Gerhardt 1966 Indy car-by-car histories
The brand new Leader Card #4 Gerhardt for Don Branson at Phoenix in March 1966. Part of the Dave Friedman collection. Licenced by The Henry Ford under Creative Commons licence Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic. Original image has been cropped.
Thanks to some timely publicity from Parnelli Jones breaking the one-mile closed track record during tyre testing, Fred Gerhardt received ten orders for his 1966 design. Gordie Johncock took two second places during the season in the Weinberger Homes car.
1966 was the year that the supercharged Offenhauser became available and Drake Offenhauser claimed 550 bhp for the 168 ci Offy compared with 515 bhp for the Ford V8, but the engine would not fit into many of the older cars. Fred Gerhardt had close connections with Offenhauser and had already completed a prototype of his 1966 car which made it the obvious choice for testing. The prototype had first appeared in November 1965 when Jim Hurtubise raced it at Phoenix as the #46 car. Competition Press described it then as a "Gerhardt-chassied Ford" but whether it actually was a Ford is unclear as there had been talk of the Mecom team running the first supercharged Offy at PIR in a new Gerhardt chassis and further talk of a short-stroke 255 ci Offy having tested at the same track in the weeks prior to the race. Parnelli Jones made headlines at the end of January when he took the prototype 1966 Gerhardt fitted with the new supercharged engine to a new lap record at Phoenix of 122.574 mph during a Firestone test and his performance led to a stampede of orders for the 1966 Gerhardt. Fred reported that ten more cars were to be built for Indy in 1966, five with Offys and five with Fords. The chassis cost $15,000 plus either $17,000 for the new Offy or $25,000 for the Ford. The Jim Rathman "Astronauts" car was innovating further with an Airesearch turbocharger on its Offy instead of a Roots supercharger. All engine options were mated to a two-speed Halibrand transaxle.
Simmo Iskül's analysis of these cars shows three distinct models, 'Type A' with Dzus-fastened sides which included the two 'house cars', 'Type B' also with Dzus fasteners but all in a single straight line, and 'Type C' with rivetted sides. The four Type A cars were the two 'house' cars driven by Hurtubise and Kenyon, the Lindsey Hopkins car and the "Astronauts" car. The three 'Type B' cars were the Myron Caves car, the Sid Weinberger car and the second Walther car. The five 'Type C' cars were the Federal Engineering car, both the Leader Card cars, the first Walther car and the Bob Hurt car.
As best we can tell, 12 or 13 1966 Gerhardts were built. If you can add anything to these histories, please contact Allen Brown (allen@oldracingcars.com).
Jim Hurtubise at Phoenix in March 1966 driving the Gerhardt-Offy s/c that had recently set a new PIR lap record. Part of the Dave Friedman collection. Licenced by The Henry Ford under Creative Commons licence Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic. Original image has been cropped.
The first of Gerhardt's 1966-spec cars was started late in 1965 and must be the #46 car in which Jim Hurtubise appeared at Phoenix (PIR) in November 1965, although 1966 Indy previews only say it was completed in time for testing at PIR in January. Fitted with the supercharged Offy and used by Parnelli Jones in testing in January when he broke the lap record at PIR. Raced by Hurtubise again at PIR in March 1966 and taken to Indy as a backup to his new car. After the Indy 500, it was used by Jim Rathmann's Astronauts as their #76 Pure Firebird entry for Art Pollard at Milwaukee in June, presumably on loan because the team's new 1966 Gerhardt had been damaged at the Speedway. Similarly, it was used by Herb Porter's Racing Associates as their #39 entry for Bobby Grim at Phoenix in November, in place of the team's aged Watson roadster. The car was used again as Gerhardt's #46 Thermo King entry for Mel Kenyon in the two opening races of the 1967 season. According to crew member Dennis Johansen the #46 car was entered at Indy in 1967 but was being used just as a Thermo King show car until the Friday before the last weekend of qualifying when Goodyear said that they were sponsoring two team cars but had only seen one run. The car was quickly put together overnight by Don Gerhardt, Mel Kenyon and Dennis and was fired up for the first time on Saturday morning, Bob Veith did ten laps and then took a qualifying attempt, making the race comfortably and finishing 11th. This is likely to be the "his 'old' No 46" crashed in a test at IMS on 29 Jun 1967.
