1984 Indianapolis 500

the following is a presentation of ABC sports this year from Sarajevo Yugoslavia to Los Angeles California the ABC Olympic tradition continues ABC Sports presents the world's greatest automobile race an American tradition of the Memorial Day weekend the 68th running of the Indianapolis 500 it's the world's biggest annual one-day sports event a gathering of 400,000 people and more but why what makes it so special these are the luxury cars and luxury people streaming in from all over the world is it Paul Newman in the flesh as part of the race or is it an annual convention of motorcyclists or is it the denizens of the infield at turn one the snake pit as its called well it's all those people but it's mostly Indiana Hoosiers come to see the great drivers they are the country walls of their old beloved indeed many have driven well elsewhere but flinch when they drive close to those walls the crowd comes to cheer old favorites old champions and to see which new ones can pass the test they come to see spectacular spins but they want the man to win in the end over the dark forces that could destroy him out there India's memories of the very first race and Ray Haroon inventing the rearview mirror to win the day any especial because of the speed and the immense crowd and what it means to a driver to win this most famous of all races and it's special because here more than any other race the crowd senses the danger and identifies with the driver and the spectator goes home exhilarated and relieved if all the men come home safely from the course it's eight o'clock at night now in Indianapolis as we come to you live from the racetrack it's been raining less than six hours ago four hundred thousand people or more were gathered here as 33 cars and drivers competed for this year's championship of the Indianapolis 500 now they're all gone I've been surrounded here for some time by 260,000 empty seats and many tons of trash and debris but what a day it has been a day of events and surprises of emotions that range from high excitement - well stunned silence it began as always with nostalgia with familiar events that give indy a sense of continuity a remembrance of other times and other races of other Memorial Day weekends going back perhaps all the weight and well when you were a kid it began with Jim Nabors singing back home again in Indiana [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] yes at this moment tradition hangs heavy in the air here at Indy giving it the sense of security of something that through all the years of increasing speeds and technical advances still stays the same in many ways like the traditional words about to be spoken by mrs. Mary Holman the widow of the man who made the Speedway what it is today [Applause] [Music] now the troops literally hundreds of thousands of people because the moment is nearing is the engine start looks like looks like everybody but he has gotten their engines underway [Music] AJ Foyt looking for his fifth win in the Indianapolis 500 nobody else has ever won for the familiar car number 14 number six Rick Mears he won this race in 1979 there's Johnny Rutherford way back in the tenth row three-time winner of the race Lone Star Junior it's on his helmet now the wide scene is they are almost ready to move out there goes Mario Andretti on the outside of the second row remember seeking his second win 15 years after he won in 1969 everyone apparently safely started pit crews scrambling getting out of the way [Music] the racehorse belongs to the drivers now and to the pace car see them it's time to go the ground what's wrong now let's meet the drivers in the first two rows on the pole is a sometime golfer and the defending champion Tom Schneider a former public school teacher now the fastest qualifier in the history of English for the 210 miles an hour in the middle of row one howdy home Sneaky's teammate owner of an advertising and marketing company but most at home behind the wheel and now for the first time with a kind of equipment that could win the race for it on the outside of Row one former champion Rick Mears trained in the bumpy world of off-road racing now in school the driver is you'll find looking for his second win here here row two Michael Andretti the 21 year old pride of a racing family a pave among masters in his exalted starting position today in his first 520 the younger at age 47 Gordon John Fox hair is brave but the driving talent of this two-time Indianapolis champion still shines brightly he's in the middle of Rome - John and Mario Andretti looks more like a Roman centurion as the years go by today he starts in the same row as his son still seeking that elusive second Indy wins his only triumph came 15 long years ago let's consider the third row now as they're on the track on the inside a road racer from Colombia on the right of your screen got his experience in England Roberto Genaro next to him Jeff grab of the son of the former multiple world champion Jack Bravo and on the outside herb Johnson who finished ninth two years ago but passed up the race last year now to row four which contains more years of Indy experience than any other row in the starting field Al Unser senior could become only the second four-time winner of Indy joining AJ Foyt in a most exclusive club this is his 19th appearance at Indianapolis al senior next to him Danny on Gaia's is 40 pound swimmer very fit for another try twice in the past three years on diet that survive crashes in this race Danny on Gaia's the thoroughbreds of horse owner AJ Foyt race at Churchill Downs less than 100 miles from here but AJ less than a year away from his 50th birthday still races and indeed aiming for a fifth win in his 27th appearance well they call this the parade lap but it's unlike any parade you ever saw and the participants frankly couldn't care less what the audience thinks of their parade they have worked to do dangerous difficult work and soon well there it is one of the great sights in American sports the car's still in the parade laughs before this immense crowd anticipating the start of the Indianapolis 500 I'm in our ABC commentary booth with my colleague Sam cozy and it was driven at Indianapolis and LeMond for that matter mostly important racing circuits in the world not only is this the fastest in the field industry but also there's more quality of drivers and cars going all the way back through the roads that's it I mean you can talk about the favorites in the front rows but deep in the pack they're people that might bear watching to give you an example a nice elephant man about knew a great deals been written lately he's a jet setter with what is said to be an insatiable fondness for women he has a secret plan that he hopes will win him this race there's Kevin Cogan who is driving the only all-american car in this race most of the cars of English fittingly it's a Dan Gurney creation that could be something very special and lastly a guy you know I don't like to make predictions but the man I'm about to mention I think is going to be four we're gonna go out on that much of a limb al Hobart he was the winner Lamar last year and he is practiced for more laps here than anyone else in this month has done 1600 miles of practice he is going to be four well you said a couple of turns and there are still others let's take a look at some of them touch of the continent here Te'o Fabi last year's pole sitters sometimes seen on the ski slopes of Europe lawyers once a member of the Italian National Ski Team you know last year he seemed to have a message about this place that no one else had he started on the pole but this year the magic seems to be cold look at Al Unser jr. the kid still looks like a teenager wife Shelly their last year altro brilliantly but that brilliance was obscured by the controversial blocking incident in the latter part of the race but a great young driver there's one of your guys Bobbi ray Hall I'm surprised he doesn't have a briefcase with him here he is a button-down mind he knows the engineering behind the car how the sponsorships are organized a big future way back in the tenth row Lone Star jr. you know Jim I think I hate to say this despite his three wins and of course the four wins of his car on Raj boy I don't think Johnny's got much of a chance this year so far he has made fewer than 20 laps of practice in this car counted out [Music] now let's pick up the remaining rows you see last year's poll Center Te'o Bobby in the middle of that fifth row young Al Unser on the outside road six there featuring two road racers al al Bert and Bobby Rahal and Tony Benton house in the namesake of his famous father in row seven a racing rider turned driver Pat Bedard as the oldest driver the race 50 year old Nick Simon and the veteran Pancho Carter lots of talent in row eight with Chip Ganassi former world of Formula one champion emerson fittipaldi and the popular young Mexican of mozilla garza ro 9l housing great kokin row ten there danny sullivan eric daily and a three-time Indy champion Johnny Rutherford and in the last row Snider Firestone and life--all who just got in the race the other day when Jacques Villeneuve's car was withdrawn now let's meet our other commentator starting with three-time world champion Jackie Stewart whose views you'll be hearing a number of times during our telecast Jackie Memorial weekend is not celebrated in Scotland so since 1966 this great thing has only meant for me the Indy 500 it's more apple pie and ice cream than anything else that I see in America but this year it's more special than ever before because of what I believe are the excessively high speeds around this track the drivers on the other hand are extremely exciting a new generation always to have come to this 500 but if I sit here right now and look out I only think of one thing I hope and I pray it'll be a safe race I'm bill Fleming one of the more interesting statistics we're going to be following today is how much time does a driver spin off the track that doesn't mean just in the pits but how speedy is he getting into the pits and getting out of the pits the man who was most efficient at that last year was Tom Stephen as you know he won the race this fuel calibration gauge and all of the tanks here on pit road help the crews keep abreast of how much of the two hundred and eighty five gallons they've allocated for the race remains I'm Jack arute on pit road and when fuel consumption becomes a question we'll be here to cover it I'm Larry nuber at the entrance to gasoline alley on any other day this is the view from the cockpit that the drivers would like to have going back to the historic area today unfortunately if you exit this way off the racetrack back to the garage area what that means is that you have lost the race thirty-two drivers will leave the speedway through this path only one will leave the way everybody wants to leave and that is out through Victory Lane I'm ray Gandalf and for the past couple of weeks I've been doing some off the track stories related to the race there are distant relatives second cousins maybe but they're good stories I think you'll like them and now there is a look at the field from the front coming right at you past the start/finish line the pace car for the act Fiero well out in front of the field first role of Tom Stephen howdy Holmes and Rick Mears you've been in the car at this time Sam try to remember it for it Jim I think what's worse about it is you can't bring the car up to speed there's no way you can get you know it's not like baseball perhaps we could go out and throw the ball or swing the bat or golf or you could hit a few balls here you go into this thing cold these speeds are nowhere nearly high enough to get any feel for how the car will be when the race begins that makes it very very hard our speeds how much patience it takes well and we may see that become the fulcrum of the race today Jim because fuel consumption is an issue here if you were to run the entire race of flat out it's possible that you might run out of gas the rules and can cut our fuel there are rules that limit how much fuel you may use during the race so yes patience will be a very big factor I'm Steve aright there car number one next to him howdy holds the blue and white 41 his teammate and in the golden car Rick Mears number six and you know Jim that front row howdy Holmes they're the least experienced of all the drivers in this leading group and there's some concern he's a very very fine driver but he's never raced at the front at Indianapolis before and so the more experienced drivers like Andretti and Mears were afraid they might get trapped behind him and let's see if it get loose and establish a big lead look at that more seats here than ever before they're now seats see for 260,000 people with the crowd in the in theater waiting for the grain now it's like they're going to get it just like man Dwayne Sweeney he has the green flag in his hand a moment here the green flag is out there racing at Indianapolis [Music] going for the lead here's had to leave behind his people and michael andretti from the inside of the second row already chair we have a new record Mears is now leading his sixth consecutive hindi 500 no man has ever done that it may be a day of records I have a feeling about the bombs going off once the kid remember that's the accident race for the ceremonial bombs indicating to the surrounding countryside the Indianapolis 500 is again underway 200 laps lie ahead of them Oh little puff of smoke there yes stiva absolutely well that's on to warn of course if this early stage too quick word about the track it rained very heavily night before last year the track was literally scoured clean almost by that ability trying to feel their way on the track that feels unfamiliar to their car remarkable how far ahead of the pack yeah that's right now look at the cue lating let's try to figure out what might be walking speed we didn't see that mother spoke again to him it might have been something just a little bit overfill you know what I mean an oil tank or something he seems to be fine and he is in Mears his trap rick mears who won a 1979 defending champion coming into the pits michael andretti oh no by far the most this this is Gillian rabbim bring on that it is Jim problem the colors of the car are similar this is the r18 chip Brabham spotting in fact Michael Andretti is running third he's third in your picture right here and he is in good shape in fact how long has it been Jim since a rookie ran the race that Michael Andretti is running right this minute well ahead of his head I might say that age okay and Jim we have a new absolute lap record here the leader is going Aamir's it's going over 200 miles an hour at this point the previous high was stiva at this time last year 197 so Rick Mears you've seen him there in the yellow car over 200 miles an hour and mind you