Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

[bluffman]

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

So, I wasn’t there for qualifying or the race, but I am almost glad, the way it turned out. Jimmy qualified 18th of a 33 car field. Bobby Unser was on the pole, followed by Gordon Johncock, with Mario Andretti and Al Unser, both driving the new Parnelli VPJ1 Offy next. Caruthers crashed on lap 160, credited with 10th place leaving only 9 cars to finish the 500 miles. JoeLeonard won the race in one of the VPJ1 Offys, followed by Johnny Rutherford in an Eagle Offy, and Al Unser in a VPJ1 Offy. I was told that Jimmy was running in the top five when the right front tire blew, and he hit the wall hard, as the following photos will show. It is hard to believe, but he raced again at the California 500 on September 3rd.

Larry

[bluffman]

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

After I got back to Indy, I gathered up my stuff, and flew back home to California, and went to a doctor who had been treating me for several years, and was familiar with my physical condition. He had X- rays done regarding my lower back problem, and pain, and he told me that the doctors back in Stroudsburg had over- reacted. I had a small fracture at L- 4, but it was not real serious, but there was a lot of swelling, and rest and some therapy was all that I really needed. I took it easy for a while, and soon I was up to par again. This worked out good, and when the Ontario track opened up for the California 500, I was there to see what was cooking.

There was some drivers there that were ”playing hurt”, Jimmy Caruthers after his crash at Pocono, Mike Hiss had crashed at Michigan, Art Pollard crashed at Indy, and it seems that there were a couple of others, but I don’t recall who they might have been. Caruthers, Hiss, and Pollard had suffered leg fractures, and were hobbling around with crutches or canes, and Jimmy’s hands had been burned pretty bad as well, and he was wearing some special gloves to protect them from infection. USAC required these drivers to demonstrate that they could get in and out of their race cars in a certain number of seconds, without assistance, and they all “passed the test”. During the pre- race drivers meeting Frank Delroy, the head tech man for USAC made a request that when the drivers were told to get in their cars after the pre- race festivities on the starting line, these “injured” guys would try not to look like a bunch of escapees from a veterans hospital. This got a chuckle among the group. Caruthers qualified 7th, Hiss 20th, Pollard 31st.

Jerry Grant started on the pole in a Eagle Offy, and A.J. Foyt was the only Foyt/ Ford powered car in the top ten, in 6th place. In the 33 car field there were only 7 Foyt/ Fords, 1 Smokey Yunick turbo Chevy, and 25 Offys. Roger McCluskey won the race in a McLaren-Offy, Mike Hiss was second, Art Pollard 7th, and Jimmy Caruthers 12th. The escapees did well, as expected, because “They Were Racers!”

Larry

[bluffman]

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

Early in 1973, I went down to Daytona Beach, Florida to work for Smokey Unick, at his, “Best Damned Garage in Town” to work on his Turbo- Chevy Indy engine. I had hoped to work for him after the Bonneville Salt Flat record runs he did with Cameros in 1967. This was to be quite an experience, but it didn’t go like I expected. The race shop was in a building behind his “Best in Town” auto and truck repair shop, and one day one of his mechanics from up there was taking a walk during his lunch break, and looked in through the open door and saw me working in my wheelchair, and came in to talk to me. This was “taboo”, Smokey didn’t allow anyone in the race shop, except those of us who were hired to be there. This guy had worked for Smokey for many years, and knew the rules, but his curiosity got the best of him. Smokey spotted him, and fired him on the spot, and told him to go up front and pick up his paycheck, bang, just like that. We worked very long hours, and I wasn’t getting much sleep, besides that the humidity there was unbelievable. I was doing some grinding on a cast iron Chevy engine block, and I was wringing wet with sweat, which made the iron dust to get all over me, and it almost instantly turned to rust. It was nearly impossible to get this rust washed off in a shower. We were supposed to be at work at 7:00 AM, and often worked until two in the morning, which didn’t leave much time for showering and sleeping. Smokey had a bad hearing problem, and I tried to tell him that I couldn’t keep working in that heat and humidity, as well as the long hours. He would just look at me talking, nodding his head, and then walk away, then it dawned on me that he hadn’t understood a thing I said. I had noticed that he could hear over the telephone though, so one day I noticed him sitting in his office, and there was a phone on the workbench where I was, and I called him, then told him what I had been trying to say. He told me that he understood, and thanked me for going there to work, then told me to go up to the front office, and his secretary would give me a paycheck. Much to my surprise there were two extra weeks pay added to what I had coming. I had drove there from Indy in one of my brother Joe’s old Cadillacs, and I headed north to Indianapolis to find something else to do.
Larry

[AAFO_WSagar]

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

Thanks again Larry for this continuing story! 57,000 + views and counting!