Driven by: Jim Hurtubise, Parnelli Jones, Art Pollard, Bobby Grim, Mel Kenyon and Bob Veith. First race: Phoenix International Raceway (R18), 21 Nov 1965. Total of 7 recorded races.
New to Myron Caves, originally from Madison, Wisconsin and by 1966 a long-established Buick dealer in Gerhardt's home town of Fresno, CA. Fitted with a supercharged Offy and run for Mike McGreevy as the #85 Caves Buick Co. entry at the start of the season and also at Indy but despite the efforts of three drivers, it did not qualify. Presumably the same #85 Caves Buick Gerhardt-Offy SC driven principally by Al Miller through to the end of 1966, and at Phoenix in April 1967, where it was wrecked. Caves had a new Gerhardt for the 1967 Indy 500, but this 1966 car may have been repaired and retained as a short track car in 1967, 1968 and even 1969. Next seen when sold to Jack Adams who had entered a car at Indy in 1969 with a Bryant chassis and Allison helicopter turbine engine. The Gerhardt was rebuilt by chief crew Howard Millican to take the turbine and was practiced at Indy in 1970 by Jigger Sirois but could not find the speed to qualify. Raced by Rick Muther later in 1970, finishing eighth at Trenton, and in 1971. The chassis was sold to Mark Stainbrook in 1971 and he later sold it to Gary Bettenhausen. Subsequent history unknown.
Driven by: George Snider, Rodger Ward, Mike McGreevy, Bob Harkey, Bob Wente, Don Meacham, Arnie Knepper, Al Miller, Jigger Sirois and Rick Muther. First race: Phoenix International Raceway (R1), 20 Mar 1966. Total of 15 recorded races.
George Walther's first 1966 Gerhardt at Phoenix in March 1966. Part of the Dave Friedman collection. Licenced by The Henry Ford under Creative Commons licence Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic. Original image has been cropped.
New to George Walther of Dayton Steel Foundry, fitted with a 255 ci Ford and entered as the #77 Gerhardt for Carl Williams until it was wrecked in his qualifying crash at Milwaukee in August 1966 and replaced with a new car. The damaged monocoque from Williams' accident was later sold at the George Walther Jr Estate Auction in Walton, OH, in October 2002. In 2010 the car was reported to be in the US being restored.
Driven by: Carl Williams. First race: Phoenix International Raceway (R1), 20 Mar 1966. Total of 4 recorded races.
The front suspension of Leader Cards' brand new #4 Gerhardt at Phoenix in March 1966. Part of the Dave Friedman collection. Licenced by The Henry Ford under Creative Commons licence Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic. Original image has been cropped.
The Leader Card Racers team of Bob Wilke and Jud Phillips acquired two new 1966 Ford-engined Gerhardts and ran them for Don Branson with numbers #4 and #91. Assuming there was no number swapping, the #4 was Don Branson's first choice car during 1966 and was then taken over by Bobby Unser, who crashed it in practice at Trenton in September. It was retained as a backup for 1967 when it was raced by Unser in the two opening races, was his #86 backup car at the Indy 500, and his mount at Langhorne in June and in July. Then sold to Gordy Johncock, fitted with a turbo Offy, raced at Phoenix in November 1967, and used to win at Hanford in early 1968. Sold after the 1968 Indy 500 to Boyce Holt, and entered as the #44 Gerhardt-Chev towards the end of the 1968 season. It returned for a few races in 1969 as the #71 Boyce Holt Muffler entry, but was crashed by Bruce Walkup at Milwaukee August 1969, and then sold to Lloyd W. Gifford (Ft Wayne, IN) who rebuilt it with a 302ci Ford stock block engine and ran it in 1970, 1971 and 1972. By 1990, a car wearing #71 was with collector Bob McConnell (Urbana, OH) but said to be a 1968 car. Not mentioned in recent descriptions of McConnell's collection. In 2018, Gary Trout (Cross Plains, IN) revealed that he had bought the car from McConnell.
