Iconic IndyCar team owner Vollstedt dies

For three decades he was a designer, builder, fabricator, dreamer, adventurer and racer to the core. He gave Jimmy Clark his final IndyCar ride, brought the first female driver to Indianapolis in 1976 with Janet Guthrie and helped Len Sutton, Billy Foster, Cale Yarborough and Tom Sneva start their careers.

But Rolla Vollstedt, who passed away Sunday at the age of 99, was the embodiment of why people use to spend all their time, money and effort inside the walls of Gasoline Alley every May.

Like A.J. Watson and Bill Finley, Vollstedt (pictured above with driver Arnie Knepper in 1968) was never blessed with big budgets but parlayed his work ethic and practicality into 15 starts at Indianapolis from 1964 to 1983.

"Rolla lived for the month of May," said Dick Simon, who spent seven years driving for Vollstedt while becoming partners and fast friends.

A World War II veteran wounded in Europe, the native of Portland, Oregon returned home and got hooked on racing. He built a track roadster and hired Sutton to drive and they terrorized tracks from L.A. to Seattle.

In 1963, Vollstedt built a rear-engine car and came to Indy with Sutton in '64 – where they qualified eighth and ran in the top 5 until a mechanical problem. It was the first rear-engine Offy to make the show and also the beginning of a long association with sponsor Bryant Heating & Cooling.

Sutton ran 12th in 1965 and then NASCAR star Yarborough put Rolla's car in the show in 1966 and 1967. Gordon Johncock, Arnie Knepper, John Cannon, George Follmer, Denny Zimmerman, Larry Dickson, Bob Harkey and Emerson Fittipaldi all wheeled a Vollstedt-prepared car at various times.

And although he never won an IndyCar race, the highlight of his life came at Riverside in 1967. On a whim Vollstedt decided to phone up Clark, who was coming to Riverside as a spectator, and offer him a seat in his year-old chassis.

The world champion agreed and promptly put in on the outside of Row 1 next to Dan Gurney – prompting the great Brock Yates to write: "Clark had driven that car faster than what was thought capable of a mortal man." He stalked his F1 friend and rival for 23 laps before snatching the lead – only to blow up the next time around. It was the great Scot's final race in the USA as he lost his life the following April at Hockenheim, Germany.

"Greatest day of my life," said Vollstedt back in 1980 when he was reminiscing about his life in racing. "I've never been so thrilled and so proud and Clark was just an amazing talent. He also thanked me for letting him drive and apologized for missing a shift, can you imagine that?"

Of course it was Guthrie (pictured above, with Vollstedt at left) that put Vollstedt on the media map forever when he chose her to drive his car in 1976. With zero open-wheel and high-speed experience, it was not a popular pick with the IndyCar establishment but the first female to run IMS handled the pressure and didn't put a wheel wrong all month despite not qualifying.

But Guthrie returned a year later and made history – qualifying Rolla's year-old Lightning in 26th place before dropping out early in the race with engine trouble. "Rolla was thorough, thoughtful, smart and passionate about the sport and will always have my admiration and respect," said Guthrie.

Rolla's last hurrah came in 1981 when Jerry Sneva hung it out and qualified Vollstedt's two-year-old model on the final day of time trials only to be disqualified for tampering with the pop-off valve. It was the height of the USAC/CART war and USAC was more than happy to look the other way for its lifetime member, only to have driver Steve Krisiloff rat out Vollstedt to officials.

As big money began to take over, Vollstedt was done competing by 1983.