Indianapolis 500 - The 1970s

[Music] the journey into uncharted territory had just begun at every turn lurked a new design the next great idea and the freedom to do so it was a time to rewrite records and welcome new faces a place where hope and fear shared the same landscape technology had sparked a new age of spectacle and speed only one era balded heroes and erasing immortality the 70s a decade of legends [Music] after surviving a decade of change rear engine racers stormed into the 1970s looking for the next big advantage while aj point was aiming for the record books 32 others were seeking their face on the borg warner trophy [Music] 1970 marked the 25th anniversary of tony hallman's purchase of the speedway to celebrate the first 1 million purse was up for grant after missing the 1969 race with a broken leg a healthy al insert came to indy with the coolest car in the field the johnny lightning special i can remember when vel and parnelli told me that we had a toy company sponsoring us in 70. i laughed you know and then when we got the car painted i looked at it and said oh that thing's pretty the team was a perfect fit 1964 winner parnelli jones co-owned the operation and chief mechanic george mcnatty designed the innovative coal chassis what i did was i took the suspension parts off of this lola the uprights and everything of the four corners and made a race made a body out of it and to the cowling ford's turbocharged engine was bigger and better than the rival openhauser all signs point to al as the man to beat for the pole position [Music] the track is now open for qualification as qualifications neared completion johnny rutherford's office sat atop the pylon allenser was just waiting for his time to strike listening to the drivers and and taking in uh their information i i kept changing the car a little i kept taking the push out of the car and i told al i said are you going to turn the first turn the car could be just a teeny bit loose but after that it'll keep coming in and by the fourth turn fourth lap you'll you'll be pushing a little bit and he did and he did a perfect job al's cold chassis ran like a thoroughbred and squeaked out a pole by one one thousandths of a second the closest run for the pole in 500 history i was once told by one of the statisticians that had al unser and i started side by side together on our runs that after the four laps when we came across the line alenster would have been two and a half feet ahead of me fans wondered if and when the 1970 race would get going a short burst of rain delayed the start then as the field rounded turned four to take the green a broken rock sent jim malloy into the wall the race is stopped before it can even begin [Music] the pace car is pulling into the pit area moving as fast as it can down the main set for the world's fastest flying start the greatest thrill in sport to us the green flag is out and the 1970 500 ball race is on come in mike look i said it's a real fight for first position and a shotty run before diving it along the yellow line followed by al unser aj point and mark donahue russell i took the the lead into the first turn and down the back stretch he drove by and left and so that was uh that was it and in the are pulling up alongside taking the lead on the back stretch are in number one position as they go into turn number three when it's time to pit that other enzo leads the first 48 laps fresh tires and fuel and the johnny lightning special is gone in a flash rutherford's hopes for a win at indy are dashed when he stalls in the fifth floyd ruby takes over the lead after making a texas size leap from 25th to first floyd ruby's car the rear end of that car burst into flames he trailed about a five foot trail of flames through the short shoot in a turn soon a black flag followed by a broken drive gear ruins another may for indies hard luck hero [Applause] [Music] meantime alenser was running away with the race nearly a minute ahead of the competition i don't know whether you ever think that you can win it until you win it you know that's always you can always look back now and i can say well yeah we knew you know but you you never know there's so many things that can happen at that place for some reason you just never are really positive i'll answer the check and flag the winner of the 1970 indianapolis 500 mile race and a crew goes wild leading all but 10 laps unser's command performance was one of the speedway's finest i really don't know if it's really true yet or not i'm so excited right now that uh i think it'll probably take me two or three days to really uh get a hold of myself and bernelli and my wife keep telling me that i want it so maybe i can get over it the victory made the unders the only brothers to win at indy when i pulled in the victory lane after you win that race i'd drink anything somebody handed me but it was really an honor to be able to drink the milk and to get all the excitement and and all that al uh thought i grew up and in 70 he he was fantastic 1969's top rookie mark donahue earned runner-up honors for penske racing and after back-to-back second place finishes dan gurney ends his dynamic racing career with a third place finish gasoline alley echoed the sign of the times freedom choice and innovation team mclaren led an aerodynamic revolution with a design that would bend the rules and rate barriers [Music] in 1971 rules stated that all wings were to be an integral part to the body design of the car forward thinking found the loophole that allowed the wing to be independent of the chassis we went out and we worked with mclaren we built a real wing car and i never forget when donahue went 180 miles an hour it wasn't on the sheet we used to have a stop watch and a conversion chart and they didn't have 180 on the sheet so that was the days when things were starting to really move because of the downforce on the cars and i can remember alan said coming down to the garage one day and gasoline there and saying you know you guys are going to kill this race the speeds are just awesome there's no way we can compete in 71 penske and mclaren came out with that new race car and as soon as they run that thing down at you and reps and we knew we were in trouble all the voodoo and gasoline alley couldn't stop donahue from making a run of the record books on pole day yes you guessed it [Music] 50 and 3900 seconds and the speed 178.607 miles an hour back down to you donahue's 177 average shattered the old mark now peter rebson in a rival mclaren stands between the team penske and their first full position you won't believe it 50 and 1800 second speed 107 [Music] [Applause] eclipsing donahue's record with a four lap average just over 178 miles an hour [Music] the magic moment the final few hundred yards the pace car accelerates cuts into the narrow pit entrance down the main stretch they come the green flag is on the 1971 500 race is on you started that race and uh donahue