1971 Indy 500

the view you are watching is live it's the scene right now at the indianapolis motor speedway the sun will set soon and the huge amphitheater of motorsport is an almost silent world of cooling asphalt and lengthening shadows what a contrast to just a few hours ago more than 300 000 people were here then straining for a better look at the 33 cars poised for the start of the world's most famous race and the tradition that began in 1911 was everywhere including the singing of back home again in indiana this time in the quavering 76 year old voice of peter depalo who won this race in 1925 in a duesenberg thousands of automobiles parked in the infield normally a nine-hole golf course look at the stands almost completely encircling the two and a half mile track the people that came from everywhere climber girls and little babies and entire families middle america out to rub elbows with excitement at indy the privileged were right down in the pit area talking to a driver perhaps [Music] soaking up glamour then everybody could see the thousands of colored balloons rising into a perfect indiana sky clear blue the temperature 72 degrees this was the scene before the for the race time since the race began 60 years ago it will be seen during the next two hours on home television the same day the race occurred [Music] an exclusive presentation of abc sports may 29 1971 at the indianapolis motor speedway the world's most famous automobile race the indianapolis 500. [Music] those are among the most famous words certainly at american sport owner tony hallman of the indianapolis motor speedway giving the command gentlemen start your engines they're started now drivers in the cockpits snugly fitted turbochargers in the rear of these offenhauser and ford engines and moving out behind the pace car ready for the start of the 500. the indianapolis 500 is being brought to you by goodyear the only makers of long-wearing polyglass tires by the stp corporation makers of world-famous stp oil treatment and other high-performance products for your car it's the racer's edge and by american oil company and your local american oil dealer you expect more from american and you get it hello i'm jim mckay speaking to you from our abc commentary position above the race course here at indianapolis the 1971 indianapolis 500 actually shapes up of array as a race of battle of two worlds of motor racing the indianapolis establishment is represented by people like bobby and al unser and a.j foyt and the world of road racing as represented by peter revson and mark donahue and dennis holm and the english mclaren cars it's therefore very appropriate that our expert commentator here today will be a man who has spanned these two worlds who has driven twice here at indianapolis former world grand prix champion and currently the leader in this year's battle for that world title jackie stewart of scotland jack it's wonderful to have you with us jim thank you very much great to be here and indy what do you look for particularly in the first few laps here well i think we're going to see the faster cars getting a break i think we're going to see uh donahue maybe making the break before revs and even i think uh answer i think bobby's going to be up there and i think denny holm will sit back and look at them for a little while i think alan's try and stay with them and of course old ag won't be very far away i think these probably four or five cars are going to take an advantage on the rest of the field i think we'll see a break failing fairly early on all right jackie well right now we're going to take a look at some of the men and cars that we've been talking about very briefly here as we said it is a battle among two worlds of motor racing the first three rows certainly any of the drivers there have a chance on the poll peter repson the well-to-do 32-year-old bachelor from new york member of the revlon cosmetics family fastest qualifier in indianapolis history next to him mark donahue graduate engineer from brown university sports car trained and like revson driving an english-built mclaren car on the outside of the first row bobby unser a former winner of the race member of the indy establishment as one of the racing unser brothers from albuquerque new mexico another mclaren car on the inside of row two driven by dennis holm of new zealand former world grand prix driving champion three mclarens out of the top four qualifiers second row middle position the defending champion al unser brother of bobby celebrating his 32nd birthday today his car owned by former winner parnelli jones rounding out the second row aj foyt a three-time winner of the 500 tough intelligent master driver and mechanic the master of the speedway for the past decade row 3 inside the hard luck man of indianapolis texan lloyd ruby in 11 previous 500s he's had many near-misses never evicted joe leonard seemed a sure winner in 1968 when his turbine car suddenly stopped with a few laps to go at age 36 the former motorcycle champion hungers for a win then there's mario andretti italian-born american by choice winner of the race in 1969 at age 31 he's at the peak of his driving skills we'll be back for the start of the indianapolis 500 right after this [Music] message what's it like to ride the indy 500 pace car [Music] and stay ahead of these race cars at 100 miles an hour [Music] come on we're rehearsing a start right now here we go on amaco super premium the same gasoline that's official pace cars using in the big range the only lead-free premium you can buy amaco super premium gives the pace car the performance it needs to keep out in front of the indy car performance you get from only one lead free amaco super premium gasoline [Music] you expect more from american and you get it we're very near the start now the 1971 indianapolis 500 let's check in with some of the other most knowledgeable commentators we have here today chrissy conovacky will be down in the pits keith jackson will be in gasoline alley and right now sitting in the pace cars as it moves around the track is my abc colleague a hoosier who came back home to his home state of indiana this week has been having a tremendous time let's go down now to the pace car and chris schenkel thank you very much jim mckay and we are down the back stretch now 5 8 of a mile long this is the pace left the tent's quieter the parade lap is gone and now we can feel the panorama of all the color and movement because directly behind us 33 machines 18 off of housers 17 turbocharged boards john glenn ed palmer tony holman and i [Music] all right now let's go down and check in with chrissy konomecki with team manager manager teddy mayer managing director of mclaren motor racing teddy mayer his cars have upset the establishment here in indianapolis teddy firstly congratulations on feeling such a fine racing machine secondly with a clear-cut speed advantage how will you manage your drivers in today's 500 well we feel chris that they're sufficiently experienced so they don't really need management they'll have to make their own decisions as to how they race when they get out there and find out what the conditions are and when they see what the competition is doing do you think that they can win the race uh without extending the cars to the limit i think if mark donahue were not here that would be possible with mark running they're going to go very hard the whole way okay teddy mayor thank you and back to you jim mckay all right chris and here they are poised for the start of the indianapolis 500 1971 that orange car and the inside on the pole is peter redston the blue car next to him is mark donahue and bobby anser from the outside the green flag is out there underway going into turn one look at the guy the pace cars crashed into a photographer's stand mark donahue has taken the lead we're on the race we can't see what has happened down there the pace car out of control crashed into a photographer's stand people fell out as if a corn crib had been opened just tumbling down on the track chris shackle is in the car tony holman is in it there's the scene astronaut john glenn is in that car with chris and tony hallman a man named eldon palmer a local automobile dealer was driving the car not a professional race driver [Music] there's mark donahue leading the race it's hard to keep your mind on it right now donahue jackie off to a tremendous lead i can't imagine what happened to that police car well i don't know i think that the pace car must have been coming through the pit lane much too quick jim and it seems that he wasn't paying attention to where he was i mean an enormous amount of debris down there he must have hit that stand at a tremendous speed i mean an absolute tragedy it looks like i certainly hope it doesn't turn out as bad as it looks there are a number of people down on the ground as you possibly could see the ambulances are there already thank heaven for the safety precautions of the indianapolis motor speedway fantastic actually donna who's broken this gap that i hope that he might do he's taken a big gap here i think he's got about five or six seconds even at this early stage he must be driving beautifully at this point unbelievable he does have a lead i think he had three or four seconds on the first lap this is the man of course who was the first man to go 180 miles an hour at this racetrack during practice in second place is peter revson a represent remember sat on the pole bobby unser who was on the outside of the first row is now third that's the way they stand at this moment there you see a look at donahue and look where everybody else is yes he's got a big big lead at this early stage terrifically and bobby unser has just gotten by uh peter repson there it is car number two in second place the lead is now seven seconds fantastic answers beginning to open up a little lead there uh jim i don't know if they can hold that sort of pace at this early stage but uh but ravson obviously is taking a little bit of care in the opening laps well in this battle we mentioned of the battle of two worlds of motor racing we have a sports car driver out in front but an establishment man bobby unser is in second place behind him peter repson and in fourth place now the defending champion al unsers of the unser brothers are in second and fourth place on the lead again mark donahue who had his training in sports cars from media pennsylvania and now here comes peter resident challenging back on uncertainty that's a good battle joke this is a good place to pass too he's come out of his draft and he's taking him going into turn one there he's going [Music] here is dennis holm down into the infield car number 85 now that is not refson that is the teammate of peter revson resident is number 86 dennis home of new zealand is number 85 they are the standing super as dennis came down in the infield however i don't believe he hit anything and so the action goes on in the early laps of the indianapolis 500 will return in a minute exclusive coverage of the indianapolis 500 which occurs this day in indianapolis indiana this is jim mckay with jackie stewart if you weren't with us a couple of moments ago there's been a disaster on the start the pace car crashed out of control into a crowd of photographers and uh according to the pitch that's dennis holm who spun to the infield a moment ago we we have a first report chris schenkel our colleague is okay he is out of the car so is tony homan so is astronaut john glenn and so is the driver eldon palmer they're all okay but a number of people are in ambulances and on their way to methodist hospital that's the only report at this time in the race mark donahue was an easy leader okay we've got a pit stop here jim denny holmes in the pits is a very long pit stop so we've gone back to the race at the moment but uh someone else seems to have pulled off the the track george snyder i think it is is pulled off and sitting by the side of the track looks like a mechanical problem he's getting out the car so it's obviously quite safe yeah again no accident here george snyder a good usac driver there's the pace cars you can see the front of it there is damaged it it kind of took a half spin as it went into that photographer's stand which is actually a hay rack it's a thing on wheels with a little grandstand built on top of it that may have been fortunate that it gave at least and rolled as the as the car went into it there is the leader graduate engineer from brown university no ivy leaguer has ever won the indianapolis 500 and there the battle for second