Many likely know him for his unequaled racing wheels. But before that, he was a phenomenal dirt track driver. Here's a great write-up by the incomparable Robin Miller.


Remembering Greg Weld

Written by: Robin Miller
08/05/2008 - 11:23 AM
Indianapolis, Ind.

Greg Weld may and Indy may have "never hit it off," but his dirt-track prowess was legendary.

He was equal parts bad ass, good guy and savvy businessman.

But it’s hard to think of Greg Weld without first visualizing his jaw-dropping prowess on a dirt track, throwing a sprinter or a champ car into the cushion just inches away from the guardrail with the throttle buried and the engine screaming.

Weld, who died Monday of cancer at age 64, probably doesn’t ring a bell with anyone under 50, because he quit driving in the early 1970s to concentrate on his wheel empire. Since he only qualified for one Indianapolis 500, he also wouldn’t rank as a hero except for every guy who ever raced him or watched him perform in USAC from 1965-’74.

The mark of a real racer is how he was measured by his competition and Greg’s former rivals still sound awestruck 40 years later.

“The guy was magic on dirt,” said Bill Vukovich, who began his vaunted USAC career around the same time as Weld..

“He was a damn good racer and plenty brave,” said Gary Bettenhausen, four-time USAC champion.

“I admired him so much as a race driver it’s
hard to express,” said Billy Engelhart, who battled Weld in sprints and dirt cars. “I feel he was one of the best dirt car drivers ever.”

Fresh from tearing up IMCA circuits, Weld came to USAC in ’65 as a baby-faced 21-year-old with that “can’t miss” tag. He captured the prestigious sprint title in 1967 and, by all rights, should have become a star at Indianapolis.

But Greg never seemed as comfortable on pavement as he was dirt and he never drove anything remotely resembling top-line equipment. He crashed two cars in the final hour of time trials in 1966 – including the last gasp of the Novi.

Weld finally made the show in 1970 as Art Pollard’s teammate and recalled a few years ago: “Me and Indy just didn’t hit it off, but I was always glad I finally got in the show at least once.”

A winner 21 times in sprinters, Weld never had the good fortune to win a champ dirt car race despite his talent and breathtaking style. Nothing illustrates his ability to dazzle like 1969 when he captured four consecutive pole positions at Springfield, DuQuoin, Indianapolis and Sacramento.


Weld's struggles with the obsolescent Novi at Indy in 1966 were typical of his less-than-stellar equipment at the Brickyard.

Without question, his finest moment came at the Indiana State Fairgrounds’ mile in qualifying for the Hoosier Hundred in September of 1969. Longtime friend and former driver, Steve Long, who was working for Grant King’s team at the time, picks up the story.

“We drew last to qualify and that’s usually never good because the track goes away,” said Long. “Greg came rolling a double diamond tire and told me to put it on the right rear.

“He asked me if I wanted to be a driver some day and I told him yes. So he said go down to the first turn and you’ll learn something.”

At that time, the Hoosier Hundred was the second most prestigious race in USAC as it paid a huge purse and drew the likes of Andretti, Foyt and the Unsers.

By the time Greg went out to qualify, the track had deteriorated so badly that the previous 10 cars had missed the show. He saw his beloved cushion had almost vanished so the only choice dirt for him to grab with his right rear tire was about a foot from the guardrail. Hence, his tire selection. And everybody in the pits stopped to watch because they knew it was going to be spectacularly good or violent.

“I figured he was going out of the joint,” said Bettenhausen.

“It was insane,” said Vuky, shaking his head at the memory.

On his first lap, Weld bicycled so violently in Turn 1 he nearly tipped over and you could see the bellypan of King’s car. Yet it was still the fourth-fastest lap of the day. On his second lap,
Greg nailed it and sent a spectacular shower of dirt into the horse barns on his rim riding perfection.

He came back into the pits with the pole position.

“Greg was so happy because he’d seen Jud Larson do the same thing, and he always wanted to do it because I think Jud was his hero,” said Long.

Engelhart recalled the reaction at the driver’s meeting.

“Someone was kidding Al Unser about getting beat for the pole and he said something about Greg using a double diamond tire. Then Mario spoke up and said, ‘I don’t care if he had a triple diamond, I don’t think anybody in this room could have done that.’

“When Greg walked into the meeting, all the drivers clapped.”

When USAC took the dirt cars out of the national championship in 1971, Weld Wheels was taking off and driving became less and less a priority for Greg, who finally quit in 1974 after running second to A.J. Foyt at the Fairgrounds in a sprinter.

Of course, for all the great memories he left on the track there was nobody nicer off it. Case in point was 2005 when Don Brown passed away here in Indy. A master fabricator, Brown had built a car (the Mechanical Rabbit) in the early ’60s that helped launch Weld’s career.

To honor his fallen friend, Greg flew from Kansas City to spend four hours bench racing at Brown’s wake at the Speedway Motel. And, for many of us, that was every bit as impressive as that September day in ’69 at the Fairgrounds.

Bummer - far too young