Centennial Park 100 Mile Race

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From the Ron Avers collection, here are some photographs taken of a program for the AAA sanctioned 100 Mile Race at Colorados Centennial Park. This took place on September 23rd, 1951. I do not know who won this race, but perhaps Mitch can help us out with this one too. There were some talented drivers that participated in this show.

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Here are some other ads and articles from this program.

[Mitch G.]

Outside of Formula 1, these were the best drivers in the world, NASCAR was still a southern series, with little to no national recognition, so yeah, the best of the best were in Denver for 2 years in a row. My dad missed both races as he was the guest of the US Army, and a Korean vacation. LeRoy Byers was also in Korea, so he missed the races also, so few photo's have been published on these races. Tony Bettenhausen won in the beautiful Bellinger 99, the car that won the Indy 500 that same year. Local midget star Johnny Tolan failed to qualify for the champ car race.

[Mitch G.]

1951 100 mile AAA champ car race - 09/23/1951 - Centennial Park, 1 mile dirt oval. Here's some of the top finishers that day, pretty tough competition.
1 - Tony Bettenhausen (1951 and 1958 AAA national champ, dozens of Indy car victories, midget victories coast to coast)
2- Henry Banks (1950 AAA National Champ, also a coast to coast midget winner)
8- Rodger Ward ( 1959 and 62' Indy 500 winner, USAC national champ in 1962, winner on road courses midget vs sports car!, and many time coast to coast midget race winner, won 26 national champ car races in his career)
11- Bill Vukovich Sr. ( Indy 500 winner 1953, 54' more midget races won than most could count, won the AAA national midget title in 1950 and came back to win the Centennial race in 1952)
14 - Johnnie Parsons Sr. (winner of the 1950 Indy 500, many national midget race wins).
That's just a few of the guys who finished that day!