Sports74 Gold: Racing

By foot, by horse, and by car, the pursuit of "faster" is the topic this time around. Well, except for a few events that involve "higher" and "stronger."

TRACK AND FIELD

At the Bislett Games in Oslo, Rick Wohlhuter runs 1000 meters in 2 minutes and 13.9 seconds, a world record for now and what will prove to be an enduring U.S. record for this event that isn't run often. He also sets a world record for 880 yards. Wohlhuter wins the James E. Sullivan Memorial Award for best amateur athlete.

Wohlhuter's accolades also include wins in the 800 meters at the Russian-American outdoor meet in Durham, N.C., and at the AAU outdoor championships; in the half mile at the Millrose Games in New York; in the 1000 yards at the AAU indoor championships and at the Maple Leaf Indoor Games in Toronto; and in the mile at the U.S. Track and Field Federation outdoor championships.

Jim Bolding should not be ignored. He runs the 440-yard hurdles in a record 48.7 seconds.

Brendon Foster of Great Britain also makes the record books with a time of 7 minutes 35.2 seconds in the 3000 meters.

In Knoxville, Ivory Crockett sets a world record in the hundred-yard dash May 11 with an even nine seconds. In New York on Feb. 22, he finishes third in the sixty-yard dash at the AAU indoor championships.

The winner of the AAU indoor 60 is future Oakland A's "baseball player" Herb Washington, who also wins at the Maple Leaf Indoor Games. Washington runs the fifty-yard dash in 5.1 seconds to take first place at the Millrose Games.

At the Commonwealth Games in Christchurch, New Zealand, Filbert Bayi of Tanzania sets a new 1500 meters mark of 3 minutes 32.2 seconds.

After winning the steeplechase and 5000 meters at Christchurch, Kenya's Ben Jipcho turns professional and becomes the year's money leader in pro track.

Among the track and field stars of the '70s having good years athletics-wise is Dwight Stones, AAU outdoor high jump winner and world record holder starting in '73.

Neil Cusack of Ireland wins the Boston Marathon with a time of 2 hours 13 minutes 39 seconds. Miki Gorman is the third women's champion with the first time under three hours for a woman, 2 hours 47 minutes 11 seconds.

In walking, West German Gerhard Weidner sets a record for 20 miles, ambling that distance in 2 hours 20 minutes 38.6 seconds. His countryman Bernd Kannenberg establishes new marks for two hours (16 miles 1270 yards) and for 30 kilometers (2:12:58.0). These standards join Weidner's best times the previous year for 30 miles and for 50 kilometers.

East German Reinhard Theimer throws a hammer 251 feet 3 inches on July 4, beating the world record -- held by West German Walter Schmidt since 1971 -- by 8 inches. Soviet Aleksey Spiridonov breaks this new record Sept. 11 by 2 1/4 inches.

Tony Waldrop of UNC runs a world indoor record mile in 3 minutes 55 seconds, one of seven indoor mile runs under four minutes for him. He ties for the seventh-fastest mile in history outdoors by finishing in 3:53.2, and another time he barely beats four minutes. In his next outdoor race, Waldrop is denied his tenth consecutive performance of the sort.

An American indoor shot-put record that endures into the mid-'80s is that of George Woods, whose distance is 72 feet 2 3/4 inches at Inglewood on Feb. 8. This year Woods wins the shot put at the San Francisco Examiner Games and at the Millrose Games.

As coach of the U.S. Olympic track team, Leroy Walker of North Carolina Central stands alongside baseball's Frank Robinson in the category of upcoming firsts.

The Track and Field Hall of Fame is founded. Its first class includes Babe Didrikson, Ray Ewry, Rafer Johnson, Bob Mathias, Al Oerter, Jesse Owens, and Wilma Rudolph.

Polish track star Irena Szewinska sets a women's world record June 13 at Potsdam, East Germany, by running 200 meters in 22 seconds. Nine days later in Warsaw, she also becomes a women's record holder in the 400 meters with a time of 49.9 seconds. UPI institutes Athlete of the Year awards, and Szewinska is the women's winner.

