Sunday, May 31, 2015

Today's IndyCar driver: Johnny Furslow.

The only race he was entered was this race:
1 8/31/1946 Altamont 2 DO AAA X X X X X X X Entered, may not have transferred to feature
The 2002 Grand American Road Racing Championship season was the third season of the Rolex Sports Car Series run by the Grand American Road Racing Association. The season involved five classes: Sports Racing Prototype I and II (SRP-I and SRP-II), Grand Touring Sport (GTS), Grand Touring (GT), and American GT (AGT). 10 races were run from February 2, 2002 to November 10, 2002. Mont-Tremblant replaced Trois-Rivières. California Speedway replaced Lime Rock. Virginia International replaced Road America. The season also was marred by the death of Jeff Clinton during the Nextel 250 race. Taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Rolex_Sports_Car_Series_season

The 2002 American Le Mans Series season was the fourth season for the IMSA American Le Mans Series. It was a series for Le Mans Prototypes (LMP) and Grand Touring (GT) race cars divided into 4 classes: LMP900, LMP675, GTS, and GT. It began March 16, 2002 and ended October 12, 2002 after 10 races. Taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_American_Le_Mans_Series_season

The 2002 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 70th Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place on 15 and 16 June 2002. Taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_24_Hours_of_Le_Mans
The roller coaster saga of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games began when Salt Lake City was selected as the host city at the 1995 IOC Session. Salt Lake City had bid for 1998 but lost out to Nagano, and its 2002 bid was so strong that the IOC needed only one round of voting to award the Utah city the bid, almost by acclamation. It was the first high for the city with Mormon ties, but the bottom of the coaster loomed ahead.