third and fourth peter repson pulling out a bit now from the unser brothers allen bobby and now al passing bobby rick muther in car number 38 is smoking he's back in the pack certainly not in contention at this point luther is a californian who also got his training in the sports cars by the way there he is smoking going to turn one let's see what it might be a lot of smoke coming out of there looks as if it's coming from an oil leak jim there he is again another look at this car you notice he's staying down low he's going to stay out of this out of the groove because of the the possible oil in the track gym which is a considerate thought to the other drivers well flag man pat bedan as you saw it put out the yellow flag that means the drivers must slow down and retain their position and that's because apparently the oil the muther has dropped youth are into the pits then oil is an increasing problem jim at these very high speeds nowadays the drivers can't see it so well and of course the reaction time is so much longer uh you're not allowed to add oil at indianapolis so therefore it's a it's a major thing if you do have an oil leak the pit crew can't really do a lot about it but the biggest risk is the accident excuse me again there is the pace cars you can see the left front headlight and fender there are extensively damaged where it crashed into this hay rack and there are the ambulances moving back and forth one man who appeared to be a guard i saw lying down appeared to be pretty seriously injured he was wearing a yellow shirt we could identify him that way uh chris shankle we understand is in the track hospital but just for a checkup we may be hearing from him soon we certainly hope so there again peter repson in second place al unser third and there's the leader mark donahue who remember is stretching out that lead over the whole field this is a 180 mile an hour race car and it looks every mile of it right now fantastic performance i think they've done a real good job to get this put together so well and to have uh pulled out a lead at this point in a spin there is a spin that steve kristel off of the stp team steve frisilov a young driver seems to have touched that oh yeah look at the action there with the safety people very very good at indianapolis and out of our picture i believe mario andretti has also come down to the infield who oddly is the teammate of steve kristolov and the yellow flag is out again pat vedan has been doing this job at indianapolis for many years he's a man who runs a health studio down in town there's crystal off coming down into the infield he appears to be okay yeah there's another another one my goodness mel canyon it looks like he's jumping out the car he looks as if he's injured his leg a little bit he's limping around there making across the track which is pretty dicey even here now kenyan one of the courageous people in oh and there's mary andretti's car mario yep yep mario's obviously spun as well it's obviously been a multi-car accident here due to the original spin no it's gordon john gordon john i think yes john is car number seven that's an orange mclaren this last year's mclaren car and there's john over the wall so we've had steve crystal involved in this we have had mario andretti gordon johncock and mel kenyon four cars involved in this and it looked like chrysolov started when he hit the wall all right well now as the yellow flag is out here and the drivers are all okay let's go down to chrissy karamaki for a report on the pace car crash all right here is bill kreider of lawrenceburg indiana a photographer who was on the stand when it was struck by the pace car phil actually what happened well we're about 60 of us on the stand and suddenly the base car came right down through the pit and we saw it was sliding and thought there was no chance it was going to stop before it hit and it hit and of course those that are on the first row probably got the impact of the pace car those of us that were on the top got knocked clear down to the bottom how many were in the stand i would say about 60 people were there any seriously injured yes there were several that looked like they could have been uh they were bleeding profusely and uh they had to be taken away in an ambulance so i would assume that they were pretty badly banged up how are you i'm a little sore in a few spots will you be able to do your work today oh you're bad okay bill cried off a cameraman struck in the stand hit by the pace car back to you jim mckay all right and again our information is that quite a number of people are on their way to the hospital we'll check on that as soon as we can smoke rising to the sky some of it from the crash cars others from the phone being spread and from the indianapolis motor speedway abc sports is bringing you the indy 500 we'll return with more in a minute you're watching abc sports exclusive coverage of the indianapolis 500 which took place this day in indianapolis indiana the yellow flag's still out here and remember four cars were involved in this let's take a look at a tour of the course with the poll winner peter repson turns 90 degrees and they all look similar and they are reasonably similar but when you're driving it they're all completely different starting uh from the start finish line and heading down into the first turn uh one would break and then start from the outside wall and head down into the toward the yellow line in the first turn yeah which we call a groove and somewhere toward the middle of the turn you start picking up the throttle and accelerating out of it across the short suits uh we probably reached somewhere near 180 miles an hour then you back off and go into turn two again uh picking up the throttle somewhere in the middle and accelerating out down the long straightaway at the end of the straight i would say we're hitting somewhere between 215 and 220. we come to turn three and again break and start from the outside wall and bring the car down low into the middle of the turn where we pick up the throttle again and accelerate to the outside wall on the short chute and accelerate across the short suit and back off heading to turn four which again is uh different from turn two it's a little smoother and it seems to be flatter and you come out of there and then you head down the front straightaway where again your top speed will be somewhere between 215 and 220. [Music] okay a tour of the course with peter revs and there is the wreckage of one of the cars in this recent crash that's gordon johncock's car but let's get a report now chris ciconimacki has mario andretti mario what happened well obviously there was some oil i think that was built by chrysolov star and when we arrived on the scene jungkook spawned in front of me hit the wall and ricocheted into my path and i was trying to kind of pinch it down close so i won't get into them but nothing i could do what about the traffic the faster cars coming up for the slower ones now well that's a normal pace of the race i mean this you see everywhere that's no particular problem thank you very much mario andretti out of the 1971 indianapolis 500 mile race okay the green flag is out there racing again i may have said that was chrissy karamaki doing the interview it was actually dave letterman we have four announcers stationed in the corners for immediate reports like that on the race today so that was the story from mario mario andretti a former champion out of the race along with three other cars the leader still and a clear easy leader is mark donahue there he is second place peter revs in third place is bobby unser mark donahue's getting through some traffic here now jim this is a difficult time for donahue because the other cars have caught him up under the yellow so he's got to be very careful he doesn't lose too much time here this is where a real driver shows himself at indianapolis it's a very difficult time for him and it's one he's got to keep a very cool head on okay actually the time difference between donahue and the other car is a little bit less peter wrestling crept up a little bit i think on that yellow flag but so also did al unser in car number one and joe leonard who's now in it in car number 15 they're coming up on refsen at the moment so there are the standings at the moment donahue reds and unser leonard and al unser the two unser brothers running third and fifth the answers are never far away and they're very experienced indie drivers al's a pretty cool character and he's coming in from behind here very strongly there is the leader again mark donahue of media pennsylvania on a car that is managed by car owner roger penske car number 66 is your leader really passing the cars in the back chute gym with tremendous speed jackie if men like the unsers can drive so well here at indianapolis could they drive on the grand prix circuit well if they drive this well at indianapolis i hope they don't come over to grand prix racing gym another car in the pits that's larry dixon in car number 45 as the attrition rate begins here it's not too hot today hey look at this racing here peter rabson a lot of moving going on there jim when the cars get together like this is a very dangerous time in indianapolis when you get this close obviously these are of the easily identified gulf orange mclarens that we can see there in the picture again we would repeat that chris schenkel and tony holman and john glenn and the driver eldon palmer who were in the pace car crash are all okay we will be getting a report from chris schenkel as soon as his nerves are composed enough i'm sure boy that would really shake you up to being something like that but others have been injured again we would repeat there on their way to methodist hospital we're hoping for a report later in the competition here on exactly who is hurt and how badly a terribly unfortunate thing the pace car crashing into a stand full of photographers there's a look at some of the 300 000 people here they can actually seat more than 225 000 people it's hard to explain this place to someone who hasn't been there isn't it jackie it's an amazing atmosphere i don't think i've ever experienced anything like indianapolis particularly from a driver's point of view as he comes out from gasoline alley to face this immense mass of public is very impressive now here comes the race for second place that's peter rapson out in front but just behind him you saw al unser in the blue and yellow car won the defending champion and then joe leonard now here is steve kristeloff he was in that four car crash and as you can see he's walking and not limping he's perfectly all right it appears that all four of those drivers are fine ironically the only injury so far being civilians struck by pace car now you see alan's are really moving up on peter ruffson and joe lender is staying right with him now al unser and joe leonard are teammates here we are he's going to use his draft here trying to get past he should make it after this he's done it he's done it he's passed him and and letter pretty close behind him has not quite gotten by refs and yet but he's trying to do it wrestling's pulling down it seems left and slowing a little bit so both al unser and joe leonard teammates on the johnny lightning team that cars owned by barnelli jones a former winner of the race have gone past rebson definitely slowed down revson's obvious obviously in some sort of trouble jim it could either be an engine problem or even a handling problem in indianapolis if a driver doesn't feel that he's completely happy with his car he has to slow down there's an alarm system goes off inside and he really has to be cautious this is an important time to recognize your own limitations at indianapolis and here you're seeing probably a driver under those circumstances we'll have to see how the race continues to see if it's a major problem or whether he'll uh whether it continue freely peter revson also an ivy leaguer he went to cornell and later to the university of hawaii did his first racing out there peter wrestling the poll winner i spoke to him before the race peter the standard newspaper line is that it's the dream of every young american racing driver to sit on the pole at indianapolis i wonder though since your background's a little bit different than many of the guys here if that was included in your dreams when you had your first amateur race in hawaii 11 years ago well i i really don't think about qualifying positions but or rid positions i usually uh think about how uh i want to do in the race and my big dream was to