At the AAU indoor championships, last year's long jump champion, Randy Williams, sprains his ankle in the ill-kept pit. Carmen Brown, out in front in the women's sprint medley, trips over a crossbar from the pole vault. A different vaulting attempt is ruined when a starter's pistol is fired not far away.

HORSE RACING

After finishing fifth at the Kentucky Derby, Little Current, with Jacinto Vasquez as jockey, wins the Preakness Stakes and the Belmont Stakes. The horse is soon retired after an injury.

Cannonade, with Miguel Rivera as jockey, wins the Derby, which has an all-time record crowd of 163,628 and an all-time high field of 23 horses the year after Secretariat's historic run. Cannonade shows at the other two Triple Crown races.

The money leader among horses is a three-year-old filly named Chris Evert. Unlike her tennis-playing namesake, she doesn't win any major events. She does win five out of her eight races, and she easily defeats Miss Musket in a match race at Hollywood Park.

Although Laffit Pincay Jr. rides neither of the Triple Crown winners, he is the money leader for a fifth consecutive year and the Eclipse Award winner for Jockey of the Year. Although Pancho Martin trains neither of the Triple Crown winners, he is the money leader among trainers.

In the Eclipse Awards, the Horse of the Year for the first of three times is a four-year-old named Forego, who is also the Best Sprinter. The Two-year-old Male of the Year is the undefeated Foolish Pleasure, who will win the '75 Kentucky Derby. The top two-year-old filly, despite a broken leg in September, is Ruffian. Little Current and Chris Evert win their respective awards for three-year-olds.

Dahlia is not one to overlook. The Man o' War Stakes race at Belmont Park (which she wins) represents $71,700 of the French four-year-old filly's career winnings, a total in excess of $1.2 million. Five years before there is an award for best turf female, she wins the Eclipse for best turf horse.

At Delaware Park on July 28, the ten horses Charles Lamb of the Baltimore News-American had predicted to be the winners all finish first.

At Gulfstream on Feb. 26, El Macho runs the shortest distance, three furlongs, in the fastest time to date, 32 1/5 seconds.

On the Atlantic City Race Track on Aug. 26, Basic Witness, a favorite at the Longport Handicap, gets his tail stuck in the back of the starting gate. Those who bet on him get their money back.

Having been afraid of horses in the past, Chris McCarron begins his horse racing career Jan. 24. He has enough wins by Dec. 7 to break a record of 515 wins by a jockey in a year, set in '73 by Sandy Hawley. In the Laurel Park race that puts him over the top, he finally wins a race his brother (Gregg McCarron) is also in. The younger McCarron ends 1974 with 546 first-place finishes and wins the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Apprentice Jockey.

In foreign races for three-year-old thoroughbreds, Harry White wins his first of a record four times at the VRC Melbourne Cup and Yves Saint-Martin wins his second of four times at the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.

In harness racing, Billy Haughton wins the Hambletonian with Christopher T and the Little Brown Jug with Ambro Omaha. Aboard the latter horse, he also wins his fifth Messenger Stakes.

Alert Bret and Handle With Care set mile records for two-year-old pacers, the colt running the Lexington track in one minute 55 4/5 seconds and the filly in 1:54 2/5.

Herve Filion, the first of the North American harness drivers to pass the 5,000-win mark in his career, is the money leader with over $3.4 million. For the sixth time in a row, he is named U.S. Trotting Association Driver of the Year.

Delmonica Hanover is the repeat winner of the Roosevelt International at Westbury, N.Y. (a richer race than the Hambletonian). She is the second mare to be named U.S. Trotting Association Horse of the Year. The trotter is also the money leader with over $252,000.

In quarter horse racing, two-year-old filly Easy Date wins the All-American Futurity, a 440-yard race at Ruidoso Downs in New Mexico. She also wins The Kindergarten at Los Alamitos.

A horse named Gran Kan is voted steeplechase champion in the Eclipse Awards.

Secretariat, Damascus (1966 Preakness and Belmont winner), and Dark Mirage (1968 New York Filly Triple Crown winner) are the new equine members of the National Horse Racing Hall of Fame.