Fascinating story, we simply HAVE to meet at Reno this year!

Hope you're feeling well, please, keep up the good work, your series has become a favorite of the entire racing community!

[kiwiracefan]

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

Wayne I totally agree, this is a daily look for me and im loving reading it

[bluffman]

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

How Embarrasing! On my last post, I had brain fade. I read it over three times before posting it, and something didn't look right, but I couldn't figure out what it was. I woke up this morning at 5:30, and I don't know if I dreamed it or it just came to mind, but I got up and fired up my computer, and there it was, I had spelled Smokey's name wrong. He was "Unique", but his name was spelled with a "Y", as in Yunick!

Larry

[bluffman]

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

After returning to Indianapolis from Smokey’s I went looking for something to do. Things on the home front in California had deteriorated over the past two or three years, maybe longer, due to me being gone and traveling so much. Jane and I had been married in 1956 while I was in the Air Force, and I had been gone from time to time up until my discharge in 1959, going to England and Libya with the B- 47 jet bombers during the “Cold War”. Then after contracting polio, I was in and out of Veterans Hospitals, so I wasn’t home very much from the start. We kind of hung in there for a while, and when I got well, and started getting involved in auto racing, she supported me, and approved of my choice to really go for it, although we never imagined, or considered what this would lead to. When I had the opportunity to go to Indianapolis for the 500, in 1966, we talked about it, and she agreed that I should give it a try. We had four children by then, and there was no way that she could go along for the ride. Unfortunately, there were a lot of broken marriages in big time auto racing, the long work hours, and traveling took their toll, not to mention the “groupies”.

Jim Hurtibise was looking for a mechanic, so I went to work for him. He had a Lola- Turbo Offy that we were going to try to qualify for the 1973 Indy 500. We had problems with burning out right front wheel bearings, and Jim never got much practice time, so he was not able to get up to speed. The records indicate that there were 68 entries, 4 crashed, 4 were back- up cars used only in practice, and 3 that the drivers did not get their rookie test completed. Sixteen cars did not make an attempt to qualify. Lee Brayton crashed his #61 Coyote- Foyt, and after repair, Dick Simon crashed it again, but Simon made the race in another car, an Eagle- Foyt. Gordon Johncock won the 500, followed by Billy Vukovitch, the top eleven finishers were Offys. There were only 6 Foyt/ Fords that made the race, and 1 Smokey Yunick turbo- Chevy, the rest were all Offys. Fate would have it that my next job would be with the crashed Brayton #61 Coyote.

Larry

[bluffman]

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

After Hurtibise missed the show, and Brayton and Simon had crashed the #61 Coyote- Foyt a week or so before the Indy 500 race, during practice or qualifying, I was hired by Lee Brayton and John Eisenhour to get their car ready for the race following Indy at Milwaukee on June 10th. This must have been a different 72 Coyote, because I don’t recall doing any repairs. I had hired Tommy Brawner to help me, and I think the major thing was to get it painted in the sponsor, Diamond- Reo’s colors, red, white, and black. We only had a week or so to get it painted, and an engine installed, so there was a lot to be done, quick. I called Lee to ask him how he wanted this color scheme done, and he said he didn’t care as long as it was red, white, and black. The design of this car made it difficult to do a “whoopdy- do” paint scheme, because it had side pods, and the cockpit was like a raised island or something, it’s hard for me to explain. Anyway, I had one side painted red, the other side painted black, and the bodywork down the center was white. I thought it looked pretty cool, but after we got it to Milwaukee, and ran few laps, the officials, I guess it was CART , said it was confusing to the flagman, and whoever else was on the outside of the track, because when it went down the front straightaway it looked like a black car, and over on the back straight it looked like a red car, making it hard for them to keep track of which car it was. I could see their point, but anything that confused those in high places somehow pleased me. Lee qualified 20th, and was running pretty good, picking up spots, moving up in the field. I don’t recall what position he was in when it came time for a pit stop, but it was pretty good. We called him in for fuel and tires, but that was when everything went to hell. The fuel hoses did not fit the recepticals on the car. This was proof positive that this was not the same car that was crashed at Indy, because they worked there. All we could do was send him back out, and let him run until he ran out of fuel. On lap 121 he coasted in, done for the day, but due to attrition and all, he was credited for 15th place.

Larry

[bluffman]

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

After the fiasco at Milwaukee with the refueling hoses we got the proper fittings from Foyt, and I have no idea why, but we didn’t take the Brayton car to Pocono for the race on July 1st. There is nothing in the records indicating we were there, and have no memory of being there either.

