Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

[bluffman]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

After I returned to Indianapolis in early 1972, I went shopping for a team to work with, and one day I was milling around at A.J.Watson's race shop, and he received a phone call saying that Clint Brawner had been involved in an accident, and was hurt bad. Apparently something had fallen off a truck right in front of him on the freeway, and he couldn't avoid it. A.J. said that someone had to go to Phoenix and "save Clint". There was several of us hanging around, but before I knew it, I was on an airplane heading for Phoenix! I had never been on a 747, and I was amazed at the size of this aircraft, so I thought this was a pretty cool deal, although I was wondering what was in store for me at Clint's shop. This was during the first week of April, and whatever needed to be done to his race cars would have to be finished quick, because they had to be at Indianapolis by May 3rd or so. I don't remember who picked me up at the airport and took me to Brawner's shop, everything was happening so fast it seems like a blur. I was in for quite a surprise, there were two Indy cars, completely disassembled, and some parts were out for plating, and there were also at least three 4 cam Indy Turbo-Ford engines that were all apart. The cars were "Brawner Hawks", and I had never even seen one of these "up close and personal", let alone scattered around in pieces. I was going to need to "familiarize" myself real quick, as Mickey Thompson would say. I knew I needed help, so I called my old buddy from the Dockery days, Gordon Cole, because he lived in Phoenix, and would never back down for a challenge like this. Indy 1972 was going to be quite an experience!

[tuffer]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

Larry,

Great shot of #56 backed into the corner at Ascot. Boy do I miss that place. Talking about El Cento, a track seeminly made of sandpaper. We have burnt more that a few tires off at that place. As a old CRA, SCRA, USAC-CRA crew member I have throughly enjoyed your story. All the names bring back memories (young John Redican??), and show what a truly small world we live in. Thanks for continuing to relate your experiences.

Tom Barnes

[bluffman]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

At lunch today, I got to compare notes on the 1972 Brawner deal, with Gordon Cole, also checked the net for some data, and found some things.

The cars that we had to get put together were now called Brawner “Scorpions” for some reason, and had “Foyt” engines since A.J. had bought the 4 cam program from Ford. Same engine, but with Foyt on the cam covers instead of Ford. Gordon and I got a little bit of a break, it was decided that we would only have to get one car “race ready”, and the other one just kind of put together in one pile, so that it could be taken to Indianapolis and unloaded at Eldon Rassmussen’s shop. He would try to get it assembled. We also got some help from Clint’s nephew, Tommy Brawner, and Joe Pittman would assist on the engine work. There was still a lot to be done in a short time, and we put in some mighty long hours, much like the Grant King,” 23 day” car.

As always, when the going gets tough, the tough get going, and we got the #11 “Scorpion” finished, loaded on a trailer, hooked up to Clint’s Ford pick-up that was loaded with spare parts, tools, etc. Then Gordon and I hit the road for Indy. Somewhere along the line we had learned that our driver would be a “Rookie”, Jimmy Caruthers, who Englehart had beaten “Turkey Night” at Ascot driving the Grant King midget. Either a strange coincidence, or just the finger of fate. Who knows? Clint had told us to call in now and then during the trip, to let him know where we were or something, but that was a pain in the butt, and we ignored his wishes or orders, whichever it was, until we were somewhere in Oklahoma, or maybe Missouri. Anyway, I called Clint, and expected him to be irate, but instead he was very somber, and told me to put Gordon on the phone. Gordon got some bad news, but, as he said, “nothing I can do about it, and we have a race to run”, and we got back on the road to Indy. Whatever the problem was, Gordon would deal with it later.

We arrived at the “Speedway”, and checked in and picked up our credentials, and garage assignments, and they were the same ones that Clint had for many years, so there were already work benches and everything set up. Several guys helped us get the car unloaded and into the garage, and then all the crap that had been loaded into the pick-up per Clint’s request, unloaded and stashed out of the way. The next thing of importance was to get the USAC tech inspection tended to, and that all went well, no problems. Caruthers showed up, and we got him fitted into the car, the clutch, brake, and throttle petals adjusted and all of those “driver comfort” things. Jimmy was a nice young man, and I had known him and his dad, Doug for several years. Now, when the track opened , I/ we had to do the “rookie test” again, with all it’s “pain in the neck” drama with USAC observers. Clint arrived, and although he had a lot of pain and discomfort due to his injuries, and he wasn’t at the top of his game, he had dealt with rookies several times, so it went pretty smooth, the only thing that I recall being a problem was that Jimmy complained about his vision, and he was sent into town for some glasses, and after getting them, and going back out on the track, was a statement he said, “it’s scary out there when you can see!”

