July 3 - This day in Schaefer racing history

The Inaugural 1971 Schaefer 500
USAC Indy car race
Pocono International Raceway
Pocono, Pennsylvania
Winning driver: the late Mark Donohue
Full results: Racing-Reference.info

Program and scoring tower photos source: Permission from Frank Hadl at Picassa

Thanks for the pics Frank and especially for your service in Vietnam!

Source: Wikipedia

Source: Toledo Blade via Google News Archive

Source: First Schaefer 500 recap at Motorcaster

Some notables from July 3, 1971:

• Donohue's win was the first career Indy/Champ car win for car owner, Roger Penske. Gee, I wonder whatever happened to that guy.
• NASCAR interloper, Cale Yarborough, finished 32nd in a 33 car field.
• Another NASCAR regular, Donnie Allison, continued his dalliance with Indy cars and finished 18th.
• Bill Simpson finished 18th. He ended his racer career in 1977 and then turned to a career of innovative racing products. He founded Simpson Performance Products. His most controversial moment came when Simpson products were used in Dale Earnhardt's car when he died at Daytona in February 2001.
• For those who follow NASCAR's Silly Season on Jayski.com regularly like I do, Donohue was Jay's favorite driver back in the day.

TMC
Edited 2011-12-21: For video clips from the race, jump to this post.