Long Beach Grand Prix
Brown & Williamson Tobacco expedited BAR’s promotion into Formula 5000 events, with Benny Scott competing at speeds over 200 mph with racing legends such as Great Britain’s Brian Redman, South Africa’s Jody Scheckter, Mario Andretti, and Chris Amon of New Zealand.
BAR qualified for the inaugural Long Beach Grand Prix (LBGP) on September 28, 1975, an invitation-only event for the top 60 race teams in the world. Scott qualified the BAR’s Lola T332 entry 24th out of the 30 teams that qualified for the race. Scott finished the race in 11th place. Grant King was BAR’s chief mechanic for all the Formula 5000 races the team entered in 1975.
Although BAR’s LBGP performance demonstrated its ability to qualify the first African American driver for the Indianapolis 500 in the mid-1970s, Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation terminated all of its motor racing sponsorships in November 1975 for business reasons. BAR approached several other Fortune 500 companies to continue its “Fast Road to Indianapolis” effort, without success.
Willy T. Ribbs, who was inspired to become a professional race car driver by his father’s interaction with Miller's and Scott's trailblazing accomplishments at California race tracks, qualified for the Indianapolis 500 in 1991 and 1993, but was also challenged by insufficient corporate sponsorship to sustain his efforts. The sponsorship challenge continues to plague all African American motor racing efforts, into the 21st century.
Read more about this topic: Leonard W. Miller
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