Profile of a Season: 1975

Greetings history fans! Once again it's time to visit a past FEAR season that has dates common to our present year. This week it's 1975! In the news, President Gerald Ford was dodging assassination attempts, while abductee/good girl gone bad Patricia Hearst was dodging arrest. Jimmy Hoffa disappeared while South Vietnam fell to the communists. Consumer intelligence hit an all time low when people started buying rocks for use as pets, and I'm sure we were all feeling warm and fuzzy knowing the Soviets and U.S. astronauts were linking up in space. In the theatres, Jack Nicholson flew over the cuckoo's nest, Al Pacino had a dog day afternoon attempting to rob a bank, and lots of us were scared right out of the ocean after seeing "Jaws". The small screen was changed forever at 11:30 P.M. on October 11th, when "Saturday Night Live" made it's debut. A van (full size of course) was the coolest thing to hit the road with, and Chevrolet introduced the Chevette and the Monza, the latter being available with a new downsized small block and a 5-speed stick.

A&P sports began thier fifth season of track management in April, with Saturday night racing starting at 7:30, preceded by 6P.M. time trials. FEAR continued with it's normal Stock/Superstock line-up, although the writing was on the wall for the eventual demise of the current stock division rules, as fast times between the two divisions varied by less than a second through most of the season. On that note, Track records were continually broken throughout the year, with Chuck Falkenhainer, Vern Dietz, and Chuck Flora sharing the stock division honors. Joe Wash hit a milestone on championship night, being the first Superstocker to break into the 17 second bracket with his '64 Ford Fairlane. The super division supplied one of it's largest car counts ever, supporting a B main nearly every week. Veteran Roger Estrin returned from a brief hiatus to run his last season, while four-time champion Carl Zaretzke was absent from the fray in 1975.Lee Dailey won the Superstock championship in his '61 Ford Starliner, grabbing the points lead from Wash on the last night. On the stock side, Chuck Falkenhainer was top dog, taking at least six main-event wins, and lots of top five finishes in his ' 63 Ford Galaxie 500XL, followed in final points by Chuck Flora in a ' 64 Dodge, and Gary Becktold in his ' 66 Chevelle. FEAR drivers made their first excursion to Northwest Speedway in Post Falls Idaho on Labor day weekend, when that track was still recovering from a recent rock concert gone wild. Thanks for reading! FEAR historian, Tom Claibourn.