1971 USAC National Dirt Car Championship

The 1971 USAC National Dirt Car Championship was the first season of the newly formed USAC National Dirt Car Championship. The inaugural champion was George Snider. The Dirt Car championship was created after dirt races were dropped from the schedule of the USAC Championship Car series following the 1970 season.^[1]

1971 USAC National Dirt Car Championship

Previous

1970

Next

1972

Technical rules

The existing USAC National Championship was a mixture of road courses, hill climbs and paved or dirt oval races. For the 1971 season this championship switched exclusively to paved ovals. Especially on the paved ovals rear-engined cars dominated the races whereas on the dirt ovals the front-engined cars were superior.

The cars' construction mainly stayed with front engines as established after World War II. The cars with wheelbase of at least 96 inches. Overhead camshaft engines were restricted to 256.284 cubic inches (4.2 liters) and stock block engine could use up to 305.1 cubic inches (5.0 liters).

Confirmed entries

Team / Owner	Chassis	Engine	No	Drivers	Rounds
Agajanian-Faas Racers	Watson 64	Ford	98	Sammy Sessions	1
		Offenhauser			2–4
A. J. Foyt Enterprises	Meskowski 69	Foyt	9	A. J. Foyt	2–4
Bob Harkey	Meskowski 59	Offenhauser	52	Bob Harkey	All
Carl Gehlhausen Racing	Kurtis 4000D 343	Offenhauser	84	Tom Bigelow	1
				Jim Malloy	2–4
CHEK Inc.	Turner 62	Chevrolet	44	Arnie Knepper	All
Danny Burke	Moore 65	Offenhauser	33	Ronnie Burke	2–4
Don Rogala	unknown	Offenhauser	36	Billy Vukovich Jr.	1
				Jimmy Caruthers	2–4
Federal Engineering	Meskowski 64	Offenhauser	3	Johnny Parsons	4
Gerhardt Racing	unknown	Plymouth	16	Gary Bettenhausen	2–4
Harry Conklin	unknown	Offenhauser	64	Bill Puterbaugh	1
Helen Reynard	Kuzma	Offenhauser	75	Jim Reynard	All
Jim McElreath	McElreath 69	Chevrolet	14	Jim McElreath	All
Joe Hunt	Lesovksy 58	Offenhauser	99	Merle Bettenhausen	2–4
Jordan	unknown	Chevrolet	69	Duke Cook	3–4
Ken Brenn	Meskowski 62	Offenhauser	57	Lee Kunzman	All
Leader Card	Watson 62	Offenhauser	4	George Snider	All
Lindsey Hopkins	Meskowski 61	Offenhauser	6	Roger McCluskey	4
Louis Senter	Meskowski 63	Offenhauser	22	Don Hawley	All
Louis Seymour	Meskowski 61	Chevrolet	39	Joe Saldana	1
		Offenhauser		Bruce Walkup	2–4
Mataka Brothers	Blum 62	Offenhauser	31	Jerry Karl	1
				Joe Saldana	2–4
MVS Racing	Ward 67	Offenhauser	19	Bill Puterbaugh	2, 4
Ray Smith	Ward 68	Chevrolet	70	Carl Williams	1
				Tom Bigelow	2–4
Richard Blacker	Cannon 70	Chevrolet	47	Larry Cannon	2–4
Ron Hart	Cedoz 70	Chevrolet	48	Karl Busson	All
Ron Kilman	Meskowski 60	Offenhauser	25	Rollie Beale	All
Russ Ruppert	Meskowski 58	Offenhauser	17	Dick Tobias	All
Steck	unknown	Chevrolet	30	Billy Thrasher	2–4
STP Racing	Kingfish 69	Plymouth	5	Mario Andretti	2–4
	Kingfish 70	Chevrolet	40	Larry Dickson	All
	Kingfish 70	Gurney Weslake	60	Greg Weld	1–3
	Kingfish 69	Plymouth			4
Tim DelRose Enterprises	Kuzma 60	Offenhauser	18	Johnny Rutherford	All
Two Jacks	Gerhardt 66	GM Allison Turbine	29	Art Pollard	3–4
United Championship Racers	Dunlop 64	Offenhauser	24	Gary Bettenhausen	1
				Billy Vukovich Jr.	2–4
Vatis Enterprises	Vollstedt 59	Offenhauser	94	Carl Williams	2–4
Vel's Parnelli Jones Racing	Kingfish 69	Ford	1	Al Unser	1, 4
Walmotors	Meskowski 59	Offenhauser	77	Salt Walther	2–4
Walt Flynn	Flynn 64	Offenhauser	58	Ralph Liguori	All
Wib Spalding	Meskowski	Chevrolet	15	Bill Puterbaugh	3
				Don Nordhorn	4

