The Norton Spirit and the 1973 Indianapolis 500

This photo from the 1973 Indianapolis 500 program allegedly showed what that year's

Norton Spirit, driven by Bill Simpson, looked like.

A few weeks ago I recounted the history of the Norton Companies’ involvement with Penske Racing from 1974 through 1982.

The first Norton Spirit actually appeared in the 1973 Indianapolis 500. Longtime car owner and builder Rolla Vollstedt brought the company to Indianapolis that year in a car to be driven by Bill Simpson, the legendary safety innovator.

Also in the Vollstedt stable was another rookie, Tom Bigelow. Bigelow, an excellent midget and sprint driver, temporarily squeezed into the field on the last day of qualifying, then saw his Bryant Heating and Cooling Special squeezed out by Jim McElreath in a Norris Eagle entered by Champ Carr Enterprises. (Champ Carr’s shenanigans in 1973 are worth a separate story at some point.)

Photo credit: Unknown

Here's what the 1973 Norton Spirit really looked like when Bill Simpson 

drove it. At the back, the radiators are more streamlined while at the

front the nose looks a lot like that year's Parnelli.

Simpson also failed to qualify, due in part to a hard crash in Turn 2. Here’s a quick description of the wreck from Simpson’s excellent book “Racing Safely, Living Dangerously”:

It knocked the engine out of the car and just about knocked my brains out, too. I mean, it rang my bell pretty good.

In this chapter Simpson also recounts how the team was able to get the back-up car together and up to qualifying speed (or thereabouts), then felt he got aced out of potentially getting a chance to qualify on the last day by a little do-si-do by one of A.J. Foyt’s backup cars in the line. (Simpson did make an attempt late in the day, but was yellow-flagged after two laps averaging 183-plus.)

In those days, you could be in line to qualify and let another car go ahead of you. Remember also that, unlike today, cars had only three attempts total for the month. So the idea would be that if you had a car that was showing only marginal speed in terms of making the race, you waited until almost the last minute before going out to qualify.

Of course, cars also could cut in front of you if you weren’t proceeding expeditiously to the front of the line. Simpson apparently thought Foyt, who put George Snider in the car to qualify, snuck in ahead. Simpson was known to fly off the handle in such moments and said some uncomplimentary things about Super Tex. One of Foyt’s larger crew members got wind of this and the result was that Simpson was thrust head-first into a trash can – a fitting conclusion to his Month of May.

The upshot of all this drama was that Vollstedt’s team – and more importantly, his two sponsors, Bryant Heating and Cooling, and Norton – were on the sidelines.

Bryant Heating and Cooling ended up sponsoring Bob Harkey on the Lindsey Hopkins team. Norton went to the Grant King entry driven by Steve Krisiloff.

King was one of the more interesting and colorful car owners and builders of this period, creating cars that he named the Kingfish. The one he designed and built for the 1972 Indianapolis 500 seemed to be, ahem, inspired by the McLaren cars of the previous year.

For 1973, King seemingly dropped all pretense and pretty much copied Dan Gurney’s Eagle. Gurney reportedly wasn’t thrilled by this whole imitation-is-the-sincerest-form-of-flattery routine, but probably realized that King was a small fish, so to speak, and he would come off looking like the bad guy if he complained too loudly.

Besides, King wasn’t selling his creations to anyone else. Had he done so, Gurney likely would’ve loudly objected – with good reason.

Krisiloff did an excellent job in qualifying, nailing down the seventh starting position in what was then an unsponsored, all-red No. 24 entry.

Photo credit: Indianapolis Motor Speedway

The eventual Elliot's Norton Spirit as it appeared after Steve Krisiloff

qualified the Grant King entry seventh.

With Norton coming aboard for race day, the Kingfish was repainted sky blue. Krisiloff backed up his fine qualifying effort by finishing sixth in the rain-shortened, tragedy-filled 1973 Indianapolis 500. 

Photo credit: Kettle Moraine Preservation & Restoration

And here's how the Elliott's Norton Spirit appeared on race day for the 

1973 Indianapolis 500. Steve Krisiloff finished sixth.

The entry was renamed the Elliott’s Norton Spirit. So that's why if you look at the qualifying photos of this car, it’s red, while on race day, it’s sky blue. In any event, any top 10 showing in the Indianapolis 500 is an excellent result, even more so for a small team.

For the 1974 Indianapolis 500, Krisiloff moved on to the Patrick Racing Team, driving the No. 60 STP Gas Treatment Eagle-Offy. King, who was known to give promising rookies a chance, took a flyer on a former educator from Spokane, Washington, named Tom Sneva.