Driven by: Don Branson, Bobby Unser, Gordon Johncock, Bruce Jacobi, Sonny Ates, Mickey Shaw, Rick Muther, Cy Fairchild, Bruce Walkup, Jerry Karl, Dee Jones and John Hubbard. First race: Phoenix International Raceway (R1), 20 Mar 1966. Total of 23 recorded races.
Ronnie Bucknum in Gordon Van Liew's Vita-Fresh Orange Juice Gerhardt at Indy in 1967. Part of the Dave Friedman collection. Licenced by The Henry Ford under Creative Commons licence Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic. Original image has been cropped.
New to Lindsey Hopkins and entered as the #78 GC Murphy Spl at Indy 1966. It was then sold to Gordon Van Liew and entered as the #7 Vita Fresh Orange Juice Gerhardt-Offy for Larry Dickson at Milwaukee 29 Aug 1966 and at three other short track races that season. It would then presumably be the #22 Vita Fresh Gerhardt driven by Dickson at Phoenix in April 1967. Dickson crashed early in the race and suffered burns. Photographs show that Hopkins' 1966 #78 Gerhardt-Ford was Gordon Van Liew's #23 Vita-Fresh Orange Juice entry at the 1967 Indy 500, qualified by Ronnie Bucknum but later bumped. The bodywork had been altered to a 1967 shape, but the car is clearly of 1966 construction. Bucknum later drove this car at the road courses at Mosport Park, Indianapolis Raceway Park and Mont-Tremblant, where it was described in press reports as the "only Gerhardt in existence with the chassis set on centre", i.e with symmetric suspension. Last seen in 1967 when run by Arnie Knepper in practice at Riverside but crashed and badly damaged. Photographs show that this was the car acquired by Pete Salemi after Ronnie Duman's fatal accident at Milwaukee in June 1968. Roy Reed, who had been chief mechanic when the car was with Van Liew, moved with it to Salemi's operation. He fitted the car with a turbo Offy and ran it as Salemi's #81 Central Excavating entry for Jigger Sirois in three races in late 1968. Salemi's team did not return for 1969, and the subsequent history of this Gerhardt is unknown.
Driven by: Roger McCluskey, Masten Gregory, Larry Dickson, Ronnie Bucknum, Arnie Knepper and Jigger Sirois. First race: Trenton Speedway (R2), 24 Apr 1966. Total of 12 recorded races.
Bob Hurt qualified Malcolm J. Boyle's Rev 500 Special for Indy in 1967 but was bumped. Part of the Dave Friedman collection. Licenced by The Henry Ford under Creative Commons licence Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic. Original image has been cropped.
Toney Edwards' Gerhardt at the Indianapolis 500 vintage meeting in 2017. Copyright Ian Blackwell 2017. Used with permission.
New for Bob Hurt (Potomac, MD) and entered at the 1966 Indy 500 by Robert J Ricucci (Washington, DC) as the #36 Viking Racing Offenhauser car. Run by Viking Racing for Hurt at a few races later in the season. In 1967, Hurt returned in a Gerhardt but the #29 REV 500 car entered by Malcolm J Boyle. It would seem reasonable to assume that this is the same car. Hurt continued to race this #29 Gerhardt through the 1967 season. Entered again by Boyle's PMB Racers Inc of Chicago, IL, for Hurt in early 1968. Driven by Bobby Johns and Ronnie Duman during practice for the 1968 Indy 500, but crashed by Duman. Boyle did not continue racing, and photographs clearly show that the Bobby Johns Gerhardt then went to Arthur W. 'Buzz' Harvey's Bulldog Stables Inc (Hardwick, Mass), still as the #26, to run alongside the team's #36 Gerhardt-Chev on the USAC trail towards the end of 1968. The team ran a #26 Gerhardt-Chev early in 1969, which is likely to be the team's original Gerhardt, and then had a "new" 1968-style Gerhardt for the Indy 500.