Larry

[bluffman]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

The rookie test was out of the way now, so Jimmy could get out and get some practice, and try to get up to a speed that would be fast enough to make the race. Judging by the practice times of some of the “hot dogs” it looked like it might take 182+ MPH to get a starting spot. Jimmy was struggling at about 175, and we for sure had to do something to get him going. These turbo Foyts and Fords were hard on clutches pulling out of the pits, and it didn’t take much to smoke one out, so we told Jimmy that we would have some of the guys push him to get him going. The “signal” to go would be when he noticed the crew pushing him, and the car started rolling, then he would dump the clutch and take off. Well, we should have had a better “signal” than that, like maybe someone standing in front of the car, and waving him out when it was clear. Disaster struck, I was just ahead of the right rear tire, leaning over “blipping” the throttle to keep the engine from loading up until the oil temperature guage showed some heat, and someone leaned on the rear wing, and the car rolled a little bit, and Jimmy dumped the clutch, and “wham”, the rear tire hit me, knocking me out of my chair and onto the ground! He had no idea that he hit me, and drove away. Someone pushed my wheelchair over to where I was laying, and I swung myself up into it, and once I gathered my wits, I knew that I had a broken right leg, below the knee. I had broken that leg once before, and I recognized the pain. (polio only damaged the “motor” nerves, and not the “sensory” nerves, so I had normal feeling.) I didn’t want to create a spectacle, so I told the guys to keep him running, and I would be back shortly. I wheeled back to the garage, and pulled my pants leg up, and I could see that it wasn’t a compound fracture, so I got a piece of aluminum and bent it to fit around my leg, and used some duct tape to hold it in place. Then I went back out to the pit, and Jimmy was still running, and I didn’t mention anything about my leg. We made a few changes when he came back to the pit, and sent him back out. We weren’t gaining much speed, no matter what we did. Jimmy was “stuck on a speed”, something that rookies do, and there was no reason to keep running that day, and the track was going to be closed for the day soon anyway, and we took the car back to the garage. I went to the Vet’s hospital for an X-ray, and I only had a “hairline fracture, so the Doc said, but he insisted on putting a cast on my leg. That didn’t last long though, as soon as I got to the house I was staying at, I removed it, and just taped it up. I wasn’t going to be walking on it anyway, and I didn’t want anybody at the track to know it was broke. Hell, we had a race to get ready for, and that was all that mattered at the time! The leg wasn’t very painful anyway, and I could deal with that, just another sacrifice to the “God of Speed!”

I am posting a photo of Jimmy during practice, note, no decals, etc. But you can clearly see Jimmy’s “glasses.”

Larry

[B52Hfan]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

Day-am!!! That brings taking one for the team to NEW Heights!

[hm66sk]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

Man, I sure hope that this is backed up on the NORAD server or some equivalent! It would be a shame to lose this history to some software glitch!

[gp70442]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

Amen to that.

[bluffman]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

Thanks for your interest and comments guys, I think I have it covered as regards to losing all this stuff.
Larry

[bluffman]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

We were having a rough time getting Caruthers up to speed, he just flat couldn’t get comfortable, no matter what we changed. He was stuck at about 175 to 176 MPH. Bobby Unser and Peter Revson were practicing at 190+, and there were a lot of cars in the high 180’s. There were a few other drivers that were stuck at about the same speed as Jimmy, and some were Indy 500 veterans. We did engine changes, gear changes, spring, shock absorbers, wing, tire stagger, and nothing helped. I reckon we had changed everything but Jimmy’s shorts!

The first week- end of qualifying came and went and we could only hope that he could get some speed during the week, and try to qualify on the second week-end. Bobby Unser had the pole at 195.990, Revson ran 192.880, but the speeds dropped off dramatically, only 14 cars qualified on the first day, and as the rules stated, first day qualifyers were “locked in”, sort of, no matter what there speed was. The 14th place qualifyer was John Martin at 179.610, quite an unbelievable difference in speeds. It was obvious that we weren’t the only ones strolling around in “la, la” land. There were 14 cars that later qualified faster than Martin, but would start behind him in the race. Jimmy wasn’t one of them, but he squeeked in at 178.900 MPH, and would start 31st, in the last row with Cale Yarborough, and Wally Dallenbach, both 500 veterans.