the car is full of fuel right now Jeff problem in the pits right there Carter we're a team Formula One racing driver so we have has the first competitive 200 mile an hour lap in Indianapolis history incredible and this is a very good race now whatever was wrong with Stephen at the outset but it does not seem to be wrong now remember some personal rivalries here Rick Mears is the man that took over the slot on the Roger Penske team the man following him right now Tom stiva was fired from there are personal rivalries as well as those above the bar over beers galette in front both be Festiva like lines ready and his father right behind him I know isn't that magnificent can you imagine the experience of seeing your son ahead of you in the early part of the end e51 the third and fourth part of the blue and gold car and the red car Michael Andretti and father Mario Andretti behind him a lot of drama lies ahead of us here at Indianapolis I imagine it's hard to me even though I am a father to imagine the emotions it must be running through Mario because obviously occupied as he is with the job of driving the fact that his son tried ahead of him on the road that's probably judging his performance a little part of him is hoping nothing goes wrong no way I could imagine being [Music] so there are the four leaders in the early laps in the Indianapolis 500 beers and sniper and then Freddy back in Indy and there is Michael Andretti in the blue and gold car passing Tom stiva for second place the duels been going on for that second spot and now Michael Andretti the 21 year old youngest drive in the race remember has taken over second place but a phasing pass you know Tim you described him at the top of the show as a babe among masters I wonder if maybe we shouldn't be revising that estimate right now way he's driving we certainly showed Rick Mears of course still leading phrase in the Roger Penske repaired number six car some of the crowd looking on there's Jeff Brabham in the pits he was the steering wheel you know is removable for safety purposes and for quickness getting in and out of the car even in the pit area there's the look down the straightaway let's have another look at that pass look at Michael well that was the absolutely perfect pass he was faster through the tournament's Niva was drafted him for a moment coming down the early part of the front Street here had made an absolute copybook crass wonder who he learned that from can't imagine every year we have many people watch I think who are not dyed-in-the-wool motor racing fan drafting of course means getting in the slipstream of the car and you get an actual boost in horsepower right and yes because the car ops here here comes Gordon Johncock into the pits this is unexpected a champ it's way too early in the race we would expect the car to go about 24 25 laps before a stop Johncock remember a two-time winner of this race started in the middle of the second row one of the favourites here and one of the fastest two in practice he did run a lap of 209 or a thick 210 just barely the other day so this is very discouraging this is a man that could have won the race Jorge Schneider going by the number four he's back in the back of it up front though it is Rick Mears moving in on the mirrors oh this kid is really moving yeah and this is the acid test too because it is in heavy traffic running alone on the track that is something by thought he's been able to do all month here in practice he has never had an occasion to run under in a pressure situation like this now as Jorge Schneider they're holding up here's a little bit allowing Michael to move in behind this could make him vulnerable to Stevo who's right behind here because when you're held up in a turbine and ready I'm sorry and ready if you're held up in the turret as Michael was you see let go sneak up right alongside and now pass Michael Andretti driving intelligently not just going flat out saying he's not going to get by me when it's inevitable he goes oh yes and I don't think he'd be there homes yep team made up Thompson even started in the middle of the first row into the pits reasonably in a situation and the driver behind you set you up perfectly and that's exactly what Stephen did Boyd and Michael accepted when the guy beat you let him beat you then go after him again later exactly it's not the last lap yet far from it there's Stephen the white car I'm a reason second place Mears is still deliver guards up in front of him there he flashed by there's Steven there goes my cleanse ready cam you know deleting three cars for all these marks cars are all made in England they're all the same kind of car and they had virtually the same engine same horsepower about 750 so when you see differences out here differences in the driver the different through the way the cars are set up in this particular moment in the race so let's say I believe of the 33 cars 30 of the car marches as far as you're talking about made in England yeah at home they've now got the fondant off the car and come take a while he must be dejected because this has got to be has Talib is the best opportunity that he might have ever had to win this race driving for the mayor team that had prepared his car and Tom Steve was so brilliantly all during the month the Maritim was here with great success a few years ago Johnny Rutherford winning the race for them they've been out of it for a few years and come back this year with great power in their usual organisation the 400,000 still look on we're at Indy this is what they call the spark box the ignition system important on cars car this is why he came in he was getting an intermittent kind of thing with his ignition apart so the engine was cutting it out as you can see [Music] this part goes to the distributor itself they were able to get it out of the car when another replacement he was back up and running very smoothly this was the okay bill plumbing with that report for the pits on Gordon Johncock problem there are the standings as of now the race goes on look at the racing on the course here at Indianapolis there's the leader Rick Mears right behind him Tom stiva car most even got tucked in behind by Megan that's right that slower cars driven by kicks I'm the oldest man in the race Jim 50 years old take too long and get by him the same time in other words he stalled out a little bit and here comes Michael Andretti with his dad Mario Mario is now right below from there there's marioboys bonito and the father has passed the fun and now fans excited for is about to yes does mastics women mix well have the youngest driver did not quite fast things going to drop back behind him go that's showing off yourself is that cycle I think pulling into the pits but double-check it that looked like the first pit stops is the question yep there is yes it seems to be Jim unless he's been using fuel and a tremendous rate something is wrong this what's routine it certainly does so far now ii see certainly stops by the way your knee see they don't change tire the fuel flows in very fast Jim because of what they call the head pressure the so much fuel in the taxi fourteen seconds it's a terrific stop and that's why they don't change tires in the first stop because they know that they're gonna be able to refuel so fast they don't know waste time changing the tire another question is whether the other lead cars are burning fuel that almost the same rate as Michael Andretti if so they'll be coming into pit stops very shortly what a job these MIT pros do here as a matter of fact yes when you think of what they're able to accomplish in a short time is 510 doing the work sometimes it's as much big operation accomplished Roger Penske as a matter of fact as Jackie Stewart tells us it might seem that Bali dancing is a long way from the sport of motor racing but the grace the poise and the elegance in many ways are related if one of the dancers is out of step the whole performance is affected here you see poise and economy have movement also in a sophisticated form last year Tom's newest team had no time for error the choreography was regimented to perfection but as we do know things can go wrong to spoil the show when Lloyd Ruby pitted his fuel line was not disconnected as it should have been this error was to cost him victory he never did win the 500 Jerry grant overshot his pit and stops at his next-door neighbors his mechanics had to run back and forward with wheels and equipment he even took on the other fellas fuel he was penalized and lost his chance for victory when rick mears stopped his fuel fell over the car it spilled that went over his mechanics in the driver I think may didn't created havoc in the pit lane the mechanics waving his arm was on fire also was the driver there's no flame from an alcohol fire Bannon and he's rushed to leave the pits in 1982 he missed George ham Johnson speed and the two cars came in contact with no great effect but it could have been a disaster the darling of the 500 last year was teal fabbi he could have won but fuel was everywhere a valve had stuck open the engine was still running as he stepped out of the car in disgust he finally switched it off it was no win for him on the other hand what this pitstop produced was a victory for Gordon Johncock in 82 stage-managed to perfection under the ultimate pressure his performers were never out a stood no drop wrenches each wheel tighten nor your waist and any subtlest that was there was quickly washed away by water he kept his engine running engaged first gear at the right moment and drove off to receive a standing ovation when finally but Cup who failed so what happens here in the pits is not at all far away from these beautifully synchronized dancers each movement must be strictly Orchestra and now those pit stops are continuing there's AJ Foyt AJ running back in the pack at the moment in car number 14 looking remembered for his fifth Indianapolis 500 victory at the age of 49 Jim to the driver these pit stops are not the calm things they may look like to us they're very disorienting because when you've been out on the track at 200 miles an hour the track is very smooth the other cars are going about the same speed that you are course here's Rick Mears and the Roger Penske pit he's the leader in the race or was wasn't until he get in here the chaos is when you're sitting still you feel that fuel flowing into that tank behind you would actually presses you forward a bit in the seat and cools your back for a split second incidentally okay we've had Michael Andretti into the pits now we've had Rick Mears into the pits but Tom's niba is still on the track coming battle all however let's see yes is here look at that move coming into the pit I have been watching this man for the last few years coming in and out of this and notice how bumpy that pit road is by the way he has got to be the most ambitious fan in and out of the pit I mean that was a very dangerous move that he made a very cleansing move because he came so close to the end of that pit wall he does this all the time in the pit dangerous to somebody unlike Stephen to him he knew what he was doing true everything is relative and this is the hardest charging man I think who's raced it indeed for the last four or five years a very heavy driver he keeps his emotions in one compartment and his you know his logic in another used to call him mr. second place simply because he finished second three times there it is again slow motion alright now maybe it doesn't look that dangerous I'll grant but when you're he's still going 190 miles an hour right here and you see he really just pulls in at the last minute and if anything had come just a little bit wall and he t-boned into the end of that wall okay now here we have Mario Andretti into the pits so the son has been in now the father is in all of the leaders pitting here under the great take a closer look at this car because it's a lower car one of the very few cars that or fortunes in the race and off goes Mario all the leaders back on the race course [Music] Raymond wound Everage seventy four point five nine miles an hour in winning the Indianapolis 500 in 1911 Tom Seaver averaged 162 point 1 1 7 miles an hour in winning last year's [Applause] Mario I'm 44 engine destination lost wheel burn piston flag rekt rekt flag broken header engine see accident accident year after year time after time something has always happened was 502 edge of the drama this year one of the men pursuing him and pursuing him fairly closely is his own son let's meet them both the driver of car number 3 is 44 years old and has won Indianapolis at the world Grand Prix Championship is Mario Andretti driving today in his 19th Indy 500 the driver of car number 99 is 21 years old the youngest participant in this year's race he is Michael Andretti son of Mario as a kid growing up in Nazareth PA Michael liked tennis and football and waterskiing he also liked what his dad did ever since I can remember I felt like someone coming race good boy I started when I was 9 and go karts but when I really started thinking seriously about it was when I was around I think 17 I you know that was my nervous stage where did I have it or didn't I so what I did I went to about 3 or 4 race driving schools and that's where I really judge myself on whether I had it or not and luckily as always the quickest or wanting a quickest students at these schools so that's where I felt this is great you know this is what I want to do I'm gonna go for it from that started go-karts Michael drove on and by last year had become the formula mundial champion and drove his first IndyCar race at Las Vegas his father made him aware of the realities of racing there are certain values here that have to be kept in mind at all times and it is the value of life really has to be forever present in the sense that you don't just figure out a heck with it you know just go for it you do that within reason and if you do that with any reason you have a good chance coming away from this thing with a long career but if you don't sooner or later it's gonna bite and it can bite pretty hard caution at 200 miles an hour is a difficult thing to learn but Michael seemed to have done it when he qualified for today's race faster than his father but he still marvels at his dad it's just amazing the drive that he has he's been in this now for over 20 years and I think he's got more Drive than a lot of these younger guys coming up he wants to win he just all winter long you know when he's waiting for his new car he's like a kid you can't I just can't wait to see his new toy enthusiasm has to rub off especially if you have a close rapport with your with your kids which I think I always had I don't feel we have that much of a generation gap that's something I never really felt with my kids I think that part I think has been very important in our forming years that when we're talking