Believed to be the 1966 Gerhardt sold by Bulldog Stables to Louis A. Seymour (Marlboro, Mass), the legendary sprint car owner better known as "Boston" Louie. Seymour fitted a Chevy engine and entered it as the #39 Seymour Enterprises car for Don Brown and others in 1970 and 1971. This Gerhardt is presumably the car Seymour and Brown had at Phoenix Nov 1970 that Phil Harms identified as a Huffaker. It was entered for Angel Reubén Monguzzi at Rafaela in early 1971. Retired by Seymour in late 1971 and sold to an unknown owner in 1988 who sold it to Phil Gumpert (Noblesville, IN) in 1996. Phil reported that it still had the Argentina stickers on it. Restored by Roger Beck and Brian Stewart of Indianapolis. Still with Gumpert in 2006 but in 2008 Charley & Vera Lawrence were exhibiting a "1968" Gerhardt with Chevy engine but in the #26 livery of Rick Muther's 1969 Indy 500 entry. Despite its livery, the car was the shape of a 1966 Gerhardt but with the outboard springs that did not appear on Gerhardts until 1968. An identical car was in Kruse's Auburn Spring Car Auction in May 2009 but was not sold. Kruse also described it as a 1968 car. By May 2013 this car was with Toney Edwards (Greenwood, Indiana). Still with Edwards in May 2014. Displayed by Edwards at the Indy Historic event in 2017.
Driven by: Bob Hurt, Bobby Johns, Ronnie Duman, Bob Harkey, Denny Zimmerman, Karl Busson and Don Brown. First race: Trenton Speedway (R2), 24 Apr 1966. Total of 26 recorded races.
New to American astronauts Gordon Cooper and Virgil Grissom, who had former 500 winner Jim Rathmann acting as chief crew, and fitted with a supercharged Offy. Entered at the Indy 500 as the Pure Firebird 76, the car was crashed in practice by both Lee Roy Yarbrough and Greg Weld and did not make the race. Art Pollard took over the drive after the Indy 500, but the Rathman team borrowed a different Gerhardt to him to use at Milwaukee a week later, presumably because this car was being repaired. It is thought that the team's regular car raced for the first time at Langhorne on 12 June. It was entered by G. C. R. Inc as the #76 again at Indy in 1967 and driven in practice by Rick Muther but did not attempt to qualify. Unknown after May 1967. In 2021, Austin Donahue had this car in Indiana. Its full history after 1967 is still to be determined, but it went via Ohio, Illinois and then back to Indiana.
Driven by: Greg Weld, Lee Roy Yarbrough, Art Pollard and Rick Muther. First race: Langhorne International Motor Speedway (R5), 12 Jun 1966. Total of 5 recorded races.
The Federal Engineering Gerhardt at Indianapolis in 1967. Part of the Dave Friedman collection. Licenced by The Henry Ford under Creative Commons licence Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic. Original image has been cropped.
New to Dan Levine of Federal Engineering (Detroit, MI) and entered as the #22 Federal Engineering car for Bud Tingelstad during 1966, using supercharged Offy engines. The car was badly damaged in the last race of the season when Tingelstad spun the Gerhardt and was fit by Ralph Liguori's car. Photographs show that the two cars used by the Federal Engineering team in 1967 were new 1967 cars, so this 1966 car does not appear to have been used by the team again. At some point it was sold to St Louis owners but not raced again. Eventually to collector Bob McConnell (Urbana, OH), and from him to Jack Layton (Howell, MI) who intended to restore it but found a roadster project instead. Sold to Gerald Whitney (Fenton, MI) in November 1986. In 2017, Gerald was progressing the restoration as a retirement project. By early 2023, after a couple of interruptions, it was about 75% complete.