There were only 14 cars running at the end of 500 miles, and Caruthers finished in 9th place, right behind Mario Andretti. Mark Donohue won the race, followed by Al Unser, and Joe Leonard. At least Jimmy finished the race, and being in the “top ten” was pretty good.

I am posting a photo of us on the staring line. Behind me is Tommy Brawner, Max Irwin, (I was staying at he and his wife’s house) and Eldon Rasmussen (obviously Eldon didn’t get the other car together) and behind Jimmy is Joe Pittman.

Larry

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

Thanks for your interest and comments guys, I think I have it covered as regards to losing all this stuff.
Larry

Larry, All.. I also have redundant backups of this site and this board... second drive on the server, always houses a recent (weekly) backup of the entire server.. I also frequently back up the specific database for this site's message board and download it to my local system... as well as copy it to the second drive..

At worst, some lapse of attention on my part, or pifft factor of some link in the hardware/software chain, might give me some headaches, and we could lose a few of the most recent posts... (also backed up via email to my in-box back a month or so of most current posts).. it's doubtful, we'll lose Larry's priceless contributions!!!!

But thanks for the reminder to run the BU program!!!

[bluffman]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

After Indy, we went to Milwaukee, on June 4th,and Caruthers qualified 17th, and finished 12th. Sixteen cars were running at the end, all Offys except Jimmy, and Dick Simon, as they were still running the Foyt/ Ford. Of the 24 cars starting the race, 19 were Offys, and 5 were Foyt/ Fords. Bobby Unser won, Donohue, Gary Bettenhausen, and Vukovich were on the same lap. It was a pretty exciting race, as was usual at Milwaukee on the “flat” one mile track, and they always had a good crowd of spectators. We loaded up, and headed back to Indy to get the “Scorpion” ready for the next race at Michigan on the two mile, high banked track , scheduled for July 16th.

Things did not go well at Michigan, Salt Walther crashed in practice, and was unable to make a qualifying attempt. This left an opening for Jim Hurtibise to qualify his antique “roadster” in 26th, and last position. Caruthers qualified 16th, the 5th fast Foyt/ Ford. The Offys seemed to be the way to go this year, but Michigan was going to question this theory, come race time. We had a problem before pushing our car in line for the start of the race, the fuel had been topped off much earlier, and as the sun got higher in the sky, and the air temperature got warmer, I noticed fuel seeping out of a refueling connector. These were spring loaded, so I gave it a tap, thinking that it wasn’t seated good, maybe a sloppy “O- ring” , but when I tapped it fuel sprayed out, for some reason the fuel tanks were pressurizing. The vent valve must have been stuck. As we continued pushing into line, I would tap that damned thing now and then, and try to bleed off the pressure. When the “Gentlemen, start your engines” came over the speaker, I gave it one last tap, and it seemed to be alright, no spray of fuel. Maybe we had “dodged a bullet.” The cars rolled off for the parade lap, to get into position for the start of the race, and as Jimmy came by it seemed to be O.K. The next lap the green flag was waved, and the race was on! It wasn’t “on” for long though, on lap 4, Mike Hiss and Merle Bettenhausen had a horrible crash coming off of turn 2. Somehow Bettenhausen’s car went under the steel “Armco” fence, and severed his right arm, of course a red flag was thrown to stop the race. Merle’s brother Gary withdrew from the race, and went to the hospital with him. After they had repaired the fence, they restarted the race, and Hurtibise blew an engine on lap 12, and as Jimmy came off turn four on lap 13, the oil tank exploded, dumping about 5 gallons of oil on the track, and a yellow flag was waved to slow everyone down while they cleaned up “our” mess. They brought the car in on a hook, and took it into the garage area, where we looked it over. The oil tank was in the front of the car, just behind the radiator, and it looked like a bomb had gone off in it. When the fuel tank pressurized, alcohol had seeped by the piston rings and went into the oil pan, and when he got to running, a piston let go, and the flame from ignition ignited the fuel that had mixed into the oil, and “boom”, end of that story! After the race was restarted again, cars started dropping out , and by lap 50, eleven cars were eliminated, mostly with blown Offys. By lap 80 over half of the field was out. Joe Leonard won the race with an Offy, followed by about six Foyt/ Fords. Now it looked like Offys were not the “hot tip” after all, but the next race at Pocono, Pennsylvania, on July 29 would settle this, when there were 26 Offys, and 7 Foyt/ Fords that made the field of 33 cars, and there was only one Foyt/ Ford in the top 12 when the race ended, and that was Caruthers, and he had crashed on lap 160. There were only 9 cars left running at the end of 200 laps.

