So did Y’all figure out my zany Mother Speedway trivia questione? Which was probably way too simple, eh? Especially for the likes ‘O Geo. Phillips, thee OLD-est IndyCar Blogger on thy planet; Hya! So here goes nothin’
Questions
Q1) What do Marshall Teague, A.J. Allmendinger, Bobby Johns, Andy Hillenburg, Lee Roy & Cale Yarborough, Frank “Rebel” Mundy and Bobby and Donnie Allison ALL have in common?
Q2) Who did Tim Richmond replace in Indy Cars and where did he make his NASCAR debut?
Q3) What California Oval track preceded Fontana
Q4) Who has the most victories and which team won the most races at the Pocono 500 from 1971-89?
Q5) When was the last time that more than 33 cars raced at Indianapolis
Answers
Q1) They were ALL ‘RASSCAR drivers FIRST before contesting the INDY 500, albeit Frank ‘rebel Mundy failed to make the race - just threw him in since I knew he’d tried at Indianapolis
Q2) Richmond replaced Larry Rice at Watkins Glen following his IndyCar debut at Michigan in 1978 en route to becoming the 1980 Indianapolis 500 Rookie Of the Year before jumping to ‘RASSCAR two months later, making his Roundy-round debut at Pocono...
Q3) Ontario Motor Speedway was the ‘Seester Oval track to Indianapolis, even going so far as sharing a ring of those famous Culver city “Pavers” (bricks) from which IMS got its moniker the Brickyard in it’s victory circle.
In 1972 Seattle native Jerry Grant became the first driver to officially exceed 200mph by doing so in that season’s California
Q4) ’Ol ‘SuperTex, nee A.J. Foyt won the 500-miler race in Long Pond, PA four times (1973, 1975, 1979 and 1981) while thee ‘captain’s team, aka Roger Penske won an astounding seven times: 1971, Mark Donohue; 1977, Tom Sneva; 1980, Bobby Unser; 1982, ‘85, ‘87,Rick Mears; 1989, Danny Sullivan.
Interestingly, Foyt won in “three” different chassis, with his first two wins coming aboard his own Coyote-Ford before switching to a Parnelli-cosworth and then a March-Cosworth.
Also, Pocono holds the dubious distinction of being Honda’s debutant IndyCar win when Bobby Rahal’s Truesports Lola-Judd won in 1988, albeit Judd was the forbearer to the official Honda Indy Cars engines...
Q5) Due to the infamous 25-8 rule enacted by Tony George for his ‘lil Indy Racing League, which I’ll not digress terribly other than I used to call it thee inDEE Retirement League amongst other nefarious names...
Thus in 1997, due to ‘The Split and George’s promises to IRL teams, even if their cars were SLOWER! Thus Lyn St James started P34 and Johnny Unser rolled off in the 35th and final starting position, as apparently both were granted entry into the B-I-G Show driving for Hemelgarn, albeit I’d naturally ARSE-sume that St James was driving for legendary Backmarker team owner Dick Simon.
Ironically the ’97 I500 race would be Unser’s best finish of his six starts at Mother Speedway, crossing the Yard ‘O Bricks in 18th place...