The Goodyear Cayuga 200 was held in August, 1979. Although there were many local stars present that day, the featured attraction was a Don Biederman prepared car driven by Janet Gunthrie. Gunthrie was in the racing news at that time through her efforts of qualifying and posting decent finishes in both the Indy 500 and a couple of NASCAR races.
There were many top drivers present for this race, including Junior Hanley, Butch Miller, John Anderson, Russ Urlin, Bob Sensiba and Don Gregory. Local drivers competing included Bill Zardo, John Fletcher Sr, Dave Lynch, Kim Wallace, Fred Bullen, Pete Bennett, Larry Foubert and Wayne Keeling. I don't remember if Don Biederman was given the ride in the 62 car in exchange for providing Gunthrie with his freshly repainted Gold car, or if regular driver Rick Wilson drove it that day. Whoever was driving this car experienced a blown engine. I think that the car was from Florida.
The race itself was dominated by Junior Hanley, and in fact most people were expecting him to be given the checkered flag. However when he came around for the final time, the starter threw the white flag for him, and gave the win to Butch Miller. I think that this was due to a series of pit stops which put him a lap down.
Derek
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(A few of these images are of inferior quality - I have included
everything that I shot that day for historical reasons).
The opening shot here is of legend Don Gregory,
in front of the Jeg's car.
Next is Don Hawn in the 55, and Pete Bennett in the 77.
Wayne Gummerson is driving the 3 car prepared by Sam Rounce
(who went on to win many races with Randy Slack).
The final picture is John Cadman in the 71 car.
Eventual winner Butch Miller's car is shown on pit road (at that
time, the pit lane was the old inner oval).
Next is Bruce Greenhalgh in the 4 compact car. For those who
didn't get to see this division, this class ran at Cayuga,
and featured Gremlins such as this, as well as Chevy Vegas and
other North American made small cars.
Wayne Gummerson is in the 3 car, and Fred Cade is in the 12.
(Don?) Mallot drives the 1.
The first picture is of the Bob Sensiba 12 car,
followed by the 29 (?).
Local racer Larry Foubert is standing behind the 20.
Dave Isen drove the 39 car,
and I also don't remember who piloted the 66.
John Anderson's blue 30 is pictured first.
followed by teammate Rick Wilson (62).
Danny Knoll follows in the 6,
and the pair of 62 and 30 are shown parked on the inner
oval's pit boxes.
Dave Lynch is first in the 57 car (he is Derek Lynch's father.
Derek had success in the ACT series as well as at Oxford, and
is currently promoting Kawartha Speedway).
Next is the Butch Miller car (52) with the 84 of Kim Wallace
in the background.
The group of workers are surrounding the white 13 car
of Randy Slack, driven by modified star Merv Treichler.
The final car is the 24 of Ed Cooper (I think that is Bill
Burrow's 65 behind him).
The opening picture shows the Don Biederman prepared
43 (renumbered as 48, and repainted from the traditional blue).
Janet Gunthrie is seen sitting on the trailer, in the middle.
Gunthrie is shown in the next 2 images,
as well as in a driver's meeting (I think that is
Fred Cade in front of her).
The second group of pictures has additional shots
of Gunthrie.
This first (poorly exposed) picture is at a driver's
meeting. From right to left are Larry Foubert,
Don Hawn, and Kim Wallace.
Next, from right to left, are Fred Bullen,
Don Gregory, and (?).
The next group includes Wayne Keeling in the
yellow suit, with John Fletcher Sr and Kim
Wallace behind him.
The final picture has Fred Cade in front,
and Janet Gunthrie behind him.
Bill Davis is standing in front of the 70 car,
followed by a couple of shots of Merv Treichler, who drove Randy Slack's
number 13 car.
The final picture is at a driver's meeting, with
John Fletcher Sr and Wayne Keeling in the front.
The first group of photos above is of Wayne Keeling in the 82 car.
The second group has a few shots of Fred Bullen in the 67,
and 1 shot of Bill Zardo, driver of the 46.
Here is a sequence of shots of Junior Hanley creating a little
more downforce for qualifying (I believe that he removed it
during the actual race). In 1979, there obviously weren't rules stating
that the front air dam couldn't touch the ground.
As Randy Sweet once said, "Me and Junior were
miles ahead of everyone else back then".
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More photos of Junior Hanley. |
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Junior Hanley, including a series of shots where he pitted. |
John Fletcher Sr. was one of the original stars in the
Pinecrest "stocker" class. This was one of the earliest
versions of the current street stock division.
Some of these photos are of substandard quality, but I wanted
to include them since I don't have many shots of him.
The first picture is of Fred Cade in the 12 car.
The 62 of Rick Wilson (?) loses an engine.
The 3rd photo has 79 (who was this?) I suspect being lapped
by John Anderson (30).
Next, Junior Hanley (72) is inside of Wayne Gummerson (3).
Camera crews were video taping the show, as seen in the 2nd last shot.
Although this is common now, it was unusual in 1979.
Finally, a view of Janet Gunthrie (48).
The 1st photo has Ed Cooper (21), John Fletcher Sr (06), and
I believe Dave Isen and Butch Miller.
Next is Russ Urlin in the 91 car passing Janet Gunthrie.
Bill Burrows (65) loses an engine.
The 2nd last photo is John Fletcher (06) inside of Bill Zardo (46).
The final shot is Junior Hanley getting the white flag - not the
checkered as expected.
Butch Miller (52) was the winner.
In the second photo, Bob Slack (Cayuga owner and promoter)
is interviewing Miller.
The last photo shows a photographer (in black) from the
Toronto Sun. There was a full writeup in the next day's
paper - one example of the many reasons why Mr Slack was
once honoured as promoter of the year across North America.
CFTO TV also covered the event in the nightly sports review.
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All photos are for sale -
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