Schedule and results

The season consisted of four 100 mile dirt races.^[2]

Rnd	Date	Race Name	Track	Location	Winning Driver
1	June 20	Nazareth 100	Nazareth National Speedway	Nazareth, Pennsylvania	Jim McElreath
2	August 22	Tony Bettenhausen 100	Illinois State Fairgrounds	Springfield, Illinois	A.J. Foyt
3	September 6	Ted Horn Memorial	Du Quoin State Fairgrounds	Du Quoin, Illinois	George Snider
4	September 11	Hoosier Hundred	Indiana State Fairgrounds	Indianapolis, Indiana	Al Unser

Final point standings

The driver's championship was won by George Snider of 26 classified drivers. The entrants championships went to the #4 car of Leader Card, Inc.^[3]

Pos Driver NAZ SPR DUQ ISF Pts 1 George Snider 18 2* 1 2 520 2 Jim McElreath 1 3 Wth 6 420 3 A. J. Foyt 1 9 4 360 4 Billy Vukovich Jr. 4 22 3 5 360 5 Don Hawley 3 4 6 DNQ 340 6 Arnie Knepper 2 11 5 9 320 7 Al Unser 10* 1* 230 8 Bob Harkey 6 8 7 11 210 9 Larry Dickson DNS 10 21 3 170 10 Bill Puterbaugh 20 18 4 8 170 11 Greg Weld 13 15 2* Wth 160 12 Sammy Sessions 9 12 23 7 110 13 Gary Bettenhausen 5 20 DNQ 18 100 14 Jimmy Caruthers 5 16 21 100 15 Merle Bettenhausen 7 14 10 90 16 Rollie Beale 19 6 Wth DNQ 80 17 Jerry Karl 7 60 18 Ralph Liguori 8 24 22 Wth 50 19 Johnny Rutherford 16 17 8 20 50 20 Carl Williams 15 9 18 14 40 21 Ronnie Burke Wth 10 DNQ 30 22 Dick Tobias 11 DNQ DNQ DNQ 20 23 Joe Saldana DNS 19 11 16 20 24 Jim Reynard 12 DNQ DNQ DNQ 10 25 Salt Walther 14 12 DNQ 10 26 Don Nordhorn 12 10 - Mario Andretti 13 17 17 0 - Jim Malloy 21 19 13 0 - Lee Kunzman DNS 23 13 DNQ 0 - Karl Busson 14 16 DNQ 19 0 - Johnny Parsons 15 0 - Larry Cannon DNQ 15 DNQ 0 - Tom Bigelow 17 Wth 20 DNQ 0 - Bruce Walkup DNS 24 22 0 - Roger McCluskey 23 0 - Art Pollard DNQ 24 0 - Billy Thrasher DNQ DNQ DNQ 0 - Duke Cook DNQ Wth 0 Pos Driver NAZ SPR DUQ ISF Pts

Color Result Gold Winner Silver 2nd place Bronze 3rd place Green 4th & 5th place Light Blue 6th-10th place Dark Blue Finished (Outside Top 10) Purple Did not finish (Ret) Red Did not qualify (DNQ) Brown Withdrawn (Wth) Black Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Blank Did not participate (DNP) Not competing In-line notation Bold Pole position Italics Ran fastest race lap * Led most race laps  RY  Rookie of the Year  R  Rookie