came off the first corner or the fourth corner for juarez out there had been a wreck donahue is on a mission the navy blue sunoco special starts to build an enormous lead we've had a spin back here said and about three cars spun around one car is on the wall it is car number 23 that's driven by mel kinyon the sprite guy i have my glasses on him and i believe mel is just about to get out of the car we have about three cars into the wall has priced two more i have played rookie steve crystal off sport blows up on lap 12. mel kenyon's sprite car spins in the oily mess that was part way out of the car and i saw him coming so i dropped back down into the cockpit in a crouched position and uh he went up over my nose and left the car tracked on top of my helmet and folded the dash around my shins i'm real lucky to have two feet left after leading the first 50 laps donahue sets the fastest lap and then on lap 66 car 66 slows down a tremendous month results in a disappointing 25th for team penske we went out with a gearbox problem we knew we had these gears in the back of the transmission that had been showing you know somewhere in fact we kept the gearbox open we had special gears made we thought to fix the problem but obviously it wasn't our day quiet all month long national driving champion al unser snaps up the lead in 71 i probably run it three times harder than i did in 70 you know to try to stay in the lead and try to stay up in the contending of winning that race for the next 30 miles teammate joe leonard puts heavy pressure on unser and indy repeat would not come easy both are in the pit almost one behind the other we've got the glasses on al they're checking the car not yet about to push him away we've got them checking wheels on the car itself alonso was very good he just come in tell me what it's doing that's all never he never ever said change your spring or do this or do that i'll never mention once to do that and that was something else unser used a one-way radio to communicate with his team the new technology kept him in contention i was able to tell him my temperature was going up in the in the engine from the rave and i had caught a piece of paper and the radiator say and they wouldn't pull that out and then i caught another one later but uh if i wouldn't have we probably wouldn't have been able to finish the race and now we have an accident here on the main street away right in front of us is number 68 and 38 david hobbs and rick luther right in front of the main stretch the yellow is out and both drivers are getting out of their cars 68 david hogg running across the track and almost getting tapped by i'm looking in the mirror and i can't see anybody level on rick it turns out the rick is down here and um and rick nailed me at about seven o'clock and took us both into the wall al maneuvers around the mess and retakes the lead from brother bobby on lap 111 the yellow is out the yellow is out [Applause] tremendous price into the outside retaining wall and they went in to mark donahue's car down there after colliding with bobby unser mike mosely is injured as he makes contact with a parked race car inside turn four winner of the 1971 indianapolis 500 500-mile race hunzer led 103 laps in route to the first back-to-back win at indy in two decades i didn't get a self-satisfaction of saying well you know it was a harder race than last year and that's why i've won it i never did do that because it was something that every race you ever run regardless of indianapolis all of them like saying uh you know that'll make any difference you never really feel that you have an advantage until you get that checkered flag and when you get the checkered flag then you know you can sit back and say well we did it again hunzi was the first driver to visit a brand new victory lane located under the master control tower more winds of chain rattled through the brickyard in 1971 race day was moved to saturday instead of memorial day women were permitted in gasoline alley and air guns replaced mallets in fit lane coming to indianapolis certainly was a great challenge for our team in 1969 we realized it was going to take a complete team effort and the job probably wouldn't be done for at least three years of course this takes patience with our sponsors it certainly takes patience with our team members and we knew that the fellows that had to work on the car in 69 better be around in 1970 71 and 72 if we were ever going to be successful i think this is the reason that our team has had the success over the years because we know we're only as strong as the weakest link it's almost anticlimactic to come to the race and run the race after the tremendous preparation that's been done prior to going this is a real team effort and i just hope that this year at indy we can win the big one all eyes were on roger penske's team in 1972 mark donahue came so close one year ago and now with teammate gary bettenhausen on board penske would settle for nothing less than the borg warner trophy roger penske really was extraordinarily lucky to have teamed up with mark i mean they made a fantastic pair i mean roger had all the business acumen he had all the the foresight he had some great plans great ideas and mark was certainly the man to execute those ideas and plans the big question in gasoline alley was can anyone beat penske and mclaren the answer would come on a wing and a threat we had to come up with a counter-attack on that the old necessity is the mother of invention kind of thing an innovative rule change allowed designers to hold on wings instead of building them into the chassis structure and this sparked a new era in car design that would change the sport forever dan gurney comes to the wing that sort of yay wide a huge chord on it and a lot of up sweep and with the open house it cranked out you know a thousand horsepower i mean the speed suddenly jumped into the high 190s and that was what did it with his wings the 72 eagle it looked it was almost a throwaway it came so close to being thrown away you wouldn't believe it it got down to one last meeting even that car turned out to historically be one of the finest cars that ever went to indianapolis or ever ran the indycar circuit it was just extremely good that car we were we were on the verge of 200 miles an hour a year before it ever happened we could have done it with that car gurney's eagle drastically altered the racing landscape and not by a small margin driver bobby unser was running over 190 miles an hour all month long i was very proud of it and we made a lot of power with it it made essentially everything except possibly the mclaren obsolete pool day shaped up to be a historic showdown between the eagles and the mclarens bobby unser set the bar early it's on going up another track record for the old tonight eagle 194.932 a four-lap average of 195.940 crushed revson's 1971 mark by over 13 miles an hour the eagle lands the pole position it was