Driven by: Bud Tingelstad. First race: Indianapolis Motor Speedway (R3), 30 May 1966. Total of 10 recorded races.
The Weinberger Homes Gerhardt 66 at Indy in 1967. Part of the Dave Friedman collection. Licenced by The Henry Ford under Creative Commons licence Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic. Original image has been cropped.
New to Sid Weinberger to be the #72 Weinberger Homes Gerhardt-Ford that Gordon Johncock drives all season, and then the #49 Weinberger Homes Gerhardt-Ford that Norm Brown used in practice at the 1967 Indy 500 before the team's second Eagle was ready. Brown then crashed a #49 Weinberger Homes Gerhardt-Ford at Milwaukee a week later, and again on the opening lap of the IRP race in July. When the team used a Gerhardt later in the season, photographs show that it was a 1967 car. John Fugate worked for the Weinberger team from 1967 to 1970, when he was asked to disband the team and sell the cars. His recollection is that there were then two Gerhardts, one ex-Johncock and the other ex-Sam Sessions, so this car must have been the Johncock car. Both were sold to father and son racers in the US northwest who intended to use them in Supermodified racing. Fugate later heard that one of them was killed in a racing accident and does not believe either Gerhardt was raced. Subsequent history unknown.
Driven by: Gordon Johncock and Norm Brown. First race: Indianapolis Motor Speedway (R3), 30 May 1966. Total of 10 recorded races.
Jim Hurtubise's new Gerhardt at the 1967 Indy 500. Copyright Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Copyright permissions granted for non-commercial use by Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
A new car built by Fred Gerhardt for Jim Hurtubise to drive as the #56 Gerhardt with supercharged Offy at Indy and thereafter during 1966. Last seen at Phoenix in November 1966. Unknown after November 1966. Bought by Don Lyons (Dowagiac, MI) about 1992 and restored to Hurtubise's orange-and-black 1966 livery. Appeared in a parade of old cars at the 2004 Indy 500. Sold at the Gooding & Company Pebble Beach Auctions in August 2009. Unknown since 2009.
Driven by: Jim Hurtubise. First race: Indianapolis Motor Speedway (R3), 30 May 1966. Total of 6 recorded races.
Mickey Shaw in Walt Michner's ex-Wilke #60 Gerhardt at the 1967 Indy 500. Part of the Dave Friedman collection. Licenced by The Henry Ford under Creative Commons licence Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic. Original image has been cropped.
One of two new 1966 Ford-engined Gerhardts acquired by Leader Card Racers for 1966 and retained as the #91 backup for Don Branson at the 1966 Indy 500. Raced by Bobby Unser at Phoenix in November after he had damaged the usual #4 car. Sold to Nick Fulbright, owner of the Four Flags Garage in Niles, Michigan, in March 1967 but he was unable to find a sponsor and sold the car to Walt Michner who entered it for Mickey Shaw at the 1967 Indy 500 as the #60. Raced later in the season by Mike Mosley and Rick Muther. May have been retained in the Michner stable and plausibly the #63 Gerhardt backup car entered for the 1969 Indy 500. Subsequent history unknown.
Driven by: Don Branson, Bobby Unser, Mickey Shaw, Mike Mosley and Rick Muther. First race: Phoenix International Raceway (R16), 20 Nov 1966. Total of 5 recorded races.
After the Gerhardt team's own #94 1965 Gerhardt was destroyed in Tommy Copp's accident at Atlanta in June 1966, a 1966 Gerhardt took over as the #94 entry at Milwaukee in August 1967, where it was driven by Mel Kenyon. It was then driven by Bill Cheesbourg at Fuji, and by Kenyon again at Phoenix in November, where he spun it into the wall, causing minor damage to the nose. Subsequent history unknown.
Driven by: Mel Kenyon and Bill Cheesbourg. First race: Milwaukee Mile (R11), 27 Aug 1966. Total of 3 recorded races.
