3 Sept 2022: Fifty years ago today:

I was standing on the pit apron at Ontario Motor Speedway, watching USAC qualifying. As it turned out, I happened to be standing near Dan Gurney and a couple of his crew people.

Driver Jerry Grant was on his qualifying run and Gurney was hand-timing him. As Grant came across the start/finish line, I was close enough to hear Gurney quietly say, “That’s two hundred…”.

For a beat or two I sort of wondered what the heck he meant … and then the track announcer shouted, “Ladies and gentlemen, that’s the first 200-mile-an-hour lap…”.

Time sort of slowed down and then, just as quickly, sped up again. Gurney ran across in front of me, smiling and looking back at the pit wall, and I took this photo. -DS.