because i mean they were running the engine so hard at that time we were running unlimited boost in which we could run any amount of turbocharged pressure to the engine that we wanted and uh it just seemed like bobby had 150 200 horsepower more than anybody else whenever he qualified all 33 qualifiers including eight rookies shattered last year's full speed the eagle soars early on revson and donahue begin a healthy battle per second after leading the first 30 laps bobby unser suffers a broken ignition rotor the eagles wings clipped unser finishes i don't think anybody in history has ever had an advantage like i had that day i could i mean some of the newspapers said i drove the car too hard and i broke it well they just don't know how easy i drove it i mean i was treating it like a little baby that car just wanted to go fast and i didn't break the car it would have happened no matter who would have been driving it if i would have really pushed it god only knows what made the rest of guys look like [Applause] there's a driver on the track we'll see cars are slowing down coming out of the number four turn there's a machine on fire while leading mike moseley slams into the turn four wall he suffers burns team penske now runs one two with bettenhausen at the point there were some people just off the second turn they had a barbecue going they were grilling some steaks for some chicken or something and the smoke was going across the racetrack and i could actually smell it and i'd go by and i'd wave at him and this while i'm leading the race so it was that easy debris on lap 172. slows the field a small pinhole in the car's cooling system as bettenhausen worried when the yellow flag came out i knew i was through i had trouble getting it cooled back down now as long as i could run fast at race speeds i could keep the water temperature around 200 degrees so i was just i was actually running the race by the water temperature gauge you wouldn't believe it but hard luck is apparently hit number seven there he went by here very slowly for the second straight year a penske car dominates the race and fails to finish after leading 138 laps bettenhausen gives the lead to jerry grant in the other gurney eagle on the last two laps uh len and i have both been clocking the gap between grant and donahue i'm going down to see if they're on the same lap for certain but donahue's catching up with jerry grant very quickly there's still hope for team penske donahue is gaining on grant who is struggling to stay up front with a bad tire jerry grant has just come into the pit area for an unscheduled unexpected pissed off so we're watching from here he's back being pushed back out again and there he goes as mark donahue goes by we had a tire that was out of balance but we couldn't even communicate with him but radio is it possible that we didn't get enough fuel in the car or just what is it the team tops off grant's tank with fuel from bobby unser's pill before i could get him to stop but he went back out unlapped himself and uh that was the end of it you know mark was you know in the shadows there but that's that's how the race goes as i said it's you know the end looks a lot different in the beginning and there's the chicken flag for mark donahue winner of the 1972 indianapolis 500 mile race donahue reaches the checkered flag three minutes ahead of second place the victory is the first for team owner roger penske it was a big day for us i think it established that you know maybe the guys with the polish wheels and the butch haircuts were okay because you know we were looked at kind of was who are these guys that showed up here with the clean garages so i was a pretty proud guy mark donahue was a very talented race car driver from being an engineer which whether it made a difference or not you never know but he had the way of thinking he he thought things out and he was very precise in everything that he did so when he had things right you couldn't touch him jerry grant crossed the finish line second but officials later penalized him to 12 for his illegal pit stop late in the race alan zur inherited runner-up honors despite efforts to become indy's first three feet winner a new dihedral wing car made his month quite a challenge that was a double dihedral nightmare i mean that thing wouldn't go straight do anything with the technology we had at our disposal and you know the three drivers that we had what they called the super team joe leonard and mary orange reddy and myself and it turned out to be a flop in 1973 car owners pat patrick and andy granatelli joined forces with master mechanic george bignati to make a run at racing's biggest prize indy's next dynasty featured a trio of talented drivers gordon johncock swede savage and rookie graham mcrae for the stp team this may would be unlike any other veteran driver art pollard loses his life in the crash during practice he was attempting to qualify for his six indy 500. mother nature plagued the speedway for most of the month wind rain and cold temperatures limited track time but not the speeds this was the year to challenge the 200 mile an hour barrier in 73 we had a had a really strong engine and i think three or four times during practice we put together 200 mile an hour laps we had in fact we practiced uh one day and ran 200 and came back and and put the car in qualifying trim and went out to see what we could do you know put four laps together you know see if we could do 200 and we did we ran a 200.1 or something average for the four laps and thought we could do the 200 miles an hour pole day and a handful of drivers prepare to make that quantum leap into the racing record books ladies and gentlemen it's a new track record sweet savage the pride of san bernardino california is stp eagle flying high savage is on the pole at 196.5 in 73 we ordered three new uh eagles from dan gurney and looking at the car i noticed that the radius rods were growing up hill it's just was just when you put the brake on it lifts the car so i dropped them down to get a better suspension and that's the only change i made dan never ever figured it out but we beat his car all the time now johnny rutherford sets his sights on indie glory with his golf mclaren it's a new track record speed 199.6 [Applause] seven one miles an hour and here he is johnny russell just a few tenths of a second shy of the magic mark lone star jr grabs his first indie pole he breaks the one and four lap marks in the process it was new territory i had not been in that position before but to be with with team mclaren as thorough as they were and and as methodical and the way they put it together it was a great thrill for this young driver to have an opportunity to experience that [Music] the forecast for race day does not give fans much hope rain plagues the world's largest single day sporting event the green flag is delayed until mid-afternoon we have a tremendous crash here going to the number