Center Conversation: The Milwaukee Mile (Steve Zautke)

• 00:00 Introduction and Speaker Introduction
• 02:11 Milwaukee Mile: The Oldest Racetrack
• 04:00 Early Races and Tragic Beginnings
• 06:51 The Golden Era of Racing
• 11:15 Midget Car Racing and Post-War Popularity
• 13:31 Iconic Drivers and Memorable Moments
• 20:10 AJ Foyt’s Pole Position and Race Highlights
• 21:18 The Marchese Brothers and Their Promotion Legacy
• 22:28 Ed ’20 Grand’ Steinbach: The Voice of Midwest Racing
• 23:08 Wisconsin Speedways Dinner and Racing Legends
• 24:13 The Rise of Stock Car Racing at Milwaukee Mile
• 25:22 Corporate Sponsorship and the Miller 200
• 27:00 USAC vs. NASCAR: The Evolution of Stock Car Racing
• 27:46 ASA’s Challenge and Dick Trickle’s Victory
• 28:20 NASCAR’s Arrival and Departure from Milwaukee
• 28:49 The Quarter Mile Dirt Track and Local Heroes
• 29:25 USAC’s Missed Opportunity with Marlboro Sponsorship
• 30:18 Memorable Moments and Racing Legends at Milwaukee
• 32:10 Rick Mears’ First Win and Penske’s Domination
• 34:53 The Decline and Revival of Milwaukee Mile
• 35:23 The Harry Miller Club and Vintage IndyCars
• 36:02 Milwaukee Mile Videos and Personal Stories
• 37:13 Closing Remarks and Acknowledgements

This episode is part of our HISTORY OF MOTORSPORTS SERIES and is sponsored in part by: The International Motor Racing Research Center (IMRRC), The Society of Automotive Historians (SAH), The Watkins Glen Area Chamber of Commerce, and the Argetsinger Family – and was recorded in front of a live studio audience.

[00:00:00] Brake Fix’s History of Motorsports series is brought to you in part by the International Motor Racing Research Center, as well as the Society of Automotive Historians, the Watkins Glen Area Chamber of Commerce, and the Argettsinger family. My name is Glenda Gephardt. For those who don’t know me, I’m the director of the center and I’m going to kick off today’s center conversation gathering and at this time I’ll introduce J.

C. Argotsinger who will introduce our speaker. Thanks. Well thank you very much and thank you Glenda. Those of you who don’t know that’s Glenda Gephardt who’s been with the racing center even before it was formed at least 16 years ago and she’s the person who makes the trains run on time and we’re very grateful for everything she does.

We do have a wonderful speaker here today. He bridges both the oval world and the road world, which are coming closer and closer together. As you know, we’ve had a number of oval track presentations in recent years, and of [00:01:00] course we always have been identified with road racing, but we do cover all forms of racing in all parts of the country and around the world.

Well, our speaker today is an author. He has just published a new book on Road America, which I just received last night and stayed up late reading. He is a native of Milwaukee, got involved with the Milwaukee Mile at a very young age. His father was a filmmaker and a fan and participated in the events there, organizing them and helping out.

He had the same sort of influence that I had. My father infected me with this racing bug and all of you in the audience I know are racing fans. It’s something, once you’ve been bitten, you don’t get it out of your system. So, Steve Zotke has driven in with his wonderful wife, Susan, who was the historian for a while at the Milwaukee Mile.

He also participates in this Henry Miller Club News, and he also is doing work for the new SVRA magazine that has come out. He’s a wonderful writer and historian. He’s also a devotee of Road America. So, without [00:02:00] further ado, I’m going to introduce Steve Zotke.

Thank you, Glenda and JC, appreciate it. The topic today is the Milwaukee Mile. A lot of people have heard about it, obviously my favorite track, next to Road America. World’s oldest continuously operating racetrack. A lot of people say, well, I thought Indy was, or it was Milwaukee. The operative word is continuously.

Indiana Fairgrounds actually held a race a couple of months before, and that’s the One Mile Oval in Indianapolis, which is their state fairgrounds. And they held a race earlier in the year, however, they didn’t hold races regularly till after the war, so thus, Milwaukee is the oldest continuously operating racetrack and it’s more of a marketing thing.

Bill and I were just talking about some people, you know, Knoxville in Iowa has been holding races since 1901, so, nationally sanctioned, you can go round and round, it’s like anything, you change numbers around and pretty much debate something till all end. Originally, the state [00:03:00] fair rotated from the 1850s.

The state incorporated in 1848, and then they said, let’s have a state fair like all states do. And it rotated around Madison. Most state fairs are centered at the Capitol. But Milwaukee was such a big city at that time, it was in the top 15 up until the 1940s. And also because it was on Lake Michigan.

