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USAC Sprint Car Championship
1961 Estes Sprinter

Winner — 1964 USAC National Championship

Builder: Jud Phillips and A.J. Watson
Team: wynn’s friction proofing special
Drivers: Don Branson
Engine: 270 cubic inch offenhauser 4 cylinder
Horsepower: 350
Weight: 1600 Lbs

Eight — USAC National Championship Wins

Built in 1961 by Jud Phillips and A.J. Watson for Bob Estes Southern California team, the Estes sprint car would be raced in the United States Auto Club (USAC) national championship for six years by Don Branson, Bob White and Jud Larson.

Don Branson joined the team mid way through the 1962 season and quickly established himself as the man to beat. He won two races in 1963 at Salem, Indiana and Kansas City, Kansas, and would go on to finish third in the national championship behind Roger McCluskey and A.J. Foyt.

Two races into the 1964 season the defending champion McCluskey and Branson were sidelined with broken arms. White and Larson would sub for Branson while he recovered. McCluskey would be out almost the entire season but Branson would be back in two months. He would win four races; Clermont, Indiana, Terre Haute, Indiana, New Bremen, Ohio, and St. Paul, Minnesota and go on to become the 1964 USAC champion.

In the following two seasons Branson would only see victory lane twice but scored 29 top ten finishes. He finished sixth in the national championship in 1965 and fourth in 1966.

Bob Estes
Estes was a legend in Indy car circles. He entered cars in every AAA or USAC championship and sprint car race between 1950 and 1966.
He entered cars in the Indianapolis 500 for 31 years, his highest finish a third in 1956. A.J. Watson and Jud Phillips, two of Indy’s renowned crew chiefs, were both employed by Estes as young men in his Inglewood, California shop.
When USAC was founded in the fall of 1955, after AAA stopped sanctioning racing, Estes was chosen to represent the car owners.

Don Branson
Born in Rantoul, Illinois, Branson was the master of dirt track racing. Between 1959 and 1965 he dominated USAC Sprint Car racing winning 28 times. He stands ninth on the all time win list and became the National Champion in 1964. “Whenever he would go out to qualify,” recalls Johnny Rutherford, “all the drivers would stop what they were doing, and we would all watch him go”.

Branson also drove in the USAC Indy Car series from 1956 to 1966; he had 129 starts, 85 top ten finishes and won seven races.