Sneva’s potential was apparent early in the 1974 season when he qualified second at Trenton. At Indianapolis, the man who eventually would be dubbed the Gas Man when he drove for Texaco years later, started eighth, ran in the top 10 in the early part of the race, then dropped out after 94 laps, finishing 20^th.

Sneva continued to charge throughout the rest of the 1974 season – so much so that he attracted the attention of Roger Penske. Sneva joined the Penske team for 1975. His car? The Norton Spirit.

Remembering, and Thanking, Wilbur Shaw

Photo credit: Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Wilbur Shaw won his first Indianapolis 500 in 1937.

This May, the Indianapolis 500 will be run under new leadership for the first time since World War II as Roger Penske takes the helm. Penske’s record-breaking success as a car owner (18 victories, including the last two with Simon Pagenuad and Will Power) and global stature as an accomplished businessman has fans optimistic about the future of the race, the track and the NTT IndyCar Series, all of which are now his.

From the 1976 program.

Penske bought everything from the Hulman-George family, of course. Tony Hulman purchased the dilapidated facility, which had been almost totally neglected during World War II, on Nov. 14, 1945. Under Hulman’s leadership, the Indianapolis 500 bloomed again in the postwar years, grew in stature and defined automobile racing in the United States, if not the world.

That legacy might not have been possible if not for the efforts of one man: Wilbur Shaw. Shaw, who was born in Shelbyville, which is about 35 miles southeast of Indianapolis, was the first to win the 500 back-to-back in 1939 and 1940. These wins followed his first victory in 1937. Shaw finished second in 1938 and crashed because of a wheel failure while leading in 1941, so he came close to winning the 500 five times in a row.

Still, his greatest achievement might have come after he hung up his goggles. Shaw was heartbroken when he saw the condition of the track while testing a new synthetic tire for Firestone during the winter of 1944-45. That heartbreak soon turned to determination, and then action to save the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, as Shaw recounted in his autobiography, “Gentlemen, Start Your Engines.”

But, to me, the track was the world’s last great speed shrine, which must be preserved at any cost. I felt that all I was, or ever hoped to be, I owed to the Indianapolis 500-mile race. I accepted the situation as a personal challenge and started a one-man crusade to get the job done.

This trading card offered one of

the few clues to the color scheme.

Shaw, of course, succeeded in persuading Hulman to buy the track from Eddie Rickenbacker. It remained in the family’s possession until Tony George, Hulman’s grandson, approached Penske about buying it last year.

As a sort of tribute to Shaw, I had a shirt made inspired by his 1937 winning car, the Shaw-Gilmore Special. This Gilmore had nothing to do with Jim Gilmore, a longtime sponsor of A.J. Foyt’s cars during the last half of Super Tex’s career.

Instead, it was the Gilmore Oil Company of California, which had slogans like “Roar With Gilmore” and used a leaping lion to promote its products. (Roscoe Turner, a barnstorming pilot and an important aviator who lived in Indianapolis, touted the Gilmore line as well and actually flew with a real lion, named, naturally, Gilmore. Turner also served as an official at the Indianapolis 500 for many years.)

This might be this year's

raceday shirt.

Hulman wisely named Shaw the President and General Manager of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and certainly his leadership was a key reason why the Indianapolis 500 rebounded so quickly. Shaw died in a plane crash in 1954. How much more he could have accomplished is something to ponder, but all Indianapolis 500 fans are forever grateful for Shaw’s love of the race, the track and his determination to save it for future generations.

A look back at the Norton Spirit and Penske Racing

Photo credit: Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Bobby Unser and the Norton Spirit in 1980.

My new Bobby Unser shirt.

For the past few years, I’ve commissioned “throwback” T-shirts for various cars and drivers from my childhood. This year’s new additions include Bobby Unser’s 1980 Norton Spirit, a Penske PC-9 Cosworth. Unser started third and finished 19^th, dropping out after 126 laps with a turbo problem.

Norton, which produced abrasive products (as in for grinding and sanding), had been a Penske sponsor since 1974. Usually the cars were sky blue; this is the first and only time they had a dark or royal blue finish.

Photo credit:Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Mike Hiss put the Norton Spirit on the front row in 1974.

Mike Hiss drove the Norton Spirit in 1974, a McLaren Offenhauser. The sky blue and bright yellow made for a striking combination. This entry originally was intended for Peter Revson, but he perished in a testing crash ahead of the South African Grand Prix in March.