win the race and that's still my big dream is to win this race but when you first began it was not only sports car driving that was in your mind you had indy somewhere in the back of your mind yes i did but i didn't know how to get here there's no prescribed way for a racing driver to get to indianapolis you've got to do it the best way you can and the easiest way for me to get into racing was with a car i was driving on the street which at that time was a morgan plus four and i used to go to the racetrack and tape up the headlights and remove the muffler and paste a number on it and go racing and that's how i got my first experience it was complete with a wooden frame wasn't it that's right if you had an accident of which i had a few you need a carpenter to fix it not a body shop here's another old question but one that i think applies in your case in a slightly different way it's been often said and written that you don't have to drive race cars for a living and yet you do it apparently because you want to because there's a pure desire on your part what makes you do it well i don't think anyone has to drive race cars for a living frankly it's a sport i don't think anyone has to play baseball i don't think anyone has to play football you know you can always get a job doing something i i could get a job if i wasn't racing i'd have to get a job and this is a lot of this is something a lot of people don't understand they think that i'm uh idly rich and i'm not and uh if i wasn't making a living out of racing i'd have to be making a living out of something else so and this is a much more enjoyable way okay thank you very much peter okay jim not as enjoyable as it might be at this moment however because peter repson who won the poll has now dropped back to fourth place behind mark donahue al unser and joe leonard and mark donahue is just stretching that lead tremendously incredibly jim a great leader this time the speed and spectacle of america's most prestigious motor race continues in just a minute return to our coverage of the indianapolis 500 this is jim mckay with jackie stewart and our other commentators covering the early part of the race the leader mark donahue the 1971 indianapolis 500 is being brought to you by the stp corporation makers of world famous high performance products for your car my goodyear the only makers of long wearing polyglass tires by american oil company and your local american oil dealer you expect more from american and you get it here are the standings in the race mark donahue as we said a leader by a very clear margin second place alan to the defending champion third place joe leonard that is gary bettenhausen in the pitch right now there's art pollard in car number 64. early pit stops these are not scheduled ones people taking quite early ones there's gary bettenhausen again let's take a piece look at a piece that we have here about pit stops [Music] this is the way it happens this is car number nine aj foyt that's where they have to stop precisely there is the hose coming in for the gasoline this is a very large nozzle where's that gas in there the hose coming from the tanks which are at each pit stand almost a bit of ballet to this is the pit crew moves in to perform their job locking the hoses into place of course they try to get this done in somewhere around 18 or 20 seconds with a complete filling of fuel tire change you can see that the jack works very very quickly just as we said the car of aj point this of course is a demonstration there's your tire change knock off hubcaps of course for immediate action a look at how a pit stop works with fuel pumping out there are three required pit stops in this year's indianapolis 500 but there may be more if the fuel consumption is not as high as they hope but that's the way it works in a pit stop at indy mark donahue the leader in the race has not a jet come in for his first stop of course it'll be interesting to see how many laps he goes before that's necessary there's johnny rutherford in car number 18 into the pits johnny was second fastest qualifier last year and a big surprise sitting in the middle of the first row led for part of the first lap but then al unsurpassed him and was never ever headed again johnny rutherford into the pits in today's race engine trouble for rutherford the pit stop action of the lead cars however will be beginning in a little while all the pit stops you've seen so far have been unscheduled when people with problems some of the major some of them minor again the standings mark donahue out in front of al unser who's in second place then joe leonard who very nearly won this race in 1968 in the turbine car and then fourth place bobby unser who did win the race that year peter revson has now fallen back to fifth place in the race in his car number 86. again you can see part of the immense crowd here as the cars come through the turns as you saw on the tour of the courts with peter repson it is almost a an exact rectangle and into the pits here comes mark donahue car number 66 in for his first stop and this one is scheduled see how well the pit crew works roger penske the owner of the car acts as crew chiefs see the man in the uh aluminum appearing suit there with the fuel that's a safety precaution this is pretty important during a fire here jim because of the possible risks of fire it's it's very important thing indeed now here you're seeing a very quick pit stop in fact they're very efficient people they're doing it very quickly the guy has a hood on his head also for fire protection as you can see and he has someone else coming to the pits as well answered alan yes the leader now alan's team are particularly good george mcnutty's one of the fastest men in the business we're still and there he goes there he goes there's donahue going out the pits again a very good stop so the first place car is back on the racecourse the second place car of al unser will be back very soon but he's still in the pits at the moment mark donahue's pit stop by the way our clock was not working officially on the screen but the pit stop was 28 seconds a little bit slower i should think that perhaps they'd hoped yeah i think it was a little bit slower i think they should have been doing that in around 19 to 20 seconds this is uh but this is the first pit stop and i think everyone's probably a little bit uh nervous jim as the first time the mechanics fumble a little bit perhaps so i think we'll probably see these times speeding up as we go along there's aj foyt's teammate donnie allison who you may remember very well from our nascar stock car coverage and into the pits now lloyd ruby number 12 in his red white and blue car that has sometimes been nicknamed the silent majority special floyd ruby into the pits again a scheduled stop for the man who's come so close to winning this race many times but has never won it [Music] and back out on the track the leader at this moment then is joe leonard but joe must come in for his pit stop sometime soon [Music] bobby answers second pits at this time jim i always think look like piccadilly circus they really are a busy place boy they certainly are peter repson into the pits now for his first scheduled stop of the day in the mclaren car number 86 that was remember the fastest qualifier for this race a little spillage of fuel there jack yeah this is the thing that uh that can be avoided sometimes but they've done a fairly good job he really gave him the chop a little bit of traffic cut off coming out of the pits well peter repson was brought up in new york you know he knows how to handle that stuff well he's doing fairly well and now we have joe leonard into the pit so he's not the leader now it looks uh almost certain of course that daniel will still be the leader when everybody has concluded their first scheduled stop that looked a very clean stop again the big naughty boys would be the same team exactly as did alanza's car so by the second stop they'll really be their fingers will be going in the right direction i should think and of course when you have these two-car teams it takes a little coordination to make sure that you don't come in at the same time your teammate did because there's only one group of fellows to handle that this is correct all right now here are the standings at the moment bobby unser the leader because he hasn't made the pit stop yet mark donahue is second al unser third and joe leonard fourth but donahue is still the dominant figure in the race we can expect to stop by bobby unser the temporary leader pretty soon now lloyd ruby is in fifth place here's a lap time for bobby unser [Music] should be something over 50 seconds to go around this two and a half mile course it's getting very very fast nowadays jim when i came here to race it was a lot slower and it was a little bit more comfortable i should think it's uh doesn't give you much breathing space down the straightaways nowadays i know you've been questioned many times since you got here as to when we can expect to see you in one of these race cars you are a very popular figure the two years you raced here well i enjoyed it jim when i came across but i've been concentrating so much in formula one racing road racing etc that i really haven't had the time okay well you know i think we're watching for bobby unser and i think our timing is not going to work out here because he's not going to come to the finish line he's coming into the bits bobby unser coming in for the pit stop that was inevitable for him if he wasn't going to run out of gas at this point so the leader again now will be mark donahue then al unser and joe leonard just as they were before the pit stop started and here we go in the pits he's got a very old experienced man with him he's got dan gurney looking over his shoulder the all-american race driver who i think was probably the most popular man that ever came to europe to motor race and of course dan's retired from racing now and is looking after the the team that's right an experienced indie hand in bobby unser being tended to as you said by a former grand prix wrestler what's happened there oh he's lifted the lefty the clutch by the look of it they've got a wheel going there at full chat i hope they've tightened up the wheel before that's happened he's obviously still got it in the jacks they're working at the back end jim i'm not sure what they're doing what was that expression full chat food chat that's british i'm afraid it is okay well here's bobby back out on the race course again bobby unser winner of the race in 1968 remember his brother al won it last year and is currently in second place behind the fleeting race car of mark donahue donahue driving a mclaren remember the same as is peter repson who is back in fifth place now there are the standings donahue and unser leonard and unser 66 1 15 and 2 are the numbers if you like to spot them yourselves sometime again something of a general view you can see the trees and the green grass that normally is a golf course in the infield here and this enormous group of people the crowd itself a tremendous factor in the in the atmosphere of the indianapolis 500. mark donahue appears to be going to have a very pleasant afternoon at this point because he just keeps stretching and stretching that lead his his pace is really really very cool sitting behind him however a good way is behind him but uh always dangerous are those unsur brothers along with joe leonard a 36 year old tough former motorcycle champion who also has never won this race and came close as we said uh one time in a turbine car what there's larry dixon he was in the pits a couple of times and now he's pulling down off the course donohue in traffic having no trouble passing slower cars and again looking at the crowd from our overhead crane camera he's nearly lost it he's collected it beautifully corrected he must be i think it's a mechanical troubleshooting because he's still running all right it must be a mechanical trouble this is the sort of thing that happens in indianapolis mark donahue way out in front we're beginning to lap the other leaders and has come down into the grass and it looks like it's the end of the afternoon it looks like it jim he's he's cooling it very quietly in there it's obviously some form of mechanical trouble problem he had just left lloyd ruby and bobby hunter he only had one other car in the same lap with him here's slow motion he's pulled it off quietly obviously thinking there's something wrong then he's nearly lost it jim the car is beginning to slide here and it's got into