Many of the people in the state and the government thought Milwaukee would be a better place to showcase the state than Madison at that point, which was not as big as it is now and not as well known. It’s been an ongoing thing where they were moving it, it moved to Janesville. The Oshkosh, and a lot of people don’t realize, also in the early 1970s, there was talk of moving the fair from West Allis, which is a suburb of Milwaukee, to Madison once again.

And so much so, that the promoters at the time, the Marchese brothers, Carl and Tootie, were actually thinking and had looked at purchasing land in southern Wisconsin, and were in talks of building a 1. 5 Super [00:04:00] Speedway. The first race was held at Milwaukee weekend of September 1903. This is a photo of Barney Oldfield and Tom Cooper.

Those cars were owned by Henry Ford. One was called the 999, which is the more famous car, and the other one was called the Red Devil. Tom Cooper is somebody that kind of is forgotten in history. It’s kind of an amusing story. Not for Tom Cooper, though. Henry Ford was a very devout religious man, as was his wife.

Tom Cooper is kind of known of a carouser, and Henry Ford’s wife was hearing these stories about Tom Cooper and what type of a person he was off the racetrack, and she told Henry that maybe Tom Cooper needs to work somewhere else, so Tom Cooper is kind of lost to history. The first race was held, like I said, September 11th and 12th, 1903.

Unfortunately, the first fatality happened. That’s the Red Devil. That’s the other car. You see models of the Ford 999, and the 999 is in the Henry Ford Museum. Unfortunately, there was a crash and Frank Day lost his life in the North Turn. That’s located just at the, pretty much the apex of Turn 4 on September [00:05:00] 12, 1903.

It was his first race. He was from Columbus, Ohio, from a well to do family. Racing back then is not anywhere how it was today. Back then it was more barnstorming. What they would do is have match races. It was more of a spectacle. People would come out because the automobile was so new. And they would have one, two, three car races.

And they were only for maybe one or two laps around the fairgrounds. And unfortunately he got pitched. He got thrown into the ground causing head injuries. Arnie Oldfield was not at the track that day because he had received injuries earlier in the month. Frank Day was filling in for him. Al Krause was a long time historian at the Milwaukee Mile.

Spent many days with Al Krause. Guess you could call him my mentor. Was a neat fella and had been attending races at the fair park since the early 30s. Passed away about 10 years ago. Milwaukee Mall programs are pretty much known, especially from 1961 on, mainly because of Al. A lot of neat stuff, and they’re very highly collectible.

Tom Marchese would tell, uh, Al, when putting together the programs, he said, Al, I only want [00:06:00] you to put in enough for the people to look at a couple of the pages during talent downtimes or a caution flag. Don’t make the stories too involved. So he would have a lot of these photos in the program such as this one, where it says here’s Barney Oldfield in this peerless green dragon.

There’s a number of these cars built. This is actually a shot of Barney at the Dallas Fairgrounds in 1905. However, Barney did set a track record in this car at Milwaukee in 1905. Barney also drove a lot of pretty iconic cars back in the day, including this, the Blitzen Benz. He also drove a Duroc, which was a French built car, the peerless Green Dragon that we saw previously.

And then this is the Blitzen Benz that he drove at Milwaukee. And you can see there, there’s a different set of the fairgrounds. The stands look a little bit different from the classic that you would see in the 50s and 60s. These were actually lost in a fire in 1914. First 100 mile race wasn’t held at Milwaukee until 1915, so you had a lot of match racing.

So you can see if the automobile, maybe you’d see him [00:07:00] driving down a street at 20 some miles an hour. A lot of the roads were dirt back then. For if you were a kid in these stands and you saw these cars coming down at you at 65, 75 miles an hour. No mufflers on them. It was quite the spectacle to see these cars with the smell and everything.

It was quite incredible. Not much for pit safety back then. Just kind of lean out over and then take a look. That’s the famous Golden Submarine. That was one of the first race cars that was built by Harry Miller. Racing against Ralph De Palma. Oldfield actually won the race. One of the more iconic photos at Milwaukee in 1917.

A lot of people know G. I. Case as a tractor company. However, they’re very involved in racing. Before World War II. Now here we got a little shot of Louis Disbro in the Case Special. Finished 8th in 1913. There’s also a shot of the 1911 Indy 500 at the start. You see these race cars that have mouths on them?

Those are also G. I. Case race cars. And they were on the front row at Indianapolis in 1911. But J. I. Case has a very [00:08:00] significant race in history. In fact, a friend of mine was doing some research and he decided to go over to J. I. Case, which is still based out of Racine. And they still have quite the accumulation of memorabilia and research.

It’s still there located at company headquarters in Racine. In the 1920s, the mile kind of faded from the National View. The reason for that was because of the board tracks. Board tracks, you had Beverly Hills, Altoona, Kansas City. Those were these huge, beautiful speed palaces. So the fairgrounds were kind of forgotten.