we're in many ways talking the same language I don't profess to know the music the way they do it you know but it's fine there are certain areas that they're different yes but modern music that is but again some of the essential things the more important things the basic things I think we're really talking the same language the value of life Mario Andretti said remembering its value or you're laying it on the line Mario Andretti leading the Indianapolis 500 right now the second place Tom's neva in the white car behind him now al unser seven has passed rick mears for third place it's an interesting repetition isn't it at the end of the race last year Jim Tom stiva and Alice a junior were so close together there's a litter junior just sewing Steven that he is there that's all trying to rattle him a little bit by dodging around behind him occupied Steve his mirrors now let's see if that other car is going to get in between them Lisa did momentarily balancers in the black car number seven there he is moving down to get past that car at age 22 in his second Indianapolis 500 there Steven on the wall that's the lead Jim Carrey you know at this point of course how meaningful is it really Tom Steve out huh look at that well spin that his spike Gill housing spike it looks like he's pulled out all right this time that is the third time we've seen something like that happened to him 70 80 wrecked here 1980 wreck here it is again Jim here he comes off the turn there's no one might think that it was a driving error there it looks as if he just came off wrong but having driven these cars you know Jim I don't think you can ever say for sure those are driving error because there's so many different things that can go wrong with one of these very complex cars okay and again Tom stiva has slipped past Mario Andretti into the lead in the 1984 Indianapolis 500 the yellow flag is out so we're going to take a break here we'll be back for a lot more racing it ended again we're back at Indy they're still under the yellow flag right now after spike gelnhausen spin and again he appears to be all right we have the facility through contract radio to talk to Gordon Johncock Sam see if he can get him out Gordon this is Sam Posey can you hear me okay how is the crosswind is it windy [Music] has the old houses crash put any extra debris on the track Gordon I'm sorry you had that problem early on how do you feel about things now thank you very much corny good luck to you Gordon Johncock speaking with Sam from his race car we said you'd hear periodic reports from Jackie Stewart were quarter of the way 50 laps and here's Jackie looking back after 50 laps the first thing that impressed me was Rick Mears this is the sixth year of him straight leading this race this is impressive the other two impressive things Allen so Junior's come from 15 position right up to fourth position right now and Mario Andretti son Michael driving a magnificent race showing a little bit of inexperience what you would expect in traffic particularly when he was stalking Tom stiva who of course is the master at that but Tom's car and Mario's car are so much better on the racetrack they can drive on any part of the track that's impressive Guerrero from Colombia by the way is up into fifth position he was the man that during qualification had part of his body won't come undone and fly off the car so that's pretty good that he's got himself up to fifth position here now let's have a look at the standings after 50 laps so Mario Andretti is in the lead Rick me a second Tom Steve a third Ireland's a junior in fourth position Guerrero the rookie and fifth and remember I did mention we thought Roy Lee was qualifying when the 40 fell off that Zuse fastener had come undone but in fact we find out that air got underneath the body working that was the reason for it Danny on guy is up to six seniors in seventh year fabian michael andretti is 9 - now hobart another would be making up the the top 10 now I'd like to run through the whole 33 cars here but the speedway have a problem in their scoring they haven't been able to give us the rest of the field so I do apologize for back cars out of the race Jeff Bravo sad for Astro after all the one lap with a few Lane two-time world champion Emerson Fittipaldi from Brazil with an engine failure he was open 39 and spill Sprague Gail house and he had a spill in lap 49 now the leaders average speed so far 186 points six five seven miles per hour we've only had one yellow flag and now we're gonna go green [Music] the green flag out again at Indianapolis oh they're racing again at speed Mario Andretti still the leader right behind him though that white car number one another car in between them now or not but that's Mirza yeah there's in between them in second place so it's Mario followed by Rick Mears followed by a number one top sneaker followed by number seven islands are junior moving low on steve-o right now that's as good as Gracie gets look at them boy the red car is Mario Andretti the yellow car is Rick Mears Malvina lead the white car behind them is Steven the black car Al Unser jr. they're the for them it's this racing or not Oh remember but any of that necklace they now under the yellow flag years ago we're not able to do that's right those make much more exciting if fraction they lessen cure rate the man who appears to be leading here at display stock pretty great is it these clap one lap behind it's really the yellow car there of Rick Mears that is the leader at this point father-and-son situation here getting more complex now as we have meant ready in second place immediately followed by the son of another trucker Joey is now directly and Rennie and the son of Al Unser in that order in third and fourth place I said at the beginning Tim I thought there might be a little pacing because of the possibility of running you see no evidence of that I know I can't remember as much of a cut and thrust briefs see stiva pulling out pass break man we also saw a young al about the past Mario I think we get back to that don't you have the feeling this is the best racing we've seen at Indianapolis it certainly is so far pure racing all the way yeah I think the fact that so many of the cars are virtually identical as I said at the outset 29 of these cars at the same chassis and the same engine they're number seven the black car as Alan Krueger has moved past the red card number three of Mario Andretti so Alan so jr. in third place is Roberto Guerrero the mummy of the formula X Formula One driver having his first taste of Indy competition he's a rookie good driving very well standing Sullivan in the center of your screen in the black car look at the immensity the size of the crowd Penske looking on Penske making many of these strategic decisions that are essential to winning this race Jim wall gone is the day when the driver wins it alone and of course Roger is a green businessman has said you know he makes strategic decisions every day look at this stiva causing it on Mears again nobody can pull away each time a lead our team to pull away for about one lap the man behind him closes it again between them Jim McGee have a look at he pulled way out of the way so no interference there from Tom joy the rookie 37 years old as he is laughing upon race how close to that wall do they cover exiting the turn well during the days of practice that I was here to him I so tired after tire scuff marks are touching the wall I would suspect that at least half the drivers in this race who touch the wall at some point or another but when they're not touching the wall if they do it perfectly how far are they from the wall you're talking about three or four inches three or four inches okay now now the reason they pull well away from the wall going down the street is you see them doing now is to reduce turbulence between the side of the car and the wall that's the reason for that and the little extra distance that you have to move to you know get the car out into the center and back doesn't really mean anything and so it's Rick Mears in the lead Tom stiva in second place and Al Unser jr. in third place and they couldn't be closer without touching this is absolutely magnificent racing you see the black room is starting to develop the track I reckon is not in tip-top condition it's a little bit oily there's a loose wind that's causing the understeer the front of the car to wash out a little bit crash we can't pick it up yet I can't parts everywhere Walla flying out this could be a very day so this should be the worst crash oh that we have seen in Indian years - I'm afraid the driver skill equipment in there as usual I'm afraid looks like since I say it - we are sure could be could be patent Fodor the racing writer turned driver a man in his 40s Desi's in there I'm afraid he's in there in the front of the car the engine gone however however that part is open yes it is these survival worst to the worst crashes we ever saw were Tom Steve and Danny and Gaia some guys particularly we thought might have been dead and he's back in the race name is only back it but fighting from lead really let's see is this history of moving I don't know but it's very encouraging to see that that survival capsule and there's no fiery much attack there is no father hasn't been serious fire here for quite a few years yeah well let's see what we have in slow-mo see if we can see what happened we just came in on the end of that still working on on the driver tentatively identified as Pat Bedard well you see that smoke that's not it here it is over here yeah into inner fire incredible well you see it violence well now you know what happens and something goes wrong at 200 miles an hour you know sometimes you know Jim you really don't understand the speed but the flying parts again do dissipate the energy Dana sense give the driver a chance rather than a solid car that all the force to him absolutely right but it's only when you see something like that that the full knowledge of what 200 miles an hour means credible now this one looks tough let's take a break the yellow flag still have Indianapolis and that is the car number 30 of Danny Sullivan now something happened to Danny resumed ibly as a sort of aftermath of the terrible crash of pet Bedard on whom they are still working now look at this all right there's the debris of course from the Bedard accent now watch the right of your screen and you will Danny Sullivan appears going what it seems to be much too fast he hits Roberto Guerrero that's the white car just to the right of Sullivan who's now getting up into the air other cars dodging was it serious but navigated looks like an accident that in some ways related need not have occurred and everyone slowed down and I certainly could have been serious Jackie Stewart's been watching all this his reaction to it what you've just seen it's not a racing car accident it's like an aircraft accident the total destruction of a car at that speed is incredible Patrick but dad's condition but really in my opinion it's a synonymous accident with these very high speeds that I spoke of at the opening in my opinion they are excessively high only last night I spoke to the great Parnelli Jones and I spoke to AJ Foyt and I spoke to the man who's fastest rowing their speed away Tom Seaver they all said that they were all going too fast because if something did go wrong it was difficult to see life expectancy being in the correct conditions it's this type of accident that I think should convince us that we do have to go slower around this racetrack in lots others as Jackie said we still don't report on one Pat Bedard a little earlier shot maybe we can tell more samples all right they see that it's between turns three and four it's coming off turn three let's watch here into the inner wall you see a flash of fire thing yeah left side history yeah that's all right now that is not the fuel tank exploding it could be friction it could be the oil tank and as we said earlier the incredible energy that is absorbed by that tumbling and by the parts coming off frankly Jim is what encourages me to hope for paddle I think if people want to see crashes like this at all it's just because the enormity of a crash like this validates proves the speed here's the crew that I saw through there yeah now Pat me on the stretcher being put into into the ambulance well you saw illustration of seatbelt giving a man his only possible chance Jackie Stewart with that it's unnecessary to tell a racing driver to wear seatbelts they all do it's essential 19 years ago I came to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway it was introduced to the wearing of seat belts and racing cars since then I've always worn them in cars north on the road and on the track of course we need them in racing because of accidents such as this and one of the most spectacular accidents that I've ever seen in it the tourm stiver remarkably escaped with relatively late injuries from this crash then and the first corner of the bus lap at the Monaco Grand Prix Derrick daily in his total was fortunately strapped firmly into his car and walked away with no ill effects after leapfrogging a good part of the field stock car racing has produced some extraordinary escapes made up drawing amazingly survived this one to tell the tale again he was wearing his seat belt what you're seeing here is perhaps the best example of how serious injury can be avoided even though as you will recognize gary Gray is being bounced about in the cockpit of his car in a severe manner he was wearing a full harness belt system but as the slow-motion action shows his body seems at times to be almost elastic in the end his crash helmet even came off not only an accident you've just seen that you wear seatbelts you need them on the road also because almost every year 21 thousand Americans die in the front seat of their cars if you were to have compulsory wearing of seat belts such as they have in 25 other countries around the world you would save just in front seat passes in alone 7,000 lives a year you only wear seatbelts and about 10% of your motoring public in America against in Australia some 97% now when accidents do occur such as this where a dummy is unrestrained in a crash [Music] on the other hand where the dummy is wearing the seatbelts you can see it live enriches the windshield or the dashboard and therefore let's see from serious injury and perhaps there so what is the message if race drivers wear their seatbelts and they're exposed to many accidents and a lot of the rest of the world wear seatbelts why don't you you here every year about the fatalities the Memorial Day weekend will be again this year make sure you're wearing your seatbelt let's go to Larry nuber with dr. Henry Bock dr. Bob can you repeat the conditions of danny sullivan and pat Bedard please Danny Sullivan is in good condition Pat Bedard we would list his