opposite lock now look how well he's held it here and he's got one of the tires on the on the tarmac again which helps a little bit but he could easily have lost it completely and come across the track this is where you see a driver working at his base donahue's kept a very very cool mind when he's been doing this more to come as abc sports continues to bring you the 500. again we're back at the indianapolis motor speedway the 1971 indianapolis 500. jim mckay here with jackie stewart our colleague chris schenkel was certainly scheduled being on this commentary right now but he was involved in an accident in the pace car had a look at bobby unser who is in fourth place in the race at the moment mark donahue the leader however has gone out and saw him down in the grass just suddenly the car just stopped on and it looked like jackie there are the standings al unser joe leonard lloyd ruby bobby unser peter ratson that's the standings now keith jackson is down in gasoline alley and he's with mel kenyon right now let's go down to them mel kenyon car number 23 the man underneath when gordon johncock went over the top do you have any idea he was coming yes i was part way out of the car and i saw him coming uh-oh and so i dropped back down into the cockpit in a crouched position and uh he went up over my nose and left some tire tracks on top of my helmet and folded the dash around my shins i'm real lucky to have two feet left really bad bruised legs but uh apparently not so bad uh it's too uh certainly you're walking around you don't lock you're hurting too much no the knoll can't wear off a little while they had to do some stitching on the right leg nothing broken thankfully no oh now when you were hit were you able to retain your consciousness i'm sure the pain in the legs were severe and you got hit in the head were you conscious all the time oh yeah i was able to get out of the car and run down into the infield and uh where i sat down immediately but the legs were just numb [Music] well the helmet must go on the mantelpiece there's a memoir of this one that's a good old hat mel we're delighted you came out as well as you did uh good luck to you in the future thank you mel kenya now here's jim mckay mel kenyon's one of the courageous people in motorsport you know he had a badly burned left hand some time ago and he has to wear a special glove with a socket in it which fits over a peg on the steering wheel to steer with his left hand and now he's had this action here as you can see seems to be okay but now joe leonard in car number 15 has taken the lead in this race from al unser joe letter teammate of al unser has taken the lead allen's her second floyd ruby is now third bobby unser is fourth and peter repson sat on the pole at the beginning is in fifth position interesting going on again a wide view of the indiana countryside and the speedway golf course that surrounds the racecourse here aj foyt is six by the way let's not forget about him haven't given him too many calls so far no i think eg is very quiet in the background but he's never very far away jim i think eg's having a little bit of power trouble i've been watching him and a lot of cars have been passing him on the street and going out of corners aj floyd who of course is a three-time winner of the indianapolis 500. well it's an understatement to say i'm glad to see it it's always good to see you especially today jim this of course is chris schenkel who's just come up to our booth and uh well tell me how do you feel and what happened well we're fine i'm happy to report that ellen palmer the driver uh tony henkel and uh rather tony hallman and john glenn are all very fine and it was a quick two worlds the awesome world of seeing those machines and skillful drivers and then imminent danger and i just hope the ones that were injured will recover and i know eldon palmer tried everything that he could to get the car stopped before we got in there you have no idea why he did it why he couldn't control it no everything happened so fast jim that uh i don't know and i just feel very sorry for my friend tony hallman who's done so much here and i wouldn't want anything to mar his great record here along with that of joe cloutier and clarence cagle okay well just sit back and relax and anytime you want to say something i'm gonna give myself a black flag today on this telecast all right okay i can certainly understand that chris the racing goes on on the track joe leonard and al unser battling for the lead [Music] in traffic getting ready to lap a slower card there's leonard in the orange number 15 behind him the blue and orange number one of al unser one and two cars are teammates in cars owned by parnelli jones al unser does not like seeing his teammate out there right now however terrific performance here jim for two cars two cars of the one team and uh the one car owner to be doing so well to be lying first and second looks like i might be setting him up he's i think he is i think he's going to press him here he's coming out of his draft i don't think he's going to do it this time though he's really getting into his draft now though this is the sort of occasion that we'll have to see it now he's going to i'm sure he'll try and come out when he comes out of this next turn well this is when a driver really starts to operate because he's having to think exactly what's happening he's got to wait for the right times when he overtakes he's got to be in the braking distance so that the other driver driver's embarrassed now look he's going in now he's going to embarrass him into a position where the other driver can't retaliate now he did that beautifully beautifully executed really a master there when does the intelligence of a race driver tell him that this is the time to let the other man go by well there's a lot of instinct to text here and you've got to have common sense the biggest thing in a racing driver nowadays is common sense you never let your heart rule your head you've got to keep very cool you've got to recognize when someone else has done you the wrong trick and uh you've really got to be honest anything in short that these men out on the racetrack believe in it's safety oh absolutely at this sort of speed nowadays you just can't take any risks with each other and they've got the greatest amount of respect for each other's talent this is a great thing amongst racing drivers today and when you see two drivers in the caliber that you're seeing at this time i think you're seeing the art of motor racing at its best again we would sum up mark donahue jumped off to a quick lead in this race and it stretched it out to about a half a minute when suddenly his car broke down and he had to take it down into the infield he's on his way back to the pits now we'll hope to get the word uh pretty soon exactly what happened to mark donahue's car and that left it up to the two teammates at the moment al unser and joe leonard were still however in the early going in this race less than half of the race gone by average speed of the race to this point 159 miles per hour which is not a record of course we've had yellows i think it's because of the yellows jim we've had a lot of yellow flags and of course the average goes down drastically we had a lot of traffic there going through almost the the fire that we had up in turn three so there's been a lot of hold-ups i think you see the speed going up because the cars are capable of all doing over 170 mile an hour average there's quite a variety of speeds here but i think we're going to see a lot faster laps yet [Music] a classic duel going on here it appears between al unser and joe leonard third place is lloyd ruby in car number 12 the man who's never won this race almost did several times fourth place another former champion bobby unser again we return to the indianapolis 500 the indianapolis motor speedway in indiana on this may 29th the leader al unser in car number one joe leonard is second lloyd ruby is third and bobby unser is fourth and lloyd ruby is very much in contention and here he is in car number 12 all painted in red white and blue as is his helmet and the garage and everything associated with this car he's the quiet man from texas but he's very much an american and very much a very talented driver he's been over to europe he's done very well in road racing over there and of course he's done other kind of road races joe leonard into the pits the second place car he has a luggage sponsor kind of looks like a le mans suitcase in front of his car it's a piece of equipment you have to have in the 24 hours of le mans here's the timing on joe leonard's pit stop the second place car behind his teammate al unser and this same crew will be tending to the car that's ahead of him when he comes in the next time getting a little practice this time jim they're changing a rear tire that's taking a little bit longer second scheduled pit stop for joe leonard they're hoping to have only three but it could be four it could be close on fuel by the time they get to the end of this race yeah i think this is one of the problems uh it's going to be dodgy with all the all the yellow flags jim that's going to be part of the problem here to be able to judge the fuel consumption when we say fuel by the way we don't say gasoline because it isn't gasoline what is the exact composition they use well it's pretty much alcohol nowadays and they they put it up with uh they pop it up a little bit it's got nitro in it's got all sorts of things to mix it up but no one really wants to see how much nitro they put in their alcohol nowadays but uh they certainly are doing more than gasoline you're looking at the lead car number one and the reason he wears that number one is because he was the usac united states auto club national champion last year and he's coming into the pits for his second scheduled stop of the day that's the poll you see that shows the standings to the spectators here in the crowd here's al unser see we get a timing on him no one has won this race two years in a row since bill vukovic senior did it in 1953 and 54. a little bit of lost time there jimmy's his tire started to run away from we had to stop and go back to it but even so it's still going to be a quick pit stop the fellow and the rear target is doing the whole job he's done every one so far so he really should be practiced this time but of course here we are we're over 20 seconds again and i think part of it was his and as al unser comes out of the pitch with that good quick pit stop guess who's leading the indianapolis 500 lloyd ruby 43 years old the taciturn texan who has so many times left there he is he's had all manner of reasons for going out of this race one year he just started to pull out of the pit a little too quickly while the fuel hose was still attached to his car to pull the whole fuel tank out of the side he said wretched luck here jim the year that i was here first in 1966 he was leading there's aj foyt three-time winner of the race in sixth place at the moment [Music] aj's a pretty cool operator when he comes in [Music] sure is now that's uh look at bobby unser there i think from our overhead crane cameras from 240 feet in the air we have 14 cameras all together goodyear blimp is up in the sky they have a camera and here is lloyd ruby into the pits lloyd for his second scheduled stop that's not a microphone boom that's probably a drink of water for he's got a drink of water on the gym and he's also got goggles on there this is to keep clean goggles for him we're at the halfway point and uh bobby answers now leading the race that uh that lloyd's into the pits we can see the clock going here getting ready to push him out long pit stop but looks of it jim yes it is oh dear oh dear he's having a little trouble time i had a little trouble getting it started stalled in there no i don't think it's stalled i think the they just had a little trouble there 27 seconds is too long so lloyd ruby has lost the lead that he had for a couple of laps there bobby unser now the leader that's just a piece of paper blowing across the track not debris this is a little bit of a trouble in indianapolis sometimes with cooling paper can get into the radiators and really cause a lot of trouble here are the standings again bobby unser the leader talking about things getting into the radiator when he was trying to qualify two weeks ago bobby unser hit a bird and it fouled up the left front brakes and he had to go out and do it again later in the day not the kind of bird you speak of in england there's no young lady involved