Pat Santello 1926-2017

Above: Pat Santello (left), and Lee Kunzman in 1977.

He was one of the last to tow his Indy car on an open-wheel trailer. He spent his own money to go racing and loved the dirt as much as he did the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He sponsored Gary Bettenhausen's sprinter, ran up front with George Snider in dirt cars, finished seventh at Indy with Lee Kunzman and gave Larry Rice and Tim Richmond their start in IndyCar.

Pat Santello, who died last week at age 91, embodied all that was good about USAC racing in the 1960s and 1970s.

"He was a great guy and a character that represented the good old days of backyard racing," said Kunzman, who drove Santello's Indy car in 1976 and 1977. "He never had much of a budget but nobody had more spirit and heart."

A native of Syracuse, New York, Santello showed up in the late '60s when USAC sprint-car racing was afire with the Larry and Gary Show. Larry Dickson and Gary Bettenhausen waged a personal duel for the title from 1968-71; Pat sponsored Willie Davis' car with Bettenhausen and it displayed the "City of Syracuse" special when he claimed the championship in 1969.

Snider ran second twice in the "City of Syracuse" champ dirt car at Springfield (1969), Illinois and Sacramento (1970) before USAC moved the dirt tracks out of the Championship Trail.

Santello's initial try at Indianapolis in 1976 with a six-year-old Eagle didn't work, but the next May the original "little guy" watched his car successfully qualify.

"I think we only had $20,000 so Dan [Gurney] was kind enough to give us a deal on a three-year-old Eagle so I rented a truck, loaded it up with the car and some spare parts and drove it back to Indianapolis," recalled Kunzman, one of USAC's finest racers who twice battled back from devastating injuries to keep racing.

"I think we kept it at Howard Millican's shop. Mark Stainbrook was the chief mechanic [and only full-time employee] and we went around Gasoline Alley begging for old Offy parts to put an engine together and Willie [Davis] built it."

Kunzman qualified 24th and ran all day to finish seventh. "The car handled great and I ran flat out almost the whole day because it wasn't real fast in a straight line," he said with a laugh. "But it made Pat so happy that his little team had done so well in the biggest race in the world."

Santello bought a Lightning chassis for Rice at Indy in 1977 with the help of pal Bernie Gerthoffer, and the USAC champ finished 11th to capture co-rookie-of-the-year honors with Rick Mears. They also made the show again in 1979 and Richmond took over that car at Watkins Glen in '79 and ran eighth in his IndyCar debut.
In the USAC/CART split, Santello sided with CART for a little while until he got tired of the politics. When the big money began coming in, he was out.

"Nobody loved racing more than Pat," Kunzman said. "And I think the day we ran seventh at Indy was his proudest moment so I was happy to be part of it."