serious right now - were finished with our evaluation any details on Patrick's injuries and that right now green flag is out racing together Indianapolis said we have a new leader in the race the man who sat on the pool of last year's race the Italian tale Bobby in car number 333 followed by Danny on Gaia's in number 25 however it's my feeling those two cars did not pit under the yellow and that they might have hit stop coming up quite soon under the green to cross them both to leave because otherwise I can't imagine that they would have moved ahead of out unser jr. at number seven whose third Rick Mears and Tom Stephen yes I agree with you Jim nonetheless they are matching the pace of the ostensively faster cars at this point which is to say that may be psychologically once you're out there and out front maybe you just push it down a little bit harder okay and should there be another yellow very soon they could come into the pit and hold on Italy well that's the point they know if they could stay ahead as you point out of the leader that could save us all there is some special incentive to run really hard gaius setting up on Fabi Gaius who had that terrible crash a couple of years ago back in action driving as well or better than ever we mentioned that he's taken off 40 pounds he's much more physically fit ready to stay the course we used to be Andy bleeding Indianapolis [Music] Bobby was magic here last year I said earlier has not had the handle of the speed at all this year so far been a very discouraging month for him he's very occupied down in his formula 1 racing program a guy is beginning to pull that a little bit then just come back from guys you know you think after we just seen Packer door attacks do you think of Danny on Gaia's his accident and that didn't seem survivable either did it Jim yep I mean maybe there's something about racing that's pushes our horizons further and further they show us that things are possible what we didn't give there to realized well what they've done with these race cars that you said the realm of safety is just unbelievable that they go looking at ya tremendous scream look at that speed you know in the turn they are going 195 Wow for now in the current cell and about 210 on the straight there is a helicopter we're told Pat Bedard is in that helicopter will be airlifted to a Memorial Hospital here in Indianapolis just know 2 or 3 minutes by my helicopter you'll get instant attention but now look here with me now Bobby's reach taking the lead look who's ghosting along right behind us they're young Gallants that's right el unser jr. at age 22 well we have stiva behind them and Rick beers the white and yellow car the flash through your pictures Gordon Johncock into the pits again trying to figure out whether that would be routine there's the buzzer making the pass of on Gaia's per second that's coming into the first one there but past taking place right at 210 215 miles an hour and again that's unser jr. the younger not the three-time champion of India I think we're going to get another report now on the condition from dr. Bach here we go can you give us an update on Patrick's condition yes we just loaded him into the helicopter I'm sure as you're aware we're still listing him as serious but he is waking up he appears to be reacting appropriately and there's no major problems at this time we'll still listen serious till they complete their evaluation down at the Methodist trauma center any specific injuries you can list at this time nothing that we can tell you right now isn't that an unbelievable report I mean it's entirely optimistic report at this time what you saw Pat Bedard [Music] regaining consciousness at this point talking to people has just stay with the story you couldn't possibly believe that cars could lap here at over 200 miles an hour routinely there goes tail Bobby down in and look at stiva siva coming on with little Al Unser Steven blowing right by two tinkly white car Oh Bob's name of the defending champion of Indianapolis now here is tale father the pizza [Music] changing rubber on the right side decision of the crew but this is the crew that failed last year on Bobby's second penstock they were fall not the crew but they had a problem with the o-ring of their refuel excuse you Nydia even when something looks he need something violet can go wrong in a moment that was certainly a very professional pit stop there it was anything that worries us the gear in and year out look at I the young girl pulling out and now neck-and-neck baton Stephen young Alan sir moving back ahead of the veteran Tom Stevens the defending champion here Wow screw configuration so far good news on fat midori Danny Sullivan of course also was involved in a crash but he's back in the garage area now Frank we're gonna have a word [Music] Danny good involved in the Bedard incident what happened well actually I got involved in an incident after Pat's accident he had his moment in big accident there I guess in three and four down the yellow was already on everybody was getting in line and then as we went by the accident on the left-hand side we were up against the wall somebody in front decided to stop and have a look at the accident and slow right down Bobby locked up his brakes trying to miss it went up and and I had nowhere to go and drove over the back of girls wheel Danny do you know who it was who stopped suddenly in front of all of you no I wish I did but it wouldn't do any good you know I just can't believe that some might stop on a race track to work at an accident you went over Roberto's wheels oh right right I went over his left rear with my right front that was was the debris on the racetrack a factor at all in your incident no they had us pushed up a little bit tightened on the wall but there was still no problem the only thing was it I had no what I couldn't go to the left because one of the marshals was standing there and I certainly couldn't hit him so it was just a matter of trying to get it stopped and I couldn't well frustrated Danny Sullivan but he is at least totally well there's Alan sir jr. the leader the Indianapolis 22 the youthful weather has certainly arrived this year attending we've been saying for so many years there's got to be changing of the guard well it's underway right now gradual but it's underway top then there is out coming into the pits into the pits making Tom Stephen in white car number one the leader against [Music] you see him bumping in there it's the only part of the track that hasn't decreased in recent year you know why they don't have half a dozen or a dozen people over the wall there well the rule is only five people over the wall in the defense obviously you can see they are not change two tires here only refueling in so relatively crap it scoffed and either way a neat stop for Al Unser jr. but at this moment Tom stiva is again the leader see how long that lasts well for the first time today a driver has taken something of a comfortable leader they did enough is 500 Tom stiva the defending champion no one has repeated his champion of this race since Al Unser senior in 1970 and 71 and he happens to be running second in the race at the moment you know Steve is so interesting to me Tim because in this day and age when the car counts so much many of the drivers have a kind of ambivalence to their car because when it's so good then it diminishes your role see what I mean yeah one solution to be identified with your car and its success in other words to know how to set the car up or to be a quasi designer stiva has taken this route in fact even to the slightly disconcerting habit of referring always to himself as we know whenever he describes a racing situation I guess he means me my car and the teeth but daddy is very real with him he really does not see here's how much a senior coming into the pits into the Penske contrast exterior AJ for example almost beats his broad like the steed like his horse right for reining in of its from going badly and fixing that phrasing if it does well and you see what for generations they are they're so easy it would be to get a car and out of control if you didn't have his skill how long for seen here now being pushed back out leave it all in the pits that's the second place car this is the first place [Music] you said very much of a thinking man - particularly only aspect of speed here Sam talked earlier about that well I think it just gives you a little more time to react in certain situations we do a lot of things by anticipation in trying to look ahead and evaluate the people you're around when a situation arises and putting that all through the mental computer and a short amount of time to decide how you're going to react in a certain situation so it just gives you a little more time to react and if something does happen there's no resulting impact if there's gonna be one it's gonna be a little slower so you're gonna have an advantage that way now you know idealistic a lot of people say well what's gonna be the difference between 210 and 185 well there might not be a great amount of difference but if I get my choice you know I'm gonna opt for from 185 you know it helps to be a little crazy to be a race driver but you don't have to be completely stupid that I mean I wish I could run 131 miles an hour instead of 231 I don't think they're gonna let us do that so you got to pick out a number that's gonna be somewhat realistic to the people again we don't have to run that fast to put on a good show the show consists of good clothes racing is what makes it entertaining here at Indianapolis people like to see speed when it comes to qualifying the rest of our series isn't based on that for our series IndyCar racing to be successful we've got to be entertaining and what's entertaining is close competitive racing and that's the direction we have to go this place Indianapolis is gonna make it you know no matter how fast we run or what the rules and regulations are its established it's gonna be the granddaddy of them all so we've got to be more concerned about what's gonna make any car racing as a whole the sport grow and that's close racing the fastest driver of the history of Indianapolis and the leader in the race and the defending champion putting in his pitch for he thinks it's getting too dangerous here it goes putting a lap on a litter senior you know Jim I'm not sure I agree with him because history and statistics show that racing is safer today than it ever has been despite the increase in speed well we talked about sweet it's so hard to show in here really as we put the cameras where you get the speed shot you get something of the feeling but maybe we can illustrate it for you comparing it to something well that's very familiar he's trying to do that 100 yards is a very understandable distance to the average American we all know that a track star can run that distance in less than 10 seconds and here we're seeing Tony Dorsett of the Dallas Cowboys on what turns out to be a hundred yard run in about 13 seconds that's about as fast as man can run through traffic with a full load of football match Tony Dorsett in action now I've mentioned many times that an IndyCar on the straightaway goes a football field in one second but maybe you don't believe me so we've measured off 100 yards on the straightaway in Indianapolis very precisely then through the electronic magic of television we superimpose a football field now watch the cars flash fire and then watch for the clock on the next car let's see how long it takes he flashes by him well what hard to catch wasn't it so let's slow it down for it into slow motion now the clock at the bottom here comes the car remember he's going 120 yards that's the field plus the end zone in 1.1 seconds or just under one second for a hundred yards so that seems to make that point I think there is car number one Tomsky but we passed the halfway mark we have an official race right now yes at work checking in with his periodic reports at the halfway mark let's hear from him again then Jackie [Music] so the halfway mark what have we had well obviously the enormous accident of Padma dad dr. Bob told us that his condition was favorable in the sense that there's significance of the action that was so enormous that says a great deal for the way the motor cars are built here the survival cells that these drivers have strapped into certainly save lives the ways the cars are constructed it is deformable structures defuse the energy as the accident goes on but it's almost a miracle to me that Pat Bedard has lived through that accident so let's wish him well and let's see how his condition develops what else has been happening out there well I think the remarkable story is of course al unser jr. who's come from 15 position went on as far as taking the lead at one point Danny on Gaia's also made his presence felt after his horrific accident back in 1981 it's nice to see Danny and gas because he got in to the lead also a peculiar story is the AJ fight Jim Gilmer team because they've got three cars into the ness race this year with a total over the drivers and Jim Gilmer and AJ fight of 66 entries in his Indianapolis 500 and after all it's only been going on for 68 racing so that's impressive however none of his drivers Rutherford Freud or George Snyder are in the top ten as I speak to you now the road racers are doing very well Rick Mears of course was an off-road racer but it looks like the new generation of Indy driver is being competitive no let's have a look at the standings at the halfway mark Tom Snyder is in the lead Al Unser jr. up into second position Rick Mears Mario Andretti Michael Andretti the Sun forwards and the father's footsteps with in sixth place probably held the rarest in seventh al Hobart another rookie in heat balance a senior is in ninth and to.5 he can't that means the two father-and-son combinations are in the top ten cars out of the race so far after 100 laps Brabham Fittipaldi and here alright after them of course but dad with that horrific accident Danny Sullivan with the aftermath of that accident broke a wheel and damaged the body lock can a/c went out with electrical problems Derek dearly who's had a very difficult month of me with handling problems in this car he's dropped out of the race and Tony Burton Harrison blew a piston so he's retired now they leaders average speed has dropped to 160 point 7 7 2 miles an hour because of the Bedard accident took up a lot of time and we've had two yellow flags so we'll be back for most racing at Indianapolis after this the starting field for the Indianapolis 500 is limited to the 33 fastest cars selected in four lap trials this number is determined by an old standard of the American Automobile Association of one car for every 400 feet of track there's tail popping of Italy coming into the pits at Indianapolis the man who sat on the pole last year who has already