one turn in the back of the pack mike we'll take it back here once again the red flag is out the red flag is out we'll not try to guess how many cars near the very back of the pack something happened we see tire tracks going over toward the wall pieces of race cars a big flame came out on one car was extinguished right away and the race has been stopped saul walters horrific crash sprays debris and fuel across the main straightaway got the green flag and and uh going across the short chute as we came around too yellow came on and uh you know you wonder well somebody back there made a faux pas and made him you know something happened it came around and it was mayhem you know the front straightaway was totally blocked and and uh red was out and we had to go into pits the catastrophe collects 11 cars the front stretch resembles a war zone walther is rushed to the hospital his hands severely burned i mean naturally you think about it and you feel bad about it but once you get back out there in that race car and get it going again that's gone you got to concentrate on your driving and if you don't you're going to end up in serious trouble or cause somebody else to have trouble as the cleanup continues teams hustle to repair the damaged cars again the hoosier skies open up the rain persists throughout the day and the race is postponed i can remember sitting under the wing of the car and and people taking pictures of me asleep out there but uh we we spent a lot of time there and the rain was funny you had to go away and come back and go away and come back and it was tough you just had to get motivated when the time came to go again you had to get going again anticipation mounted for the green flag to fall on day two but it never came during the second parade lap another burst of rain fell on the track and shattered any hoax of racing that day you're all pumped up ready to go and it's it's like the old joke about the you know the high school coach getting the team all revved up we're going to go beat them yeah come on give me a cheer yeah we're ready to go and they get ready to go out in the field playing the gym door's locked day three featured more rain and fewer fans it was wednesday and both spectators and drivers were growing tired of waiting we went to the drivers meeting and and most of us it was such a lackadaisical atmosphere uh in the drivers meeting if they had said let's move on and go to milwaukee we'd probably voted yes because it was we had lost all of our edge for the month of may and everything else meanwhile down at turn one had turned into a complete bog and everybody down there standing up their knees in mud and garbage and the whole thing was just grisly at 2pm the sun finally makes its first appearance in days a break in the dreadful weather puts everyone on notice this could be the only chance to complete the race after days of waiting and wondering it's finally time for the greatest spectacle in racing here they come down the main stretch the world's fastest flying start the green flag is waved and the 1973 indianapolis 500 of our race is on night game yes sir and it's a replay of monday up front bobby unser pitches him off at the head minutes mark donahue minutes mario andretti johnny rutherford has dropped to fourth [Music] as pit stops begin the stp team moves to the front john and savage take turns at the point after leaving 12 laps savage makes his first stop of the day he returns to action in fourth place jim can you see it the yellow is out jim shelton it was a violent crash with much blame but it's way down the track for me sid i cannot see really who it is the red flag is out of the race is being stopped savage loses control of his eagle coming out of turn four and hits the inside wall 75 gallons of fuel explode as the car is tossed across the main stretch savage is trapped inside the burning cockpit the track was blocked and we all stopped in turn four i believe it was and got out of our cars and everything because they'd stopped it and we knew there was a bad wreck up there i was walking up that way and i if i remember right i think point stopped me and said you don't want to go up there because it's such a grey day you can still you can see this fuel jet up probably 40 feet into the air and a blaze and um and we all stopped there and um and got out of our cars up there at turn four and um danny holm and i are just standing there shaking our heads and you know it was just i can remember that scene so well standing up there at the corner while the wreckage is being cleared off i actually stepped out of the car and let aj in and i'd seen that deal and i i just didn't want to didn't run around no more that day the car caught on fire burned him and he really didn't get hurt that bad it was the fire that got him he hadn't burned much of that off the races savage's sign man armando tehran is hit by a safety vehicle as he rushes to the crash scene that was bad enough we had one bad accident there and we have another one in the pit duran was killed instantly savage was rushed to the hospital with severe burns internal injuries and broken legs the race was stopped once again and no one really cared if it ever continued i guess at the time we just had to stay cool i mean racers uh you know are very versatile uh they handled adversity and certainly we were there to run that race and we'd spent a lot of time and we were going to be there and finish the finish our business but i think it's just something that you have to deal with the 1973 race had turned into a race to forget but the show goes on over an hour later the race resumes allenzer leads as the event grows longer attrition shrinks the field 19 cars fall out with mechanical failures including unser who drops out with a bad piston johncock momentarily lifts the spirits of the stp team gordy sets fastest lap and begins to pull away gordy was the most tenacious racer that you could ever hope to race against he was like a bulldog you know he just didn't give up if his car was right he was extremely tough if it wasn't right he could still be tough he was that kind of a guy you know he just raced hard a miserable month finally comes to an end when the race is red flag for rain on lap 133 john is declared the winner there wasn't no celebration you know it was just all you know we were all stopped there because of the of the rain you know under the red flag and then all the sudden they announced that uh they were calling the race so you know then we knew it but there was no cheering and jumping up and down and it was great to win but uh that was uh that was a sad year although big nighty claimed his sixth indy win and john is first the victory is bittersweet their teammate was clinging to life that night after the race we went down to the hospital to see him and then i remember i went down there with patrick and i think it was on the way back we stopped there on meridian street or 16th street there in front