You had dirt. dust and whatnot, people would rather go to a board track and see these beautiful 91 cubic inch millers and all the top drivers at a board track. So Milwaukee pretty much had more of the homegrown drivers were kind of the rural back then. If you were a fan back then, these are the guys you would see at the store driving down the street.

So there’s more of a personal connection with these guys because they lived in your hometown. There’s Carl Marchese, he was a driver, drove at Indianapolis in 1927 before he got hurt at [00:09:00] Springfield. Chet Barnacle, he later became an official. And then Tootie Marchese, Ted Rosten, Stagnowicki, Louis Frank, Romy Sherwinski.

That’s the Milwaukee way of saying that. And then Porter Short. And these were, uh, just guys that were, uh, quite the speed demons back in the day. Some of you heard the name Tony Wilman. Tony Wilman was from South Milwaukee, located right off the Lake Michigan. I think it was always said, who is the best driver?

You always said, I’m trying to remember who it was. It was more of a obscure driver in the thirties, but Al Krause, the officer, the historian that we spoke of about before Tony woman is the best driver ever. So if you’re able to talk to guys like Tony and Paul Russo, highly respected driver. Rex Mays Classic started in 1950.

Rex Mays was one of the more popular drivers prior to the war. And then during the war, he flew bombers and fighters, ferrying them from the United States to England. The 100 mile race at Milwaukee in 1948, that’s Duke Dismore on the track. The number one is Ted Horn. And then the car on the right, that’s Rex Mays’s car.

What we [00:10:00] don’t see is out of frame, Rex Mays is in the groove, waving to the drivers, the steer clear of Duke Dismore saving his life. Unfortunately, about a year and a half later at Delmore, California, Rex Mays was involved in a similar crash where he got thrown from the car. Unfortunately, he did not survive because he got hit by another car.

So in 1915, it was decided that the 100 mile race in June would be called the Rex Mays Classic. The State Fairgrounds wasn’t just for racing. Until it was a county stadium in Milwaukee, the Green Bay Packers would play four games in Milwaukee. To this day, it’s what they call the gold package when they move all the Green Bay games to Green Bay.

The reason for that, Green Bay obviously could not support a National Football League team back then. So what they did is they have four games in Milwaukee, and the 1939 World Championship was held at State Fair Park. The football field would be located towards the south turn, just behind where the pit area would be.

And in that game, the Packers won the championship 27 to [00:11:00] nothing. You can see the football field on the left hand side. And then also the quarter mile racetrack that they would have midget racing on. This would be pre war. They built this grandstand, was part of the WPA program back then. That’s when they built it and you can see only half of it is done at that point.

Midget car racing took the nation by storm after World War II. People in racing, I don’t think, can grasp how big midget racing was after World War II. Especially on the west coast, you hear stories like Gilmore Stadium and that. One of my favorite stories that was told to me was, uh, Sam Hanks was a very successful midget driver.

He would come to the bank because he had raced pretty much Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday night and sometimes would win all the feature races. Well back then you literally got paid a cut of the gate. So he would have dollar bills and five dollar bills and coins shoved in every pocket and he would wear a sport coat.

So when he would go to the bank, he’d be pulling out dollar bills and putting them on the counter, dropping them, and the teller would be looking at him, What were you doing? Here’s a shot of Bob [00:12:00] Wilkie of Leader Card Racers. Before he started an IndyCar team, he was a distributor for Curtis Craft Midgets.

And that’s a Ray Richards who was a driver from Chicago, drove his car. That’s at Milwaukee. That’s about 1940. Guys should recognize that fella. It’s A. J. Foyt. He’s driving a Bob Hickman Midget at Milwaukee in 1957. And that’s the program cover. That was the final one. The final 100 mile race, USAC race, at Milwaukee for quite some time.

From the period of the late 40s up until 1961, that would be held usually the day before the IndyCar race. They got later into the late 50s, and unfortunately attendance was dipping less and less. Tom Marchese in 1961 says, if we don’t make money on it, this is going to be the final year. Unfortunately, on that Saturday, they only drew probably about 5, 000 people, and that wasn’t enough for them.

So, after 1961, they stopped. Having it. They did have a standalone race in 1965. It was sanctioned by Badger Midgets and Jiggers Roy, who some of you may remember, for almost winning the poll in 1969 and Indianapolis won that race. [00:13:00] Well, one thing I know a lot of people there, I just was somewhere last week and somebody was commenting about old photo.

Everybody’s wearing a tie in the sport called, this is one of my favorite shots too. Pretty much everybody has a hat tie and a sport coat on a dirt car race. This is before the, this is 1948 before the race was even paved. And this is a shot from, of the Dean Van Lyne car on Jimmy Bryan on the pole. And once again, full grandstands.

And in the back there, you see a little, almost looks like a big pizza hut. That was the Coliseum. During the winter, before World War II, they would hold indoor midget races in there. Very popular. Unfortunately, not well ventilated. I talked to a few gentlemen when I was a younger kid, and they said, by the end of the night, you were getting a little dizzy in there.