Bruce Jacobi in George Walther's Dayton Steel Brake Gerhardt at the Indy 500 in 1967. Part of the Dave Friedman collection. Licenced by The Henry Ford under Creative Commons licence Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic. Original image has been cropped.
George Walther (Dayton Steel Foundry) acquired a second 1966 Gerhardt to replace the car wrecked in Carl Williams' qualifying crash at Milwaukee in August 1966. The replacement car appeared in September 1966 and was driven by George Snider, Rick Muther, Arnie Knepper, Bruce Jacobi and Al Smith until it was wrecked by Smith at Milwaukee in 1967. Presumably the same car was rebuilt and appeared again as the #77 Gerhardt used by the team in the first half of 1968. Walther then withdrew from Indy racing (until 1970) and although the Gerhardt was entered for Indy in 1969, it did not arrive. The last mention of it was in November 1970, when Walther's crew chief George Morris was considering putting a Chevy engine into it for road races. The car mysteriously reappeared in the UK some time in the mid-1990s. With Paul Coombs of SVS Ltd (Eccles, Gtr Manchester) by 2006 . Bought by Alex Elliott in February 2007. When Alex removed a piece of post-68 bodywork, the car was found to still have the livery and stickers from the 1968 Indy 500. In July 2015, Alex advised that the car "now lives in New York and has been restored to full working condition".
Driven by: George Snider, Rick Muther, Arnie Knepper, Bruce Jacobi, Al Smith, Larry Dickson, Bill Puterbaugh and Ralph Liguori. First race: Phoenix International Raceway (R16), 20 Nov 1966. Total of 5 recorded races.
Later histories
Almost all the 1966 cars can be tracked into 1967, the single exception being the #56 Jim Hurtubise car. Of the others, the #46 prototype continued to Indy '67 at least; Walther's first car had been written off; Myron Caves' car was retained for early 1967 at least and probably longer; the #4 Leader Cars car can be traced all the way to 1972; the Lindsey Hopkins car was still in use in late 1968; the Bob Hurt car is more of a puzzle but appears to carry on through 1967; the Federal Engineering car continued to November 1968; the Weinberger car was last seen when wrecked at IRP in July 1967; Jim Rathman's car was last seen at Indy in 1967; the second Walther was last seen in June 1968; and the #91 Leader Card car can be confidently traced to late in the 1967 season. So it would appear that of all the new Gerhardts that appear at Indy in 1967, only one can possibly be a 1966 car.
However, the only unexplained 1967 car that appears to have been a 1966 chassis was Kenny Brenn's car which is said to have been unraced prior to Brenn getting it.
ARDC midget owner Ken Brenn Sr (Warren, NJ) ran a #57 Gerhardt for Bob Harkey in 1967 (also driven by Lothar Motschenbacher at Phoenix) and then ran a #88 Gerhardt in 1968 for a variety of drivers. According to Gary Mondschein, these were two different cars, the first being a '66 car and the second a '67 car, and Brenn told him both cars came from Goodyear and were unraced. Simmo Iskül's analysis supports them being two different cars, but shows that both were 1966 Gerhardts. Brenn's 1967 car went to Bulldog Stables for 1968 and would be the #36 Gerhardt-Chev run on the USAC trail in 1968 and the #68 in 1969 for drivers such as Gene Bergin, Bob Harkey and Denny Zimmerman. It was joined by a Gerhardt-Offy towards the end of 1968 and the team ran both cars a few times early in 1969. The ex-Brenn #68 then reappears as Jerry Karl's Trackstar Helmet entry (photos in the Hungness yearbook 1969 p41 and 1970 p103 show the car almost unchanged) becoming his #52 entry in 1970 and presumably his #102 Winters Transmission entry in 1971. It was then sold to Geoff Bodine who added a roll-cage and set it up as a Super-Modified and raced it at Oswego Speedway (near Syracuse, NY) in 1972, taking a fourth place finish in a race on 3 June 1972. The car was later in the collection of Bob McConnell (Urbana, OH), still unrestored in Bodine's colours. Sold to Gary Mondschein in 2011 and was being restored in 2014 by Walt Goodwin. The car appeared, fully restored, at the Indy 500 vintage meeting in 2015. Appeared at the Historic Indycar Exhibitions in 2016 and 2019. In February 2023, this car was owned by Tony O'Neill (Piltdown, East Sussex).