in the accident that's a pity just talking about that i hit her here one of the last times i was a racing gym or here very large here which is a large rabbit i don't know whether you have them in america came across the track and uh i had a big problem they also had a rabbit run on the race course that's first day of qualifying fortunately though nobody was out at the time so the rabbit got away [Music] bobby unser the leader in the race going through traffic now how much of a problem is this for the race leader it is a big problem jim for the race leader he's got to judge it very well because some of the times he's coming up on very slow traffic considerably slower than he is and he must recognize this there are no stop lights and racing cars and you it's uh it's sometimes difficult to recognize the speed of the car ahead of you particularly if he's hiding another car you're so you're so low in the car nowadays there he is doing exactly what jackie's been talking about again if you've just joined us this is jim mckay with jackie stewart former world grand prix formula one driving champion and twice a driver in this race and once very nearly the winner of it a man who has seen both worlds of racing and we've indicated here before today that both worlds of racing are involved this year mark donahue basically a sports car driver led the race peter redson a sports car man was on the pole and here bobby unser who's been the leader is coming in for a pit stop this is bobby's third today he actually may have to take one more than the rest he had a very early stop he came in under a yellow i think he thought he was taking an advantage at that time that could well be a disadvantage there's the clock on his pit stop he will not be the leader when he goes back out again the entry speed here is very important to the pit he's got to be very careful where he stops jim there's red lines there because his fuel leads can only go so far while he's in here i think brother owls got into the lead that's right it'll be a case for bobby of after you albert at least for a while brother against brother literally here and al unser takes the lead as bobby comes out of the pits there are the standings al joe leonard bobby unser and peter repson now creeping back up into fourth place the month of may in indianapolis means motor racing at abc sports is bringing you the biggest race of them all the indy 500 will be back in a minute again we're back at indianapolis al unser is leading the 1971 indianapolis 500 as he did to the finish line in the 1970 indianapolis 500 trying for a repeat performance here something that nobody has done in 17 years that's when bill vukovic senior did it by the way bill vukovic jr is in the race today started back a ways but has been moving up and could get into contention before it's over this afternoon another son of a former great driver in the race gary bettenhausen is around 10th place right now i'll answer though with a fairly easy time you saw somebody pushing their car home that happens quite a bit plus 10 means that al unser has a 10 second lead at the moment over teammate joe leonard change right rear has not been held up to him however pit signals are very important in any race jim this keeps the driver fully informed of everything that's going on a very valuable part of a racing driver's situation here but it's interesting to note that the leader has a radio in his in his car gym back to his pit both the both the johnny lightning cars and the samsonite car i think has a two-way radio to the pit which is a great way of communication that's true it's just a one-way though i think jack he can talk to them but they can't talk back to him that's a good thing great from a driver's point of view you can talk to the team manager and have no cheat back a lot of people a lot of people would like to have one of those around the house wouldn't it okay look out accident that's rick buther in car number 30. oh he's got another car david my god i think that was how long so they just got through the car nearly turned over there the leader just got through that but it's they're okay one driver is getting out here comes leonard that car on the left trying to move around not the one right beside them but the second car there joe leonard who's in second place al unser as you can see got through okay he's all right nothing hit his car and both drivers almost unbelievably are out of there muther almost turned over oh this is one of the things about indianapolis that i fear most i think the track's only 50 feet wide at this point there's no room for maneuvering at all gym if a car goes off in front of you in any way you're going so fast that you can't avoid it i think in this particular case uh muthur seemed to hit the left hand side of the pit wall and the entrance glanced across and hit hobbs as he was going by hobbs had absolutely nothing he could do and this is the problem of indianapolis you're in a very confined space and if anything does go wrong with you you have no opportunity to maneuver and you're going far too fast to do anything about it it's a big problem here and it's a problem that's lived in indianapolis for many years both drivers i think are 100 okay that everybody's giving the sums up they're making sure the cars don't go on fire here the safety crew again at indianapolis must be proved the whole system works remarkably well that's the remains of david hobb's car he's a teammate of mark donahue we're having the run over again here we go the car's glancing off there must be something wrong he's misjudged it in some ways hit the wall he's hit the wall and he's glancing now towards the left-hand side or the right hand side of the track as they're coming around look at david hobbs minding his own business bang suddenly hit from the side probably never saw him coming look at the impact there tremendous impact this may be at 175 miles an hour the car is slowing it's lost at least two of his wheels is going on now this is the difficult look at it tenting up car going through in the right hand side but look at the angle of the car it's almost turning over answer has gone by on the right hand side there as we looking at the screen this is a very difficult situation for a driver he did it very well and maneuvered out of it but my goodness look at the devastation being caused here in these motor cars mechanical pieces flying all over the place look at this tyre coming down the track and this is answer we just saw disappearing out of track again the yellow flag of course is being thrown by pat vadan the other cars are slowing down and look at this very quick thinking here i can the right gone into the pits immediately that's the safest place in sight and of course it's also intelligent as far as the race is concerned so we would repeat that both of the roger penske cars are out of the race mark donahue and david hobbs and now the leader is coming into the pits we may see a lot of pit stops here because they'll take advantage of this probably to top off fuel right jackie this is the thing while the yellow flag's gone the pace is slowing down so therefore the cast can come into the pitch and can use this time to the best advantage we'll probably see a lot of pit stops as you say joe leonard is leading the race now while the yellow's on and out they go that was a very slow a very quick pit stop in fact uh they didn't take much time at all and there he goes back out looked like it was strictly for fuel there's aj feuding doing exactly the same thing in his car number nine he was back in sixth place when all this ravaging of race cars started out there a moment ago aj looks very relaxed in there he's almost having a seat a little rest a little relax very experienced driver here a man of great experience and of course one of the leading drivers in the world today and aj coming out of the pits again the yellow of course still out they did not drop the red for a moment it looked like pat fedan had his hand on the red flag there is hobbs car number 68. he was the one who was hit the hit e you might say muther was the hitter who bounced off the inner pit wall the wall leading to the pits actually and here's joe leonard to the pits now he's been the leader for a few seconds here down in gasoline alley keith jackson is with art pollard and jim gilmore the car owner let's go down [Music] anytime we have here art parlor driver of jim gilmore's car from 31st to 10th before the bad luck what happened art we had a little engine problem something we didn't really think would happen today uh we've had very good luck on the engines that uh joe bogosian puts together for us and uh the dog gun uh just slipped into the top ten about the time that we started backfiring and about two laps later it quit entirely incredible pace out there today it was really fast i had caught up with the middle pack uh of course starting in the tail end i got all kinds of packs to run through but the car was working exceptionally good today i was real happy about that and you go through the one pack and then you gained another and i never did have the front runners in sight but i understand they were running uh pretty fast jeff gilmore as a car owner you're aware of one thing that's skyrocketing that's expenses that's right keith but um i think today the plan that our chief mechanic clint brauner and art pollard put together starting from 30 uh first spot worked beautifully and we never dreamed that we could drop a valve because i think we have the very best engines and what we do i believe is proper but art did a fine fine shot same old bugaboo the unexpected right better luck to you next time gentlemen thank you very much and jim gilmore now again jim mckay okay thank you very much uh keith jackson jim gilmore has the best case of laryngitis so far today there are the standings in the race all the excitement of auto racing at its finest the indy 500 will return in a moment the green flag is out at indianapolis as we continue abc sports exclusive coverage of this race on may 29th 1971 they're the standings al unser and bobby unser the brothers from albuquerque running one and two peter repson has now moved back into third position in fourth place lloyd ruby in number 12 and then aj floyd and car number nine what an interesting group of racers [Music] cars dropping out at a pretty high rate i have 18 cars left on the track now jackie out of starting 33. well there's been a lot of accidents and there's been a lot of hard driving going on jim i think the pace has been extremely hard and this has a great telling in the mechanical failures the drivers have been driving at a very high pace there's been somebody going a little bit slower there going in on the inside but alan sir is driving a beautifully calm race tremendous preparation by george mcnaughty and his team in this car uh just a tremendous performance they keep doing it all the time and alan's has got a great lead in the usa standings and of course he was champion last year and it looks the way he's going just knows if he might be champion again it sure does he's already won a race in rafaela argentina actually it was two heats two races so to speak on the same day he also wanted phoenix you saw that one on abc's wide world of sports live he broke down at trenton in the previous usac race just before this one [Music] looking just as calm and in just as much control right now as he was last year here's joe leonard into the pits again joe leonard this could be a problem this time let's see he seems to be telling them something jim there's a bit of communication going on the mechanics george mcnutty doesn't quite know what to do they're looking at the turbocharger a lot of smoke coming out of it puffing a smoke i think this looks a bad sign jim george mcdoud he doesn't seem to have a great deal of urgency on there nothing routine about this one for the 36 year old former national motorcycle champion who was only nine laps from victory here in 1968 in andy granitelli's turbine car when a just plain stopped on him just after the green flag came out joe's had a lot of disappointments here uh he was undoing his seat belts there it doesn't look too prosperous today either we have a report on on some of the people injured when the pace car crashed into a photographer's stand just after going off the track at the beginning of the race dr vicente alvarez an ear and nose specialist from buenos aires argentina has covered the 500 for many years just joe leonard out of his car that's it for the day joe leonard is out of it for 1971. dr