Fastmasters

Fastmasters was a made for television auto racing series, broadcast on ESPN in 1993 that featured notable drivers over the age of 56, most of whom were retired from professional racing at the time. The Fastmasters series was a summer-long elimination competition, with identical, Tom Walkinshaw Racing-prepared, $750,000 Jaguar XJ220s racing on Bridgestone RE71 high-performance street tires. The unusually small road course was comprised of turns two through four of the Indianapolis Raceway Park 5/8-mile oval, with a dog-leg infield section in the place of turn one.

The original series format had called for two races per event, utilizing both the full oval track and the road course, but that was scratched when two of the cars were written off in a massive, high-speed shunt on the oval during the very first race. Close racing ruled the day as championship winning veterans from Formula 1, IndyCar, NASCAR, NHRA Drag Racing, Endurance racing and more, some who were well into their 70's, fought for every position.

Three time Indianapolis 500 Champion Bobby Unser won the first and only championship, with another three time Indy winner, Johnny Rutherford, placing second, with third place claimed by sports car legend George Follmer, winner of the Can-Am and Trans-Am Championships in 1972.

Participants

*Bob Akin
*Bobby Allison
*Donnie Allison
*Buddy Baker
*Derek Bell
*Gary Bettenhausen
*Tom Bigelow
*Bob Bondurant
*Bob Christie
*Larry Dickson
*Guy Edwards
*Vic Elford
*Walker Evans
* [http://www.genefeltonrestorations.com/ Gene Felton]
*George Follmer
*Harry Gant
*Charlie Glotzbach
*Paul Goldsmith
*Jerry Grant
* [http://www.grand-am.org/ARCHIVE/teams/team_82_dick_greer_2002.html Dick Greer]
*Pete Hamilton
* [http://www.nhra.com/50th/top50/E_Hill14.html Eddie Hill]
*David Hobbs
*Parnelli Jones
*Mel Kenyon
*Elmo Langley
*Fred Lorenzen
* [http://www.nhra.com/50th/top50/E_McCulloch19.html Ed McCulloch]
*Jim McElreath
*Hershel McGriff
*Paul Newman
*Marvin Panch
*Benny Parsons
*David Pearson
*Henri Pescarolo
*Tom Pistone
*Lennie Pond
*Jim Rathmann
*Brian Redman
*Jody Ridley
*Lloyd Ruby
*Johnny Rutherford
*Troy Ruttman
*Dick Simon
*Bill Simpson
*George Snider
*Dick Trickle
*Bobby Unser
*Rodger Ward
*Bob Wollek