Over the next few years Salt Lake City Organizing Committee did its work with few problems. The stock market was booming and sponsorship money flowed into the Committee. But on 24 November 1998, Salt Lake City television station KTVX reported that the Salt Lake Olympic Organizing Committee (SLOC) had been paying for Sonia Essomba, daughter of an IOC Member, to attend American University in Washington. Things were no longer well with the 19th Olympic Winter Games. That report led to the Olympic Scandal of 1999, which led to many reforms within the IOC and among its members. But Salt Lake City was implicated as being responsible, as their Bid Committee was shown to have showered IOC Members with their largesse, much of it, if not in contravention of IOC rules, at least pushing the envelope of those rules. The Bid Committee members noted that they were playing the same Games as other bid cities – that they had done nothing that the other candidates had not done. But the damage was real.
Bid Committee kingpins Tom Welch and Dave Johnson had moved into leadership positions within the Organizing Committee but were forced to withdraw, and eventually the Federal Department of Justice brought indictments against both men. The indictments were later thrown out by a judge, but an appeal is ongoing. The man who replaced Welch as President and CEO of the Organizing Committee was Frank Joklik, but when it was revealed that he had had close affiliations with the Bid Committee, he was tainted by association, and resigned of his own accord.
The Olympic Winter Games were only two years away and without leadership. Worse still was that several sponsors were making noises about withdrawing financial support, threatening a fiscal disaster. And as the stock market in 1999-2000 began to fall from its raging bull status, new money to support the Salt Lake Olympics was not easily found. The Salt Lake City Organizing Committee reached out to Mitt Romney as their new chief. Romney was the son of George Romney, a former US Presidential candidate, and he was a financial wizard, having made a fortune as the leader of Bain Capital, a venture capital firm. He quickly righted the ship and all seemed well again on the banks of the Great Salt Lake.
Then on 11 September 2001, a scant five months before the Opening Ceremony, Arab terrorists savagely and cowardly attacked American soil, hijacking four airplanes and crashing two of them into the twin towers of the World Trade Center, and another into the Pentagon. A fourth plane was also being aimed at Washington, but the American passengers, aware of the circumstances of that Tuesday morning, courageously assaulted the terrorist pilots and the plane crashed into a deserted Pennsylvania meadow, killing all aboard, but likely saving many lives.
The United States responded by announcing a war on terrorism and within weeks was waging war on Arab terrorists and the Al-Qaeda organization in Afghanistan. A larger war seemed imminent. Now the question was not if Salt Lake City could fund Olympic Games in February 2002, but whether there would be any Games at all. Security concerns would have to be ramped up an order of magnitude. But federal security forces, which were to be used at the Winter Olympics, could be diverted to fight the war, and it was not known if they would be available for the Olympics. And if the United States waged a full-out war, would other nations attend peaceful Olympic Games? Remember, the United States had boycotted the Moscow 1980 Olympics specifically because they thought it was wrong to attend Olympic Games while the host nation was fighting a war.
But somehow, the 2002 Olympic Winter Games were held, and they were Olympic Games to remember. Mitt Romney and the Salt Lake Organizing Committee (SLOC) overcame all the obstacles. Security was tight, but not much more intrusive than that which was seen at Sydney. The American public embraced the Winter Olympics as “our” Games, a chance to heal somewhat from the assault on our shores. The Europeans, often critical of American Olympic Games, made a few by now standard grumblings about too much coverage of American athletes, but much less so than at Los Angeles in 1984. And there were none of the organizational problems of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. The weather cooperated as well, with plenty of snow before the Games, but clear, cold weather in the first week, and then almost spring-like conditions in the second week.
The biggest news of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games was the controversy surrounding the pairs figure skating event. On the night of the free skate, the leaders were the Russians, Yelena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze, with the Canadian pair, Jamie Salé and David Pelletier, close behind in second. Whoever won the free skate would win the gold medal, and to the audience, and many figure skating experts, that appeared to be the Canadians, who skated cleanly while the Russians had made several errors. But the judges voted 5-4 in favor of the Russians, giving them the gold medal. The audience and media howled in protest, and within 24 hours rumors of vote-fixing were rampant, focusing on the French skating judge, Marie Reine LeGougne. Eventually, IOC President Jacques Rogge ordered the International Skating Union (ISU) to hold emergency meetings to investigate the rumors. Within 3 days, the ISU and IOC announced that the two pairs would be considered co-champions and Salé and Pelletier were given gold medals. The controversy reached even further, calling for a complete overhaul of figure skating judging. As of mid-2003, it is far from ended.
The two biggest medal winners at Salt Lake City received them in seeming obscurity, as the American media focused on the figure skating furor. Ole Einar Bjørndalen of Norway won four gold medals in the four biathlon events, sweeping the competition. In women’s alpine skiing, Croatia’s Janica Kostelić won three gold medals and four medals in all. She became the first Olympic alpine skier to win four medals at one Games.
The other big story from Salt Lake City was the return of Canadian prominence in their national sport – ice hockey. Canada’s men had not won the Olympic gold since 1952, after dominating the sport for the first 30 years of Olympic competition. The Olympic ice hockey event had most of the world’s top pros, as NHL players competed, and the level of competition was supreme, highlighted by two games between the United States and Russia. In the first, the two powers played to a 2-2 tie, but in the quarter-finals, the US barely won, 3-2. In the final, the United States faced Canada, and a similar close match was expected, but Canada prevailed rather easily, 5-2. Canada’s women added to the story, also facing the United States in the distaff final. In 1998, the US had defeated the Canadian women, but at Salt Lake City, the Canadian women defeated the US 3-2 for the gold medal.
In the end, after two glorious weeks in the Utah Mountains, the Olympic Scandal and the tragedy of 9/11 seemed distant afterthoughts. If anything could help Americans forget that tragic September morn, it was the 19th Olympic Winter Games. Taken from http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/winter/2002/

Saturday, May 30, 2015

Johnny Unser.

19 starts from 1993-2000
He was on the entry list for the 2001 Indianapolis 500, but never appeared.
Best finish:
6 3/17/1996 Phoenix PO IRL 64 Ruger-Titanium Reynard 94I Ford XB 19 9 185 Flagged
The 1936–37 NHL season was the 20th season of the National Hockey League (NHL). Eight teams each played 48 games. The Detroit Red Wings were the Stanley Cup winners as they beat the New York Rangers three games to two in the final series. Taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1936%E2%80%9337_NHL_season

Final Stats:

Rank Team
Champion Detroit Red Wings
Runner-Up New York Rangers
Semi-Finals Montreal Canadiens
Semi-Finals Montreal Maroons
Quarter-Finals Boston Bruins
Quarter-Finals Toronto Maple Leafs
15 29 4 New York Americans
14 27 7 Chicago Black Hawks








































Friday, May 29, 2015

Today's IndyCar driver: Roberto Guerrero.

