The trees were still bare when the Bulldog Stables’ Indianapolis car emerged from Jim Jorgensen’s Broadbrook, Conn., cellar in March 1968. The rebuilt Gerhardt chassis was headed to Stafford Motor Speedway for a shakedown.
Funded by Worcester, Mass., truck dealer Buzz Harvey, the operation lasted a little more than a season, reaching its high point as first alternate (with driver Rick Muther) at Indianapolis in 1969.
The chassis was purchased “in a basket” from Pennsylvania’s Ken Brenn. “As we were leaving Brenn’s shop,” remembers Jorgensen, “he said, ‘Tell them you’re going to Indianapolis. When they hear that, they’re always giving you stuff.’ So, we said, ‘Yep, we’re going to Indy.’”
Back then, people believed a car could go from a cellar to Indy on an open trailer. Bulldog Stables, in fact, went to Indy with two cars and two engines, neither of them finished when they arrived two weeks late. Still, it fell six minutes short, adding to the folklore that is Indy’s bumping process.
Waving off a run of 162 miles per hour plus on Saturday, they settled for 158.744 on Sunday, good enough for 33rd. Six minutes later, Pete Revson coaxed 160.851 out of a Brabham Ford (he finished fifth). Connecticut’s Dennis Zimmerman passed his rookie test in the original car, although it never took time.

Bob Harkey at Langhorne Speedway.

Rookie Dennis Zimmerman at Indy.

The last weekend, Jorgensen says, was hectic. There were a lot of cars; weather had forced problems on the first weekend of qualifying and on the last day, just before Muther went out for the final time, George Fullmer, in one of the Fords, had “oiled up” the track. 
A blown engine the next week at Milwaukee all but ended the dream. Still, Jorgensen looks back with satisfaction, recalling “a good portion of the people we raced with treated us damn good.” It was a noble pursuit. Ironically, Milwaukee was the biggest payday — $2,410 for 11th.
Championship modifieds and sprint cars came out of his cellar, so Jorgensen figured an Indy car was the logical next step.
“Brenn had a couple of chassis for sale and Buzz was interested,” says Jorgensen. It was a Gerhardt team car (driven by Mel Kenyon) and it was “cut for a Ford,” which was what was needed. They would go to war with a stock-block Chevrolet. Gene Bergin, who had been successful in Jorgensen’s modifieds and sprints, would drive. Harvey wanted “an All New England Team.” 
The team missed the first show at Phoenix (“both the car and driver were too slow”), lasted 15 laps at Trenton before sheering gears in the oil pump (finishing 18th) and missed again at Milwaukee. Bergin left.
Journeyman Bob Harkey came aboard and after a DNQ at Mosport, made Langhorne (14th) and the road course races at Indianapolis and St. Jovite, finishing eighth in the second heat at the latter.
Jorgensen remembers A.J. Watson helping out. “I think it was Langhorne,” he says. “Everybody’s lined up, putting their starters in. Well, our starter doesn’t work. His car was inside and we were outside. He shuffled across with his starter, stuck it in our car, fired it up and was gone like a cat.
“We had a great body man and a great paint man. Buzz was ticklish about that. He wanted the paint, the striping, perfect because he said ‘that sets up the whole program. Look bad and they don’t want to know you.’ They were the companies involved, especially the tire companies.”

UNDERDOGS: Jim Jorgenson and Buzz Harvey.

It was Goodyear that arranged for Bulldog Stables to get another Gerhardt chassis. “We just went to the Speedway and picked it up,” says Jorgensen. The object was the Turbo Offenhauser, but Jorgensen got it home and “decided to fix the chassis.” It was now a two-car team, Harkey moving to the Offy and Zimmerman inheriting the Chevy.
Harkey, who started 20th, was up to sixth at the inaugural race at Michigan Int’l Speedway before a suspension failure dropped him to 13th. Zimmerman, although 14 laps down, was 11th after starting 25th.
Indy in ’69 was now in sight.
Harvey ordered a new chassis from Gerhardt. It arrived late and in pieces. “They sent the steering in a box,” says Jorgensen. The Chevy had suffered problems in the opener at Phoenix. “Buzz didn’t want to take the Chevy, but I convinced him the kid (Zimmerman) was depending on it,” he continues, pointing out they headed for Indiana with “parts tied to the trailer.”
The field was mostly Turbo Offys (at $23,000 apiece) and Turbo Fords (three owned by teams, 17 by tire companies) and “almost nobody worked on their own engines.” Jorgensen recalls the legendary Herb Porter doing all the work on the Offys for the Goodyear cars. Sonny Meyer was doing all the Fords.
A.J. Foyt had five engines, a spare chassis and a dozen people. Bulldog Stables had three people and no spares. “Every time it rained, we were overhauling one or the other, working 26 hours a day,” Jorgensen said. He remembers drawing a crowd assembling the Offy at the welders (heating the block was essential).
Champion wanted to help in changing the Chevy over to Nitro, but new, expensive heads were needed. “Dan Gurney, who was across the way, came over to see the heads,” Jorgensen says. “I had the Offy apart on top of a box. The heads were in the box and I didn’t want to move the Offy because I was timing the cams. I now think Gurney would have gone and got some good heads for us.”
Harkey, he says, wanted to try the Offy at Indy. “Maybe we should have let him,” Jorgensen looks back. “Buzz wanted no part of that.”
Muther was a Goodyear guy.
They took the Chevy to Milwaukee for Jimmy McGuire, who despite losing an arm in an accident, was winning consistently in sprint cars and midgets in the east. Although he turned impressive times, the USAC tech committee, which included Foyt and Roger McCluskey, did not recommend McGuire receive a license.
“It was part of a sad ending,” says Jorgenson, who was unsuccessful in trying to convince Harvey to keep trying. The cars were sold.