alvarez has been a journalist he's also a medical doctor his condition at methodist hospital is critical but responding he has head and chest injuries four other people are in methodist hospital three with broken right legs one with a head injury none of those four are critical all of the others involved have been treated and released so we have four or five people in the hospital altogether and dr alvarez from argentina the most seriously injured terribly unfortunate thing that happened at the very start of the race when the pace car got out of control after it had come into the pits and crashed into a temporary stand erected primarily for photographers again our colleague chris schenkel was in the car but he's okay so is everybody else who was in the car owner tony holman of the indianapolis motor speedway uh astronaut former astronaut john glenn and the man who was driving the car eldon palmer who is not a race driver of any kind but is an automobile dealer here in indianapolis david hobbs was involved in a crash a few moments ago here let's go down to the pit area so dave we saw it happen how did it happen yeah well you tell me you saw it happen i didn't see it happen all i know is that uh rick muther appeared to lose control while he was on the inside of me and he bounced off the inside wall i was over by the outside wall and he bounced off the inside wall and just pinched me between him and the wall and we both ran into each other in the wall all about the same time it's all pretty hair raising david this is your first indianapolis what is your impression of it well until then it was fine it seems have gone sour a bit uh now it's a good race really it's obviously inclined to be a bit dangerous because you're going so fast all the time you never slow down in the field you just go around and company together at a high speed and an accident like we just had there's not much you can do about it once it all starts to develop really you're going so damn fast you can't really do much about it would you like to come back yeah i'd like to come back and have another crack at it yeah david hops a rookie out of it all right that was chrissy konomaki down in the pits with david hobbs who was involved in that recent crash to wrap up this pace car business it used to be that uh people who are kind of nationally prominent in racing but not drivers used to as an honor drive the pace car here however i think after 1966 a decision was made that the cars were going so fast they better go to a professional race driver they had roger ward and sam hanks and people like that this year however they returned to the situation where uh mr palmer an automobile dealer was driving the car and the accident has occurred there's bobby unser who's in second place behind his brother al they're in cars number one and two by the way not by coincidence but because al won the u.s auto club national championship last year on a season-long basis and bobby was second there are the standings again the race goes on and we'll return in a minute with more of the indianapolis 500. again we're back at the indianapolis 500 where al unser at this moment appears to be on his way to his second consecutive victory this is jackie stewart former world driving champion a two-time participant in this race who's our expert commentator today what would be your general comment at this point jack i think first of all the disappointment of donahue's retirement i think everyone expected him to do well and he did well he got a great pace to begin with and a tremendous lead i think however allen's is driving a beautifully calculated race and should be credited with it but of course the accident and the p slap was a drama and then following that we've had some alarms that car we saw uh pulling over behind us was george fulmer who's in trouble right now no crash though well that's good it's another guy out unfortunately uh deletes the field a little bit another one of your sports car chaps too george palmer basically there's been a strong feeling here from the sports car fraternity at least seem to be learning the business of the 500 but uh up there in the front they seem to be the old stages of the 500. okay and back to the racing bobby unser in second place moving along threading his way through traffic very nicely before this crowd of more than 300 000 people weather conditions perfect remember 72 degrees a cloudless sky along to the leader then bobby's peter wrestling third boy will be fourth aj all right here that may look like a family reunion but joel in it is just out of the 500. what was the trouble joe well actually chris uh we've re-improvised but it was the same thing to happen at trenton the uh turbo wheel uh i guess just won't take the abuse so we're gonna have to do something about that do you think you could have won well obviously i think i could have won that's why i was here and i guess the lord just didn't pick me to win this year i see your daughter's over you proud of your dad yes diana are you relieved i'm very proud of him no matter what position he finishes in oh joe leonard out of the race back with his wife and daughter back to you jim okay chrissy conomacki again down in the pits and here's the leader al unser hard to imagine when a car is cruising this nicely this apparently effortlessly jackie the trouble can occur and yet so often it does in the world of racing i think from a driver's point of view this is just when he's most nervous jim uh when i'm driving a car when i'm in the lead and everything's going too well i get frightened i feel things going wrong inside the car every small vibration seems to be a mountain shaking i think i'm more nervous when i'm in the lead when i think the car is good than when i am let's say experiencing some sort of trouble this is the point where a driver has time to think about it and i never try to get my mind off the fact that perhaps something will break so i never allow my elation to get up getting a lap time on the leader here my old irish grandmother used to say things are going too well is that the feeling from a racing driver's point of view and particularly mine when i'm leading this is exactly how i feel i'm really frightened that frightens me to think that things are so good okay here he comes to the finish line 53.1 for al unser on that lap that's 169.490 miles per hour pretty fast getting very fast jim this is in a position where he holds a commanding lead and there he's getting his particular signal there they're uh 32 seconds ahead they're giving them a plus and they're giving them a time they're being a little conservative they're giving 168 miles an hour well we've rechecked ours and i think our time is right that may have been the left before as a matter of fact well they haven't got the benefit of the electric timing and we have they have however the benefit of a fantastic race car and race driver out there al unser leading his brother bobby by a clear margin peter revs in third lloyd ruby fourth and aj fight fifth we're nearing they've also got uh the experience of parnelli jones down there jim which must be a big asset to any racing team parnelli's experience at the of the indy track is really great and i think the whole team with big naughty and parnelli there behind al just gives the whole field a bit of a disadvantage okay again for those of you who may have joined us within the last few minutes here this is abc sports covering exclusively the indianapolis 500 on this may 29 1971 a race that began in 1911 60 years ago and has been continuous except when the united states has been involved in war the leader in the race is al unser a man celebrating his birthday today he is 32 years old today he's from albuquerque new mexico and has an easy lead at the moment over his brother bobby who is five years his senior it was a race that started out with mark donahue of media pennsylvania and brown university leading by tremendous margin and bobby unser now has come into the pits this is the second place car peter refson is also in there's a timing on bobby repson in third place also in the pit this is a real race to get out of the pits whoever gets out first is going to be in second place in the race it's going to be a big help jim whoever gets out first they're starting to roll it he's having some trouble getting away he's certainly slow and getting away bobby look at rafson really streaking out really taking a big advantage here peter residents drinking out of the pits from behind bobby unser but past him and into second place this certainly helps when it comes to getting out the pit we'll probably see the nick slap if you've got an advantage he's had a clear run which is important okay so peter rabson who started the race although something has happened uh it's just a barely just a blown engine no car in there you get a little gun shy at this racetrack any engine blowing up abc sports is proud to be bringing you the indianapolis 500 and we'll be back with more in a minute it's a perfect day weather-wise in speedway indiana home of the indianapolis 500-mile race the leader well into the race now is al unser of new mexico second place peter repson third place brother bobby unser fourth place floyd ruby fifth place a.j foyt there is the leader al unser closely pursued by lloyd ruby but ruby is a lap behind he's just trying to unlap himself get himself on the same lap with the leader a huge sprawling complex here the indianapolis motor speedway some 539 acres there are seats for 225 000 people more than 300 000 here all together the straightaways here are 3 300 feet long each those are long straights that's about 5 8 of a mile the short shoots as they call in the short straightaways on each end or an eighth of a mile and each turn extends for a quarter of a mile the banking however is very slight it's just nine degrees and 60 feet wide on the turns 50 feet wide on the straightaways that shallow banking makes turns a little bit more difficult than a place like daytona for example doesn't it jack well in fact daytona's got a very high banking uh we've got a car coming into the pits in fact it looks like the leader i think it's it's al himself he's coming in coming in very fast the entrance speed is very important here and this is a scheduled pit stop for al unser everything right on schedule so far for car number one the winner of last year's race and looking more and more like the possible winner this year yeah they're doing the right rear wheel here jim i think this is the time and race where perhaps we get a little bit of oil pick up and they're putting a new tire on there i should think probably to keep a clean a clean rear tire for the for the maximum amount of grip how different is this race car and how different is this driving from your formula one grand prix racing in europe well nowadays it's getting a lot closer of course particularly in the cars the cars are getting more and more like each other uh many of the cars the mclarens for instance are being designed by the same people for road racing as they are for for indy racing or oval track racing the driving however is different there's a particular technique required in indianapolis and this is something that one has to get only by practice and something that you can't immediately adapt to this is why it was uh i suppose surprising to a lot of people that so many of the road racing group qualified high at indianapolis but on the other hand it's the indie guys who at the present time are leading the race and are up front but i think this has been mainly due to mechanical trouble however it seems that the modern technology of mclarens have certainly proved to have a big advantage here particularly while the month of may was going on okay there is peter repson in his mclaren car that won the pole position here at a speed of more than 178 miles per hour peter broke the old qualifying speed by more than seven miles an hour a tremendous increase there is bobby unser in car number two right behind him these two have been dueling for a long while [Music] they're battling for third and fourth place now lloyd ruby is second behind al unser [Music] get a look at the crowd it's gonna take a few hours empty this racetrack and here comes uh lloyd into the pits and when they start pointing and waving like that uh looks like trouble jack it really upsets the team managers too because you're waving your arms and you're no way of really speaking to them there's no way of communicating so it's a it's a big problem this is one of the reasons i think that al answers teams fitting in