I swear August was the fastest month yet. It could be down to the lack of racing. A few series were on holiday. They will be resuming shortly and we will get our busy period into autumn, but championships will soon be coming to an end. A notable one is ending this weekend. We are about to enter the final third of the year. Days are already getting shorter. It is a bittersweet time of the year.
Relief Drivers Should Get Credit
Parker Kligerman took the checkered flag last Friday night at Daytona International Speedway in NASCAR's second division. Kligerman took over the #88 Chevrolet from Connor Zilisch under the first caution as Zilisch is recovering from a fractured collarbone after he fell in victory lane a few weeks ago at Watkins Glen.
In NASCAR national series history, it was the 20th time a winning entry featured a relief driver, but like the first 19 times, Kligerman's name will not show up in the record book. As has been the custom in NASCAR statistical gathering, all stats only count toward the starting driver. The starting driver could complete one lap, come in pit lane and have someone else relieve them for 199 laps. That relief driver could lead 195 laps, win the race, and the relief driver’s name will never be mentioned in the box score. The victory, the laps led, the glory go to the starting driver.
It is time to reverse that practice and update the record book as so.
Kligerman took to the track and faced the risks all drivers face on track. If he had been fatally injured in the race, people would say he was in the race, record book be damned. It would be disrespectful for the record books to omit such a thing. If you are racing, you should get credit, whether you started or not.
Zilisch started and gets the points, but he didn't lead the final ten laps. He didn't make the passes and the blocks to win this race. He already didn't get the stage points and playoff points earned because Kligerman was in the car. They both can get credit for the victory, but Kligerman should get credit for what he did, and the same is true for every relief driver that came before him.
Did you know Richard Petty twice drove winning entries as a relief driver and one of those was in place of David Pearson? Did you know Petty also had James Hylton drive in relief of him in an entry that won a race? Did you know A.J. Foyt finished first as a relief driver? Did you know there was a Cup race where the winning entry had not one but two relief drivers, and all three are among the most legendary names of NASCAR's two decades!?
You probably didn't because the record book and box scores of the past do not acknowledge such things, and that is a shame. We are not getting a full representation of history. Did you know in Benny Parsons' 1973 championship season, the only race he won came with help from a relief driver? We are wrongly being denied the full story because of an archaic view of stats keeping. No one knows who John Utsman is, and his contributions very well won a driver his only championship. If it wasn't for Utsman's 170-plus laps of driving, Parsons might not have won at Bristol, and the championship very well could have gone to Cale Yarborough as only 67 points separated the two.
It might be retroactive, but it is right and it is best to give the full story of the races, and not neglect a part because it is easier to ignore it.
Formula One acknowledges when multiple drivers won a race sharing an entry. IndyCar does, but not fully. IndyCar should do the same for the four Indianapolis 500s where the winning entry had a relief driver, but the relief driver did not finish the race. In the two occasions where the finishing driver was different from the starter, the record book acknowledges those. In 1924, L.L. Corum (starter) and Joe Boyer (finisher) are co-winners, and in 1941, Floyd Davis (starter) and Mauri Rose (finisher) are also co-winners.
But the record book fails to accurately acknowledge Cyrus Patschke, who ran 32 laps in relief for Ray Harroun, but Harroun ran the final 98 laps in the inaugural Indianapolis 500 in 1911. The record book misses Don Herr running at least 37 laps in relief for eventual winner Joe Dawson the following year.
Corum and Boyer should be sandwiched between two other sets of co-winners. In 1923, the 1919 Indianapolis 500 winner Howdy Wilcox ran 47 laps in relief for Tommy Milton. Milton returned to the car and ran the final 51 laps to the finish. Wilcox even led 41 laps in relief. In 1925, Peter DePaolo won the race, but Norman Batten ran 22 laps in the #12 Duesenberg.
We are better served when we properly recognize all those who competed in the race. We can have starts and we can race participations in the record book. We acknowledge the winners and acknowledge who actually led the laps.
It will change a few things. Would it feel odd that Richard Petty would have 202 NASCAR Cup Series victories instead of 200? Yeah. It makes the 1983 Miller High Life 500 from Charlotte Motor Speedway as his 200th win on paper, but we all remember what happened at the 1984 Firecracker 400. After all, Petty won that Charlotte race with an engine that exceeded the legal size. NASCAR let the win to stand.
This doesn't have to change everything though. If you are giving relief drivers credit for the victories then what about points? Should those be split between the drivers? I think the status quo can remain, and the starting driver gets all the points. I don't think you need to split points. Drivers already compete in NASCAR events and are ineligible to score points based on what championship they declared. The rule can stay that the starting driver only receives points, but the relief driver gets credit for the laps led and the finishing position.