of speedway and ate at a burger king i think you know and went on home because it was really something that it hit everybody hard you know it's just the way it happened there wasn't much that went right the whole the whole month the 1973 indy 500 really is something that i really want to forget 33 days after his crash swede savage succumbed to his injuries in an indianapolis hospital he was 26 years old he was the all-american boy he was a great driver wherever i took him to test he broke the record i mean we were we were really gone that would have been a fantastic year it was a race that just everybody wanted to forget there was so many accidents and it would just i don't know of a worse year at the speedway than 1973. in 1974 sweeping changes across the speedway affected the cars the track and the schedule a new era had dawned at the brickyard and safety was paramount [Music] anxious to put the 1973 race on the rear view mirror new chief steward tom benford enforced a series of rural revisions the wings were the first to go you sacked got together and said you know we can't have these wings that are 10 feet long you know so the wing also is the fire outside it was very deep in fact it was almost square it was very deep but it but it wasn't very wide we thought at one point maybe the tracks were obsolete because of the higher speeds where the wings we took the wings and made them narrower and took the cord down in order to reduce some of the downforce because in those days you know we had such cornering speeds really people had not even believe the biggest changes were to the fuel cell the tank was moved to the left side of the car and the fuel load reduced from 75 to 40 gallons the smaller tanks meant twice as many pit stops on race day having the fuel restriction kind of evened everything up to where it closed the competition level you weren't able to just run away with horsepower speeds would shrink as a new pop-off valve limited the amount of boost for turbocharged engines and it kind of equalized the the playing field as far as being able to if one team could really afford to spend a lot of money and and run a lot of boost during the race they could get ahead improvements to the speedway facility were made of the name of safety the flagstand was relocated to a spot above the yard of bricks the retaining walls were raised turn four was widened and the pit entrance was rebuilt two benefits that i can think of offhand one of them is that we can bring the pace car off sooner than we've been able to do in the past and get it out away from the field and before the turn but it also makes the entrance of pitt uh a straight line instead of having to bash in there or kind of turn into it as they have in the past even qualifications were modified in response to the national energy crisis officials condensed qualifications from four days to two start in the morning till noon was one day and then noon until the six o'clock was the next day and and that way all the way through well when we got shuffled we wound up in the third day rutherford would start 25th on full day [Music] 4106.824846.74 192.555 kj point on the court aj point rebounded from a two-year slump to put his coyote forward on the pole [Applause] [Music] right off the start wally dahlenbach really puts his foot in it wally's wildcat off he pounces to a huge lead over foyth [Music] but the leader's in trouble donald boxcar begins to smoke a burnt piston ends his day on lap three aj point gladly inherits the lead super tex begins his march to an unprecedented fourth indy win johnny rutherford ran the seventh lap at 188 miles an hour he is in sixth place at the end of the seventh lap after starting a distant 25th johnny rutherford's mclaren is on a mission to catch point that's a long way back and uh the car was so good and our combination and setup was so good that when they dropped the green flag within 12 laps i was running third i just it was amazing i could just pass them wherever i came to them just passed halfway in the race uh got into a real hammer and tong duel with aj the texas tussle moves to the pits points crew makes a costly mistake aj's loss is rutherford's game lone star jr leads the indy 500 for the first time in his career we raced hard he was a little quicker down the straightaway than i was but i i was much faster than he was in the turns but i couldn't i couldn't make that work i couldn't get by him to be able to make that work in my in my favor and so we raced very hard and i knew that if i kept the pressure on him i might run him out of right rear tire or engine and i didn't you know just just keep doing that so i stayed glued right to him and his car started blowing oil coming out of the backyard with oil spitting from his exhaust point is black flagged and forced to tip and oil fitting finally knocks him out on lap 142 rutherford is back in front and here's the checkered flag for johnny rutherford winner of the 1974 indianapolis 500 mile race after a decade of futility at the brickyard rutherford wins racing's greatest prize coming down with your number being held out number you know number one uh and getting that checkered flag and and you think wow you know that's this really happening uh you worked very hard and it's it's a the greatest sense of accomplishment in the world indy also marked the first win for team mclaren who capped off 74 with a formula one world championship it changed my career gave me the depth and and what i needed in a car that uh that i could get the job done with i had always always told my wife betty if i could ever find a team that wanted to go racing as badly as i did that we'd be winners and and team mclaren fit that bill despite the late spin second generation driver dwayne pancho carter earns top rookie honors for his seventh place finish firestone tire the winner of 48 indianapolis 500s dropped their indie program at the end of the season and that opened the door for goodyear tire to run uncontested for the next two decades excellence and experience were in style at indy in 1975. six former champions arrived at the brickyard hungary for another drink of mouth the eagle chassis and oppenhauser engine were still the package to have in gasoline island but on pole day a lone coyote fought off the majority [Applause] [Applause] [Music] freud wins his fourth indie poll could a record fourth indy victory be far behind you know i've always felt that records are made to be broken and as long as i continue to race i want to win and set all the records i possibly can and i've always felt today that i lose that drive then i will hang it up and quit racing but it's a very important race in my life i've got the first time an opportunity to become the only man to ever win in annapolis at the present time four times and that's a goal that i like to achieve if i possibly could [Music] 33 powerful racing machines are straining to be let loose as they leave turn forward head