their radios uh it's interesting again to see they're changing that rear tire i'm sure it must be because of the track being very dirty i don't think it'll be where a bit of flame at the back there they seem to be troubling and starting the car they seem to have the electric starter at the back jim this is look lloyd ruby again my goodness he's got bad luck every time he comes to indianapolis he has a problem he's just one away from from winning the race or leading the race and here he's in the pits so peter repson here goes into second place flashing past the pit area it seems very unusual the car won't stop there must be a problem there perhaps he stalled the car while he was coming into the pizza while in the pits revson and bobby unser then are again battling for second place in this race not for third place as lloyd ruby continues to have that trouble al unser way out in front he's not in contact with these cards at all but these two are battling for second place the 32 year old bachelor from new york and bobby unser a 37 year old veteran of the usac trail you see the green light which means that indy what you think it would mean it's okay race as fast as you can pretty important information when the yellow comes on someone else fitting here and here we're having the back straight away we can see the speed of the cars coming in there jim they're doing over 200 miles an hour perhaps 215 220 mile an hour so a tremendous contrast there a moment ago that golf course in the background they've pushed him away he's got to start there but he's still slow you know it's been a long long pit stop jim a couple of years ago when lloyd ruby went out of the race for yet another time with a kind of a silly little problem chrissy carmacki asked him for his comment and he just said chris lady luck does not ride with me in this place but he's fighting lady luck every inch of the way again this afternoon well it may not be fighting him in one way but he's helping one another he certainly hasn't got himself into any trouble today and this is the main thing peter revson still leading away there with answer behind them they're having a good race for second and third place fourth is aj point fifth is bill book of age six mike mosley seventh blood tinglestad and 8th jim malloy that's the way they stand right now billy buckovich moving up in the standings and remember his father bill vukovic senior was the last man to win this race back to back and it's looking now like al unser might repeat that feat bill booker that senior of course then died the following year in a crash on this racecourse but the sons of race drivers tend to become race drivers peter refsen lapping lloyd [Music] ruby however as we said not giving up by any stretch of the imagination and going pretty fast just a little bit slower than peter revs yeah he's always i think he's got trouble he slowed down there a lot because the car behind him passed too easily much much too easily him just then he did he slowed down and there's bobby going by him bobby unser he's in third place what a birthday present this can be for al unser celebrating and really celebrating right now his 32nd birthday on this very day in indy peter rests in second now answer third a.j foyt fourth as they head down this straightaway yet again 200 laps of this two and a half mile track completes the race in the month of may there's no more exciting place to be than the indianapolis motor speedway for the indy 500 we'll be back for more of our same day coverage in a minute we return to today's indianapolis 500 motor race second place right now is that orange car the one that appears to be second peter refs and car number 86 tr trailing by a great distance however to al unser who is the leader in card number one in third place number two is bobby unser the unser brothers from new mexico traveling one and three peter reps in second aj foyt in fourth position lurking in the background but aj will have to depend on other people's hard luck going to win this time again there's peter repson refson who drove his first race 11 years ago in hawaii of all unlikely places in an old morgan sports car long way from there good place to choose the gym that's right yeah i see peter here doing a thing that some of the other indie drivers are not doing giving quite a wide berth while he's passing he's obviously concerned about the traffic here a little bit more than the regulars [Music] peter came here i guess was three years ago the first time he started in 33rd position the last car in the field and finished fifth and he was pretty upset at the time i think that he was not named the rookie of the year mark donahue was well he's in the race this time and mark is out of it after leading [Music] he's adapted very very well to indianapolis a very smooth driver peter by the way won a race that you did one time he won the formula three race at monte carlo in 1965 and you as i recall won it the year before right that's correct in 64 the man who wins monte carlo is always looked upon with some concern okay and the man who won the formula three race last year in monte carlo ronnie peterson oh crash it's coming straight oh like moses before a terrible crash uh he's crashed into other cars that were parked here that's donahue's number 66 which was just parked there no i don't think so he's bobby's still in his car he's over on the right look at this driver here jumping over here at any rate it's bobby and mosley involved in this that number 95 was also a pre-parked car of bentley warren just two cars have crashed now but they crashed into the two cars that were already parked on the wall after driving out of the race i don't see mosley no i haven't seen mosley at all the safety crew really got into action here really getting the powder on the fire you know who it was that stopped here it was gary bettenhausen it looks very much as if he got out to help to leap through the flames and try to get these other drivers out here's slow motion it's something's oh there's the impact something's gone wrong with that car jim because he's running along the outside right right rear tire flying high in the air see it look at the flame there this is immediate spill from the fuel trailing it all the way along with him look at me he's going to cross the track now this is him crossing the track now still incredible speed he must still be do look at the tire coming down he must still be doing 150 miles an hour now that's bobby hitting backwards into the outside wall bobby unser tremendous impact yeah there's mosley going in and the car of donahue simply exploding gas tanks exploding and now bobby's sliding into the wall again back with more flame wheels all over the place bobby answer is out of the car gary benton house and see that blue car parked there that's gary vettenhausen getting out i think he may have whether he is in or not i don't know but at any rate he got out and ran through those flames to try to help somebody there is al unser leading in the race he was not involved in any way the man i don't see again jackie is mike mosley i don't know whether he is out of his car yet or not i didn't see mike i saw i saw the helmet off bobby still in the car well uh while he was stopped but he seemed to be moving around and trying to get out the car i think he's okay [Music] a day of tremendous crashes here in indianapolis that started when the pace car unbelievably crashed into a photographer's stand just after entered a pull off the track to start the race car crashes of this kind gym are terrible for race drivers the biggest fear a race driver has is fire and particularly the possibility of ever getting trapped into a car while this is going on we see the ambulance the firefighting people really looking after people here but of course they're so lucky here in indianapolis to be so well looked after but the driver really is very frightened of fire that ambulance has to be for mike mosley as we said gary bettenhausen was okay when he got out bobby unser was okay when he got out and it may be that mosley is still uh stuck in that race car these walls are very firm at indianapolis jim they don't see somebody throw a helmet then i couldn't tell yeah i thought it was a white helmet i think he threw over but they've got all the right equipment that's one thing we're sure of two things militating the drivers favor here one is the tremendous fire safety equipment they have in indy that gets there very quickly and the other is the fuel cells fuel cells are a big help but you saw the fuel running out the car so quickly it was such a gap in that car it hit the wall so hard that doesn't matter what you have you've got high octane uh fuel there it's alcohol in this case and it just goes up very quickly but what worried me there jim was that the car was completely off line here's bobby answer i can see him getting over the wall now yeah there's bobby there so he's okay that's a great relief anyway they've got his crash helmet bobby walking towards you on the right-hand side not turning around away from you put his hand to his head nobody i think boss told us where mike mosley is i think bobby's looking around there from mosley gym but what i was worried about with mike mosley was the line the car took when the accident happened i wouldn't be surprised this is a mechanical problem there he was in about two laps before the end i noticed it is interesting though jackie that mike trying to qualify on the first day crashed into that same turn twice within about an hour in two different cars later qualified successfully obviously and was in the race so mike mosley has had a bad time on turn four this year 24 year old race driver one of the youngest in the field and considered very much of a comer he finished fourth in the u.s auto club national standings last year again there's bobby he looks perfectly fine yeah he looks very well no trouble at all having a smoke and walking down there's his mechanic showing his helmet i think to al now this must be a terrific relief for our answer while he's leading the race to see a car involved probably recognizing it at his brother and very concerned about them this is a very emotional thing for a race driver because when an exit because of that magnitude now bobby just going uh showing the helmet there again to al very interesting showing that to al unser on the course leading the race under the yellow flag now of course which came out instantly when the accident occurred al unser is the leader bobby naturally out of the race for today so here are the standings revson is still second lloyd ruby is still in there he's in third place aj foyt and vukovic we'll return to the indianapolis motor speedway in just one minute again we're back at indianapolis and still the leader is al unser second place peter repson lloyd ruby aj floyd bill vukovic there is harlan fingler and here is barnelli jones down remonstrating with harlan fengler and i think maybe he's claiming that refs moving up under the yellow this is one of the big things and uh and al really really is worried here mike mosley has just been put into the ambulance and will be taken off to methodist hospital his injuries we don't know check them as soon as we can smoke from lloyd ruby's car oh my goodness it's going to happen again to lloyd it's it certainly looks like looks like oil oh he's on fire looks like oil oil would cause this jim an oil leak onto the exhaust system hot engine immediately catches bad it's keeping going so it's feeding the fire best thing to do though just head for the pits in this circumstance probably doesn't know it's there at the moment but he's heading for the pits i think in any case because he's come out of the groove quite a fire i hope it doesn't go any farther jim well this sure looks like the end of the road for 1971 for lloyd and the assortment of problems as we said before that this 43 year old man has had on this racetrack are difficult even to document ruby out of it again every year he's up among the leaders last year he took the lead and just as he took the lead was black flag it's wretched look it's followed him around he's coming into the pits he's really going slowly now he's coming in but he's still in fire jim yellow flag's still out as you see they're clearing the debris from the accident doesn't seem to be getting any worse that's the main thing yeah it's definitely an oil fire a lot of black smoke oh he's a safety no because they'll get the fire stuff on him here comes lloyd a real gentleman from texas jackie indicated he's not only driven here but on