I think AJ was the greatest driver ever. He could drive anything. I knew all the drivers including AJ back in the 60's when they raced at Du Quoin State Fairgrounds Racetrack. AJ won Du Quoin 6 times. AJ is only driver I know who won Indy (4 Times), Daytona 500, and 24 hours of Lemans. Back then they pulled their cars on a trailer behind a pickup truck and lived in motels. Every year there would be pickup trucks missing because drivers got killed in accidents a lot back n those days. Most of the drivers stayed in motels in MT. Vernon, IL because there was no motels close to Du Quoin. I met him at a motel in MT. Vernon in 1963 and watched him race at Du Quoin that year. I remember when I saw AJ he told me he was hungry. He gave me a 20 dollar bill; and, I went to Kentucky Fried Chicken and brought back some chicken for him.
I live in Du Quoin. My Grandfather and Dad were at every race in Du Quoin. My Dad was there the day the lion tackled A.J. I have so much stuff about A.J. and a lot of other drivers.
@@tracy326 A.J. was a tough one and a good one! Been to Du Quoin many times when I was younger. Grew up in Jefferson County on a farm. Many of my ancestors are from there. I am a NASCAR fan now!
My kindergarten teacher lived next door to Roger Ward. He came to our class in April 1961 - two years after his first Indy 500 win and the year before his second. We were pretty awestruck. He was very patient with our kindergartner-level questions. Mrs. Poland was the best ...
I was 9, then 10 years old that year. I was lucky my Dad, a former midget and Crosley race driver, took me to some of these races back then to see those great drivers run those dirt champ beasts. What a sound they made!
I remember seeing quite a few of these drivers at Tri-City Speedway in Granite City, Il. in the 1960's. My father and I were big fans of the Midgets and the Sprint cars.
At the beginning I was wondering if Clark drove in the race, but I guess he didn't. He actually did drive in a NASCAR Grand National race at Rockingham, NC. When asked why a big shot F1 driver would race stock cars on an oval he said that all forms of racing deserved respect and that a racer should experience all the different disciplines. That's a real champion, unlike the snobs & specialists they have today. Unfortunately, it also eventually cost him his life.
Yeah, but NO different than guys like Tony Stewart who ALSO, when not racing in the "big time," would often be found racing something else! Just a lot less safety equipment back then and, yes, considerably more drivers killed, especially on THIS circuit. You did notice what a rut on this track almost did to Foyt, I'm sure. Even now, sprints are considered among the most dangerous things to run. Seems like I can recall reading about 5 deaths a year on the Sprint circuit while I was growing up.
It would have been interesting had Clark been racing in the 70's. It would have been fun seeing him race in Daytona in a cup car. I think he would have enjoyed racing in NASCAR and he would have loved trading paint with Petty and Yarborough and, maybe, Earnhardt.
@@susanboylefanable yes but these are not sprints they are the big cars the dirt champ cars, part of the "Indy" champ car circut longer and have more fuel capacity still a handfull to drive even if not as tough as the old days like this in the silver crown roadsters
Thanx Dan...I'm just a simple multi degreed Engineer who has seen my country change so much the last 30 years it breaks my heart....and sometimes pisses me off.
RRaquello This guy perfectly describes what is wrong with auto racing today, and to be more specific, its fans who say that oval racing (i.e. NASCAR/IndyCar) is better/boring than Road Racing (i.e. F1, Sports Car Racing), and vice versa. Like, I can only imagine what social media would be like back in the 1960s, when drivers like Clark, Graham Hill, Mark Donahue, Peter Revson, AJ Foyt, and Mario Andretti roamed the earth-drivers who would race anything, anytime, anywhere B/C, like Clark said, all forms of motorsport deserve respect. I bet you anything if social media and websites like YT were around back then, there wouldn't nearly be the snobbery by people around the world like there is now.
Watch USAC silver crown. Basically these cars but faster and they have a roll cage. The track in this video is the Springfield mile still on the schedule today. Highlights on RUclips
I wonder how the new breed of Indy car drivers would like it if to when the championship you had to run dirt, pavement, sprints, midgets. The old days of racing were by far the best. Though very dangerous. We lost a lot of heroes back in these days. That would be hard to take.
The roll bar was there to protect the hand made aluminun tail tank. There were guys lined up for their shot at the big time back then. The driver was just another component to fine tune. Unfortunately.
wish they would bring this type of racing back, so much better then the pretty boys crying when something goes wrong. Parnelle Jones would always say that's racing if he was in a wreck or car breaks down.
