Journey into Gasoline Alley during one of the most evocative and exciting eras in the history of the great Speedway - the years of the Kurtis Roadsters, the lay-downs, the first Watsons, the formidable Novis, the V-12 Ferrari, the Bardahl-Ferrari, the Blue Crowns and the invincible Offys. Stunning photographs feature the cars, their engines, and their designs in amazing detail.
Journey into Gasoline Alley during the tumultuous 1960s, one of the most spectacular and controversial decades in the history of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Featured are fantastic photos of the last Novis, the wild racers of Mickey Thompson, Brabhams and the successful Halk copies, the astonishing STP turbine cars of 1967 and 1968, Dan Gurneys Eagles from 1966, Lotuses, the battle between Fords, and the turbo-Offys.
When a group of Indianapolis businessmen built a 2 1/2-mile track and decided to stage a 500-mile race in 1911 it was an epic undertaking with a huge purse for the times that drew racers from Europe as well as America. Delage, Peugeot, Ballot and Mercedes cars came to win dollars and inspire America's racing-car builders, Harry Miller and the Duesenberg brothers. Soon these native talents came to dominate the 500-mile race, introducing supercharging and front-wheel drive with great success in the 1920s and 16-cylinder engines in the 1930s. This new book in the Ludvigsen Library Series covers racers through the 1930s, completing the Series' sweeping panorama of the cars that raced in the ''500'' from 1911 to the end of the 1970s. Many rare photos from the earliest days of Indy bring the cars, engines and personalities of these pioneering years to life. The drama of their achievements made the Indianapolis 500 the world's greatest auto race.
Indy cars got their start on a car factory test track. That track went on to become one of the most famous racetracks in the world! Take in the long history of these open-wheel racers and much more in this title for striving readers.
This title offers readers cool facts about Indy cars, including what they're made of, what they can do, and how they are used. The title also includes a photo diagram, glossary, and an additional resources section. Aligned to Common Core Standards and correlated to state standards. SportsZone is an imprint of Abdo Publishing, a division of ABDO.
The world of Champ Car auto racing was changing in the 1970s. As cars became more sophisticated, the cost of supporting a team had skyrocketed, making things difficult for team owners. In an effort to increase purses paid by racing promoters and win lucrative television contracts, a group of owners formed Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) in 1978. Soon after, CART split from its sanctioning body, the United States Auto Club (USAC). Though Champ Cars ran on numerous tracks, the Indianapolis 500 was the payday that supported most teams through the season. From the beginning, CART had most of the successful teams and popular drivers, and they focused on driving a wedge between the track owners and the USAC. Over the next 30 years, the tension between CART and USAC ebbed and flowed until all parties realized that reunification was needed for the sake of the sport. This book details the fight over control of Champ Car racing before reunification in 2008.
The 1960s were a fascinating decade on the race scene. Relive the memories today through this wonderful new book. Drag racing has a long and storied history. Many have said that the first drag race happened shortly after the second car was made. While that may or may not be true, racing prior to World War II was mostly centered around dry-lake activities and top-speed runs. After the war, drag racing became organized with the formation of the NHRA, and during the 1950s, many tracks were built across America to accommodate the racers. Technology in the 1950s centered on the manufacturers updating old flathead designs into newer overhead-valve designs, and the horsepower race really started to heat up. In many forms of racing, the 1960s brought technological evolution. The decade began with big engines in even bigger stock chassis and ended with purpose-built race-only chassis, fiberglass bodies, fuel injection, nitro methane, and blowers. Quarter-mile times that were in the 13-second range in the beginning of the decade were in the 7-second range by the end. New classes were formed, dedicated cars were built for them, and many racers themselves became recognized names in the sports landscape. In Drag Racing in the 60s: The Evolution in Race Car Technology, veteran author Doug Boyce takes you on a ride through the entire decade from a technological point of view rather than a results-based one. Covered are all the classes, including Super Stocks, Altered Wheelbase cars (which led to Funny Cars), Top Fuelers, Gassers, and more.
Vel Miletich, Parnelli Jones, and their Vel’s Parnelli Jones (VPJ) Racing team of drivers, engineers, designers, fabricators and mechanics dominated the American automobile racing scene of the 1970s from Jones’s humble early career, to the pinnacle of motorsports: back to-back Indianapolis 500 race wins and three consecutive United States Auto Club National Championships. The name “Parnelli Jones” is synonymous with the sport of auto racing. Best known as the winning entrant at Indianapolis with Al Unser and the Johnny Lightning Specials in 1970 and 1971, the Vel Miletich/Parnelli Jones team eventually encompassed several different disciplines of motorsport. In addition to running what was then the USAC National Championship circuit, they were also fielding cars in USAC Silver Crown dirt track events, Formula 5000 events on road courses, NHRA drag racing, off-road racing and even Formula One. When the opportunity arose in 2012 for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Foundation to acquire many of the cars from the beautifully preserved Vel/Parnelli collection, the Foundation board members had no hesitation with making that acquisition. Although these cars are ideally viewed in person at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame Museum, the pages of this book will certainly whet one’s appetite for this most amazing collection.