1952, here’s a shot, I mentioned this to J. C. earlier, we were talking about women not being allowed in the pit areas, and that’s S. Paoli and Chuck Stevenson. He won the championship and S. Paoli was the car owner but was not allowed in the pits at Indianapolis. Great answer to a trivia question, the track was paved in 1954, so he won the [00:14:00] last IndyCar race in 1953 on the dirt for J.

C. Agajanian and then 1954 won the first race for him when the track was paved. 1960, this was the June race at Milwaukee, there were almost 60 cars entered for 22 starting spots. So, on the pole there, that’s Jim Packard. Behind him was the winner of the 1960 Indy 500, Jim Rathman. Also in this race were Jimmy Bryan and Troy Ruttman, previous Indy 500 winners.

Future national champion Roger McCluskey was in this race. It’s just a who’s who of racing. And this was a 20 lap race that was held before the 100 lap race. And the top two went into the feature. And no, Rathman, Bryan, and Ruttman did not make it. This is the 1960 200 miler in August. Roger Ward, you see on the pole.

What’s interesting is that third car next to the 97. It’s an interesting story. That’s the Braun Plywood car. That was a brand new Eperle. Unfortunately, it came to Indianapolis too late and [00:15:00] did not make the race. That’s Parnelli Jones in that car. Qualified second. Everybody was like, who the heck is this kid from California?

A few weeks later, he was at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway doing a firestone test. Car was not handling right, didn’t feel right. So Tony Bettenhausen came over to the car, Tony Bettenhausen Sr., and Parnelli goes, this car isn’t, just doesn’t feel right. Tony gets into the car and comes in after two laps and said, I can’t believe this kid kept the car off the wall.

They made some adjustments and hit about 148 miles an hour. Tony went to his car owner, Lindsey Hopkins, at the time and said, Buy that car. If you buy that car, I can win the Indianapolis 500 next year. So, he was the fastest car then in 1961. Unfortunately, was test hopping a car for Paul Reuss and was killed.

People believe that Benton Housing could have won the 500 that year in 1961. In an indirect way, it was because of Pernelli Jones. Here we got a shot of Roger Ward winning a race in 1961 in the Sun City car. Roger Ward was Mr. Milwaukee Mile. He’s got the most wins for any IndyCar driver with [00:16:00] seven and won a variety of stock car races at the track too.

Loved the track. Roger, uh, I did an interview with him about 15 years ago. One of the first interviews I did, he said he was the first driver and it’s funny how so many echo the same thing after, was the driver’s track. He said, what I loved about Milwaukee is it was flat. And you could pick a line. If your car wasn’t handling, you could pick another line and maybe make the car handle.

And with Milwaukee, a driver could carry the car, especially in those days, more than you could at any other track. So Milwaukee, the kind of the cream of the crop, rose to the top. And Roger Waters certainly, when he teamed up with A. J. Watson and Bob Wilkie in 1959, that was the team to beat. Here’s another shot of Roger, that’s actually Lloyd Ruby, who didn’t have a ride that day, helping Roger get buckled in during practice.

And then J. C. Eggegenian with the cowboy hat. It’s amazing, there’s a photo, J. C. Osborks himself did a photo somehow. 1962, one of the more incredible races back in history, only because of Don [00:17:00] Davis. Don Davis was a driver from Phoenix and was driving a dirt car. Everything was working well for Don.

Qualified in the top 10, passed A. J. Foyt. A. J. Foyt was the Zen driver at that point. Won Indy in 61. Had problems in 62. Was the defending two time at that point national champion. Here comes Don Davis. Passes A. J. Foyt to lead. Incredible, and the crowd was going crazy. Here’s this guy in this Chevy powered dirt car, just taking it to the roadsters that day.

Don was literally dirt tracking it through the corners. Unfortunately, the right rear tire blew, and he spun. He already spun with AJ right behind him. AJ went to take the lead, but everybody was booing AJ. Because what they thought happened was AJ hit Don Davis. So he went to win the race, and you can see the expression on his face.

And the reason why he has this impression, because he’s being interviewed and the crowd is booing AJ, because they thought he booted Don Davis out of the race. Milwaukee is also known [00:18:00] for the first rear engine victory in IndyCar racing with the iconic Lotus cars with Jim Clark on the left and Dan Gurney on the right.

They qualified on the front row that day. Clark and then Gurney was second. People who might not know, how come Dan Gurney didn’t do as well as Jimmy Clark that day? The reason why was they only had one set of the correct carburetors. At that time they were running basically a stock block, fair lane block engine and they only had one set of the correct carbs.

So unfortunately Dan had to use another set of carburetors and he told me when he would go through the corners the car would bog and cough and then would pick up on the exit. So unfortunately he was running about a half a second behind Clark’s time but they were so far ahead of the roadsters that he was still able to qualify on the first row.

