More great photos from 1968-69 Champ Car races

Regular readers will recall that Ken Durham recently shared four photos he shot at the 1967-69 Champ Car races at Hanford Motor Speedway. 

Well, good news: Durham, a longtime motorsports journalist, has dug even deeper into his files and shared more than a dozen fantastic shots from the 1968-69 Hanford races, including several terrific portraits of Bobby Unser, Johnny Rutherford and Joe Leonard. 

I've included Ken's captions pretty much verbatim because he's provided nice detail that kinda puts you at the track and draws on his experience as a racing journalist. And remember, Durham was only a teen-ager when he snapped these images, setting the stage for a future career. 

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Hanford through the lens of a teenager

Lloyd Ruby, Jigger Sirous and George Follmer caught in a nice three-car battle during the 1969 Champ Car race at Hanford Motor Speedway.(Photo Copyright ©2011 Ken Durham, www.GearHeadPhotography.com)Reader Ken Durham shared some wonderful photos from the Champ Car races at Hanford Motor Speedway that he shot as a teenage fan. 

Art Pollard's beautiful Gerhardt Offy sits in the infields after retiring halfway through the 1969 Champ Car race at Hanford Motor Speedway. (Photo Copyright ©2011 Ken Durham, www.GearHeadPhotography.com)Durham recalls that he was 15 and 16 years old when he attended the four Champ Car races between November 1967 and April 1969. He had some great access and was able to snag some nice shots using a Yashica D camera.

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My interview with Mario Andretti

Mario Andretti's 1969 Champ Car win at Hanford Motor Speedway represented extreme highs and lows: a secret tire setup that left competitors in his dust and a freak pitlane accident that contributed to the death of a mechanic.

In a telephone interview with me from his Pennsylvania offices, Andretti recalled his five appearances at the Hanford tri-oval: a 1965 USAC stock car drive and four Champ Car races from 1967-1969 that resulted in one win, two third-place finishes and two DNFs from the third and fourth starting spots. He obviously found the speedway -- the rough 1.4-mile 1965 version and the renovated 1.5-mile late 1960s version -- a good match. 

Andretti heads down the front stretch in the 1967 Champ Car race at Hanford"I liked the layout," Andretti said. "I liked that it had different radius corners. It required a compromise in the setup. I liked that extra challenge." 

But Andretti's only vivid memories of his time at Hanford were of the April 1969 200-miler, the second race of the Champ Car season and the one immediately preceding his only Indianapolis 500 victory. A key to his Hanford win was to add stagger -- using tires on the outside wheels that were larger than the inside pair -- and therefore pick up speed through corners. 

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