I kind of did a fast forward from Michigan to Pocono, but I will explain that in my next post. Jimmy’s crash was very bad, and there were other problems that will take some time to write about, and it is very late, and I am pooped!

Larry

[kiwiracefan]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

Awesome posts Larry keep it up, many many posts ago there was a picture of the Dan Gurney 'eagle' Can-Am car over this past weekend i had the experience of a lifetime watching 7 Can-Am cars racing in NZ, just thought id post a couple of pics for everyone, the #48 Gurney 'eagle' McLaren M6B car was out, so were 3 other McLarens, 2 more M6B's and a M8E, also in the field were a Rawlson CR11 and Lola T163 Can-Am, and a Lola Frissbee
1 image shows what many drivers watched for several seasons, a McLaren M8E and M6B walking away from the field, the other shows the Gurney 48 car
These guys were not just doing parade laps, these guys were racing for keeps and it was awesome to watch

[bluffman]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

Just want to point out some things we did trying to get Jimmy up to speed at Indy. This photo is as the car was when we started out, compare with the previous photos, no bullets welded onto the intake logs for streamlining, the additional extensions on the front wings, and the air dam under the nose. Hard to believe that none of this made any difference in his speed. Note also that "Steed" oil additive, and "U.S. Armed Forces" decals and lettering was added due to their sponsorship. The other clipping is Jimmy and I having a "discussion", regarding speeds.

Larry

[MUSNTCHIT]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

In addition to Larry's driver, Jimmy Caruthers, eventually being a USAC National Champion in the Midget Division (1970) and in the Silver Crown Division (1975)...He was also an avid pilot...fixed wing and helicopters... as were several of Larry's drivers thru the years... Perhaps he has planned to get into some of these stories in the future...rb

[bluffman]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

The Pocono race in 1972 was a bad deal, Hurricane Agnes had gone through there, and there was a big flood in the Wilkes- Barry, and Scranton region of Pennsylvania, and the track was in Long Pond, between those cities. I remember that we got there, and got situated in the garage, but I am not sure if we ran any laps before the flood control dikes burst, and the track flooded, washing most of the asphalt paving away in the garage area. There was very few hotels or motels near the race track, but Tommy Brawner and I had got a place in Stroudsburg, 20 or 30 miles away. I recall that we had gotten a warning, and put the car up on jackstands or something, and left the speedway to get to our hotel, and it was several days before we went back to the track. Meanwhile the flood waters were rising there also, our room had a back door into the parking lot, and I remember that Tommy opened that door to look out, and the water was getting real close to coming into our room. We jokingly decided that we needed to know what a cubit was, in case we had to build an Ark. There were several other race teams staying there, so this became a topic of conversation in the bar. There were lots of opinions about the cubit thing, and after a few beers, of course these opinions got really strange. This kept us occupied until the water receded, and we could go back to the track. There was a lot of tension in the neighborhood, there had been 10,000 homes and businesses damaged or destroyed, and many people were living in tents and such, and they were not happy that all these damned racers had all of the good accommodations filled.