Eventually, Gurney finished third with AJ passing him. And this is the reason everybody loved Jimmy Clark. They asked Jimmy Clark why he didn’t lap AJ Foyt. He said, it’s one thing to beat a man, but you don’t want to rub it in his face. So that’s why he didn’t lap AJ [00:19:00] Foyt that day. Jim Hurtubise, 1964, is one of the most popular drivers at Milwaukee.

The 1964 Wrex Mays 100 was one of the more popular races just because A. J. Foyt and Roger Ward and Jim Hurtubise waged an epic battle, dicing back and forth and back and forth. Unfortunately, coming out of Turn 4, Roger Ward’s gearbox locked up. A. J. Foyt was able to avoid him, but unfortunately Hurtubise went over the right rear tire.

The car hit the wall, Hurtabees was knocked out of the car. Luckily for Hurtabees, it happened right in front of the pit area. Pit crewmen and firemen were able to pull him out and put the car out. He might not have survived if it was at any other place on the track. Foyt would go on to win the race.

Later that year, 1964, Mario Andretti made his first start in the 1964 Tony Bettenhausen, driving a lightweight Dean Van Lines Roadster. If you ever see A. J. and you don’t know what to say, just bring up the dirt track race at Milwaukee. He’ll start to smile. He’ll soften up. A. J. figures this is probably his greatest drive.

[00:20:00] 1965 in August, his Lotus IndyCar didn’t show up, and they had raced the previous Saturday at Springfield. Without the Lotus, A. J. said, well, let’s unload the dirt car, let’s see what we can do. And he went out to qualify, and Steve Stapp, who was a famous spring car builder and driver, was crewing for him that day.

He pulls in after qualifying. He asked Steve how you did. He goes, aj, I think you’re on the pole. AJ being AJ goes, you dumb. SOB, you can’t even use it. A stopwatch. And sure enough, AJ got on the pole, so AJ with a dirt car. There’s Dan Gurney in a Lotus Ford next to him. Went on to finish second. Fortunately, he had to make a a fuel stop later and Gordon Johncock went on to win the race.

If you ask aj, he’ll say, Lloyd Ruby won the race, but we don’t correct aj. AJ won the finish second, but many that day, it’s funny, it’s one of those things where there’s probably 35, 000 people, but if you survey, uh, racing fans in Wisconsin, about 100, 000 say they were at that race. 1954, when they repaved the racetrack, they commissioned a road course to be installed on the inside, and many [00:21:00] SECA national races were held at the Milwaukee Mile in the 50s into the mid 1970s.

If you ever talk to anybody who is involved in a professional level, especially with the racing, it’s not because of the money. It’s because of the people you meet in racing. There’s a lot of people that you meet. And I think any of us who’ve been involved in race can definitely feel the same way. The Marchese is that’s the Milwaukee pronunciation.

It’s actually Marchese. But people in Milwaukee say Marchese, and so instead of correcting them, they just went with Marchese. If any of you are Novi fans or fans of the Novi, the famous mechanic was Jean Marcenet, but when he got to Indy, he became Jean Marcenac. So it’s one of those. Tom Marchese on the left.

This is, uh, this, uh, This photo was taken about 1985 after he had retired from promoting, and that’s John Cation at the right, who took over for the Marcheses and partnered with them in 1968. How that started was racing, there’s a lot of unsavory people in racing in the 30s, and especially on the promotion side, and him and his brother Carl promoted a midget race at the [00:22:00] track in the late 1930s, and the fair board was so impressed how professionally they ran it, that they were businessmen.

They were involved in food wholesaling in Milwaukee. And they were so impressed on how they handled themselves and handled the operation that the Fair Board went to them and presented them exclusive promotion rights to the track. So from that point on up until 1968, they had the exclusive promotional rights at the track.

And then in 1968, they brought in John Cation to partner with them. They continued to promote at the track until 1983. Ed 20 Grand Steinbach. Not many people may recognize the name, but if you were, especially in the Midwest, in the 50s and 60s, you would recognize his voice. His full time job was race announcing, and he announced not only at Milwaukee, but he was from the Chicago area, and would announce Chicago area tracks, and also up at Road America.

Road Racing fans may have heard there’s a documentary made in the early 60s on the Scarabs, and 20 Grand is the one who’s narrating it. The August races were held during the fair. So, when there weren’t races, on those [00:23:00] other days, there were, a fair park acts would come through. So it wasn’t unusual for a lot of the acts to stick around for the race the next day and watch the races.

Wisconsin Speedways Dinner. And this was a dinner that they would have before the Rex Maze. The weekend before the Rex Mays race, right after Indy, and a lot of the big shots of racing would show up. In the upper left, we have Augie Papps, and then we have Mel Kenyon, Kelly Arbor from the NASCAR world.