It's what they did back then & it worked all right. If you can, get hold of some video of the 1930's guys racing all-out at the IMS when it was just paved with BRICKS! 😁 1st time I saw any, my reaction was like, "WOW! People actually RACED on that!!" BUT, if you hadn't noticed, the steel fencing is atop a 3-foot concrete retaining wall. Nothing against safety, but racing's always been dangerous.
No crazier than any of the crazy things we do today. Earliest auto racing was only about getting cars to go fast, & THEN about trying to make sure mire drivers could walk away from a crash.
Myfirst race was at the Milwaukee Mile the year Rutherford had a very ugly accident and ended up on fire, seperated from his car, in the middle of the track. All i saw was my dads hand tight over my eyeballs. I would not havepegged him to SURVIVE, much less
07:23 Oh, how typical! One of those young generation lads just standing there starring into this smartphone, missing what's around him. I'll bet this young man will never make it into something in his life!
Clark raced and won championships in many types of cars: Fort Cortinas (known for lifting the inside front wheel in turns!), sports/GT cars and many open wheeled formulas both before and during his F1 career. This included several LeMans entries, his best results being a 2nd in class/10th overall in a Lotus Elite in 1959 and 3rd overall in an Aston Martin DBR1/300 in 1960.
+partofthepuzzle Not to knock Jim Clark, but picking up the inside front isn't that big of a deal. On my oval track car, if I didn't pick up the left front 8 inches, the other guys asked what was wrong with the car. The rear wheels had a lot of travel, the fronts didn't. It's the car, not the driver.
That's just how it was done then. If you wanted to race, you took the risks. Driver & track safety didn't start making huge advances until about the 1970's.
Today racing is all spec and that is killing the sport. They know this and it is time to go back to the three disciplines. For example a AMA motorcycle champion could win on dirt and pavement and a true USAC champ could do the same. Today they only have drivers who are trained for pavement or dirt and the cars have to be the same. BULLSHITT! Same with stock cars fuck that bring back the old ways of racing because fans do not like or are entertained by spec racing. That is for IROC or what ever dumbshit thinks will sell
Springfield is laid out symmetrically. 1/4 mile straights, 1/4 mile turns. The turns at DuQuoin are long. If you can’t go fast enough to “diamond” them, there is almost a short straight in the middle. I have done a couple of hundred laps around DuQuoin on a motorcycle 🙂
I think AJ was the greatest driver ever. He could drive anything. I knew all the drivers including AJ back in the 60's when they raced at Du Quoin State Fairgrounds Racetrack. AJ won Du Quoin 6 times. AJ is only driver I know who won Indy (4 Times), Daytona 500, and 24 hours of Lemans. Back then they pulled their cars on a trailer behind a pickup truck and lived in motels. Every year there would be pickup trucks missing because drivers got killed in accidents a lot back n those days. Most of the drivers stayed in motels in MT. Vernon, IL because there was no motels close to Du Quoin. I met him at a motel in MT. Vernon in 1963 and watched him race at Du Quoin that year. I remember when I saw AJ he told me he was hungry. He gave me a 20 dollar bill; and, I went to Kentucky Fried Chicken and brought back some chicken for him.
I live in Du Quoin. My Grandfather and Dad were at every race in Du Quoin. My Dad was there the day the lion tackled A.J. I have so much stuff about A.J. and a lot of other drivers.
@@tracy326 A.J. was a tough one and a good one! Been to Du Quoin many times when I was younger. Grew up in Jefferson County on a farm. Many of my ancestors are from there. I am a NASCAR fan now!
It is very cool to see my dad cotton in some of these old racing films. 🤠 I sure do miss my father. GOD BLESS YOU DAD RIP.
I remember your dad racing!
My kindergarten teacher lived next door to Roger Ward. He came to our class in April 1961 - two years after his first Indy 500 win and the year before his second. We were pretty awestruck. He was very patient with our kindergartner-level questions. Mrs. Poland was the best ...
I was 9, then 10 years old that year. I was lucky my Dad, a former midget and Crosley race driver, took me to some of these races back then to see those great drivers run those dirt champ beasts. What a sound they made!
It never and I mean never gets old watching them work turns in those old roadsters.
thank God for Dick Wallen .
I remember seeing quite a few of these drivers at Tri-City Speedway in Granite City, Il. in the 1960's. My father and I were big fans of the Midgets and the Sprint cars.