Eventually we were told that we could go to the track and clean up the mess, there was a lot of mud to deal with, and our racer was looking pretty bad. We decided to begin cleaning it, and I swung myself up on the left side pod, so that I could reach into the cockpit and wipe it out. Everything was wet, and slimy, and I slipped and fell to the ground, landing hard on my butt. I felt a sharp pain in my lower back, and after getting into my chair, the pain seemed to get worse, and I was getting a lot of pain down into my legs. I tried to deal with it for a while, but something told me that I had better get to a hospital. I didn’t say anything about it to Tommy or Clint, I just went out and got in our truck and headed for Stroudsburg to find a doctor. I found the hospital, and went in to an emergency room, and told a guy there that I had a problem, then another young man came in, I guess they were interns or the equivalent. They helped me up on an examining table, and started checking me over, and they did that reflex thing where they tap you in the knee, and ankle with that little hammer thing looking for a twich. They seemed to panic, and I tried to explain to them that I had polio, but they didn’t seem to understand what I was saying, or thought I was delirious or something, they just flat would not listen. They left the room, and came back with a lady doctor who checked me over. I could hear them speaking in hushed tones, and I wasn’t really paying much attention to them. In a few minutes, I caught a glimpse of this doctor coming at me with a syringe, and I told her that I didn’t want a shot, just do a nerve block or something because I had to get back to the racetrack. She said, “you aren’t going anywhere, you have a broken back.” I told her that I just wanted to leave, and pushed her away, and she told those two guys to hold me down, and she zapped me with something pretty good, because I went out like a light.

I must have been out for quite a while, because when I woke up, I was in a bed with my legs up in the air in traction, or possibly some kind of medieval torture rack. Nurses would come in and offer pain shots, but I would tell them to leave me alone. I needed to try to keep a clear head, so I could think of a way to get out of there. It had dawned on me that Clint and Tommy had no idea where I might have gone, and why. It must have been about three days before they located me, by checking all the hospitals and police departments in the area. They were also trying to get the race car ready, and they couldn’t ignore that, after all, that’s why we were there at Pocono. I was sure glad to see Clint, but he couldn’t stay long, but said he would be back the next day to see how I was doing. When he came back, he asked me if there was anything he could do for me, and I told him, “hell yes, get me out of here, find my clothes, and unhook me from this traction, and help me escape!” He got kind of a devilish look on his face, and I detected a little bit of a smile, and off he went looking for my clothes. (this is something he would do if he was in my place, not a doubt in my mind) It didn’t take him long, and we were off and running, in the truck, heading for the hotel. The next morning we went to the track, and got some work done, and decided to take a break, and go to the snack bar in the garage area, but just before we got there we had to pass by the infield medical facility, and a doctor came rushing out and asked me what I was doing there, and didn’t I understand that I had a broken back. I informed him that I had come there to run a race, not lay around in a hospital, and I would tend to the back problem after the race. His face went a little pale, and he sort of went limp, but he told Clint, “at least take him into town to a place where they can make a brace for his back.” The doc gave us an address to go to in town, and later in the day we went to this place. It was just a house, and an elder lady met us at the door, apparently the doc had called her and told her what to do. We went into her living room, and she told me to get on the floor and take all of my clothes off , and I did so except for my shorts. She came back in and said, “I meant all of your clothes, do it!” I was embarrassed, and uncomfortable doing this, but I wasn’t about to argue with her. She took some measurements, and disappeared into another room, and I could hear some kind of machinery running, and she came out with a canvas looking thing, wrapped it around me, then went back into that “workshop” and did her thing, then came out again and put this corset on me, did some more measuring and disappeared again. She had sewn some metal rods into the corset, and the fit seemed to please her. She said, “that should do it, now you can get dressed.” She proudly said, “you now have a lunbar- sacral corset, cut low for setting , with metal stays”. Who was I to argue the point? The next morning we were back to the track, getting the car ready for practice. I did as best I could for a couple or three days, but the pain was getting unbearable, and I was becoming more of a liability than an asset to the team, and I told Clint that I should probably go home. He knew how bad I wanted to stay, but agreed that I should not continue trying to work. He, Tommy and the crew would get Jimmy in the show, I would just have to “set this one out”. Somebody took me to the airport, and I headed back to Indianapolis.

Note: I feel that I must explain something. The only thing usable in my legs was my left foot, and ankle, and I could push the gas petal with that, and I had made a clip on thing using part of an aluminum crutch with a steel plate that fit over the brake pedal, so I drove cross- legged to work the gas, and used my left hand to operate the brake. I designed this so that it would fit about any car, so that I could take it with me on an airplane, and rent a car and go where- ever I needed by myself. I still use this type of gadget, although I have refined it some over the years. I don’t use the crutch part, I rebuilt it many years ago from 4130 steel.

Larry