announced that he's not coming back to Indianapolis race at any time in the future he's got to drive a couple of years of Formula one that's his intention and then hang it up he doesn't want to stay in the sport too long Bobby into the pits there is the leader Tom stiva in car number one by the way Bobby going in so slowly Jim is to suggest some kind of a problem there have a look at that through the dark through that of course is the safe racing line where you go there's this story I guess okay Bobby out of the car looks like that is probably it for the day we have seen carbs get back in the race after the driver got out of but not too often oh I'm sure he's out of it now as far as having any shot to win I was to say there's that dark that gray area a puppet is treacherous that's where the dust accumulates you know that's blown off the tires and the cars and so on it's almost like an ice skating rink up there so you won't see people there's Sharon Steve of course Tom Stephens wife pretty well under control about things well you have things pretty chewing the gum though yeah I would be too there's a man up for example right there would be a reason to be nervous passing Christopher who stays cleanly out of the way though so when you pass any car at 190 miles an hour well whoops Gordon Johncock come here to the pitch workout Wow how he must everybody I don't know look at the guy behind him that is almost ten yeah forty throwing it all right there yes Lee right of your screen anything I was talking about that groove he was wide of the Grove Tim he was right for line stiva Gordy in the few laps before that's hip renewing speeds at about 204 miles an hour he was look what could have happened look at the end of that pit wall if you had that you're finished incredible and what speed have been greater he could have flipped over that wall this was fraught from moment to moment now he could have hurt somebody other than himself it isn't the closest we've seen to the kind of a pit crash that we've dreaded for years at Indianapolis had the speed fit more tremendous given off remember he hurt himself very badly hurt his ankle last summer in Michigan and I just hope he hasn't reentered it in some way he did look like he was in pain no question Jackie Stewart would you like to have a look at this well Jim I'd see Gordon Johncock doing something here that only spells an enormous amount of enthusiasts it's one of our super slow motion camera shots here he steeled into the wall after he hit it with his real right he steered into the wall to try and stay on the wall all the way down the racetrack I've hit the wall just at that very same place as God he did and I know the feeling it's an enormous job and he did something that a younger driver simply wouldn't have done he's really steered into the wall to try and rub off as much speed and stay in the racetrack rather than come across and be hit by other cars coming on but what could have happened here with all these gas tanks there I fear to think if it happened in different ways if he had planed over that pit wall it would have been absolutely awful and I did see there in fact a parked car which I suspect might have been to.5 each car that could also been adding the trouble but my goodness he handle it well Ben it could have been much more serious than its Tom note and had he not scrubbed off that speed those things could have happened and there is 40 on the stretcher right now break an office with us today you saw him at the top of the program he's been wandering about and found something for us I'm gonna look at it right now ray Gandalf okay ray Gandalf the yellow flag still out to me it's time to bring you that break and off report well hearing from a little bit later on Jack arute is down on the pitch right now his report of tail Bobby it's not going well down here in the tail Bobby pit of course the car was pushed back here until walk back to the pits and walked right straight through the pit area to the garage area to dally Jerry grabbed and said let's get back in the car jo said it's no use for five laps out these words ensued and Te'o got back in the machine a little dissension gang down there and they say a Bobby pit now there is john cox carbine take it away go be a little delay let's take a break green flag out against evil number one now trailing Rick beers in the yellow car it appears as regained the least even an Al Unser jr. Roberto Guerrero the rookie from Colombia and Al Unser seniors one father-son combination still going strong the Andretti's have dropped back a bit [Music] there's Allanson jr. taking a very low line through there he's been very confident all day there's the leader yellow car number six Rick Mears he is on the Penske team in second place people from the teddy bear team third place Al Unser jr. time the black boss in a packed house something to see them flashing by four hundred thousand people every 45 seconds which is how long it takes to get around we can only guess they don't give out an official attendance but it certainly should be well over 400,000 could be the largest crowd they've ever had the flooding is at his station in the pits what's been happening to Mario Andretti's with his crew chief why would they lobby the crew chief for Mario Andretti in there other questions is why is mario drop so far back well we're at a little bit of an engine problem if things drop down about four hundred revolutions a minute so that citizen started going away he started slowing down up until we were going back and told me the engine was starting to run poorly so here's the problem with the engine we're just trying to hang in there well four hundred rpms at eleven thousand doesn't sound like very much well that's not to drop you back where we are it definitely heard on the straightaway speed do you think you can do anything in a moment's notice when he comes in hang in there could be the slogan of Indianapolis another report from the doctor dr. Bob Gordy Johncock yes gordon's being sent down a methodist for x-ray evaluation of his left ankle norther apparent injuries at this time he's awake and alert and not complaining of anything except pain in his ankle and this is not an aggravation of the injury of a year ago is it no I believe that was his right ankle how about Pat Badar do you have an update on his condition yes I do I just spoke the method as he appears to be in stable condition we're awaiting the results of his cat scan possibility of a broken jaws at after report they're still evaluating that but there's no word yet okay sounding guardedly optimistic for fat batard the cats going to scan of course being a brain scan very important when you have an impact like that bricklayers still leading at Indy Al Unser jr. has moved into second now ahead of Tom stiva then cadet oh and Al Unser senior still a ways to go we return to Indianapolis Jim McKay here with Sam Posey in the booth and there is Mears going we download try to put a lap on Guerrero the fourth place car and doing it what a move right down off the grass but first it was in the middle of the straightaway so there isn't great danger let's have another look at it if we can yeah all right here it is of course he initiates the move coming off that turn let's turn to find about the yellow car now behind the white at whitish pub right the orange car just ahead of him Scott Brayton he's being lapped now of course here's the drafting maneuver by Mears this is when he's allowing Guerrero to blow to blast the air out of the way for him so he in effect can sling shot by of course Guerrero is going out around Brayton at the same time so Mears has to come right out next to the grass course if he going on to the grass Jim that would have been in he would have spun like a whirling dervish down that straightaway but he did just a matter of no more than a foot yeah probably just inches he playing away from the grass meat oh sure of it here's with good reason we're at lap 227 by the way to the action now lap 127 and well as you think that the physical demands might be coming into play pretty soon we'll be talking about that there is Rick Mears the leader a young man who is in very good physical condition keeps himself in just about all of the drivers do today of course but conditioning or not think of the chief force is two-and-a-half to three lateral G forces in a toast Rick beers of Bakersfield California see in physical shape well you Sam talked to them a little bit earlier about the physical demands of the sport it's never much of a problem at this track because you don't have the bank and you get to Atlanta Michigan those kind of places high banks there's where you really feel it and that's where it can get to you but here you kind of get into you know you feel it at first your arms get heavy you know your legs your left leg is being managed over against your right leg and you know you feel those things at the start of the race and say for the first 20 or 30 laps and then pretty soon you get acclimated to it and you almost immune to it and you're just thinking about what you're doing and what the car is doing and all that just becomes irrelevant so to speak you don't you just no longer think about it Rick Mears the leader 200 miles an hour they showed the last lap imagine that you know Jim there's a correlation possibly between that speed and the what we were just talking about with Rick Mears and the fitness issue which is that it's cooler now it's shady here that's cloudy and cooler weather makes for higher speeds on the track because the engines produced four horsepower and it's easier on the drivers so maybe it isn't so bad today which means we may get better racing this race is moving Warners conclusion down there has been a forecast of rain sometime this afternoon as you said it's overcast and cooler right now good come into the moment it looks okay notice how close but that is the rick mears trademark he seems to be very comfortable slicing very close to things other drivers from history have been like that Jim Clark was that way the great Ronnie Peterson so it does it has precedents of the sport well then to the feds comes the bonds been in second place Al Unser jr. into the pits the Silver Bullet stay there easily they're not changing the tires talking to her seem to be walking rather than be somewhere turn one by now a call that was long I saw them walking instead of doing their usual politic number of whatever was was sudden and total this is not good well there comes his wheel out of the car he's going to get out of the car James been running so well all day in the second Indy 500 he certainly covered himself with glory again today he was so good here last year in my view even though he didn't have a hot finish cuz the car didn't run that well during the day now of course he had many many laps in the lead young al unser who will win this race you just know it someday very soon that's a forecast from you a I don't know I think so what do you think I haven't seen your man Al Horford so far have you predicted would be in force doing all right al Hobart is running like in the top 10 brick fears however is a leader very comfortable at this bone at this moment no flemmings down I think he's going to have a word bill is balancing jr. when you had to drop off what happened well the engine started season if someone in America some in the motor is just my water temp went real sky-high it just lost a couple cylinder another official observation there was a hole in your radiator I didn't know about well that certainly could have come to the high temple that of course was the religion Danny overheated diverting America I just know motor went dead on me I'll tell you one thing it does prove to you just how tough it is and to win out here in the fact that your dad won three times is really remarkable he's a great champion my average speed was quicker than what they could do so we were just that young man has an awful lot of racing knowledge in his head at age 22 there we have the leader Rick Mears and now we only have two cars from the same Rick beers and Tom Schneider they see Stephen carnival 1 defending champion he's not out of it yet this could be critical still the same situation Rick Mears in the lead Tom stiva in second place there you see the relationship on the race track between the two cars so it's a go long way back to stiva but he does seem to be infinitesimally eating into the lead appears in this woman Alex our senior in the pit this is the much fabled Penske pit crew in action and actually not making that great intention from the pits of your mind a little bit about bobsledding out of the vehicle or even yours for the blue well the standings beers have Steve on the same lap one lap down Roberto Guerrero what did they view it Indianapolis minute so far these Road races that are having into this sport I say this with some pride have you been a road racer myself have this kind of racing I might also say the pits lead her into the pits come up to this point to be coming into the normal speed now this you know would not be the same crew that just refueled our two senior you know the mystique that has entirely separate crews race is a different group going into action here and at this moment Tom steve-o becomes the leader in the race [Music] good battle starting to shape up between Steven and Rick Pearson you see here good hit stop for Rick here has the baking what they call a trophy dash to the finish huh remember when we had Mears double years ago vodka and he lost the race by 16 100 for the second was the closer well here comes Eva for his pit stop now first finish you mentioned was the closest ever in the history of Indianapolis here Steven routine this is the team that's headed by Teddy Mayer tomorrow Alexander's and then won this race when they ran for Clara then they went back to here and got it down in the formula wat squeezed out over there for one reason another came back here formed an entirely new team Tom Stephen headed up here they are look at talk extremely well stiva headed back out of the race course years ago and yet to take them so long we get back up to speed but it doesn't anymore they're up almost immediately you just saw a beautiful pit work there and what about the mechanics who worked on the cars ahead of time that's a very delicate job - Sam has a comparison [Applause] [Music] [Music] Silvia Maori has played the piano since he was six her hands trained by thousands of hours of practice almost have a life of their own she thinks and they act there are other professions in which a person's hands whether through their strength or delicacy or dexterity perform tasks far beyond the capabilities of the ordinary person one thinks of surgeons or carpenters or sculptors like Bill Grimes Dennis McCormick is an Indy mechanic like all top mechanics his hands are powerful they are also remarkably death capable of performing