143 starts from 1984-2000
Best finish. 2 career wins both coming in 1987

48 4/12/1987 Phoenix PO CART 4 True Value/STP March 87C Cosworth 22 1 200 1:26:56.62 138.020
58 9/6/1987 Mid-Ohio RC CART 4 True Value/STP March 87C Cosworth 1 1 84 1:51:58.70 107.431
The 1990 Formula One season was the 41st season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the 1990 FIA Formula One World Championship which commenced on 11 March 1990 and ended on 4 November after sixteen races. Ayrton Senna was World Champion Driver for the second time, and McLaren won the Constructors' Championship. Taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1990_Formula_One_season.
Here are the final stats for the 1990 MLB Season:


Rank Team
Champion Cincinnati Reds
Runner-Up Oakland Athletics
LCS Pittsburgh Pirates
LCS Boston Red Sox
94 68 Chicago White Sox
91 71 New York Mets
86 76 Toronto Blue Jays
86 76 Los Angeles Dodgers
85 77 San Francisco Giants
85 77 Montreal Expos
83 79 Texas Rangers
80 82 California Angels
79 83 Detroit Tigers
77 85 Cleveland Indians
77 85 Chicago Cubs
77 85 Seattle Mariners
77 85 Philadelphia Phillies
76 85 Baltimore Orioles
75 86 Kansas City Royals
75 87 San Diego Padres
75 87 Houston Astros
74 88 Milwaukee Brewers
74 88 Minnesota Twins
70 92 St. Louis Cardinals
67 95 New York Yankees
65 97 Atlanta Braves




Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Today's IndyCar driver: Kurt Hitke

He made 4 starts in 1919, including the Indy 500.
He also failed to qualify for the 1920 Indy 500
Best finish: 3rd
4 10/12/1919 Cincinnati BO AAA 27 Kenworthy Duesenberg Duesenberg X 3 125 2:34:31.63 97.070













  

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

The 1913 NCAA football season had no clear-cut champion, with the Official NCAA Division I Football Records Book listing Auburn, Chicago, and Harvard as having been selected national champions.[2] All three teams finished with undefeated records. Chicago and Harvard officially claim national championships for the 1913 season.
Chicago was also the champion of the Western Conference, Missouri was champion of the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MVIAA), and Colorado won the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference. Prior to the season, Kansas State College was added to the MVIAA. Taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1913_college_football_season.

Final Stats:

Conference Best Team Worst Team
Independent Harvard Wake Forest
Western Conference Chicago Northwestern
Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association Nebraska Washington (MO)
Rocky Mountain Conference Colorado Mines Wyoming








































































Today's featured IndyCar driver: Gary Allbritain

The only statistic for him is that he tried to have an entry in the 1976 Indy 500. But it was declined.

This was the car:
5/30/1976 Indianapolis PO USAC 75 Routh Meat Eagle Offy TC -- -- -- Entry declined

Monday, May 25, 2015

Today's featured Indycar driver: Bob Cooney

3 starts all in 1946
best finish: 3rd
6 10/6/1946 Williams Grove 9 DO AAA X X X X X 3 X X
The 1961 USAC Championship Car season consisted of 12 races, beginning in Trenton, New Jersey on April 9 and concluding in Phoenix, Arizona on November 19. There was also one non-championship event at Pikes Peak, Colorado. The USAC National Champion and Indianapolis 500 winner was A. J. Foyt. The season was marred by the deaths of 1951 and 1958 season champion Tony Bettenhausen at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Al Keller at Phoenix. Taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1961_USAC_Championship_Car_season.
The 1961 NFL season was the 42nd regular season of the National Football League. The league expanded to 14 teams with the addition of the Minnesota Vikings, after the team's owners declined to be charter members of the new American Football League. The schedule was also expanded from 12 games per team to 14 games per team. The Vikings were placed in the Western Conference, and the Dallas Cowboys were switched from the Western Conference to the Eastern. Addition of the Vikings returned the NFL to an even number of teams.
The season ended when the Green Bay Packers defeated the New York Giants 37–0 in the NFL Championship Game. Taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1961_NFL_season.