MOTORSPORTS

Richard Petty, driving a '74 Dodge sponsored by STP, wins the Daytona 500 for the fifth time. The race is 450 miles this year as a statement in response to the energy crisis. Petty goes on to win the Winston Cup for the fifth time as well, earning $432,019 along the way. The Talladega 500 and the Dixie 500 in Atlanta are two more of his conquests.

This year's total of 59 lead changes is a record for the Daytona 500, unbroken until 2011. In total, Petty leads 74 laps. Donnie Allison leads 41, but on Lap 190, his left front tire is damaged, and his No. 88 DiGard Racing Chevrolet finishes sixth.

Cale Yarborough wins the Southern 500 in Darlington and finishes second in the year-end standings. He and Petty each get the checkered flag for ten of the thirty Winston Cup races. Among Yarborough's victories are the Atlanta 500 and the season-opening Winston Western 500 at Riverside.

Third-place David Pearson wins both the Winston 500 (Talladega) and the World 600 (Charlotte) from the pole, and although he runs only 19 races, he finishes in the top five for 15 of them, winning seven overall. Those victories also include Charlotte's National 500 and Daytona's Firecracker 400.

The only others to see victory lane in the Winston Cup are fourth-place Bobby Allison -- who wins from the pole at the Richmond 500 and also finishes first at the Los Angeles Times 500 at Ontario -- and Canadian newcomer Earl Ross, whose victory is at Martinsville's Old Dominion 500.

Ray Elder is the champion of the NASCAR Winston West Series, being the winner at Corona, Westwood, Cajon, Ascot Park, and Altamont, with 15 more top-five finishes. Jack Ingram is, for the third time in a row, on top of the Late Model Sportsman Division.

At the Indianapolis 500, whose purse is over a million dollars, Johnny Rutherford wins, having started in the twenty-fifth position. He has three other victories this year, including the big-money Schafer 500 at Pocono.

Only thirteen of the 33 cars are still running at the end of the Indy 500, but hardly anyone is so much as injured, which is considered notable at the time. A.J. Foyt gets the pole at the big race and leads 70 laps but does not finish, while future pole-sitter Pancho Carter (who finishes 7th) is named the 500's Rookie of the Year.

Rutherford is also the top money earner in the USAC Championship Car Series, with $382,925, but his point total is second-best.

Bobby Unser, with four victories (including the lucrative California 500 at Ontario) and twelve top-five finishes in total (including second at the Indy 500), wins his second USAC national driving championship and the third for the Unser family.

Mario Andretti, three-time Champ Car Series champion in the '60s, is the USAC Dirt Champion and winner of three out of five races. He also gets three wins in the Formula 5000 series, a USAC-sanctioned road course circuit in which the Englishman Brian Redman is the champion. Andretti is running at the finish in three of his eleven Champ Car Series races, including the Phoenix 150, where he finishes third. In Formula One, he takes seventh place at the Canadian Grand Prix but is disqualified during the United States Grand Prix.

McLaren-Ford's Emerson Fittipaldi, winner of the Brazilian, Belgian, and Canadian Grand Prix races, wins his second Formula One championship. This year is his first with McLaren.

At the Spanish Grand Prix, Ferrari driver Niki Lauda gets the first of what will be 25 career Formula 1 victories.

Carlos Reutemann wins the U.S. Grand Prix Oct. 6 at Watkins Glen, where Fittipaldi clinches the world driving championship. Reutemann also wins the South African and Austrian Grand Prix races.

Ronnie Peterson wins the Monaco, French, and Italian Grands Prix.

Bob Gladden wins his first of what will be ten NHRA Pro Stock titles.

Henri Pescarolo and Gerard Larrousse, who together had won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in '73, repeat as champions by going around the track -- almost 8 1/2 miles in length -- 338 times in their Matra-Simca. The 24 Hours of Daytona event is not held for the same reason that the Daytona 500 goes through a tithe.

From the Rumble in the Jungle to the Golden Gloves, Jimmy and Chris to Martina, the Golden Bear to the ladies of the links -- three categories come together May 24.