IARC reference / history

Obviously incomplete, will be expanded upon constantly...




       In 1961, the American Racing Series was founded. The schedule featured 10 tracks, mostly in the Midwest, and on a mix of dirt and asphalt tracks. However, with the Vietnam War looming, many were sure that an organized stock car series would yet again falter from a lack of competitors. The doubters were correct, and the 1967 season was cancelled as only 19 cars were entered into the opening race.

As the American involvement began to die down, and drivers returned to the US, the ARS ran several promotional races in 1970 and 1971. During this time, the series organizers had been developing a brand new kind of track in Daytona, Florida. The nearby beach was used for land speed records for decades, so why not try and make the fastest closed circuit race track? The track was 2.5 miles long with over 30 degrees of banking. The final touches were made in late 1973, and the series announced a full return for the 1974 season, opening with the first race ever held on the Daytona track.

The 1974 Sunshine State 300 would be a defining moment for stock car racing. Always over-shadowed by their open-wheel and sports car counterparts, a track only this kind of car could race on makes the ARS fill a gap only the stock car can fill – close, and intensely fast racing. However, the race did not turn out to be the great event that reshaped motorsports as it was promoted to be. On the 66th lap a massive crash occurred, where several drivers were injured, including Thomas Yates, who was fatally injured, in one of the most gruesome incidents seen in racing in years. The dangers assumed in this style of racing came into fruition, and the sport of stock car racing failed to gain the large notoriety and prestige it was searching for. However, it did grow its fan base as the Southeast was an under-represented region in the previous iteration of the ARS, and despite the race’s brutality, the fan base did see an increase. The series pushed on, as racers do, and the Sunshine State 300 accident was deemed a racing incident.

The ARS continued the 1974 season without major news, and Major Benjamin was crowned the first champion of the ARS modern-era. For several more seasons the Sunshine State 300 was a much more pleasant race to watch and the 1978 race was to be televised nationally, however, as if stock cars were doomed to obscurity, the event was rained out and moved to the Monday following. After 3 more seasons were run and the fan base had continue to grow, again the 1982 Sunshine State 300 was televised to the entire United States and Canada, and the race went as scheduled, and provided a fantastic show for the millions who watched it all live.  The series finally gained the recognition it needed. The cars, teams, and series as a whole was years behind where it could’ve been. And having Daniel Baltano win his 2nd consecutive championship in again dominating fashion, the ARS decided it was time for a major, top-to bottom change.

Before the 1983 season, the ARS re-named itself to the Continental Racing Association of North America (CRANA) and expanded to have smaller-tier series. The schedule ballooned to 25 events including 3 in Canada. The cars and teams were much more regulated, and brought into the current times, as several teams still ran cars from the late 60s. The age of sponsorship began for not only the teams, but the organization as a whole, and the top-level CRANA series was re-titled to the Unocol-76 Cup Series (UCS). The UCS became more and more popular as the rivalry between Daniel Baltano and Riley Anderson boiled over in the 1986 season, as they took each other out of the race several times allowing Carl Buchannan to take the championship. After the final race, Baltano and Anderson got into a massive brawl, and the CRANA officials decided it was time to put a stop to their nonsense, and banned them from the first 3 races of the 1987 season. Despite their cooled heads, missing 3 races was too much to overcome and Carl Buchannan again took home the championship.

In 1987 the UCS suffered the 2nd fatal crash in its history, and the newly built Talladega Superspeedway. Jimmy Marksin’s car was turned on the front stretch and barrel-rolled up into the catch fence. To make it worse, 17 fans were also injured including 7 being killed as a result of the accident. When spectators are caught in the crossfire, it is no longer a racing incident. The CRANA officials knew major changes had to be made at the larger tracks. An engine restriction plate was added for the events at Daytona, Texas World, and Talladega. The cars were slowed from about 230 miles an hour, to about 185. The cars were also bunched much much more closely together. Since then no fans have been fatally injured in any race at these tracks.

More and more teams began to enter the UCS, especially for the richest events, which coincidentally were at Texas World, Talladega, Daytona, and the new Pittsburgh Superspeedway.  The fields were cut to 40 cars, after the disastrous 1990 Talladega 200 where the 61-car starting grid was cut to 13 cars after a lap 7 wreck. The slowed cars proved to not make the racing any safer for the drivers, as the close-quarters racing lead to the infamous series of fatal and near-fatal crashes in the 1990s.



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