down the main straightaway now here they come for the world's fastest flying start they're watching pat bedan the green flag is out and the 1975 indianapolis 500 race is on at the start gordon johncock takes the lead the 73 champ is quick he sets the fastest lap early on [Music] but for the second straight year bad luck bites the stp team gordy suffers the faulty ignition and must call it a day point is waiting in the wings on lap 11. the coyote orange number 14 inherits the lead into uh turn number three aj takes the lead johnny rutherford drops back one position in what seems like a carbon copy of 1974 point and rutherford battle for first yellow's out here doug zing turned three thank you sid and it was more over on the back stretch before he got to turn number three we saw something happen it's mario andretti in car number 21. mario's indy jinx continues on lap 50. aj point just came by me writing the white line he may be in a little bit of trouble despite leading 53 laps points chances of a fourth indy win were foiled when he ran out of fuel on lap 124. we didn't win because we ran out a few and coasted in and we already said we had to make eight stops every 25 laps stop stop stop well my crew there said we can do it on seven well it cost us a race coming off the second turn tom sniva got into the outside wall the car has come to stop just in front of us there was some flame the engine's torn completely off of the car he was stunned flipping around in the car it got airborne hit the wall came the light right side up right here in front of us sophomore tom steva is working on a top five finish when he tries to maneuver around traffic we had a sweet over in the second turn and all the material off the cars almost got up into the suites the engine unhooked from the chassis but i think that was was a real test you know of what the tubs are all about in those days sniva survives a spectacular crash with just a few minor burns the last thought i had was that i was dreaming i was upside down in a race car and you know how dreams are they just sort of fade off and that's that was my last thought until you know a half hour later when i you know started remembering things back in the field hospital so i just took it for granted that he'd probably give me a little more room and knew i was there and you know and he really didn't i just assumed wrong and you know before we got all the way by our two cars came together and you know obviously mine got upside down and into the wall about 180 miles an hour and you know the rest of that is history after a lengthy yellow wally dallinbox modified off the engine flashes to the front wally dollenbach just went by us very very slowly and those telltale pumps of grey smoke coming up from the rear of that car run on lap 161 a blown piston knocked stalinbach out of the lead for the second straight year well everything was just beautiful we just knew we were going to win it and i thought really and truly all month long i had this one in the back the race reaches its final stages now it's rutherford versus bobby unser mclaren versus eagle there comes the rain pretty heavily we're watching pat fedan the yellow is out and we're gonna wait to make it official if he's gonna pull out the red or not which has to happen now it's pouring down rain without any warning a torrential downpour soaks the speedway inches of water flood the famed oval in a matter of seconds we have an accident on the main straightaway that is uh at the entrance to the pits uh they are trying to stop the race cars that are approaching this accident the monsoon turns the track into a lake putting the cars and drivers in a slippery situation the problem is is that the tires being balled not from lack of rubber but just bought by design they just get up on top of the water and they never touch the ground they just act a plane that's going to be it bobby unser from albuquerque new mexico may have weathered the storm so to speak and pushed himself into victory lane here by virtue of water bobby unser swims down the waterlog front stretch to take the checkered flag it's the second win for unser and car owner dan gerdy rutherford floyd made no difference after that they were going to be history made no difference we had a ton on them by that time it was amazing it wasn't quite as fabulous as i expected it to be i was still very proud of it but it cost an enormous amount rutherford's hopes of back-to-back indy wins were drowned out lone star jr settles for second if it had not rained bobby would have had to make his pit stop to have enough fuel to finish and i would have passed him and gone on to win the race and we weren't slow and we were going to win the thing with or without rain as far as our team was concerned hey we had beaten them we'd not run them it was okay that's no problem i i i had a choice i'd say hey i'll take the rain because it's over with for the first time in speedway history a woman would attempt to qualify for the 500. i had no idea that that kind of fracas was going to ensue i mean yes i did know that women had always been forbidden from the pits the garage area and the press box at indianapolis i was aware of that history that a woman's footsteps might profane the sacred turf but i i didn't really feel the force of it until i got there it was it was quite amazing to me 38 year old janet guthrie garnered a lot of attention in may of 1976. an aerospace engineer pilot and sports car driver guthrie was embarking on unchartered territory and the pressure was enormous i think the stress of being the first woman to participate in a risk sport of that magnitude did have its effects fortunately i had a very strong desire and could in general deal with that but so many so many drivers were saying i i was going to be a threat to their lives and so on and so forth gasoline alley was buzzing about the first woman racer and while guthrie's credentials were good enough for most some were quite critical it isn't anything against the women we've gotten a big argument in those days about being a woman or a man running and and i don't think that has a factor in it i don't think that janet grethery was a good race car driver so that's where my conflict came in with her she wasn't going to get any special favors she got a lot of publicity but i mean and she didn't ask for a special favor i think she probably was surprised at how how intense the pressure was and i felt sorry for that standpoint i had always been of the philosophy that if if they had their credentials they could do the job and could pass the tests and to do everything that that everybody else had to do fair enough it shouldn't be any problem on cold day aj point was in pursuit of an unprecedented third straight pole point is fast but his coyote can't keep up to the horsepower of rutherford's mclaren j.r wins his second 500 on the final day of qualifying guthrie had yet to make the race that morning she took some fast