a wide variety of jobs including some in which he must work in places that cannot see jobs that involve threading his fingers into the narrow innards of the car just as the pianist must play under pressure at a concert the mechanic must be able to work fast with unfailing certitude often when parts of the car red-hot changing an engine for example in the minutes before a race or adjusting the suspension during the rush of a pit stop just as a sculptor may strive to create forms of enduring beauty an Indy mechanic works with parts and pieces which are beautiful because they are superbly functional parts made from high-grade steel magnesium carbon fiber welded and machined and shaped without regard to cost this is what dennis mccormick works with every day his hands developing a kind of x-ray sensibility to any flaw anywhere in the car bill Grimes knows when something is wrong too when a form has not attained the strength or grace he intended and he will work until he makes it right Silvia Meyer II knows when she has hit the wrong note or played with less feeling than the music deserves and she will practice and get it right but if dennis mccormick makes a mistake he may not find out about it until his driver is out on the track like any racing mechanic he does his best and hopes that it was enough and I might add that my race driving colleague Sam Posey is also an artist a painter of landscapes of other things there's a nice piece Rick Bay are still leading at Indianapolis Tom Stephens second place he leads by about 10 seconds in the race right now we'll be watching his weather stiva begins to shoot into that lead of ten seconds Jack arute right now is down with the team leader Roger Penske here in the pits with Roger Penske and Roger you're 11 seconds ahead at this time with repairs are things going according to plan everything we put a set of tires on that time so we don't have to put one out on the last drops we just feel it we don't have to make this thing being adjusted but still a long race to go just keeping our fingers crossed well you've been doing a lot of calculating though for the fuel consumption does it look good right now our fuel model you've been better than we expected so we made a longer run there so we could try to just make one more stop and hopefully it'll pay off seems to be the only major problem down here is a lost rear view mirror that came off the left side of Rick Mears his car well his hair has turned to silver but the wheels are still turning inside Roger Penske's head as cleverly and as quickly as ever here again his man little race Rick beers trying to win the Indianapolis 500 for the second time there the standings at this moment two rookies from the top five during the war years of 1917-1918 the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was used as an aviation repair depot and landing field for military plane and still rick mears leaves at about the 150 149 lap part of this scheduled 200 lap race 500 miles here on this two and a half mile race course so there's still a bit of a ways to go still to go bill Fleming right now is down with Tyler Alexander the crew chief for Tom Stephen let's get into that Roger Penske over and Rick Mears bit there 11 seconds ahead of you but you seem to be gaining a little bit [Music] if it stops you have to go we have one bit stop and at the moment my watch just said that we're eight and a half seconds behind Mears in the car is not handling very well so tom is talking to me on the radio about some things that we maybe should change on the next pit stops we've played a conversation going so I'm sorry that I haven't got time to chat to get some more very good thank you okay I'm very busy Tyler Alexander the most significant things that's eight and a half seconds now it was 11 seconds not too long ago so despite the handling problems Tom Steve ahir is moving in just a bit bit by bit but he's got plenty of time to catch up if he can continue doing yeah there's plenty of race left here and I must admit moving forward on the edge of my seat you have that feeling you had that you might be headed for a showdown again the relationship between the two cars on the race course what pop the spin that is Roberto is aware get a toe I'm looking who's been running so well then he's he's under control he didn't hit her and he didn't stall it Jim that beautiful job he didn't stall it this cars all restore what they spent before it's going [Music] that's incredible presence of mind and I must say you know in Formula One they're more apt here Christy but coming in now that there's a yellow there's a yellow out in Formula One there shall we say look for used to to dispense where they can afford them and Guerrero credible presence of mind I mean all right he lost control but when he did after that was absolutely brilliant no I mean I think so many other people would have wound up in the wall there without any idea why comparatively young in the sport Columbia but here is neva in the pits remember that was his routine both Fleming was talking to just a minute ago Tom back out again another efficient pit stop by the Teddy Mayer crew spoke of trying to change the it to make the tires here comes the leader Mears changing the rear tires here as you well know means changing the handling of the car because the tires these days not quite the same diameter no two were quite the same so you change the tires and you get a little bit different handling [Music] here's back out again it's time now to check in with Jackie Stewart here he is before this yellow came out right now where'd quite a spectacular set of circumstances we had three rookies in the top six AJ Foyt had entered the top ten the Penske Panthers were roaming again with Rick Mears very much in control it looked at this stage Mears very controlled he's been the quiet man of the month here in Indianapolis everyone's been paying more attention to Andretti to the young charge of so to speak and Mears has been sneaking up on them all and finds himself in a very good position thomson eva still can't be counted out remarkable that the Tyler Alexander Teddy Mayer team should have the two cars of the Aventa fastest and second fastest of the start and certainly table Steve is not out of this motor race yet they're still in contention no let's look at the order Rick Mears is leading the race Tom Stevens second spot Allen's a senior is in third position in our hole but who incidentally Sam Fawzi forecast to finish fourth in this race he's up to fourth position that's good Michael Andretti is in fifth position Danny and guys Guerrero Rijo and AJ Foyt is in ninth position tenth position holy homes and no cars out of the race Brabham Fittipaldi gil Hosen they've all gone out of course Patrick Mathias that horrific accident and Danny Sullivan the aftermath of that accident he broke a wheel and damaged the car Ganassi had electrical problems he's out Derek dealies has a difficult month of me with handling and that's been the problem today for him better knows and Gordon Johncock of course crashed in 103 he's retired from the race fabbi and the oldest man in the race dick Simon he's retired from the race Johnny Rutherford winning this race three times in the past he said a very difficult one to me even qualifying so he's retired al unser jr. retired Kevin Hogan in the only all-american car of Dan Gurney's with a stop block engine he's retired Panchal Carter he's out also scot-free with transmission went out in one lap of 150 the leaders average speed is a hundred and sixty two point nine six five miles per hour we've had four yellow flags and we're still under the arrow here and we'll be back after this commercial continue itas and here is mario andretti number three into the pits look at the front wing he's had an incident on the course getting out of the car it looks like the bad luck and his dog in for the past fifteen sixty nine has got him again Jim I saw Mariota sitting out by the swimming pool the other day and his swimming trunks on he had his Kluwer sitting by with his wife here comes that incident now a replay is he's coming into the pits those are the guards in front of them is it yes Garza in the white car yeah here's his damn beer yeah there are in the void of a dog that's a shame it's good to say he was sitting by the pool and he was all ready to go except there was no water in the pool it has that kind of muck at Indianapolis bill Fleming is down with a sad Mario here you are again and we have to we have to do an interview under unhappy circumstances but what happened Garza just was all of a sudden just decided to duck in and it fits and apparently I don't know if you knew where he was going or what but it looked like he was in the last bit he was going to stop Garza yeah it looked like he was going to get out of the way then all of a sudden he pulled in the fast lane I couldn't stop you know I just hit her Mario you were running about 400 revs slower than anybody else and and I think Darrell was concerned about that he talked to us about it earlier any idea what that problem had a broken exhaust pipe and that would cause that just a decrease in rpm hey listen let me just ask you one question about this story how did you feel looking over there at Michael while he was looking good he's still looking good so I hope he brings home the bacon [Music] okay Mario Andretti out of it again at Indy there is the co-owner of his team Paul Newman yes the Paul Newman might be interesting to meet him a bit not Paul Newman the actor Paul Newman the racing man it is well-known these days that Paul Newman loves racing those of us who've seen him Drive know he's good at it is the sort of talent and determination who have been an Indy driver if he'd begun his career when he was younger as it is he's one of the country's top sports car driver I asked him what his goals were for his racing well to to avoid being placed in these in the race car from a wheelchair we had the deaths and that we're racing I'm racing with a solitary Jimmie Fitzgerald his older than I am and so we thought it would be very a lot of fun to go to Geritol and see if we could get some sponsorship you know the oldest living racer and I called the fellow who was supposed to make these arrangements and he said you're not gonna believe this I said what is it he said they've decided that they're going for a younger market and you're too old so you know that when you're too old for Geritol you're really old this would not be a race which Paul would win but although he claims he races only to win it is obviously driving whatever the result seems to have contributed to his extraordinary youthful energy I asked if it might have helped his acting to I think if you can find a new passion I think it's likely to bleed over into the old ones and into the ones that are simply dying embers and I think racing has done that for me at least that's what Joanne things and she's probably a lot more accurate about what I do than I am but it certainly has been welcome it's been slow and painful but it's been welcome last year with a movie in the works with his racing with his salad dressing company booming all schedule is so hectic by the end of the season he was physically and mentally exhausted when the last race of the year ended with a crash I asked her land wouldn't if she thought he quit she said he should well times change today there's no one who supports me more or is more forbearing you understand she said at the end of last year our daughter was through a junior Zin riding and she was gonna get rid of her horses and I was going to get rid of the cars and and Joanne was so pleased because she said for the last 10 years every Sunday during the summer I've either been at a horse show or an automobile race and she said I've got other things that I enjoy doing so clay did not sell our horses I did not get rid of the cars Joanne had said I done my motherly and my wifely duties now for ten years and I'm not going to any more races though she was in Atlanta and she was there gonna be trouble so much for that she's marvelous and she makes it very comfortable for me to continue we'll hold open the green flag is out again now however Rick Baer still leading car number six yellow car passing the slower car at the moment Tom ploy still no problems but still stiva is edging up just you know quarter of a second a lap maybe something like that but getting closer not further away so again we could still be setting up for the kind of a finish we had her a couple of years ago with Mears and John stay with us the standings still the same rick mears the leader toms need a second Butz neither still gaining bit by bit by bit al Hobart has now moved up in the third place the man you said was definitely going to finish fourth he's gonna for you oh I hope so I think he's terrific driver one to LA last year you know if we're really headed for a showdown and it appears we may be here's what you should know about Steven and Mears steven is 35 years 32 both are in the very prime of their driving careers Jim right now this is Steve as 11th start here Mears is 7th each has one one and you know they drive the two best teams in Indy Racing play interesting how experience when you get near the end in Indianapolis almost inevitably rises to the top ray Gandalf has risen from the infield here at Indy let's see it the charge began literally before dawn at 5 o'clock this morning by the time the Sun had risen over the still empty stands the arteries leading to the speedway or clogged but somehow everybody got in filling the stands and spilling all over the infield there a study in motley this is definitely not Edith Wharton country you won't find truman capote hanging out on the first turn the height of elegance here is a guy wearing a shirt with buttons you can see almost anything here in the infield except the race that's not quite true of course you can see a tiny corner of the race if you climb a tree or are early enough to get the front roll along the fence or scrunch down and peek through the bottom of the stands but who needs to see the race this is a happening people come here to eat they come here to drink they come here to sleep off what they have eaten and drunk they come here to look at each other and to be looked at they wear outlandish clothes sometimes very few clothes at all some of them are too young to be able to remember this day when they grow up but they'll keep coming back until they can that's what you find out there rake and off reporting from the infield bricklayers of the year Tom's need a second al Hobart a lap down but in third place in the race right now here's just so smooth is it conceivable he is cooling at the least when a bit and that that's why stiva is gaining on him slowly or is he just doing the hole here Scott rate yeah that's that v6 Buick engine this is not the standard engine that almost everyone else has