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Photo credit: Indianapolis Motor Speedway Larry Cannon consults with his crew as he tries to find the speed to qualify
the PEP Gas Treatment Special for the 1973 Indianapolis 500. |
One of the fun things about delving into the history of the
Indianapolis 500 is learning more about some of the cars that didn’t make the
race in a given year. In just about every case, there’s an interesting story
about the driver, car or sponsor – sometimes all three.
Take the PEP Gas Treatment Special driven by Larry Cannon in
1973. That year, I was fortunate to go to Pole Day with my family for the
second straight year. Though I was only 5 years old, a few things stood out.
First, I remember the crowd going absolutely wild when Swede Savage set “A New
Track Record” and broke Bobby Unser’s qualifying marks.
Then, a bit later, Johnny Rutherford topped Savage’s mark
and nearly became the first to eclipse the magic 200 mph mark with a lap at
199.071 mph. That near-miss really had the immense crowd cheering.
For much of the day we sat in the stands behind the pits –
the gold metal ones in the Tower Terrace, which were much more comfortable than
the green wooden bench seats in the Terrace Extension.
During one of the lulls, we moved to seats on the outside of
the track, probably Stand H. This would make sense because this is where my
parents were going to sit for the race, so they probably wanted to get an idea
of their vantage point.
Being able to move around on the track is one of the great
things about going to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. I still do it myself
when I come out to a practice day. I’ll start behind the pits, then go over to
Turn 1, then the main stretch and down to Turn 4. It’s great to be able to see
the cars from different spots around the course.
Anyway, back to my day in 1973. Sitting in H stand I noticed
a car that seemed to be practicing quite a bit, which was the PEP Gas Treatment
Special.
By this point, I had become sort of a mini Donald Davidson
in our house, entertaining my family with what drivers drove which cars, how to
tell the difference between a McLaren and an Eagle, where the drivers were
from, the sponsors and so forth.
But to be honest, I didn’t know a whole lot about the PEP
Gas Treatment Special driven by Larry Cannon. I knew about the STP Gas Treatment
because that was No. 60 and driven by Graham McRae, and I had seen him qualify
earlier. (Hard to miss those STP cars, right?)
I had learned that STP stood for Scientifically Treated
Petroleum. Until recently, I didn’t know that PEP was an acronym as well – I
just thought it had to do with giving your car some “pep” as it related to
better performance.
PEP actually stood for Power Ecology Performance. It was a
product of PEP Enterprises, which was located at 4960 Jefferson Street in Gary,
Indiana.
For anything racing connected to the Calumet Region, I turn
to my good friend Bill LaDow, who runs Speedway
Sightings. This site is an excellent resource for articles about Chicago
and Northwest Indiana and their connection to the Indianapolis 500.
LaDow, in particular, helps maintain the legacy of Ray
Nichels, one of the great mechanical minds of all time in both Indy cars and
NASCAR.
“PEP was selling through distributors for a toll producer,”
said LaDow, referencing an advertisement for a distributor in South Bend in
April of 1972. “It very well could have been Ray who was supplying the product
as a toll producer (sort of an on-demand service). When going through his
records, I found evidence of several business plans that never fully came to
fruition; many were handshake deals.”
How the PEP Gas Treatment Special Fared
So there’s the story of the sponsor. How about the car and driver?
The PEP Gas Treatment Special was entered by August Hoffman, also known as Gus,
and was an older-model Eagle.
According to oldracingcars.com,
another excellent resource, it was a 1970 Eagle and traced its lineage to the
Leader Cards team and Bobby Unser drove it in practice for the 500.
By 1973 the aero era was in full swing at Indianapolis and
it was difficult to keep cars from earlier in the decade that were designed
with minimal (or no) wings competitive. Mechanics for these smaller teams did
their best, but, unfortunately, creativity, ingenuity and effort went only so
far.
Still, Cannon passed his four-phase rookie test the
Wednesday before the first weekend of qualifying (back then there were four
qualifying days over two weekends).
The four phases were:
·
10 laps at 150 mph
·
10 laps at 155 mph
·
10 laps at 160 mph
·
10 laps over 160 mph
Cannon was the sixth rookie to pass this test, behind Bobby
Allison, Tom Bigelow, Johnny Parsons Jr., Larry McCoy and Tom Sneva (!). McRae,
the eventual Rookie of the Year, finished the next day.
Allison and McRae qualified on the first day and eventually
were joined by Jerry Karl in the starting lineup. Karl needed to pass only a
two-phase refresher test because he had previous USAC experience, including
starts at Pocono and Ontario the previous year.
Allison and McRae, on the other hand, were completely new to
USAC and had to do the full program. This despite Allison being one of the best
NASCAR drivers and probably ranked in the top 10 drivers in the world at the
time of his inaugural appearance at Indianapolis; McRae was also an
accomplished racer with championships in the Tasman Cup Series and the L&M
Continental Series to his credit.
Cannon had passed parts of the driver’s test in both 1970
and 1971 and was unable to qualify. Although now eligible to make an attempt, Cannon’s
team was not among the 46 car/driver combinations that drew a number for the
qualifying lineup. He made no attempt on subsequent qualifying days, either.
No PEP, but a place in the field
The same car, driver and team returned to Indianapolis in
1974 and squeezed into the field in the 33rd spot. A new sponsor,
American Financial, was on board for Race Day. Cannon finished 24th
after being sidelined with mechanical woes after 49 laps. Still, to make the
field with an old car and a shoestring operation was a great achievement.
Cannon was joined in the 1974 rookie class by a few other
drivers who had tried and fell short in 1973 – Tom Bigelow, Johnny Parsons Jr.
and Tom Sneva. All three were regulars in the starting lineup at Indianapolis
for the next decade or so, with Sneva of course winning the 1983 Indianapolis
500 as part of an outstanding career.
“Boom Boom,” as Cannon of course was called, made the 500 in
1976 and 1980 as well. He passed away on Nov. 6, 1995, at the age of 58.
Thanks to William R. LaDow, Principal of Speedway
Sightings; data from oldracingcars.com; Suzi Elliott, IMS Media Relations; and
Kendra Wilson, IMS Photo, for their help with this article.