Final Stats:

NFL
Rank Team
Champion Green Bay Packers
Runner-Up New York Giants
10 4 Philadelphia Eagles
8 5 1 Cleveland Browns
8 5 1 Detroit Lions
8 6  Chicago Bears
8 6 Baltimore Colts
7 6 1 San Francisco 49ers
7 7  St. Louis Cardinals
6 8 Pittsburgh Steelers
4 9 1 Dallas Cowboys
4 10 Los Angeles Rams
3 11 Minnesota Vikings
1 12 1 Washington Redskins
AFL
Rank Team
Champion Houston Oilers
Runner-Up San Diego Chargers
9 4 1 Boston Patriots
7 7 New York Titans
6 8 Dallas Texans
6 8 Buffalo Bills
3 11 Denver Broncos
2 12 Oakland Raiders






Saturday, May 23, 2015

The 1966–67 NHL season was the 50th season of the National Hockey League. Six teams each played 70 games. Since the 1942–43 season, there had only been six teams in the NHL, but this was to be the last season of the Original Six as six more teams were added for the 1967–68 season. This season saw the debut of one of the greatest players in hockey history, defenceman Bobby Orr of the Boston Bruins. The Toronto Maple Leafs won the Stanley Cup over the Montreal Canadiens. Taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1966%E2%80%9367_NHL_season.

Final Stats:

Rank Team
Champion Toronto Maple Leafs
Runner-Up Montreal Canadiens
Semi-Finals Chicago Black Hawks
Semi-Finals New York Rangers
27 39 4 Detroit Red Wings
17 43 10 Boston Bruins












































Friday, May 22, 2015

The 1990 Formula One season was the 41st season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the 1990 FIA Formula One World Championship which commenced on 11 March 1990 and ended on 4 November after sixteen races. Ayrton Senna was World Champion Driver for the second time, and McLaren won the Constructors' Championship. Taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1990_Formula_One_season.
Here are the final stats for the 1990 MLB season:


Rank Team
Champion Cincinnati Reds
Runner-Up Oakland Athletics
LCS Pittsburgh Pirates
LCS Boston Red Sox
94 68 Chicago White Sox
91 71 New York Mets
86 76 Toronto Blue Jays
86 76 Los Angeles Dodgers
85 77 San Francisco Giants
85 77 Montreal Expos
83 79 Texas Rangers
80 82 California Angels
79 83 Detroit Tigers
77 85 Cleveland Indians
77 85 Chicago Cubs
77 85 Seattle Mariners
77 85 Philadelphia Phillies
76 85 Baltimore Orioles
75 86 Kansas City Royals
75 87 San Diego Padres
75 87 Houston Astros
74 88 Milwaukee Brewers
74 88 Minnesota Twins
70 92 St. Louis Cardinals
67 95 New York Yankees
65 97 Atlanta Braves




Wednesday, May 20, 2015

The 1972–73 NBA season was the 27th season of the National Basketball Association. The season ended with the New York Knicks winning the NBA Championship, beating the Los Angeles Lakers 4 games to 1 in the NBA Finals. Taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1972%E2%80%9373_NBA_season.

Final Stats:

NBA
Rank Team
Champion New York Knicks
Runner-Up Los Angeles Lakers
Conference Finals Boston Celtics
Conference Finals Golden State Warriors
Conference Semifinals Chicago Bulls
Conference Semifinals Atlanta Hawks
Conference Semifinals Milwaukee Bucks
Conference Semifinals Baltimore Bullets
40 42 Detroit Pistons
38 44 Phoenix Suns
36 46 Kansas City-Omaha Kings
33 49 Houston Rockets
32 50 Cleveland Cavaliers
26 56 Seattle SuperSonics
21 61 Portland Trail Blazers
21 61 Buffalo Braves
9 73 Philadelphia 76ers
ABA
Rank Team
Champion Indiana Pacers
Runner-Up Kentucky Colonels
Division Finals Carolina Cougars
Division Finals Utah Stars
Division Semifinals New York Nets
Division Semifinals Virginia Squires
Division Semifinals Denver Rockets
Division Semifinals San Diego Conquistadors
28 56 Dallas Chaparrals
24 60 Memphis Tams