Who sanctioned the 1987 Indy 500?

[Muzza]

Fellows,

A question about the Indy 500: was that a USAC- or a CART-sanctioned race?

(we know that it was part of the CART championship, but what organization sanctioned it? For example, I call the 1982 edition a “USAC-sanctioned / CART race”. Would it be correct to use the same classification for the 1987 race?)

Thanks,


Muzza

[Flatspot]

Muzza,

Maybe this will help you. Indy 500 Winners by Sanctioning Body

You need Adobe Acrobat to read it as it is a pdf file.

Looks like USAC was the sanctioning body for 1987.

[Muzza]

Thanks a big lot, Mr. Flatspot!

So, getting ready for the weekend in Fontana?

Cheers,

Muzza

[Flatspot]

Getting ready for a noon tomorrow departure from home. Looks like things are looking up for Fontana. Many of the mandatory evacuations have been lifted and the city has recheduled their Scarecrow Festival to Friday. They probably wouldn't do that if things were too ugly. See you there!

[racer69]

Although it was a CART round for many years, as far as i know CART has never had anything to do with Indy (apart from entries), let alone sanctioning the race.

[macdaddy]

I'm thinking along racer69's lines here... To the best of my knowledge (not saying much), all modern-day Indy's have been USAC-sanctioned, up until just a few years ago.

[Muzza]

Hello, Racer69 and Macdaddy,

Your statements are correct. The Indy 500 was sanctioned by the AAA until 1955, then the USAC took over - until the establishment of the IRL. The relationship between IRL and USAC continues to be strong, even if the IRL "took over" the task of sanctioning this race (truly the USAC still is behind it, but Tony George wanted to use IRL as a "facade name" to emphasize the new league and to give it more identity).

I asked the question because I am building a racing website and this information is important to "categorize" the 1987 Indianapolis 500.

Cheers,

Muzza

[indycool]

Muzza, the way that worked in the '80s was that Indy was part of the PPG Indy Car World Series and CART paid points for it when PPG put it together with both CART and the Speedway.

[Muzza]

Thanks Indycool, this is correct, I understand.

How would you react if I called the 1982 and 1987 Indy 500 "USAC-sanctioned / CART championship" races?

This is the "category" I used to describe these races in my database. What is your opinion? Is that a good classification? Your feedback is welcome.

Thanks,

Muzza

[indycool]

Muzza, don't think that would be quite right because nobody talked about a "CART Championship" back then. Since it truly wasn't because USAC sanctioned Indy, they talked about the whole thing as the PPG Indy Car World Series championship. Indeed, if PPG hadn't thrown money both ways and pulled everyone together, the IRL COULD have been formed as 1982 or 1983.

[Muzza]

Fellows, (where the hell is Macdaddy, the resident CART history expert, when he is most needed? )

This is entailing into an interesting discussion... Indycool, let’s try to put the pieces of this puzzle together. I will try to keep this e-mail simple and short, so I will deliberately omit some chapters of history, and emphasize what happened in the 1980s and 1990s.

First there was the AAA National Championship (AAA stands for American Automobile Association), which was the most important car racing championship in the United States, and of what the Indianapolis 500 was one of the races. The winner of the National Championship would grab the Vanderbilt Cup (again, I am deliberately keeping things simple in this message, otherwise it would become a 300-page long treaty on the subject).

In the 1950s there was a very acrimonious fight amongst several different sanctioning bodies/racing associations/promoters that lasted for years. Finally, in 1955 the USAC took over the responsibilities of running the National Championship. And things went this way until the mid-1970s.

By then a new row about the control of the National Championship erupted, with team owners and most promoters in one side and the USAC and the Hulman family (owners of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway) in the other. It was a bitter dispute, that ended with the formation of CART, that took over the championship (Indycool, that’s where we seem to disagree – or not? Check the http://www.motorsport.com website, they have interesting historic information on this subject. There are of course other sources on this).

However, the Indy 500 remained under the USAC, with its own set of rules (that led to people running March-Buicks there and etc. – again, I am trying to make this short, please pardon the simplification).

For these reasons is that I am calling the 1982 and 1987 Indy 500 “USAC-sanctioned / CART championship” races. That’s what they were, right? Indy 500 did count points for the CART championship (PPG was only the title sponsor, but yes, they did “oiled” everybody’s hands CART and USAC, to keep the two sides attached), and the Indy 500 events were ran by the USAC.

(again, if this title does not satisfy you, please let me know the reasons and your suggestions. I am building a website – details will be disclosed soon - and I am looking for a “category title” to fit these races in. Would you prefer “USAC-sanctioned / Indy Car Championship”? I don’t like it, as Indy Car was only a brand name...)

