April 27, 1975: USAC's Trenton Twin Bill

On April 27, 1975, the NASCAR Cup teams raced on the half-mile paperclip at Martinsville. King Richard won the Virginia 500 to claim his 14th victory at the track.

About 450 miles northeast of Martinsville in New Jersey, USAC ran a twin bill at the famed, kidney-shaped Trenton Speedway billed as the World Series of Auto Racing. (I'm curious as to how they may have secured the rights to use the name World Series. Or did they?)

From Motor Racing Programme Covers

The day featured two 100-lap, 150-mile races for the 'champ' cars and USAC stock cars. The races had short fields - 12 in the Indy car event and 10 in the stock car race. Apparently this was by design. Long before the days of NASCAR's The Winston but akin to the early years of IROC, participation in the WSoAR was by invitation only.

Johnny Rutherford won the open wheel race with a one-lap victory over second place Gordon Johncock.

In the stock car race, Super Tex A.J. Foyt continued to show his versatility in all forms of auto racing. The skills he'd honed on USAC's stock car circuit as well as his periodic starts (and wins) in NASCAR paid off again at Trenton. Driving a #28 Hoss Ellington prepared Chevy, he led all 100 laps and cruised to the victory.

What interests me about the race, however, is the SECOND place finisher. Bobby Unser - known more for his champ car results than his stock car career - drove a Norm Nelson 1972 Plymouth to a second place finish, the only car on the lead lap with Foyt. Unser's sponsor? You got it - a Bench Racing fave - Schaefer Beer.

Source: Reading Eagle via Google News Archive 

TMC