IMSA: Sports car racing's origins at Indy

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Friday's running of the third annual Brickyard Grand Prix sports car event at Indianapolis Motor Speedway features purebred prototypes and GT machinery racing on the famed oval and the reconfigured infield road course, and while the concept of hosting sports cars at IMS might seem new to some, the practice dates back to the 1960s.

One of the great names in American road racing broke the Brickyard's sports car barrier in 1965, and years later, his iconic "Yellow Submarine" would win the 1980 Indy 500 with Johnny Rutherford behind the wheel.

"They ran a test in October or November of '65 – I was at USAC then – and they said Jim Hall was running a test at the Speedway in his Chaparral sports car," said IMS historian Donald Davidson of the famed No. 66 Chaparral 2. "He was testing an automatic transmission, which seemed strange to me, and then we learned it was a Can-Am car he was testing. We thought maybe it was an exploratory test to see about possibly running in the Indy 500, and I also believe he might of run some laps in the opposite direction! I remember hearing about that at the time and that comes to mind as the first time we had that type of car here."

The photos of Hall's Chaparral 2 lapping Indianapolis are just as remarkable today as it must have been to see the Chevy-powered prototype live nearly 50 years ago. Although Hall owns the distinction of running the first sports car at IMS, credit for the first endurance event goes to a rather unexpected arm of the motorsports world – NASCAR.

Through stock car chassis builder Ray Nichels, IMS recorded its first 24-hour run at the Speedway, and while it wasn't an actual race, it does go down in history as the original entry for endurance running at Indianapolis.

"Nichels did a 24-hour run with two Pontiacs in November of '61, right after they paved over the straightaway," Davidson continued. "They had two cars, Nichels stock cars, and one was called the 'Pontiac Police Enforcer' complete with the police light on the roof, and it was a real racecar – they ran it through the night."

Some of the biggest stars of open-wheel and stock car racing took part in this odd chapter of IMS lore.

"They had three NASCAR drivers: Fireball Roberts, Joe Weatherly and Marvin Panch," Davidson added. "And then the three USAC drivers were Roger Ward, Paul Goldsmith and Len Sutton. All six drivers drove both cars...in the rain. When they did pit stops, and I don't understand why, they didn't use pit lane, they were down towards Turn 1 and used forklifts to lift the cars to change tires and such!"