Things remained like this until the winter of 1995/1996, when The Chasm happened, and the IRL was formed. CART retained the National Championship, and the Indy 500 were took over by the IRL.

Indycool, Macdaddy, folks, any comment?

Cheers,

Muzza

[macdaddy]

Sorry, Muzza. What you've said sounds pretty good to me.
But, "CART retained the National Championship" is a grey area, IMO. They reverted to the term "ChampCars" in an attempt to keep that part of their heritage alive.

I gotta book... I'll take a look...
That rhymes.

[macdaddy]

Allow me to quote Rick Shaffer, from his Autocourse book, "Official History of CART - The First 20 Years"...

Subject: 1982 Season...

"Prior to Milwaukee there was also an epic battle in the Indy500 (which once again did not count towards the CART championship)."

The book discusses the 1987 Indy500 to some length, but nothing of note that could contribute to the thread.

[indycool]

Muzza, here is how they were recorded in the 1985 CART Media Guide, which provided the first complete race-by-race listing of all so-called national championship races:

1979 -- Indianapolis was USAC sanctioned but counted toward the CART National Championship title.
1980 -- same.
1981 -- Indianapolis and Pocono were considered non-championship races. Because both Indianapolis and Pocono were USAC sanctioned, CART chose to eliminate them in 1981 as counting towared the CART National Championship title.
1982 -- same wording as 1981 but Pocono wasn't run.
1983 -- Indianapolis 500 was USAC-sanctioned but for the third time counted toward the CART/PPG Indy Car World Series title.
It stayed that way until 1996 but that's the wording from the guide at the time.

[indycool]

P.S. -- USAC wasn't formed from infighting by sanctioning bodies back then. AAA got out of the sport completely in 1955 after the terrible crash at Le Mans which killed dozens of spectators. In order to fill the void, Tony Hulman established and funded USAC, which started sanctioning races in 1956.

[macdaddy]

I might call the 1982 running a USAC event, which just so happened to feature entries from CART.

Why the curiousity about 1987, Muzza? Excuse my ignorance, but why was that a significant year? The points scored in the Indy that year were counted toward the championship.

[Muzza]

Macdaddy and Indycool,

Many thanks for your messages - they are very clariying. Based on what you said, I think better "category descriptors" for the 1982 and the 1987 Indy 500 would be:

- 1982 Indy 500: "USAC"
- 1987 Indy 500: "USAC-sanctioned, CART championship"

Indycool, your words about the formation of the USAC are right on the mark. As I said, I oversimplified the discussion to focus on the 1970s/1980s. Indeed, the AAA was questioning its participation on competitive racing since racing resumed after the Second World War (actually this entity was very divided on this concern). Remember that the AAA was founded in the beginning of the 20th Century, and racing -and the perception that society had of cars - changed a lot between those times and the 1950s (the AAA begun to sanction races in the early 1900s as a way of making automobiles more popular, and of promoting their use).

The 1955 Le Mans tragedy was more of catalizer (or a deciding factor) then a trigger to this questioning (should the AAA continue to organize races or not?). At the same time, though, there was a lot of infight between promoters and local associations (and things got quite rowdy and physical a few times) about who should sanction (and ultimately control) what.

Macdaddy, the 1987 Indy 500 is significant to the research I am carrying out because there was a spectator fatality during the race (Lyle Kurtenbach was hit and killed by a tire that flew loose from Gary Bettenhausen March 86C-Cosworth).

(I am not ready yet to announce our website, where this survey is published, but you know where to find it ).

Cheers, and thanks,

Muzza

[indycool]

Understand, Muzza....but Lyle Kurtenbach was hit and killed by a tire that flew loose from TONY Bettenhausen's car that was struck by Roberto Guerrero's....and I don't know where to find it.

[Muzza]

Hello, Indycool,

The only source I have available now (I am working remotely, thus unable to check my files), mentiones Gary Bettenhausen, not Tony - please check it at...

http://www.motorsport.com/stats/champ/data/ch198703.pdf

Is this wrong?

Thanks,

Muzza

[indycool]

I see where the mistake comes from. If you'll notice, 10th place is omitted from the boxscore. It goes from 9th to 11th. Tony Bettenhausen went on to finish 10th in that race after the tire incident, coming around to the pits, changing tires and returning.

[Muzza]

[laughing]

Thank you!

[indy88]

It was Gary's tire that came off and was hit by
Roberto.

[indycool]

indy88, no, it wasn't.