That’s Bill Johnson. He was a local modified driver and drove midgets. And then we have Don White, was a USAC stock car driver from Keokuk, Iowa. Of course, we have super techs, AJ Foyt, Andy Granatelli. If you’re going to have a party, you’ve got to have Andy there. And then, of course, Tony Holman from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

1968, June 9th. Famous race, unfortunately, that was also the race that Ronnie Duman was killed at in 1968. Also the turban cars were there. Controversial to some people, but I actually brought racing to people. I brought it onto the sports pages. Lloyd Ruby that year, 1968, won both races. Won the June race in the 150 mile an hour and the Tibetan House in 200 [00:24:00] driving for Gene White.

That’s Bob Harkey in 1970 running next to Al Unzer in the 1970 Tony Bettenhausen 200. That’s the last dirt car to race in a national championship IndyCar race at Milwaukee. Stock car racing was huge at the Milwaukee Mile. This is a race from 1948. This is the first AAA sanctioned race that was held at Milwaukee.

And it was truly the number one racetrack for the North on the USAC and AAA side. Yes, they did race Edsels. That’s an Edsel on the left there. And that’s Don White in the number three Seiko Lube car. There’s a shot of Eddie Sachs and A. J. Foyt taken in 1962 or 63. What was populated with the USAC series.

You kind of see what’s happening now in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. In the USAC Series, you would have a lot of the IndyCar drivers race at the bigger races. Here you see Eddie Sachs and A. J. Foyt racing at USAC Stock Car, known for IndyCar racing. Because the IndyCar racers would race in the Stock Car Series, NASCAR really never cultivated [00:25:00] their base.

The Don Whites, the Butch Hartman, and those drivers. This is a shot of Norm Nelson, who was one of those drivers. This is strictly a stock car driver. There’s a shot of his transport rig. No tractor trailers in those days. And that’s how they used to go to the races back then. That’s a two car team. That’s a factory back, Plymouth back team.

That’s Jim Hurtubise’s car up on the top of the Norm’s car from 1965. 1968, the Miller 200. Many people think that this is actually the first corporate race sponsorship. In 1968, Miller, they sponsored a fire crew back in the day, and they had a lot of ties with the Milwaukee Mile. And they approached John Cation, who we saw with Tom Marchese.

About sponsoring the race and what that did, it added a large purse for a stock car race. This is probably, this was the largest race on the USAC stock car side at the time, kind of catapulted the race and Milwaukee into the national scene. So here is a program from 1971 and in order to receive the accessory awards, you had to run a large [00:26:00] Miller Hi Life sticker on your car.

And Armin Krieger, a lot of his shots are used in here. He’s in the National Spring Car Hall of Fame as a photographer shot from the late thirties up until 1993 was a family friend and was a neat guy. And as a good photographer, you see, he’s probably already got the shot of Larry Berwanger hitting the wall.

Now he’s checking to see what else is happening. The Milwaukee Mile held more races with the Dodge Daytona on the left and the Plymouth Superbird than any other. People may think Daytona, Talladega, NASCAR restricted the cars in 1971 by restricting their engine size. And then by 1972, they were outright banned.

However, USAC did not ban the cars and 12 races were held. at the Milwaukee mile for each year between 1970 and 1972. And late 60s and early 70s was probably one of the biggest attendance years for the Milwaukee mile so much so they even added auxiliary bleachers outside turn two. That’s Bobby Unzer’s in Nichols engineering Plymouth Superbird 1972.

This car held the track record at Milwaukee for [00:27:00] many years. Trouble on the horizon, 1970, the USAC series decided to bring in pony cars. You could run a small block pony car, such as a Chevrolet Camaro, with a smaller engine size, but with lighter weight, next to the Hemi’s that were being run like that one right there, with Paul Felder and a Dodge Magnum, which previously was a Dodge Charger.

USAC stock car series was, for a while was, you know, hand in hand with the NASCAR series. However, by the early 70s, the evolution slowed down on the USAC side. Whereas a NASCAR was continuing engineering, cars were getting faster and whatnot, it was more stagnant on the USAC side. Here’s a good example.

This is Dave Watson winning a race in 1977. That car started in 1972 as a Chevy Nova. All they did was just re skin it, put a new body, a Buick Skylark body, and he was winning races. In 1978, another racing series challenged USAC at Milwaukee Mile, and that was the American Speed Association. That’s Mark Martin as a 19 year old rookie.

These were lighter cars, faster cars in the USAC series too. More and [00:28:00] more drivers started to migrate from the USAC series to ASA. Here’s Dick Trickle after winning the Miller 200. ASA, with Rex Robbins as the head of it, was really good with promoting races, and he would try different things. Here’s a perfect example.

