, with his best finish in 2nd position in 1978 at Phoenix. After racing, he served from 1984 to 1995 as vice-president of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and later as the team manager for Patrick Racing and assistant team manager for PKV Racing until 2006. Krisiloff was married to Josie George (daughter of Mari Hulman George) from 1985 to 1993. Tony George, CEO of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Corporation and founder of the Indy Racing League and Vision Racing, is his former brother-in-law. Krisiloff and Josie George had a son, Kyle Krisiloff, who has raced in the NASCAR Busch and Craftsman Truck Series. Krisiloff served as team manager for Carl A. Haas Motors ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Johnny Rutherford
John Sherman "Johnny" Rutherford III (born March 12, 1938), also known as "Lone Star JR", is an American former automobile racing driver. During an Indy Car career that spanned more than three decades, he scored 27 wins and 23 pole positions in 314 starts. He became one of ten drivers to win the Indianapolis 500 at least three times, winning in 1974, 1976, and 1980. He also won the CART championship in 1980. Rutherford began racing modified stock cars in 1959 and he also dabbled in stock car racing, making 35 NASCAR Cup Series starts from 1963 to 1988. Rutherford won in his first start, at Daytona International Speedway driving for Smokey Yunick. This made him one of the youngest drivers ever to win in NASCAR history, in a full points-paying NASCAR race. Racing career In 1959, Rutherford started driving modified stock cars in Dallas. He joined the International Motor Contest Association sprint car circuit in 1961 leading it for most of 1962. Rutherford later joined the Uni ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Al Unser
Alfred Unser (May 29, 1939 – December 9, 2021) was an American automobile racing driver, the younger brother of fellow racing drivers Jerry and Bobby Unser, and father of Al Unser Jr. He was the second of four men ( A. J. Foyt, himself, Rick Mears and Hélio Castroneves) to have won the Indianapolis 500 four times (1970, 1971, 1978, 1987), the fourth of five to have won the race in consecutive years, and won the National Championship in 1970, 1983, and 1985. The Unser family has won the Indy 500 a record nine times. He was the only person to have both a sibling (Bobby) and child (Al Jr.) as fellow Indy 500 winners. Al's nephews Johnny and Robby Unser have also competed in that race. In 1971, he became the only driver to date to win the race on his birthday (his 32nd). After his son Al Unser Jr. joined the national championship circuit in 1983, Unser was generally known by the retronyms "Al Unser Sr." or "Big Al." Personal life Unser was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lola Cars
Lola Cars International Ltd. was a British race car engineering company in operation from 1958 to 2012. The company was founded by Eric Broadley in Bromley, England (then in Kent, now part of Greater London), before moving to new premises in Slough, Buckinghamshire and finally Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, and endured for more than fifty years to become one of the oldest and largest manufacturers of racing cars in the world. Lola Cars started by building small front-engined sports cars, and branched out into Formula Junior cars before diversifying into a wider range of sporting vehicles. Lola was acquired by Martin Birrane in 1998 after the unsuccessful MasterCard Lola attempt at Formula One. Lola Cars was a brand of the Lola Group, which combined former rowing boat manufacturer Lola Aylings and Lola Composites, that specialized in carbon fibre production. After a period in bankruptcy administration, Lola Cars International ceased trading on 5 October 2012. Many of Lola's asse ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chaparral Cars
Chaparral Cars was a pioneering American automobile racing team and race car developer that engineered, built, and raced cars from 1963 through 1970. Founded in 1962 by American Formula One racers Hap Sharp and Jim Hall, it was named after the roadrunner, a fast-running ground cuckoo also known as a ''chaparral bird''. Background Dick Troutman and Tom Barnes were builders of the original Chaparral race cars (later referred to as Chaparral 1). Jim Hall purchased two Chaparral 1s to race. When Hall and Sharp began building their own cars, they asked Troutman and Barnes if they could continue to use the Chaparral name. That is why the Hall/Sharp cars are all named Chaparral 2s (models 2A through 2J for sports cars/CanAm cars, and the 2K which was the 1979–1982 Indycar). Despite winning the Indianapolis 500 in 1980, they left motor racing in 1982. Chaparral cars also featured in the SCCA/ CASC Can-Am series and Endurance racing. Jim Hall was a leader in the innovation and des ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Johnny Parsons
John Wayne Parsons1975 Indianapolis 500 Radio Broadcast - Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network (May 25, 1975) (born August 26, 1944 in Van Nuys, California) is an American race car driver. He is the son of 1950 Indianapolis 500 winner Johnnie Parsons and Arza Parsons (née Mitchell). His parents divorced, and Johnny was raised with half-brothers Dana and Pancho Carter, the product of Arza's marriage with Duane Carter. The Carters grew up racing quarter-midgets in Indianapolis.Biography at the National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame His first name is spelled differently than his father's. Though not his legal name, he was sometimes referred to in the media as "Johnny Parsons Jr." to distinguish him from his father. Racing family Parsons started twelve Indianapolis 500 races. His last Indy 500 start was t ...[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tom Sneva
Thomas E. Sneva (born June 1, 1948) is a retired American race car driver who won the Indianapolis 500 in 1983. He primarily raced in Indy cars, and was named to the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2005. A former math teacher from Spokane, Washington, Sneva's win at Indianapolis followed several runner-up finishes and notable crashes. Nicknamed "The Gas Man," he was an outstanding qualifier, winning the pole position three times ( 1977, 1978, 1984). He was also the fastest qualifier on a fourth occasion in 1981, but because of qualifying rules did not start the race from the pole position. Sneva won two consecutive USAC National Championships for Indy cars in 1977 and 1978. Career Born in Spokane, Sneva played football and basketball at Lewis and Clark High School and a year of college basketball at Eastern Washington State College in nearby Cheney. After graduation from Eastern, he worked as a math teacher before racing full-time. Sneva was the eldest of five brother ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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