CARL SANDY, USAC MIDGET WINNING OWNER, PASSES AWAY
Speedway, Indiana (August 5, 2019)………Carl Sandy, who owned the bright yellow No. 16 piloted by Tom Bigelow to the 1984 USAC National Midget driver championship, passed away August 2, 2019. He was 84 years old.
The Lafayette-based car owner, an attorney by trade, found his greatest success with Bigelow as his pilot, teaming up for USAC competition each year between 1981 and 1992.
Sandy’s first USAC-sanctioned win came in a Regional Midget feature at the Indianapolis Speedrome in June of 1981 with driver Sam Isenhower. Just a few weeks later, Bigelow earned his initial score for Sandy at the Speedrome, the first of ten USAC Regional Midget victories they accumulated together at the eastern Indianapolis venue between 1981 and 1986, including a 1982 Speedrome USAC Regional Midget title.
Bigelow raced to four USAC National Midget victories during the 1984 season, the first two of which came in the state of New York, at Five Mile Point Speedway and Airborne Park Speedway. The pair also found victory lane in Bigelow’s native Wisconsin at Hales Corners Speedway and again on Labor Day weekend at Tri-City Speedway in Granite City, Ill.
The 1984 campaign culminated with Bigelow claiming his first and only USAC National Midget driving title by 52 points aboard Sandy’s machine. Meanwhile, Sandy finished runner-up in the owner standings. Sandy also finished second in owner points for the midget division in 1984, 4th in 1985, 3rd in 1986 and 9th in 1987.
More victories came for Sandy and Bigelow in the following seasons, with back-to-back triumphs in the 500 lapper on the pavement at the Indianapolis Speedrome in 1985-86, a victory on the dirt at Indiana’s Lawrenceburg Speedway in the summer of 1986 as well as indoors at the Fort Wayne Memorial Coliseum in 1987 and 1989. Their final win together came in May of 1989 at Kentucky’s Louisville Motor Speedway.