Think about a racing sequence that pitted your favourite retired drivers in opposition to each other on a tiny circuit behind the wheel of pricy, identically-prepared $1.3 million Jaguar XJ220 supercars. Think about that you might tune in for a couple of weeks in the summertime to look at these icons of sport beat, bang and destroy tens of millions of {dollars} in gear for a grand prize of $100,000. In 1993, that sequence truly existed, and it was referred to as Quick Masters.
Quick Masters was basically a made-for-TV racing product that lasted for six weeks in the summertime of 1993. All six occasions passed off on the similar venue, the 0.686-mile Indianapolis Raceway Park roval, and the entire automobiles concerned had been Havoline-sponsored Tom Walkinshaw Racing-prepared Jaguar XJ220s that raced on high-performance Bridgestone Tires. To make issues even wilder, the sequence was restricted to drivers who had been 50 or older, and the sector on any given Saturday evening might characteristic icons from IndyCar, Method 1, NASCAR, or endurance racing — males like Paul Newman, Derek Bell, Henri Pescarolo, Rodger Ward, Parnelli Jones, and Bobby Unser.
Terry Lingner, one of many present’s producers, instructed Marshall Pruett that the first objective for Quick Masters was to create compelling tv over at ESPN.
“I used to be struck by the concept the Bobby Allisons and the Pettys and the Pearsons of the world might nonetheless haul the mail,” he stated. “And the concept possibly [with] a inventory automotive, you might do like seniors’ golf. Why not have a Saturday race for guys over 45?”
However you may’t simply have a single race. Lingner initially thought of a 10-race package deal however narrowed the quantity to one thing that would extra simply captivate viewers and convey some locals out to the observe. Subsequent, all they wanted had been some automobiles.
I’ll let Tony Dowe, former Tom Walkinshaw Racing USA boss, clarify that one:
Jaguar had been pulling out of racing in North America, and there was nonetheless one yr of a contract to go, and Tom [Walkinshaw] had gone to New York to satisfy with [Jaguar executives] Mike Dale and Bob Burton and so forth, and he got here onto me. He stated, “Effectively, they’ll go one other yr. Nonetheless, what they need is that they wish to be within the sequence with extra relevancy to the product, and so they additionally, it must have worldwide enchantment with drivers, and it must be on TV. Reside TV. What are you able to do?”
Lingner, on the time, was contemplating a midget automotive racing sequence, however he couldn’t persuade these senior drivers to get behind the wheel of one thing that was basically a naked chassis with some wings tacked on. Dowe recalled telling Lingner, “Look, , mate. In case you’ve obtained XJ220s, a supercar with all these drivers in, and Jaguar helps and we put up an enormous prize fund, that’s obtained to be higher than what you’re with this midget automotive factor.”
Indianapolis Raceway Park made sense as a venue for loads of causes. First, it’s a very small circuit, so drivers wouldn’t have the ability to construct up sufficient pace to actually harm themselves. Plus, the observe was already outfitted with TV digital camera cables to air Saturday Evening Thunder, so it was simple to point out up on race day and get all arrange. TWR shipped 12 Jaguar XJ220s over to America, and Lingner and Dowe set to work getting ready them to race at IRP.
The $100,000 prize purse satisfied a slate of unimaginable drivers to enroll, however nabbing actor-turned-racer Paul Newman actually helped set the present up for achievement.
The primary occasion passed off on Saturday, June 19 and featured three occasions: one 10-lap warmth race on the oval, one 10-lap warmth race on the roval, and one last race made up of six laps on the oval adopted by six laps on the roval. Ten drivers had been chosen for the occasion, however solely 9 began as a result of ol’ Gary Bettenhausen crashed so exhausting in observe that his automotive was worn out.
By lap two of the primary warmth, the sector was operating three vast and crashing in completely spectacular trend, leading to a number of automobiles slamming proper into victory lane.
And that was… just about the story of Quick Masters, which shortly earned the nickname Crash Masters. Each week, the sequence would recruit a handful of recent drivers however fewer automobiles because of the extent of the injury they had been present process.
The ultimate championship race passed off on Saturday, August 21. Ten drivers who carried out effectively within the earlier races superior to the finals, the place they took half in time trials to set the sector for 2 eight-lap warmth races. Odd qualifiers participated within the first warmth, whereas even qualifiers entered the second. The highest three finishers of every warmth moved on to the ultimate 12-lap occasion. Bobby Unser finally took victory — and the $100,000 prize that got here with it. That was more cash than the winner of the Daytona 24 earned the next yr.
As you may think about, the wild, great experiment that was Quick Masters didn’t make it for a second yr. It was too rattling costly, Jaguar was carried out racing in America, and there was completely no means that every other automaker of their proper thoughts would have subjected their machines to that type of abuse — even when it got here by the hands of a few of motorsport’s most distinctive drivers. However it was a rattling deal with whereas it lasted, offering among the wildest, wackiest racing in historical past.
To delve deeper into the sequence, try this 30-minute video from Nascarman historical past, and take a look at the oral historical past of the sequence on Marshall Pruett’s podcast.