and Rick Mears have and I don't know if that's the cause of the failure but here's the yellow flag brings out the yellow again there is Scott Regan can tell what the occasion for that has been opportunity to check in with bill Fleming again he's down in the pits bill here's something I think that he's extremely interesting on the same number of pit stops Rick Mears has spent four minutes and 21 seconds off the course Tom Steve a 449 so there's a difference of 28 seconds there and yet they're only about 8 seconds apart on the course this of course indicates that Tom stiva is the faster car right now that was Tyler Alexander we were able to listen in on the radio he was talking to Tyler's to the Thomson Eva and said Tom if beers ducks into the pit you come right in with him interesting yeah they mean to cover beers as moves the way you would cover another boat in attacking duel and the Americans come something like that Tyler Alexander extremely experienced crew chief and so stiva of course himself trying to work out what should be done see we can pick something up again it's Alexander well it's going to be close if they could make 30 left of the bone on the green they're now eleven hundred and sixty-seven they wouldn't quite do it if the green came out now no they might be able to stretch their mileage if Steven was able to lay out of the throttle a little bit in traffic but I don't think they could also lead that way well this is very very interesting cerebral stuff right here in Indianapolis we're still under the yellow there's Tyler Alexander the corner and his car with Thomson Eva on the racetrack similar the yellow and he slept under the yellow gives them a better chance before you know up spots follow the guard some sports came out the back in the car Tyler of course there's no idea about that at this point where they just ran over something or what very well let's see if we can listen in on them again there's Tyler fuller this is the moment he knows yeah here they said they going in he's gonna go wrong with it something is broke on the back of the car go free there is the green out and you heard it something sparks just as we thought it was shaping up for it incredible battling to the finish with Rick Mears if he would have made it on fuel and he was very close to being able to make it but it's all over now they're just going through the motions I mean the engine obviously is alright wasn't it but look the crewman is pointing to the back pay or suspension member or syndicating I get about yeah forget about it they didn't need to top it up with fuel quickly this happened but Jim just this epic duel appeared to be shaping up it's over yep it's name of the man who won the race last year trying to become the first repeat winner since Al Unser in 1970 and 71 that's failed in that quest after some beautiful virtuoso race driving in this afternoon just beautifully today highest possible marks this of course has given Rick Mears a bigger lead than ever hear the crowd there Jim they know it it's a knowledgeable crowd here and they love a good Drive like that here's Rick now of course collection astray hasn't it it certainly has questions now just maintaining the car for rick mears fleming has moved over to stiva spit here he is well Tom it's a dramatic moment in this race but certainly very undramatic for you actually you're running faster on the course that he was I think you're only concerned with Tyler Alexander according to the conversation we heard was fuel did you think you could make it with one more stop yeah we would have had to stop one more time we weren't concerned about that too much because we knew mirrors wasn't getting the mileage we were I think the car was a little quicker there towards the end but you got to run 500 miles well you gave us a heck of a show hotel chains considerably here in the Penske pits and now the race strategy is simple wait for 28 laps to go and then come in and take on fuel when Tom Seaver came by here coasting into his pits you could see the change on everybody's face they broke out into smiles then they gathered it back up and said wait a minute the race isn't over yet as Roger Penske in communication with this driver with Rick Mears now with a great big lead in the race let's get a reaction on this from Jackie Stewart the three-time world champion witness's always thomson eva has just demonstrated why he's a real champion he was driving that car even very slowly and felt a suspension or transmission problem had he continued at that time under green conditions the chances are he would have lost control of that car this is what a racing driver has to do he has to think it's much more than just driving with sheer talent and natural ability you've got to be a thinking driver and that's why people like toms never win the Indy 500 and that's why they become old racing drivers there aren't any brave old racing drivers around well done Tom Seaver the 68 Indianapolis 500 from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway continues Rick Mears apparently breezing to victory that was 500 and now we get a report that there is some rain falling on the racetrack not all the way around there is rain now over the racetrack still under the green sand but they don't allow much rain to fall before they stop things here well Rick Lee are still running 200 miles an hour plus though Jim and you know these tires which give the car such incredible grip under ideal circumstances or very treacherous indeed in the wet they have no grooves into whatever they are slicked on the road the cars become unhandled I almost thought for a second I knew I saw something on one of the lenses of our cameras yep so now this is a tremendously difficult position for mirrors it also looked like ears wiggled a little bit coming out of that last turn yeah he did I mean obviously he didn't want to slow down dramatically but he could lose control completely I mean this is a very dangerous situation for him course he is two laps ahead Jim of his own teammate a while ago it looked like he would have to battle Tom Steve on the race course have the battle of fuel in the pits he's eliminated those two the only one left is the weather issue with his two lap lead but still owe a tremendous speed and biblically we got a little bit coming oh that one can't take too much this moisture on the track no now this is very tough for a driver Jim because you can see on your visor of course how much rain is falling where you are put down these speeds and remember you're traveling over a hundred yards a second at these speed it is sometimes hard to pick out especially this late in the race but the track conditions might be in the turn ahead of you know where it sits a little bit oily out there right now well there's Cathy Penske legislation doesn't think like it's looked like it's time to relax at all and neither does Roger by the way oh the emotions obviously running very very high there much so and no doubt in the race bar though beers has to keep his totally under control concentrate of the work at hand what's it like inside that cockpit let's listen to Jackie Stewart here at the speedway when the drivers go down the front straight and on the backstretch a lot of time is spent addressing the instruments in the cockpit now I'm sitting in a Chevrolet Corvette now which is very similar to most modern cars today but extremely sophisticated in the inside with many instruments and dials and knobs and switches to address let's have a look at some of them looking at it it looks quite bland until I switch it on suddenly the world lights up and when I start the engine up suddenly we get movement as well as color we have analog which means this movement here of the rev counter and the digital readout of the speed of the engine but the whole dashboard itself in fact is a is a bizarre range of colors and shapes and switches and dials can you imagine addressing tone one at 215 miles an hour and having to read all of this by comparison the instrument panel in our Unser's racecar is stark the steering wheel much much smaller but the driver can see all of the instruments through the spokes of a steering wheel and another difference there are switches on the steering wheel here the kill switch if an emergency occurs he can switch electricity off and by pressing this button be in two-way conversation with his pit crew another big difference is this Steve will comes off in the case of an emergency the driver is a load out of the car much faster the instrument in the center of the panel is the rev counter that's to see the engine speed the dial on the left is for the water and oil temperature the orange needle is oil temperature the white needle indicates water temperature this is the turbo-boost dial that needle will go up to the indicated yellow mark during the race instead of having loyal pressure gauge we have a red warning light that will only come on when there is loyal pressure or trouble the same applies to fuel pressure that will only come on if there's little or no fuel left and it's not being picked up this here this little button is just to check if all of those lights are working correctly and if the driver wants no lights he can switch this off and it cancels of those two finally the panic button if the car goes on fire the driver presses this and fire extinguishing fluid comes all around the cockpit allowing them time to get out so as you can see there's a considerable difference between the cockpit of a street car and the cockpit of a racing car the race driver has much less to look at and much less to do we and our street cars have got to have much more instrumentation many more controls for the race driver those simply wouldn't be possible in the interests of safety and concentration but at the same time everything is within reach and easy sight okay the cockpit of a racing car Rick beer still the leader by a couple of laps over his teammate Al Unser senior al Hobart the rookie still in third place on place higher than Sampo Zeke predicted calmly and coolly before the race that he would finish in fact it was al senior just in the foreground there's rick mears who seems to be going faster at this point than al senior yeah he's closing it all now senior another car in between there but that's how senior up in front yo once again a lap soon was teammate right and that's tomboy driven such a good race staying out of everyone's way and his rookie appearance and here comes Rick Mears of course into the pits now this will be his last topping off pit stop this should be absolutely routine but this kind of thing isn't it Fiasco can occur you looking at that cockpit piece they're not changing the tires at all just refueling that cockpit right now for Rick Mears is like a moister Jim it's warm it's damp in there with his own sweat I imagine he feels a oneness with the car at this point and with the tasks that he has ahead of him focus concentration anybody would anything bricklayers now the crowd you hear from the background he sees some of them waving they're beginning to urge him on he looks like their man he's the one that they're going to identify with on this particular day a collective sense of achievement really not just Rick Mears and achievement everyone that's the idea identifying with the driver win or lose there's the way they stand well Rick rayvon Mears born in Wichita Kansas raised in Bakersfield California certainly seems on his way to winning the 1984 Indianapolis 500 13 left to go however but it would have to be something happening to his car to stop him now because completed so long over everybody and you know the second-place car is his teammate Allen's or junior so one way or another the Penske people appear to be in pretty good shape in this year's race Rick beers like the water skiing spare time why remote-controlled please drive remote-control cars pretty mechanical with everything he does yeah Jim did you notice how many things he just mentioned he's had dozens of Bobby none of them hold his interest work for very long overly racing hoses issues I think you can see why but by the way his latest toy you could call about his radio-controlled helicopters that have bought just a couple of days before Rick incidentally makes a point of keeping to himself on the morning of the race he stays the Speedway motel I do as well and he stayed there very late this morning have a better have a secretary with his girlfriend there's Roger Penske squirming nervous yeah course he can't work off the tension nightmares is busy his heart rate in that car even though he's relatively relaxed is probably triple what it would ordinarily need in the physical evidence measured approximately is about what it would be if you were chopping wood it's not funny because it seems to be sitting sitting still yeah there's really a lot more to it than that even though the movement of the circumference of the wheel is very very small names 32 Mears has driven 84 IndyCar races none that end even IndyCar type races the experience is there he's having the kind of victory Jim you're interested in horses remember Secretariat yeah the Belmont Stakes Secretariat by 31 in the Belmont [Music] anywhere rick mears and the crowd looking on nobody's left for sure 400,000 and more his brother you know of course is a race driver Roger Mears didn't qualify this year let's meet that family a little bit seems like most people in California have vanity license plates but one in the 79 was earned the hard way it stands for the victory of Rick Mears at Indianapolis in 1979 Rick is one half of a brotherly driving team part of a racing family really and a close one Rick qualified in the first row of this year's 500 their parents home is the nerve center and gathering place for the Mears plan race driving really started with their father Bill today he operates an excavating company from his backyard but his hardest with his sons and their racing machines this was Bill Mears and his race cars a teenager back in Kansas a far cry from Rick and Rogers sophisticated equipment of today as their faces and haircuts matured with the times Rick and Roger Mears grew up racing was never far from their minds their sister admires what her brothers have done but she doesn't want to be a passenger on their bandwagon I went for one ride with Roger on a motorcycle and I will never get on a motorcycle with he really scared me well I had a few times and shut the curtains when things like that were going on you know I think I don't want to look at that anymore I was kind of always messing around getting in trouble you know for one thing it seemed like I always got caught at everything he never did I was a little sneaky yeah Roger is the older brother by four and a half years he came to Indy later than his little brother making his first appearance in 1982 unfortunately he did not make the race this year he started racing in go carbs