laps in points backup car in nine laps i was fast enough to make the field with that car and then for some reason he decided not to let me do it but it was quite an experience and i think it opened some people's eyes to the fact that in good equipment i could get the job done but when the final gun sounded at 6 pm guthrie found herself on the outside looking in i think the sound of that gun went straight through my heart it was a moment i'll never forget and here they come down the main stretch for the world's fastest blind start the green flag is waved and the 1976 indianapolis 500 mile race is on off the start rutherford flies to the front with point and hot pursuit a.j floyd is gaining some speed and almost passing as he goes low he does pass johnny weatherman aj takes the point on lap four this one is shaping up to be another texas shootout between rutherford and floyd i could see that he was backing up to me and i'm running second he's leading it and he's backing up backing up and finally i catch him and i set him up and go by and i start just driving away and i wonder what in the world jr begins to settle in for a long day up front his mclaren is flawless after 250 miles [Music] point and gordon johncock struggle to keep pace with rutherford then mother nature steps in as rain on the back stretch pat banana has the red flag and he's waving it the race is being stopped the break in the action lets floyd and john mend their cars so we're in the pits under and aj is is really giving the officials what for and he had a bad shock absorber well i knew that if he fixed his shock absorber and we went out to get the green flag he would be really tough after two and a half hours of waiting the track is dry they order us back to our cars and we're in the cars getting ready and they're just getting ready to announce restart your engines and it bottom fell out again and it rained really hard covered the cars up waited for it to subside and it rained for maybe 30 minutes and it was enough and late enough in the day that they couldn't get the track dry and so they opted to call the race the pat banan is waving the checkered flag for johnny rutherford winner of the 1976 indianapolis 500 mile race the shortest 500 in history ends on lap 102 lone star jr becomes the first driver in indy history to walk into victory lane betty and i upped the ramps and into the victory lane and you know it was it might not have been quite the same excitement as it was if it had finished under the green flag but nevertheless we will take it any way we can get it and we want our second indianapolis 500 and it was it was equally exciting inside the speedway a brand new museum opened to the public the hall of fame museum featured classic cars trophies and a theater since 1974 the assault on the 200 mile an hour barrier had been put on hold when officials repaved the track in the summer of 76 it was time to dust off the record books [Music] during practice in 1977 several drivers clocked laps over 200 whether that number would make it to pole day was anyone's guess 200 is still the magic number i think no matter what you do 200 mile an hour it just sounds fast it is fast but to be able to run 200 miles an hour back in in the 70s you know was a pretty good challenge cold day is barely an hour old when tom sneeva takes aim at 200. [Music] stever wastes no time eclipses the magic mark on his first lap he then shatters the one lap record with a speed of 200.535 miles an hour sniva is on the pole and in the history books it was a very proud feeling more more than anything you know we were proud of that accomplishment you know that there's always going to be new track records and people are going to go faster and faster but be to be the first person to run the 200 mile that magic mark you know that's something they can't take away from you believe me people couldn't believe we could get around this racetrack at 200 miles an hour so you know he really deserved you know all the credit and there was no question when he come off a turn four i never knew whether he was going to get a turn to come down the straightaway because he drove you know such a different pattern around this racetrack janet guthrie returned to indy with hopes of making some history of her own i didn't go into indy car racing feeling as if i had to prove something because i was a woman that perspective was forced upon me to my considerable surprise as a driver every driver has something to prove to themselves when it's time to qualify a sick engine threatens guthrie's run at their record books she's got the speed but will her motor make it when i last looked at the oil pressure gauge coming out of turn four approaching the checker it was nailed to zero and if the engine blew up between there and the starting line that was it there would be no more chances so what i mostly felt when i saw the checker yes i knew i had made it i knew i had the speed from the tachometer but there was also that great relief that the engine had lasted history made another barrier broken guthrie becomes the first woman to qualify for the indianapolis 500 she'll start 26th they came to realize that i was just what i said i was a racing driver who happened to be a woman the woman part didn't make a darn bit of difference i think that uh you know a female coming to the 500 you know was of great interest not only to us as competitors to see exactly you know how competitive she could be but also to the outside world and you know i thought it was terrific although a woman had made the field at 33 speedway president tony hallman decided he would not change those famous words spoken before each race tony holman stated that he was going to go ahead and say gentlemen start your engines because he said after all the mechanics start the engines and kay bignati came to me and said we can't let tony get away with this kay was out there on the starting line she started my engine and so she had a really great effect on what happened that year so tony was obliged to change his tune in company with the first lady ever to qualify at indianapolis gentlemen start your engines al unser rushes to the front a cluster of contenders battled to challenge the leader that is car 27 janet guthrie's car now slowing on the race course guthrie hits on lap 26 her historic day done in by a bad timing gear i brought it in they changed something i took it out it was still wrong we did that a number of times and it took quite a while into the race before we finally decided to throw in the sponge as the field sorts itself out gordon johncock leads a.j foyt positions himself into second aj point coming in i gotta stop watching how close are they and white is about nine seconds behind uh gordon johnson and gordon john cox moving by us now here's aj during the turn number four john begins to pull away gordy is poised to erase a series of bad breaks for the stp team and win another may classic aj point an interval