We aren't changing history. We are properly acknowledging the history. It happened. People saw Richard Petty finish first. People saw Parker Kligerman win, and Denny Hamlin win after taking over from Aric Almirola at Milwaukee in 2007. It is wrong to tell people everything they saw never happened by ignoring it from the record books.
A few numbers will change, but we will adjust. After all, NASCAR finally acknowledged a victory for Bobby Allison after over 53 years of saying it didn't count to the record book. If NASCAR can acknowledge that, it should be able to properly acknowledge relief drivers because they took to the racetrack and faced the risk just as every driver who started the race.
We should celebrate that on August 2, 1959, Ned Jarrett started a race before having Junior Johnson stepped in for a relief spin and later Joe Weatherly got in the car. They should all have a victory count toward their names, not just Jarrett.
Along with Utsman, a driver who only started 14 Cup races, should get a victory for his contributions to Parsons' victory in July 1973, Friday Hassler should be acknowledged for helping Charlie Glotzbach win at Bristol in 1971, which was Glotzbach's final Cup Series victory.
These tidbits should not be hidden on the surface only for a few minds to remember offhand. They should be explicit in the record book and easy for people to see and know. We should want everyone to know this stuff or at least easily find it. An accurate history only helps everyone tell the stories of the past and know what happened instead of letting things slip under the rug because for some reason we have decided it is easier to neglect what everyone saw.
September Preview
As a child, one event of curiosity was the Suzuka 1000 km. If it wasn't for Gran Turismo, I wouldn't have known the race existed in all likelihood, but a video game gave it a stage, and it was understood as the biggest event in Super GT. The same way the United States has the Indianapolis 500 and Daytona 500 or France has the 24 Hours of Le Mans or Australia has the Bathurst 1000, this was seen as Japan's big race.
Obviously, the distance of the Pacific Ocean and almost all of the continental United States put a lot of space between me and the event. The time zones didn't help. It wasn't broadcasted in the United States. It wasn't an option at a crazy hour of night, but you hear the stories and you appreciate what the race is.
In 2017, the last Suzuka 1000 km was held as a part of the Super GT championship. Bertrand Baguette and Kosuke Matsuura won for Nakajima Racing. The race was replaced with a ten-hour event that counted toward the Intercontinental GT Challenge. It was different, and it took out the local flair of the event. It became another GT3 endurance race. It did well. Notable names entered, but when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the event was lost. For the last few years, things did not fall in place for Suzuka to return to the IGTC calendar.
This year that has changed and the Suzuka 1000 km is back. A 173-lap race is scheduled for Sunday September 14. It will be the fourth round of the 2025 IGTC season. The Indianapolis 8 Hour closes out the five-round championship the following month.
This return is bringing out a banner collection of drivers.
Kamui Kobayashi will be in the #00 Merecdes-AMG GT3 with Super GT GT300 champions Tatsuya Kataoka and Nobuteru Taniguchi.
Johor Motorsports JMR will enter the #2 Corvette for Nicky Catsburg, Scott McLaughlin and Alexander Sims.
Porsche has four cars in the Pro class. Among its drivers competing are Laurin Heinrich, Alessio Picariello, Kévin Estre, Patrick Pilet, Laurens Vanthoor, Klaus Bachler and Sven Müller.
BMW has entered two cars with Team WRT that feature Augusto Farfus, Dan Harper, Max Hesse, Raffaele Marciello, Kelvin van der Linde and Charles Weerts.
Honda's latest projected star, Kakunoshin Ohta, is ironically competing in a Mercedes-AMG with Team Craft-Bamboo Racing, but his co-drivers are Maximilian Götz and Ralf Aron. Maxine Martin, Luca Stolz and Mikaël Grenier are in the other Craft-Bamboo Pro entry.
And that is just the Pro class.
Heart of Racing Team has Ian James, Alex Riberas and Zacharie Robichon in a Bronze class Mercedes-AMG. Richard Lietez will be in the Bronze class driving a Porsche. American Neil Verhagen is also competing in the Bronze class in a BMW.
Ben Barnicoat will lead Craft-Bamboo's Pro-Am Mercedes-AMG. Giancarlo Fisichella will also be in the Pro-Am class in the LM Corsa Ferrari.
It is a pretty impressive list of drivers for this race, and I think it is good that such an event is returning. It isn't the specialty of the Super GT calendar, but it is nice that marquee event is back.
Other events of note in September
The NASCAR playoffs begin.
Formula One resumes.
The FIA World Endurance Championship will hold two rounds as that season will end quickly.
IMSA has its race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
MotoGP will head to Asia.