Driven by: Lothar Motschenbacher, Bob Harkey, Gene Bergin, Bruce Jacobi, Denny Zimmerman, Jim McGuire, Bruce Walkup, Jerry Karl and Juan Carlos Salatino. First race: Phoenix International Raceway (R1), 9 Apr 1967. Total of 29 recorded races.
Having run a 1966 Gerhardt in 1967, Ken Brenn (Warren, NJ) acquired a replacement Gerhardt with 255ci Ford V8 engine for the 1968 season, and ran it for Bob Harkey at the Indy 500 as the #88 entry, where he was bumped. This car has been described as a 1967 Gerhardt, but Simmo Iskül's analysis shows it was built to a 1966 pattern and The Indy Star called it a 1966 car in 1970. It was driven later in the 1968 season by Bruce Walkup. It was then sold to Mike Krisiloff's American Racing Associates (Lake Hiawatha, NJ) and run for his son Steve Krisiloff backed by VTM Finishing. The Gerhardt ran as #112 in 1969 and #92 in 1970. At Indy in 1970, Hungness notes that it has an underpowered non-turbo Ford, given as a 225 ci in press reports. It last appeared at Michigan International Speedway in July 1970, after which it was reported that it had been stolen from the Holiday Inn at New Stanton, PA, while on its way back to New Jersey. Subsequent history unknown but reported to have been parted out.
Driven by: Bob Harkey, Rollie Beale, Bruce Walkup, Karl Busson and Steve Krisiloff. First race: Langhorne International Motor Speedway (R9), 23 Jun 1968. Total of 18 recorded races.
Mystery cars
Mike Moss's Gerhardt at the Speedway in 2016. Copyright Ian Blackwell 2016. Used with permission.
Unknown until acquired from Rex Broker (Wichita, KS) by Todd Krahl (Salinas, KS). Rex had bought the car in pieces and had restored it with an Offy engine. Bought by Krahl around 1999 and used in vintage racing. Sold in 2015 to Mike Moss (Ottsville, PA). Appeared at the Historic Indycar Exhibition in May 2016. Still owned by Moss in January 2018.
Geoff Ironside's Gerhardt-Ford at Coy's Silverstone Classic in July 1994. Copyright Keith Lewcock 2018. Used with permission.
In December 1988, Geoff Ironside (Ware, Hertfordshire) bought a Gerhardt Indy car at a Christies auction. It was described as being "chassis no 002" and was thought to be the Weinberger Homes Special. Fred Gerhardt later told Ironside that the car "was built for the 1966 Indy [500]". The car was sold via Chris Alford to Jon Ferris, and spent some time on display at the Brooklands Museum. It was auctioned by Bonhams in 2007, when it was described as a 1965 car, and had a Ford engine. It was acquired at the auction by colector Mark J Smith (Lynchburg, Virginia) and moved back to the US. Smith died in November 2021. The car was offered for sale at the Gooding & Co auction in April 2023 as part of the Mark J. Smith Estate Sale. According to the published auction catalogue, Smith determined that it debuted at Phoenix in November 1965, making it the 'prototype' 1966 car, and continued in use into 1968, when it was raced by Gary Bettenhausen and Art Pollard. However, this information was withdrawn before the sale. The car was sold for $140,000, well above its estimate.
Acknowledgements
Given how little was known of the histories of individual Gerhardt cars when this research project began in 2009, the progress made is remarkable. Much of the early work was conducted by Michael Ferner and Allen Brown, but credit for the recent discoveries must go to Simmo Iskül, through his forensic analysis of the cars using old photographs.
These histories last updated on .