Who else would have Dick Trickle and Alan Kowicki taking a boxing match before a race? NASCAR came to the Milwaukee Medal for the first time in 1984. Here’s a shot of Alan Kowicki making his first NASCAR start at Milwaukee. The Grand National Series, as then it was called, was not the same Grand National Series you see today.

It was definitely a lesser series, and did not draw the crowds. Pfft. Stock car races faded away after 85, USAC did. NASCAR left it in 1984 and 1985, returned in 1993, ran at the track until 2009, and then moved to Road America in 2010. I mentioned it earlier, the Quarter Mile Dirt Track. You saw it in that one aerial shot.

That was the Quarter Mile Dirt Track. And on Thursday nights, they would race modifies at the track. And this was quite a popular [00:29:00] series that ran. Some people may have heard of Slinger. The Slinger Raceway in Wisconsin, they would run on Sunday nights, and then they would also run at Hale’s Corners, which also ran midgets, on Friday nights.

So, these were very popular for kids growing up, and a lot of the heroes to this day. Billy Englehart, who is, who drove Indy cars, that was his hero right there, the mouse. Miles Mouse Milius. Many people point at the split in 1970 and 1979 with USAC and CART and everything. 1971, USAC had a corporate sponsor, which was Marlboro.

You can almost take a look at this. This might have been an early shot over the bulk, so to speak, or misstep by USAC. 1971, Phillip Morris sponsored the whole series, put a lot of money into the series. The only caveat they wanted was they wanted to be the exclusive cigarette sponsor on the series.

Viceroy was also sponsoring the cars for Parnelli Jones. USAC didn’t want to offend or take that sponsorship away from Parnelli Jones, so they told Marlboro to walk basically. That same year, [00:30:00] Winston also started to sponsor NASCAR. NASCAR did not have an issue with telling other teams who had another sponsor.

You need to take a walk because he understood the growth that was possible with his corporate sponsorship sponsoring the whole series. Thus, after 1971, Barbara walked away from the sponsorship at USAC. A. J. Foyt, 1965, told you about how he finished second at Milwaukee in the dirt car. He also did the same thing in 1969, however, the cars were advancing that much more and did not have the success that he had in 1965, and I believe he finished ninth in that race.

1972, once again, there’s the viceroy car, Parnelli Jones, that was driven by Mario Andretti, the super team, there’s Joe Leonard also, Mark Donahue, after 1972 Indy 500 where he won, also, this was his only race at Milwaukee, at the 1972 Wrex Mays 150, people say Mark Donahue wasn’t an oval track driver, he did pretty well though, he finished second in his first and only race at Milwaukee.

1974, [00:31:00] Johnny Rutherford won his first race at Milwaukee driving the Team McLaren car. And that’s Roger McCluskey who is defending national championship running alongside. There’s Johnny in victory lane. And that’s Jack Baker, he was a local radio announcer who was also the track announcer for many years at Milwaukee.

Had the greatest leisure suits of anybody. There’s Super Tex. That’s A. J. Foyt in 1974. He won a race in 75 on his way to his sixth national championship in 75. And also won races in 1979. However, only won four races at Milwaukee. Only. And there’s Bobby Unzer in the Dan Gurney, Jorgensen Steel Eagle. Had the track record at Milwaukee for many years.

Not only in a stock car, but also an Indy car. Why a Tom Steeve in 1975 Indy 500 photo? As a young kid, after this race, they said Tom Steeve walked away and was not hurt. I was gonna kick out like, oh, he wasn’t really hurt. Well, he had to skip the next race at Milwaukee because he wasn’t hurt. In August of that year, he came to the track and I was walking down Pitt Road with my dad.

There’s Tom Sneva sitting on the wall. So we’re [00:32:00] talking to Tom Sneva and he pulls back his driver’s suit, takes off his watch, and you can see the flash burns there that he received in that crash. He wasn’t hurt, but he had a heck of a concussion. Rick Mears first race was at Milwaukee at the 1978 Wrex Mays 150.

Al Unser, who had won the Indy 500 the week before, ran out of gas with a few laps to go. Rick Mears, as a rookie, takes the lead, and out of turn three, he ran out of gas. Crossed the finish line at about 50 miles an hour, probably even less, with Johnny Rutherford fast approaching. But Rick was able to win his first race.

This is one of the most famous races, too, at Milwaukee. 1981 Wrex Mays Classic. That’s Mike Mosley and the Dan Gurney. John Ward designed Eagle. Chevy Stock Block. He was unable to qualify for the race. He blew an engine, and they had to replace the engine. Saturday afternoon, Saturday night, they got the car ready.

They put the car at the back of the pack, and he went to win the race. The man on the refueling rig, that’s Billy Vukovic, who had raced the previous week at Indy but did not have a ride. And [00:33:00] that’s Billy Vukovic refueling the car, and Stan Fox is changing the left front tire. I thought, that’s a heck of a pit crew to have.