then motorcycles and stock cars but off-road racing brought him his greatest success first in June buggy then bigger four-wheel drive vehicles Rick first tagged along then joined his brother in off-road racing at one stretch between the two of them they won 20 of 27 main events in sprint buggy competition in the rugged world of offroad Rick developed a philosophy that serves him well at Indy to finish first you must first finish he came to the Speedway in 1978 was named Cobra key of the Year next year came his great victory starting on the pole then winning the race it's quite a family all right whatever the occasion whatever the terrain the Mears gang will find something to ride on that goes from mom and dad as well as the brothers Roger and his wife Carol at two sons the youngest KC already racing on dirt bikes racing tends to become a family tradition brothers like the mirrors and the Unser's fathers and sons like the penthouses bucha Parsons hunters and I'm ready but none seems to have more plain fun out of the speed business than the Mears family of Bakersfield California Rick talked about it as far as any other brother teams go I don't think there's any other four other teams in it like we are no any others we've seen have been farther apart in the racing from each other and they're as far apart from each other as they are from the rest of the teams or any other other drivers or we've always been very very close and we've enjoyed racing with each other and we've been racing against each other with each other since day one and we've grown up with it and we're closer I think than any other brother teams going there's is a Bakersfield last race by the way is in the Los Angeles Coliseum wasn't racing around somebody's house there's Roger Penske and Karen unser balance our seniors wife we visited them recently out in Albuquerque they make their homes here's Rick beers still running very very fast but Jim is not because he's forcing the car reliability at all beeping it's where the month of this cool air that's swept across the track here it's making high speeds possible I don't think it's raining out there anymore by the way would you two be all right no Rick Mears holding that lead has five laps to go I've laps to go and he'll win his second 500 we're witnessing [Music] four laps to go in the Indianapolis 500 of 1984 and Rick fears is well reason along with the freeze no problems evident anywhere in the pits or on the race course the second-place car his teammate Alan sir behind nobody is going to be able to catch him or even come close to him he's just got to finish the course now interesting that Roger Penske the meticulous prepare of cars has another race type of race bar running form today well exactly because in the first two races of this season before Indianapolis his own Penske cars Jim broke down both of the broke down he's old for four so to speak this year so he made the decision to switch to these marches when she got very late in the game there's a Penske wife you can feel the emotion there she's with Rick Mears his parents on the left whereas they're just counting the laps we're going by that threat of rain that we felt a few minutes ago see the extent of the emotion maybe it's almost harder to control joy Jim than a feeling of tragedy sometimes you know talking about Penske changing parts takes a highly intelligent they haven't faced the reality that the cars he spent hundreds of thousands of dollars developing for this year simply aren't good enough and to have to scrap the they go out and fly somebody else's racecars but that's I think a function of intelligence well right and Roger didn't get where he is and I've known him for many years by letting his emotions overrule logic he's an extremely logical man the March cars that we're talking about have totally dominated this race what is it I think 29 or 30 of the 33 cars that started our marches made in England but the driver was Lyndon America here is the very best part of the day and if you're wondering while he's still running so fast Jim with the end virtually in sight you don't want to lose your rhythm it's really safer to keep running at full speed and slow down you mentioned earlier something about a golfer you know when he tries to play defensively doesn't work you may lose the whole thing so Rick Mears very wise I say they keep his foot in it here running well up in the 199 right let's be getting tenser with each laughs I think yeah one to finish is almost too much to hope for there's the white flag Ric beers has one lap to go one lap to go to in a second the Indianapolis 500 at the age of 32 he won in 1979 five years later he is on his way to victory again boy would he like to win this his mother here's his mother Rick's mother they've many of them said that the first one he won here was a little bit of a fluke he was still so new to the game this one's no fluke at all no question about that and then of course he almost won another in that breathtaking finish with Gordon Johncock we lost by 16 one hundredths of a second very little of this race to go Jim and I think it's going to come in just before it rains around waving to on the opponent buoy the checkered flag for Rick Mears he's won the Indianapolis 500 with a hand in the air yeah and in the air is Rick Mears Cathy Penske more emotional than Rick's parents it's so hard that joy you're almost not ready for that emotion that is that strong and a big thumbs-up Rick beer well Rick Mears it seemed to be an effortless run for you today well none of your lists you do have to work at it but the guys just did a tremendous job on the Pennzoil car and it never missed a beat all day long and and they got me in and out of some good clean pit stops so really made my job pretty easy we just had to stay to keep our head on straight and stay out of trouble all day and that's what we did and it just worked out perfect when Steve had dropped out of the race were you aware of it and what were your thoughts yes I was aware of it and you know I was sorry for him but it was a relief for me because he was my toughest competitor a good close tough show but be able me to kind of cruise or else away which I'm not gonna complain about this is your second Indy 500 victory does it feel as great as your first one I tell you what I think it feels better because the first one I was still pretty new at it and I didn't realize exactly what a little bit but and it took a week to soak in this was soaking in already and I'm very happy and your mom and dad are here where are they they were right over here at the side they've got to be thrilled yeah absolutely always just I was just very thrilled for the team especially because we've been down I could say we had a little bit of a whole year last year and a low year to begin with now and we knew if we got competitive we could get the job done and the guys did it for me well when you go back to the Penske design now we'll just stay with the March for a while oh we got to go home and discuss I doubt if Rick is thinking of much now except for the exhilaration of his great Drive but there are other delights that go with an Indy win the first this year is expected to be a new record although the official amounts will not beat until tomorrow it should work out like this rip near is about four hundred thousand dollars second place about a hundred and eighty thousand dollars now again to Jack arute Jack skip Mears you've got to be excited and thrilled with this 500 victory for you so what do you what do you do with a son like that let me tell you that he does everything we watched you here in victory lane with about 15 laps to go and you walked back and forth you look like a caged little animal what was going through your mind well you know I don't ever see anything or do anything comes down to that race is over I've learned the checkered flag and I learned it long time ago pardon me for being exploited but I learned a long time ago so I just hope and I did a lot of friend and let me tell you I think that's what does it well bill Mears your husband corrected you when you said black flag and said no it's the checkered flag bill you seem to be pretty dialed into what was going on today got to be pleased with intro for people and we just couldn't believe it even just running 202 204 and we just knew that we had all had a good feeling that he's gonna win what does it mean to a father to have a son be an Indy 500 champion just emotions take too tough to describe a former driver yourself bill [Music] right now it's just after the checkered flag has dropped penske power has won again at Indianapolis very impressive the preparation of the Penske team as good as ever after two failures in the early part of this season he made a very courageous choice he put away his cars of his own name on them and brought out the March cars they've won this race the world's most important race and they've won it with a great driver Rick Mears drove with a cam the calculation of a man of enormous experience he was quiet for the month of me everyone else was getting a boost but he was confident he's come through today with a car that really handled well it could drive almost anywhere in the racetrack but it was his experience and knowledge that brought it in to win there were three rookies however in the top five that's always very nice for me to see new blood coming along but it's also correct to see experience actually winning Roberto Guerrero for me was incredibly efficient he came in after he spin he went out he didn't like the way the car was handling he came in to get it checked just to be sure and went out again to finish up top there he also stole his engine incidentally through inexperience perhaps in one of his pit stops AJ Foyt finished sixth terrific Alan's a junior tremendous Michael Andretti tremendous great to look for for the future Pat bedad by the way as I speak to you right now his in Methodist Hospital he's got a fractured jaw he is a left and a week and compos mentis but he has severe concussion Gordon Johncock as I speak to your right now is in surgery at Methodist Hospital with his ankle being attended to well a very eventful Indianapolis a great victory for him for that man of the Penske power Rick Mears no let's have a look at the provisional unofficial standings at this time now will not be until 8 o'clock tomorrow morning before official results are posted so what we are giving you as I say again our unofficial we have Rick Mears winning the Indy 500 of 90 before we have our answer senior finishing second and Roberto Guerrero of Colombia a rookie finishing firm our hold work the Sam Posey forecast finished fourth and Michael Andretti finished fifth in sixth position the great AJ Foyt Bobby Ray how was seventh pound Johnson with E Danny on Gaius was naive and Jose League aza from Mexico was 10 John Schneider Firestone Holmes boy a rookie and can I forwards back there in 15th sleeve er Andretti Braden some Carter and Cogan finished 20th and the rest of the field as they were mostly retiring having trouble during this day of the 200 laps of this two and a half mile oval and making up the final three was Gail house and Fittipaldi and Brabham poor man only did one lap no we had a new record average speed by the winner a hundred and sixty three miles per hour that beat the old record set in 1972 by the late mark Donohue ironically he was also driving a Penske entered car records are made to be broken so these official results will not be posted until 8 o'clock tomorrow morning but we've had a great day at Indianapolis well all of that was earlier today we're live again now it's almost 11 o'clock at night Indianapolis time out here on the racecourse in the silence and the chill air and it's beginning to sprinkle again by the way on that business of who finished second and who finished third at this hour we are told that the Speedway has Guerrero second Al Unser third and Mears of course the winner but the results are not official until 8 o'clock tomorrow morning services still a possibility that second and third could change but unquestionably Rick Mears has won the race we're good to go now live to Methodist Hospital for our late report here's Larry nuber thanks Jim would Jackie outline the injuries to Pat Bedard Pat is resting comfortably his condition has been upgraded to stable from the serious that it was originally today porty Johncock preps just a bit worse than we first expected he does have a fracture of the left ankle he was operated on tonight he too is in stable condition but also resting comfortably Jim okay the news basically good as good as it could be at this hour from Methodist Hospital Rick congratulations here is the champion of the 1984 Indianapolis 500 we heard your immediate reaction you were watching with me as your mother and father gave their reaction you've had a little time to reflect it's almost nine hours now since you want as we stand here in the rain any new thoughts well let's I'm just I'm grateful to have parents that I have and have supported me the way they have and it's just it's it's still soaking in right now I'm just I'm overjoyed well we saw in the end the up person personal what a close family you have you and brother Roger you got to get one of these for Roger one day absolutely and I tell you what I've raced against him all my life and he's probably beat me more times I beat him so that can tell you if he ever gets in some good equipment it's out here on this racetrack and I can show what he can do he's gonna be tough very tough after nine hours you begin thinking about any near things that happen out there what might have been yeah you do you know there all the time you always do that and I had a couple close calls today but I was very fortunate they went my way and what what they were well one of the main one I guess was with Michael Andretti coming out of the pits he was pitted at the far end and when I came out we we had a very close call I just kind of I had my I had a had a speed built up and there's nothing I could do I just had to go on with it and I was committed so we were fortunate I worked out the way it was and I had a couple of close calls like an 79 year we won and then so it all worked again congratulation thank you Rick Mears has won his second Indianapolis 500 almost 11 o'clock here we'll say goodnight on Jim McKay

Channel: NTT INDYCAR SERIES

Views: 39,456

Rating: 4.9174485 out of 5

Keywords: IndyCar, Racing, Motorsports, NTT, NTT IndyCar Series, Open-Wheel, Indy 500, Indianapolis 500, NTT DATA, Autosports, Indy car, Indy

Id: GwkIlp7zmgg

Length: 138min 22sec (8302 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 30 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/f1ferrari02]

My first 500! This year will be #35....i missed one when i was a bad kid and got sent to military school one year.

[u/teddythe3rd]

That abc Olympics logo is awesome.