Hanford through the lens of a teenager

Lloyd Ruby, Jigger Sirous and George Follmer caught in a nice three-car battle during the 1969 Champ Car race at Hanford Motor Speedway.(Photo Copyright ©2011 Ken Durham, www.GearHeadPhotography.com)Reader Ken Durham shared some wonderful photos from the Champ Car races at Hanford Motor Speedway that he shot as a teenage fan. 

Art Pollard's beautiful Gerhardt Offy sits in the infields after retiring halfway through the 1969 Champ Car race at Hanford Motor Speedway. (Photo Copyright ©2011 Ken Durham, www.GearHeadPhotography.com)Durham recalls that he was 15 and 16 years old when he attended the four Champ Car races between November 1967 and April 1969. He had some great access and was able to snag some nice shots using a Yashica D camera.

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My interview with Mario Andretti

Mario Andretti's 1969 Champ Car win at Hanford Motor Speedway represented extreme highs and lows: a secret tire setup that left competitors in his dust and a freak pitlane accident that contributed to the death of a mechanic.

In a telephone interview with me from his Pennsylvania offices, Andretti recalled his five appearances at the Hanford tri-oval: a 1965 USAC stock car drive and four Champ Car races from 1967-1969 that resulted in one win, two third-place finishes and two DNFs from the third and fourth starting spots. He obviously found the speedway -- the rough 1.4-mile 1965 version and the renovated 1.5-mile late 1960s version -- a good match. 

Andretti heads down the front stretch in the 1967 Champ Car race at Hanford"I liked the layout," Andretti said. "I liked that it had different radius corners. It required a compromise in the setup. I liked that extra challenge." 

But Andretti's only vivid memories of his time at Hanford were of the April 1969 200-miler, the second race of the Champ Car season and the one immediately preceding his only Indianapolis 500 victory. A key to his Hanford win was to add stagger -- using tires on the outside wheels that were larger than the inside pair -- and therefore pick up speed through corners. 

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My chat with Bobby Unser

Bobby Unser leads Roger McCluskey during 1969 Champ Car race at Hanford Motor Speedway. The race was the last national event held at the track.Bobby Unser was a dominant force in his three races at Hanford Motor Speedway, with an average start of 3.2 and average finish of 4.0.

Those performances included a pole in the first 1968 race, and three other Top 5 starts, and finishes of 2nd, 5th, 2nd and 7th. He drove for Bob Wilke all four races, in an Eagle-Ford in 1967 but Eagle-Offys in 1968-69.

Bobby Unser was driving this Ford V8 Rislone Special for Bob Wilke's Leader Cards Racing in the 1967 race at Hanford"We had good races there but I distinctly remember sand when we raced there," Unser told me in a telephone interview from his home in New Mexico. "It was a "big slide for life" type of deal, that's what Hanford was."

Despite strong Hanford performances that included leading 98 laps in the first 1968 race  -- the year he won the national championship -- Unser kept referring to sand on the track.

"It wasn't a good place to race on," he said. "Lots of sand would blow on the track. It  wasn't a completed race track. It needed an infusion of "finish it up."

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