April 27, 1975: USAC's Trenton Twin Bill

On April 27, 1975, the NASCAR Cup teams raced on the half-mile paperclip at Martinsville. King Richard won the Virginia 500 to claim his 14th victory at the track.

http://bench-racing.blogspot.com/2012/04/april-27-this-day-in-petty-history-part.html

About 450 miles northeast of Martinsville, USAC ran a twin bill at the famed, kidney-shaped Trenton Speedway billed as the World Series of Auto Racing. (I'm curious as to how they may have secured the rights to use the name World Series. Or did they?)

From Motor Racing Programme Covers

The day featured two 100-lap, 150-mile races for the 'champ' cars and USAC stock cars. The races had short fields - 12 in the Indy car event and 10 in the stock car race. Apparently this was by design. Long before the days of NASCAR's The Winston but akin to the early years of IROC, participation in the WSoAR was by invitation only.

Johnny Rutherford won the open wheel race with a one-lap victory over second place Gordon Johncock.

In the stock car race, Super Tex A.J. Foyt continued to show his versatility in all forms of auto racing. The skills he'd honed on USAC's stock car circuit as well as his periodic starts (and wins) in NASCAR paid off again at Trenton. Driving a #28 Hoss Ellington prepared Chevy, he led all 100 laps and cruised to the victory.

What interests me about the race, however, is the SECOND place finisher. Bobby Unser - known more for his champ car results than his stock car career - drove a Norm Nelson early 70s Plymouth to a second place finish, the only car on the lead lap with Foyt. Unser's sponsor? Schaefer beer.

Race report from Reading Eagle

New Smyrna used to (maybe still do) bill their big February shows during Daytona Speedweeks as the "World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing."

" I'm curious as to how they may have secured the rights to use the name World Series. "

I think that in 1975, people weren't jerks like they are today. Clearly the event had nothing to do with the actual World Series (the Yankees weren't in it), so nobody was going to confuse this with the real thing. But as an intra-league invitation-only event, they had even less justification for the title than their baseball counterpart.

When open wheel had races outside the USA, they used the title Indycar World Series . There's the Chumpcar World Series and the World Series of Poker as well, so I don't think that Major League baseball is as self-absorbed as the Super Bowl guys.

Good point Andy re: WSOP. Hadn't thought about that one as the most contemporary example. Yes, the NFL is ridiculous with it's micro-enforcement of the phrase Super Bowl.

Golden Isles Speedway in Waynesville, Georgia should be hearing from the NFL attorneys any day now:

After checking the web site for Golden Isles Speedway in Waynesville, GA, I've decided it and Bill Sawyer's Virginia Motor Speedway in Jamaica, VA must have been separated at birth!

And, speaking of the World Series...

And, Nashville's contribution to the World Series discussion:

BUmp