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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My interview with George Benson

Updated on Sunday, September 4, 2011 at 3:20 PM by Logan Molen

George Benson in driver's suit by the Watson-Offy he drove at the March 1968 Hanford 200-mile Champ Car race. Oliver Johnson, owner of the midgets Benson drove from 1963-70 is just right of Benson. Benson's fishing buddy Ted Matta is at the far right. A friend of Johnson's is at the far left. (Photo courtesy of George Benson)George Benson accomplished many things in his long career as a racer, car builder and author -- Turkey Night Grand Prix winner and inductee of the Motor Sports Press Association Hall of Fame -- and he may be among the very few who raced during all three major incarnations of Marchbanks Stadium, Marchbanks Speedway and Hanford Motor Speedway. 

Benson's time at the Hanford track covered a half-dozen races, beginning in 1955 in a jalopy and ending in two 1968 appearances in Champ Cars. His high finish at the track was a 1959 hardtop win. 

Benson is the author of "The Racing Years: A Memoir of the Life and Times of a Racer, 1952 to 1987." The 472-page book has 157 photos and tons of info on West Coast dirt track racing during that period, as well as a few branches into race trips in the Midwest and Indy. There's also a complete history of the 26 GMB midget race cars Benson built from 1968-85. If you're an aficionado of West Coast racing during this period, particularly at San Jose and Kearney Bowl speedways or car design and construction, you'll appreciate the detail.

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My chat with Bobby Unser

Bobby Unser leads Roger McCluskey during 1969 Champ Car race at Hanford Motor Speedway. The race was the last national event held at the track.Bobby Unser was a dominant force in his three races at Hanford Motor Speedway, with an average start of 3.2 and average finish of 4.0.

Those performances included a pole in the first 1968 race, and three other Top 5 starts, and finishes of 2nd, 5th, 2nd and 7th. He drove for Bob Wilke all four races, in an Eagle-Ford in 1967 but Eagle-Offys in 1968-69.

Bobby Unser was driving this Ford V8 Rislone Special for Bob Wilke's Leader Cards Racing in the 1967 race at Hanford"We had good races there but I distinctly remember sand when we raced there," Unser told me in a telephone interview from his home in New Mexico. "It was a "big slide for life" type of deal, that's what Hanford was."

Despite strong Hanford performances that included leading 98 laps in the first 1968 race  -- the year he won the national championship -- Unser kept referring to sand on the track.

"It wasn't a good place to race on," he said. "Lots of sand would blow on the track. It  wasn't a completed race track. It needed an infusion of "finish it up."

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