Brayton had this big experimental Diamond- Reo truck that was a semi tractor, but instead of using a big rig trailer they had mounted a large box type thing on the frame of the truck, it had a lift deal on the back for loading and unloading the car and equipment, It was a real “hot rod”, had a big turbo on it which was pretty rare in those days. Tommy Brawner would drive it, and I would ride shotgun. It was real fancy, and had seats that went up and down, and a lot of other features that were not common in 1973. We always hated stopping at a truck stop for fuel because the truckers there would mob us and want to get in the cab and check everything out. Another thing that drew a lot of attention was that they could see Tommy unload my wheelchair, and there was a chrome bar on the side of the cab, I guess it was a hand- rail or something, anyway, I would slide down this bar into my chair, and they could understand that, but the main attraction was that they had no idea how I was going to get back in. This always drew a crowd, some people just peeping around corners like they didn’t want me to notice them. I would simply wheel up to the truck, grab the bar, and climb hand over hand up the thing, and swing into the seat, sort of like a monkey climbing a tree, and Tommy would put my chair in a compartment on the side of the truck cab. This was a really big truck, so I reckon it was no wonder that they were curious. Tommy and I always got a chuckle out of this, because it was not really a big deal, just different.

The next race that we went to was at Michigan, on the two mile high banked track, on July 15th. This turned out to be a rather traumatic trip from Indy to Michigan.

Larry

[bluffman]

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

I am not lost in space or anything like that, I am just gathering what information that I can to continue the trip to Michigan, and get the facts as accurate as possible. I will get that Big ol' Diamond- Reo on the road to Michigan soon.

Larry

[bluffman]

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

Tommy and I got that big diesel to Michigan, and checked into our motel, and shortly thereafter, I started feeling very strange. I began running a fever, and it got worse and worse as time went by. It dawned on me that this seemed to be similar to a problem I had in the fall of 1954, and again in 56 when I was in the Air Force. The doctors had not determined the cause either of those times, but to get the high fever down they had packed me in ice. I remember seeing them putting the ice on me before I became unconscious, and waking up still covered with ice. Strangely, I was only kept in the hospital overnight, and returned to duty, with no after effects. Here it was, 17 years later, and the same thing was happening! I recognized the feeling, and knew it was urgent to get myself cooled down. I had Tommy get ice from the machine in the motel, and pile it on then told him go try to find a drug store to get a thermometer, and maybe some kind of medication from the pharmacist. I was fading out, and losing consciousness by then. Whatever Tommy did worked, and I woke up sometime later, and the fever was gone. I felt alright, and we had a race to run, so , “it was, get back to work” time.

Lee Brayton could not get the #61 Coyote up to speed, no matter what we did, and Dick Simon had crashed his Eagle/ Foyt, and although Dick had crashed Brayton’s car at Indy, I suggested that we put him in the car. Lee agreed, and Dick qualified the car in 20th place. After a few laps into the race, Simon started moving up through the field, and was in the top 10. This was a 200 mile race, 100 laps, and on about lap 60 or 65, he came in for a pit stop, and as he was being refueled, I was looking the car over from a short distance, and I was sure that I had seen some steam coming out of the right side pod, where one of the water radiators was. Before I could do anything, he was off running again, and I asked the crew if any of them had noticed the steam, and they all replied “no”. When he came by, it looked O.K. so I assumed that maybe I had not seen steam, could have been smoke from the brakes being hot when he had pitted. Dick was flying, and had got up to 5th place, but on lap 80 the Foyt engine gave up, “big time”. He coasted into the pit. Man! was that thing hot, with a capital “H”. He had leaked out all of the water, and running at 10 to 12,000 RPM with that turbo charged engine, it was in serious “meltdown”. There was a stainless steel screen in front of the radiator, and a 5/16 th stud with a cross- threaded nut on it from the rear cover of the transaxle from another car had went through the screen and embedded itself in the radiator. I had been right when I thought I had seen steam. I asked Simon if he had noticed the water temp guage reading high, and he said that he had noticed it was pretty hot at one point, but then it seemed to cool off. Of course, when there is no water, the guage is ineffective, so he just ran her till she blew, not knowing that the water had gone away. After we got back to Indy and pulled the engine, and tried to take it apart it was real obvious that it had been hot, hot. Some of the combustion chambers in the heads were melted, as well as some pistons. This Foyt/ Ford was junk! I don’t know how it kept running as long as it did, it seems like Simon should have felt it seizing up, but maybe at the high revs, it happened too quick. At close to 200 MPH, running in traffic on that high banked track, with the adrenalin rushing, I reckon it could happen that way. No big deal, I guess, those engines only cost about $30,000.00, but that’s “big time racing”. Like I always said, “speed costs money, how fast do you want to go?” That was always my favorite saying, Clint Brawner’s was “Illigitmi non Carborundum”, which he said meant, “Don’t let the bastards grind you down”. He had a sign in his race shop with that on it. Anybody know any Latin?