He had two drivers in the Indy 500 the previous week, and they’re working on a pit crew. Rocket Rick. There’s Rick Mears after winning the race in 1990. Newman House Racing. Seven wins between 1985 and 2006, including five out of six wins between 91 and 96 with a variety of drivers. There’s a famous shot.

There’s a reason why I love this shot. That’s the victory podium. Of course, Michael won the race. John Andretti finished second. And there’s Mario in third. Mario’s a competitor. Mario wants to be in that top podium. You can tell in that shot right there. No family pride at that moment. That came later.

Nigel Mania, 1993. That year was my first year professionally working at Milwaukee as a videographer. And that was true Nigel Mania. Basically, they told me, just take photos, get video of Nigel. And it was a true zoo. Wherever he walked, there was a person. Crowd of people, they actually had to put two state troopers on them for the weekend.

The media crush was that big. 1992 [00:34:00] Formula One champion. He wasn’t able to come to contract terms with Williams and was able to come over to the United States, drive for Newman Haas, dominated this guy. Never drove an oval race before. Almost killed himself at Phoenix. Learned a valuable lesson there by not taking them too seriously.

Learned, okay, you got to take these things seriously. And from that point on, just really took to the ovals. And, uh, one at Milwaukee, as well as Loudoun, and just dominated the year. Speaking of domination, Penske domination. Of course, everybody remembers in 1994, the Mercedes that dominated the race at Indianapolis with Allenser winning.

The following week, they went to Milwaukee. With the normal engine that they were using on the cart series at that point. However, Penske dominated the race with Allens are winning the race. All Tracy and Emerson filled up all day filling out the podium as a light rain. You can tell it’s wet there and it just started to rain with five laps of race and it called the race.

The Milwaukee Mile today, it’s sad, but I still get people who come up to me and go, what’s [00:35:00] happening at the mile? And I say, well, they, they still run an IndyCar race there. The eyes on, you know, IndyCar series runs there and there’s a late model race that runs there. And then of course we have that Harry Miller meet, but the IndyCars, the attendance kept growing every year in the last few years since Michael Andretti’s group has taken over the race in 2011.

So it’s growing. This year, Will Power won the race for Penske and went on to win the national championship. If you get a chance, if you’re in the Midwest in July, the Harry Miller Club vintage IndyCar event is held. Usually it’s the week after the 4th of July. That’s the easiest way to remember. And we have anywhere between 50 and 60 vintage IndyCars from pretty much 1911 all the way up to 1965.

It’s all front engine Miller race cars. That’s the primary focus dedicated to Harry Miller, who his car is dominated in the IndyCars in the 1920s and developed the four cylinder Miller engine, which became the Offenhauser engine, which was used in IndyCar race up until late seventies, and it was started by Dave Eline, Chuck Davis, and Bob Sutherland.

Those three collectors and still [00:36:00] runs today. And this year we had our 20th anniversary. Milwaukee Mount videos. The shots of that, my father Bill, unfortunately he was passed, but shot movies for the Marcheses. And how that came about is, my dad was shooting video and there was an accident and a fella came up to him and said, are you shooting for anybody?

And it was Mike Billings, who was the number two guy in the fire crew. He goes, no. And he says, I’ll tell you what, why don’t you shoot videos or shoot movies of the cars and that, but also make sure when you shoot the, shoot us doing the cleanup on it. And they used it as training films. The safety crew at Milwaukee had a very good record for the track.

And nobody could get to the scene quicker than the Milwaukee mile guys. And they were very proud of that for many years. So I got those videos are available, both stock car and the IndyCar one.

Thanks to your brother guiding me. Who did one on Watkins Glen, along with Bill Green. I did one on Road America. It’s funny, you know, the Milwaukee Mile guy doing a book on Road America, but that is my second [00:37:00] home. I truly love the racetrack and everything that’s involved around it too. It’s, it’s been a love affair and they say you can’t serve two lovers, but with the Milwaukee Mile Road America, we’re very blessed in Wisconsin to have two such high quality racetracks.

Thank you very much. I appreciate it.

Well, Steve, thank you. I think they would have kept me here all afternoon. Your depth of knowledge is just incredible. This man hides his light under a bushel. As the evening went on and the afternoon went on, we realized the depth and the variety of racing that Steve is very knowledgeable on, and we are thrilled that you came here to Watkins Glen, and we’re going to make you a Watkins Glen Honorary Citizen.

Thank you. So not only Milwaukee and Elkhart Lake, but Watkins Glen. Steve will be available for more questions and sign his book if you would like to buy one of his books and we can converse over in the center further. No, if you guys have any questions, feel free to bend my ear and then I got the videos too.

Videos are a labor of love for me and they cover the both the stock cars and the Indy [00:38:00] cars. I got 20 years of Indy car footage on there and then the stock cars is a variety of stock car videos too. Thanks again. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thanks guys.

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