Now held on Memorial Day weekend and again over the Labor Day holiday, the Springfield Mile was once held on the last day of the Illinois State Fair. The once-a-year AMA National would be no more after it's 1966 race, and what a farewell it would be.
The race then was 50 miles long, twice the distance of today’s final, and the winner, more often than not it seemed, was decided by mechanical failure. Let's be honest, race-bike engines 50 years ago were not known for their durability when cranked flat out for any length time. Sure enough, the leader, then nearly 20 seconds ahead of the pack, blew a piston with one lap to go. Four riders had a chance and fought tooth-and-nail all the way to the finish, with Oklahoma's Gary Nixon finally taking it at the line without his protective steel hot shoe, which had come off 10 laps earlier. The future AMA HOFer collected $3,230 in winnings before a rabid crowd of nearly 30,000.
But the day would begin on a sad note when Bill Corbin of Marion,Ohio, and San Francisco's Rick Vetter, would tragically die in a five-bike wreck while competing in the first heat for the Five Mile Amateur race held in conjunction with the AMA Grand National event on the mile oval. It remains the deadliest day in the history of the Springfield Mile. There was no race for the next 15 years.
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