the road circuits of the world also not in formula one but in sports car racing he's done very well yeah he won sebring one year and now the fire equipment on it so lloyd gonna be okay but boy you can imagine he's a discouraged texan right now i talked to him a couple of days ago as a matter of fact about this very subject and he was kind enough to go through all the problems he had before this and document them for us well actually i think the really the first one it really hurt was 66. we liked 26 laps from finishing and had uh nearly a two lap lead and just riding and that's when uh both the cam housing broke got black bag and lloyd ruby is in trouble what a time for a misfortune but we'll wait and see i'm sure his pit crew saw him go by in fact there he pulls into the pits floyd ruby is making a pit stop at a crucial point of this race the crew of car number 14 going to work and two united states auto club officials have given a preliminary signal if that's all he is apparently out of the race because of oil leakage and cannot continue this is a man that led the race for 68 laps and you can see the feeling of one of his crew members and we can't blame him and in 68 we got a little bit closer with like 24 laps and uh bobby i think we had about a 15 or 18 second lead on bobby that year and coil went out lloyd seems somewhat relaxed there in the pits are certainly very disappointed lloyd ruby because he did have a good chance to win well he always drives here at indianapolis very very well but never has been able to win so far [Music] and uh and in 69 i was one that already pulled the boner there it was a little uh misunderstanding the fifth on a little on both of us and uh i ran off and left a gas tank hanging on so it pulled the side of the car out routine stops however floyd ruby finishing up his right now starting back out onto the track something oh look roger there's fuel pouring out the side of the car looks like he started too soon while the hose was still in there yes apparently the hose was still attached either they couldn't get it loose or they didn't have it all the way full and he started to leave the pits and it appears as though they've torn the fuel tank lose from the side and of course floyd is getting out and you know he's got to be a very very disgusted race driver at the moment and last year we did work up to the lead and uh rear end out last year well at the moment aj boyd is going to come into the beds and ruby takes the lead but at the same moment he's getting the black flag i've never seen that before and now ruby's car is smoking up but it's burst into flames i just don't believe lady luck ever rides me at this place just one of them things so it's been through the years at the indianapolis motor speedway for lloyd ruby a man from texas time after time he's taken off the boots and walked away and here it is again in 1971 he's been participating in his 12th consecutive indianapolis 500 he has yet to win the race so many times he's come so close they're the standings in the 1971 race as we near the finish and we'll bring you more action at the indianapolis 500 after this brief message well it won't be long now apparently until al unser wins his second consecutive indianapolis 500 he is the leader in the race billy vukovic is in good contention and car number 32 he is the son of the last man to win back-to-back victories here bill buchovich senior won in 1953 1954 and then was tragically killed in this race course the following year is his son now in fourth position in the race young belvukovic he was the rookie of the year here a few years ago and still very much rising in the ranks of the u.s auto club competition now back to al unser and car number one and if he wins this race he's just about going to lock up car number one for next year because in u.s auto club points he's going to have some 2900 even though there's a lot of races to go that's a big lead it's a big lead on the second man a long long reap there is peter repson who is in second place remember he sat on the pole with a record speed of 178.696 miles per hour they also appear to be going in the progress of setting a race record here today despite all the yellow flags when the running's good jim they're running very fast i have been watching the pit lane here and they're doing 172 miles an hour in some cases steadily around 171 miles an hour so the average of course while the track is clear is very very good indeed we have a report on mike mosley who was injured in the crash a good many laps to go now posey is in hospital with a compound fracture of the left leg fracture of the left foot fracture of the right elbow slight burns but only slight burns on hands and face he may have to have some surgery there were no other driver injuries in the race almost unbelievably with all the crashes any consolations to mike a fine young race driver and again we would report that in the pace car crash at the beginning of the race our colleague chris schenkel who was in the pace car was not injured neither was anybody else in that pace car including tony hallman and uh astronaut john glenn and a man named eldon palmer a local automobile dealer who was driving the car they were not injured however a number of people were including five who are in the hospital the most seriously injured dr vicente alvarez and a racing enthusiast and sometimes racing correspondent from buenos aires argentina he's been coming here for many years he's in critical condition but responding he has head and chest injuries this looks like a very cool answer now he must be watching the whole scene at this time oil pressure water temperature he must be very nervous about the car's reliability of these closing laps jim because a racing driver at this time is a very nervous man particularly if he's won i went in indianapolis before and he's running for a second win well how many laps whether to go when you broke down one year here eight laps to go jim uh i was leading the race with eight laps to go i had nearly two laps in the lead and unfortunately the engine blew a great disappointment for me a great scottish disaster almost because all those dollars suddenly disappeared and the race went to an englishman that's even worse if they'd gone to an american it wouldn't have been so bad graham hill won the race that year and it still looks like al is going to win this one the crowd beginning to rise to its feet soon they'll cheer him through the final lap when he gets the one the white flag that means one lap to go for you then it'll be off to his 32nd birthday celebration uh the prize money won't be known until a good while after depending what equipment was used and so forth but it could be somewhere around 275 000 total prize money well over a million and there's the white flag from that one left to go for al unser just about two miles from victory knees trembling all the way being very very nervous he can almost course from here he knows it but even so you're never there until the checkered flag and even after the checkered flag you're never too sure the counter has been doing the right number of laps by the way al unser's mother is very much in prominent in the grandstands here she comes to just about all the races her two sons are in mom unser and a couple of weeks ago go here gave the traditional chili supper for everybody at the track she cooked some 50 gallons of chili here we come though to the checkered flag for al unser there it is the race is over as he crosses that line the last yard of brick left at the racecourse that used to be called the brickyard here is the second place car of peter repson he's going to take second third place will go to aj point and fourth to bill bukovitz jr fifth to jimmy malloy we'll be back for a word with the winner of the 1971 indianapolis 500 right after this message we'll be getting a word with the winner here in a moment uh let's just run understandings quickly here jack al unser the winner peter refers in second aj fourth third and bill vukovic jr jimmy malloy donnie allison from the nascar circuit bud tinglestad seventh roger mccluskey eighth i think that's the first time he's been able to finish here in all the years ninth denny zimmerman a rookie and 10th gary bettenhausen who got restarted after helping in the accident what do you think well a great result for alan so absolutely sensational a very uh i don't know exciting race i've been more excited up here jim i think than i would have been in the racetrack a really exciting race i think a fantastic 500 and for the spectators a very eventful day by the way we're gonna have an exciting time next saturday on wide world of sports we're going to see this man driving in the grand prix of monaco through the streets of monte carlo right now however let's go down to victory lane for the interview with the winner and kristy karamacki the face of a winner al unser of albuquerque winner of this year's indianapolis 500 congratulations al you did a fine job how tough a race was it for you well chris it was i tell you it was a lot harder than it was last year uh and we knew this from the standpoint of uh what donahue and mclaren's cars were going to do and of course bobby and uh and aj foyt we knew that everybody was going to be running a lot faster than we did last year so we knew there was going to be a hard race early in the going when donahue was so far ahead were you sort of giving up no i didn't ever give up chris i run the car as hard as i could all day and and i knew that that if uh donahue finished that he would be way out in the lead unless he had some kind of problems and this is what paid off for us your car was meticulously prepared did it give any trouble during the day none whatsoever chris uh car and just performed beautifully thanks to george mcnaughty and of course charlie dibuki was the engine man on it and it the whole thing jimmy dilla martyr was a chassis man and there's just not enough words i could say that could describe how things went today al you had a radio did it play an important part in your victory well i think so chris because it it really did give me a secure feeling out there because i was able to talk back to the pits and without making hand signals so this is really important and of course i had a piece of paper and a radiator at one time and and i was able to tell them and when i made that unscheduled pit stop for fuel they was able to take it out and i think this has really saved me al did you have any frights during the race yes i did chris when uh uh rick muther crashed down here on the front straightaway i was the first car there in fact they were still spinning and when i went by rick was in the air still and pieces were flying all over and and i really didn't think i was going to make it because any minute i figured one of the cars would come back across the track into my way which they didn't i was able to get by soon enough well al you made it and you made it big congratulations and continued good luck to you thank you very much chris all right now back topside somewhere in indianapolis tonight there will be many choruses of happy birthday dear al happy birthday to you he's 32 and he won the indianapolis 500. much of the commentary you heard him today would have been done by my colleague chris shankle however chris was involved in a pace car accident he's okay but he was shaken up and we prevailed on him just to take it easy and watch the race with us that's the story from indy jim mckay with jackie stewart chrissy konomaki and keith jackson the executive producer of abc sports is roone arlen the indianapolis 500 was produced by chuck howard and directed by chet 40. second unit director larry kam the technical directors werner gunther and jack hughes associate producer don olmeyer associate directors lou frederick bernie hoffman now this is jim mckay with jackie stewart chryshenko chris economaki and keith jackson saying so long from indianapolis indiana [Music] the indianapolis 500 has been brought to you by goodyear the only makers of the long mileage custom wide tread polyglass tire and the wide wide polyglass gt by the stp corporation makers of world famous stp oil treatment and other high performance products for your car it's the racer's edge and by american oil company and your local american oil dealer you expect more from american and you get it

Channel: Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Views: 132,607

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Id: Vlcma7pj8aQ

Length: 101min 40sec (6100 seconds)

Published: Thu May 13 2021