At the beginning I was wondering if Clark drove in the race, but I guess he didn't. He actually did drive in a NASCAR Grand National race at Rockingham, NC. When asked why a big shot F1 driver would race stock cars on an oval he said that all forms of racing deserved respect and that a racer should experience all the different disciplines. That's a real champion, unlike the snobs & specialists they have today. Unfortunately, it also eventually cost him his life.
In about 1946 , Corning ny, midgets at the Veterans Memorial. Whole family went. NEVER forget.
Yeah, but NO different than guys like Tony Stewart who ALSO, when not racing in the "big time," would often be found racing something else!
Just a lot less safety equipment back then and, yes, considerably more drivers killed, especially on THIS circuit.
You did notice what a rut on this track almost did to Foyt, I'm sure.
Even now, sprints are considered among the most dangerous things to run.
Seems like I can recall reading about 5 deaths a year on the Sprint circuit while I was growing up.
It would have been interesting had Clark been racing in the 70's. It would have been fun seeing him race in Daytona in a cup car. I think he would have enjoyed racing in NASCAR and he would have loved trading paint with Petty and Yarborough and, maybe, Earnhardt.
Clark defied the odds for a long time driving Chapman's unreliable Lotus cars before one finally killed him.
@@susanboylefanable yes but these are not sprints they are the big cars the dirt champ cars, part of the "Indy" champ car circut longer and have more fuel capacity still a handfull to drive even if not as tough as the old days like this in the silver crown roadsters
I think its amazing that an engine could run a hundred miles on a dusty dirt track with no air filters.
this is lovely,,,thank you to share,,55 year fan in Torino,Italy,,
cheers!!
This is what REAl speedway was all about.....Guts and glory....
This is when men were men and racers were racers and not corporate PC spokesmen..
this gets my vote for the best and most accurate comment ever seen on youtube.
Thanx Dan...I'm just a simple multi degreed Engineer who has seen my country change so much the last 30 years it breaks my heart....and sometimes pisses me off.
Steve you can thank the spineless liberals and agenda driven media for that. Then again I'm probably preaching to the choir but I'll say it anyway.
@Dan...Choir here...have a nice day dude.
@@stevefowler1787 your not alone with those feelings.
RRaquello This guy perfectly describes what is wrong with auto racing today, and to be more specific, its fans who say that oval racing (i.e. NASCAR/IndyCar) is better/boring than Road Racing (i.e. F1, Sports Car Racing), and vice versa. Like, I can only imagine what social media would be like back in the 1960s, when drivers like Clark, Graham Hill, Mark Donahue, Peter Revson, AJ Foyt, and Mario Andretti roamed the earth-drivers who would race anything, anytime, anywhere B/C, like Clark said, all forms of motorsport deserve respect. I bet you anything if social media and websites like YT were around back then, there wouldn't nearly be the snobbery by people around the world like there is now.
I don’t think they had social media in the 60’s
Watch USAC silver crown. Basically these cars but faster and they have a roll cage. The track in this video is the Springfield mile still on the schedule today. Highlights on RUclips
I wonder how the new breed of Indy car drivers would like it if to when the championship you had to run dirt, pavement, sprints, midgets.
The old days of racing were by far the best. Though very dangerous. We lost a lot of heroes back in these days. That would be hard to take.
The new breed of Indy drivers wouldn't even sit in one of those cars with the engine turned off. Well, Scott Dixon might.
Awesome! Champ cars are incredible. Thanks for sharing.
OK, so these WEREN'T sprints, but the Champ cars themselves?
It doesn't get any better than open wheel sprint car racing on a 1 mile dirt track! It was legendary!
Brilliant stuff!! I have great interest in American motor sport history.
Wonderful racing video - Thanks!
Apparently back then they didn't grasp the concept that the roll bar needs to be higher than the racers head.
Go back a few years further & they didn't even HAVE roll bars, lol! 😁
The roll bar was there to protect the hand made aluminun tail tank. There were guys lined up for their shot at the big time back then. The driver was just another component to fine tune. Unfortunately.
wish they would bring this type of racing back, so much better then the pretty boys crying when something goes wrong. Parnelle Jones would always say that's racing if he was in a wreck or car breaks down.
These 2 tracks have changed very little. I love it!
Ward was a quiet winner..a Real Pro
Now if We the People could developer a worthy racing series to showcase this track, Milwaukee, etc.
I have won a few motorcycle races on the DuQuoin mile. Love that place 🙂
this is amazing seeing Dan Gurney sliding into a dirt car. Its about the only thing he didn't race.
Gotta love all the steel fence just waiting to cut someone in half.
It's what they did back then & it worked all right.