Hiss had driven for Penske earlier in his career, subbing for Mark Donohue in 1972 after Donohue was badly hurt in a Can-Am crash at Road Atlanta. So from that standpoint, Hiss was a natural fit. Interestingly, in an article in the Sunday, May 26, 1974 edition of the Indianapolis Star (race day), Hiss said he was in the picture to run a third car for Penske before the Revson tragedy.

That’s conceivable. Penske did have three entries the year before, with Donohue and Gary Bettenhausen as the regulars and NASCAR star Bobby Allison in a third machine. And the 1974 program lists a No. 66 entry for Penske Racing, though that could have been intended all along as a spare car for Hiss and Bettenhausen.

Photo credit: Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Tom Sneva joined Penske Racing in 1975.

Tom Sneva joined Penske for 1975. The yellow trim was confined to the front wings. This car was demolished in a horrifying crash when Sneva touched wheels with Eldon Rasmussen in the south end of the track during the race. Fortunately, Sneva came away from the wreck relatively unscathed (although he did suffer some burns).

Tom Sneva's car as seen in

the 1976 program.

Norton switched up the paint scheme to celebrate the bicentennial in 1976. Sneva grabbed the first of his five front-row starting spots by qualifying third. He wound up sixth in a race shortened to just 102 laps because of rain.

The sky blue returned in 1977, and Sneva stormed to the pole, becoming the first driver to officially record a lap in excess of 200 mph at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Sneva’s performance was a bit of a surprise as A.J. Foyt, Johnny Rutherford, Gordon Johncock (who reportedly eclipsed 200 mph during tire tests in March) and teammate Mario Andretti (first over 200 mph in practice) all were considered the top contenders for the pole.

Photo credit: Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Tom Sneva set the track record in the Norton Spirit in both 

1977 (top) and 1978 (above).

The next year, 1978, saw a radical change as all Penske cars were red, white and blue. Sneva and Andretti were still with Penske, which added someone named Rick Mears to drive in the 500-mile races and sub for Andretti when he had Formula One commitments. Sneva broke his track record in winning the pole again, this time with an average of over 202 mph. He finished second to Al Unser, who in those days was just Al Unser as his son was not yet an Indy competitor.

Bobby Unser replaced Tom Sneva in 1979.

Speaking of Unsers, Bobby took over for Sneva in the Norton Spirit for 1979, which was blue and white. Al drove the radical Pennzoil Chaparral and looked to be long gone before mechanical gremlins sidelined him. Bobby took over and appeared poised to take the checkered flag before losing top gear – something that almost never happens. Together the Unsers led for 174 of the 200 laps, but it was Mears who snagged the victory.

Photo credit: Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Bobby Unser won from the pole in 1981.

Bobby’s performance in 1980 is recounted above, so aside from noting that the bright yellow trim returned, we’ll move ahead to 1981. This is just a beautiful car, striking yet understated. A lot’s been written about the controversial 1981 Indianapolis 500, so we won’t go into all that here. In sum, Bobby started on the pole and won in what turned out to be his final Indianapolis 500.

Interestingly, Bobby Unser was last in his first 500 and first in his last 500. He also became the first to win the 500 in three different decades, a feat that Mears accomplished as well.

Photo credit: Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Kevin Cogan momentarily held the track record in 1982

after qualifying his backup car. It all went wrong on Race Day.

With Unser gone, Kevin Cogan joined Penske for the 1982 season in what was to be Norton’s final appearance as a primary sponsor. Cogan broke the track record in qualifying, only to see Mears top him minutes later. On race day, “Coogan,” starting second, managed to torpedo both Foyt and Andretti as the field came down for the green. The why and how of this unfortunate incident continues to be discussed today. Was it a mechanical failure? A turbo kick-in that caught Cogan by surprise? Was the field going too slow to begin with? Driver error?

Whatever the reason, the mishap derailed the hopes of the two greatest drivers in history. Andretti’s car was too badly damaged to continue. Foyt, being equal parts great driver, mechanically gifted and highly competitive (or stubborn), literally pounded his damaged suspension back into place (more or less), then proceeded to lead the first 22 laps after the restart. Of all the great moments that he had at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, to me, that was the A.J. Foytiest.

Cogan, though he had some success later in his career, never quite lived down the 1982 500. He was even booed at some races during the 1982 season, which was rather cruel.

And so ended Norton’s involvement with Penske Racing – one win, three poles and seven front-row starts overall. Pretty impressive.

Norton still exists, though it was purchased in 1990 by Saint-Gobain of France. Since its Indy days, the company has backed the U.S. luge teams – another form of racing.