Larry

[Double ugly]

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

That's exactly what it means.
John

[bluffman]

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

The race following Michigan was Milwaukee, again, on August 12. We repaired the radiator, and put the only Foyt engine left in the Coyote. I don’t recall the history regarding that engine, as to how many miles it had on it and so forth. I fired it up after installing it at Indy, and it sounded good, and the oil pressure was fine, ignition timing was as it should be, so we loaded the car in the truck, and hit the road to Milwaukee. When the track opened for practice Brayton went out , and somehow a rabbit got on the track, and he hit it with the left front suspension, and of course he came into the pits right away. I couldn’t believe what I saw, there was “rabbit” spread along the entire left side of the car. It must have been a big rabbit, because it looked more like he had hit a cow. The smell was terrible also, because parts of that critter had gone into the hot radiator. It took a while to clean up the mess, but we got back out for practice. After a few laps the engine just gave up, it was still running, but had lost power. I couldn’t figure out what was wrong, and had A.J. Foyt come and look it over. He said that he thought the pistons had hit the exhaust valves, and bent them. Cam timing? I don’t know, it seemed to be O.K. when he went out on the track earlier. Anyway, we were done for, no spare engine, and nobody had one we could borrow. It was only two weeks before the California 500 in Ontario qualifying was scheduled on August 26th, for the race on September2nd. We “hot footed “ it back to Indy and loaded all of the engine pieces and I went to Houston, Texas where Foyt had his shop. The plan was to go there and put together an engine for the California race. Since Foyt had bought the Ford engine program, that’s where all the parts were, and it was on the way to Ontario anyway, it made more sense to do it this way. I had thought the humidity was bad at Smokey Yunick’s, but Houston may have been worse. About the second or third day I was there, A.J. came into the shop, saw me working, sweating like a pig, and told one of his guys to put a fan where it would blow on me before I keeled over. I don’t know how or why I had left Indy for Houston with very little cash, but I have the cancelled check I wrote to Foyt in my scrapbook for $500.00, to cover motel expenses, food, and gas money to drive to Ontario. I must have been in Houston for 8 or 9 days, but I got to Ontario in plenty of time to meet the crew who had driven out there with the car, and get a fresh Foyt engine installed. Now, all I needed to do was get Brayton up to speed, and qualify for the race, at least I thought that was all I would have to do. Unfortunately, I had another situation to deal with, that was going to be very difficult and unpleasant.

Larry

[bluffman]

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

After trying to do this post several times, I knew there was something that I was missing, because I couldn’t connect the dots, so to speak. After back- tracking, and going through my albums plus miscellaneous boxes of stuff that I have managed to keep for 40 or 50 years, I found a missing link. After the Michigan race, my wife Jane called me in Indy, and told me that my second son, Brett, was giving her a hard time, and she wanted to send him from our home in Cypress, California to me in Indy for a while. I agreed, and he flew in and he went with me to the Milwaukee race, and then when I went to Houston at Foyt’s shop he was with me. After leaving there for Ontario, I dropped him off at the house in Cypress, and Jane and I had a long talk about our relationship. We had both kind of gone our own ways over the past few years, so there wasn’t really much chance for reconciliation. After I left, before going to Ontario, I went to Long Beach to talk to Simpson’s lawyer, the one that had gone to Argentina with us, to discuss a divorce. After I got to Ontario to get Brayton ready to run and get up to speed, I got a page that someone wanted me to meet them at the pit gate. I had no idea who it might be, but I went there, and to my surprise, it was Jane and my four kids. She was real mad that I had gone to see the lawyer, and we had a rather heated conversation, then she left with the kids heading back to Cypress. Well, I was there to get ready for the race, that was my job, so I did what I had to do, I went back to work.

The following day, Brayton could not get going, the engine was strong, and the chassis set- up was pretty good, but we made a few changes to try to get him comfortable, which didn’t help at all. A.J. Foyt and Carl Williams had run the 72 Coyote cars at Ontario the previous year, Foyt had qualified 6th, and Williams 27th, so they must have handled half way decent. Something was spooking Lee, the car was doing something strange, but he couldn’t really explain what it was, and we had guys at several spots around the track watching, trying to see if they noticed anything. Nobody noticed anything goofy, he was just not getting into the corners deep enough, and was slow coming off the turns, not picking up the throttle early enough. We called it a day, and hoped for better results tomorrow.

Larry

[bluffman]

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

Regarding my last post about marital problems, and such, it is not easy to “air ones dirty laundry in public”, as they say, but I must tell it like it was to maintain continuity to my story. I will “soft petal” some things so as not to demean anyone unintentially. Life is not always sunshine and roses, so I will continue, “warts and all”.

Larry