If you can, get hold of some video of the 1930's guys racing all-out at the IMS when it was just paved with BRICKS! 😁
1st time I saw any, my reaction was like, "WOW! People actually RACED on that!!"
BUT, if you hadn't noticed, the steel fencing is atop a 3-foot concrete retaining wall.
Nothing against safety, but racing's always been dangerous.
I didn't expect to see Johnny Rutherford in this!
He didn't get a ride @ Indy 'til around 1971!
jeff pace .......better get a history book.
@@susanboylefanable with the flag man standing on the track. We've come a long, long way.
@@susanboylefanable lol.
I wonder if some of these guys placed bets on whether racing or smoking would kill them first.
My point its crazy to not have it atleast over your head ...
No crazier than any of the crazy things we do today.
Earliest auto racing was only about getting cars to go fast, & THEN about trying to make sure mire drivers could walk away from a crash.
Safety, what safety!
A.J. Foyt and Johnny Rutherford... they turned-out to be pretty good, didn't they?
Myfirst race was at the Milwaukee Mile the year Rutherford had a very ugly accident and ended up on fire, seperated from his car, in the middle of the track. All i saw was my dads hand tight over my eyeballs. I would not havepegged him to SURVIVE, much less
A.J. Foyt - Best Ever‼️🇺🇸🏁
this era was so dangerous
07:23 Oh, how typical! One of those young generation lads just standing there starring into this smartphone, missing what's around him. I'll bet this young man will never make it into something in his life!
Yea, will never win anything.....
Oh if only someone had given Mr. Hurtibese some competitive equipment
LOVE the dirt miles !
Clark raced and won championships in many types of cars: Fort Cortinas (known for lifting the inside front wheel in turns!), sports/GT cars and many open wheeled formulas both before and during his F1 career. This included several LeMans entries, his best results being a 2nd in class/10th overall in a Lotus Elite in 1959 and 3rd overall in an Aston Martin DBR1/300 in 1960.
+partofthepuzzle Not to knock Jim Clark, but picking up the inside front isn't that big of a deal. On my oval track car, if I didn't pick up the left front 8 inches, the other guys asked what was wrong with the car. The rear wheels had a lot of travel, the fronts didn't. It's the car, not the driver.
You're right, sir. Saw modified flathead Fords doing that every lap at a paved 1/4 mile flat track in NC back in the mid fifties.
Ha, and people think "drifting" is a new found sport. Stockers and Sprint Cars have been doing it for decades.
Cotton took a heckva bump there...wow
Why O why do people think they need to add "music" to these video's. Just ruins the damn thing. Gotta watch it in silence.
If they made them run the dirt mile tracks as part of Indycar none could do it.
Cool post but that 1985 music is terrible
Springfield and DuQoin
Dirt is for racing, Asphalt is for getting there.
Been to DuQuoin many times, long straights, short corners. Springfield is just the opposite, long corners, short straights.
Les Bratton huki
i want one
They wonder why racing is boring today. Well Bring back USAC rules where you have to win on dirt, short track and high speed ovals.
Great to see those cars and drivers, but not a good choice to put that totally incompatible but typical of today music in there.
Are these today's silver crown cars?
Why the crappy music?
geee-them men wore face masks waaaa baaack whennn
Love the racing but that soundtrack music is terrible. Had to watch it muted.
Nice roll bars I see they dont even make it over there heads ...
That's just how it was done then.
If you wanted to race, you took the risks.
Driver & track safety didn't start making huge advances until about the 1970's.
Yep. American racing became safety uber alles after the 1973 Indy 500. It's far safer now, and much more boring.@@susanboylefanable
Its illinois
Rufus was the best!
Today racing is all spec and that is killing the sport. They know this and it is time to go back to the three disciplines. For example a AMA motorcycle champion could win on dirt and pavement and a true USAC champ could do the same. Today they only have drivers who are trained for pavement or dirt and the cars have to be the same. BULLSHITT! Same with stock cars fuck that bring back the old ways of racing because fans do not like or are entertained by spec racing. That is for IROC or what ever dumbshit thinks will sell
what's the point...
Been to DuQuoin many times, long straights, short corners. Springfield is just the opposite, long corners, short straights.
Dirt tracks are either paper clips or bull rings. Both have their place. Both are great to watch.
Springfield is laid out symmetrically. 1/4 mile straights, 1/4 mile turns.
The turns at DuQuoin are long. If you can’t go fast enough to “diamond” them, there is almost a short straight in the middle. I have done a couple of hundred laps around DuQuoin on a motorcycle 🙂