There are memories of auto racing I'll always treasure

source: cart.com - Robin Miller

The first time my dad took me to practice at Indianapolis in 1957, the first time I saw a sprint car race at Terre Haute in 1962, the month of May in 1968 when I got to stooge for my hero Jim Hurtubise, my first racing byline in The Indianapolis Star in 1969, buying a Formula Ford from Andy Granatelli in 1972 and sitting at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway until midnight watching the replay of the 1982 Indy 500.

But in August of 1965 I was 15 years old and at Milwaukee State Fair Park for one of A.J. Foyt's finest performances and one of those magical days that turned me into a full-blown racing geek.

Back then, the United States Auto Club's Championship Trail was the most diverse series in the world as a driver had to run champ cars on pavement and dirt, plus an occasional road course.

The day before Milwaukee, Foyt had captured the USAC show on the mile dirt track at Springfield, Ill. and was scheduled to drive a rear-engined Lotus on the flat oval at State Fair Park.

At that time my allegiance was still with the front-engined roadsters because Hurtubise was so cool in the Novi in 1963 and had been running third his homemade roadster in '64 at Milwaukee when he was badly burned. In 1965, he made an emotional comeback at Indy and, after crashing because of a stuck throttle, came back to qualify in one of Granatelli's Novis.