of 6.82 seconds between the leader john the second place car floyd foyt is closing the gap john might be running out of fuel you're running out there and he never gave a thought about the crankshaft breaking uh the carburation was right the fuel mileage was good uh the car was running good and he was just running and he wasn't over driving or anything he was just going well and it was just amazed that the damn thing stopped so the chase is on but gordon johncock has pulled over to the left side of the straightaway he appears to be slowing he has cut his car in off of the apron at the south end of the main straightaway really even happened to run that hard because we were so far ahead of him and and then all of a sudden the engine just let go and pull down in the guardrail and turn one went down laid in the creek and pulled off you know flight and i were kind of feuding because we split up and i wanted to beat him and he wanted to beat me and it was kind of a hard race to lose when you're going that far you only got about 15 laps to go 77 i'll have to say was the biggest disappointment in my racing career after leading 129 laps a blown engine crushes john cox chances of a second indeed win once again point is the beneficiary of bad luck from the dusty tracks of texas the racing's hall of fame and there goes fight toward turn three and the crowd on its feet is aj foyth they're waving at him waving him on turn number three off of three into the short shoot hey tears my eyes the last four or five laps because i guess the good lord wanted me to run 500 miles and be a true 500 mile winner four times because i felt last year and year before last year we had a good shot at winning the race and the rain come along and we lost the race but uh i'm glad it worked out like it did aj floyd down the main straightaway the checkered flag is out aj's hand in the air he is the winner aj point at indianapolis has won his fourth 500-mile race a momentous month in 500 history ends with a living legend pulling into victory lane to be the first man to ever do something like that after so many years that people been there trying to i was very happy and finally i asked my daddy says well you're petting everybody on the back what a great job they did today i said what did i do he said you had a little part in it and that's all he ever said so i mean i guess that was about the nicest words he ever spoke to me after a race i don't think there was any body more deserving you know he didn't [Music] it wasn't handed to him he earned it and he did it you know from a period like say where we all ran the same kind of cars i still consider him the greatest driver to ever bolt on a helmet and strap himself into a race car during post-race ceremonies the speedway president tony hallman joined foyt in the pace car for a special victory lap regardless of how many more men won it four times being the first to do it after 50 something years really meant a lot to me and especially with mr hallman because we got to be very close and and very good friends and i think he was awful thrilled to see me be the first man to win it four times in october speedway owner tony hallman passed away at the age of 76. hallman transformed the dilapidated brickyard into an auto racing shrine and made the indy 500 an american tradition in 1978 roger penske arrived at the speedway with racing's top qualifier a formula one contender and an off-road racer named rick mears and we sat down and he said this is you know that's what i have to offer he said it's uh mario's going to be chasing a world championship next year and i need somebody to fill in part time i'll guarantee you the three 500-mile races races and at least three others and um i'll needless to say you know a part-time ride to that team i felt would be more beneficial than a full-time rider the most all the rookie would need was one race to prove he was the sport's next superstar [Music] rain washed out the opening weekend of qualifications when a truncated pole day began only a few drivers could hit 200. second-year standout danny on gaias and four-time winner aj foyt qualified over 200 miles an hour then meers turned heads by landing his ghoul charge on the front row there were no expectations you know and roger was very good at taking the pressure off i mean i i put more pressure on myself than than he would he was very he said hey we've got we've got sniva we've got mario we've got them to stand on the gas to qualify quick um you just go out and get the experience get the laps and he really allowed me to learn at my pace sniva put the pedal to the metal and four laps later the norton spirit was back on the pool his record-breaking run clocked in just over 202 miles an hour team penske plants two cars in the front row the only way you know is by how much saddle you're using in the corners because you know at that time we were real close to flat out and you could tell the driver could tell if he used a little more of the throttle in that corner and you know i knew that i'd use more throttle than i had been using like you know it was very close to flat out all the way around the racetrack which is the first time i'd been able to do that and and you know a lot of that's adrenaline flowing the time of the day and just getting up for the activity and you know we would do we did that and you know we had the car pretty close and ran it real close to its limits mike hiss qualified the third penske car for andretti when mario returned from europe he had the formula one points lead but had to start the 500 in last place 1978 was the first 500 without owner tony helman his wife mary would now bring the world's greatest race to life lady and gentlemen start your engines rick mears found himself surrounded by experience on race day the rookie could not afford to make a mistake now there was the pressure of well now there's no excuses you know i'm with the best team in business they've got the best equipment out there there there are no excuses so you did have to get the job done pat vedan watches the field the green flag is out the 1978 500 mile race is on and we take off come around and we get the green and like i said i'm not going to make a mistake take off and i go up you know first second and i go to the third and uh we had trouble with the gearbox and we had two top gears in the box and the car just fell on space and i just i thought oh no you know i just kind of shrunk down on the car because i knew somebody was going to collect me and fortunately everybody missed mirrors avoids disaster but another problem pops up the rookie fails to fasten his helmet so now i'm driving around holding the helmet on with one hand and driving with the other and i'm you know how embarrassing to call in to the guys and say you know my first race at indy i forgot to buckle my helmet guys so i drove for i don't know how many laps with one hand holding that thing down finally i got up the courage to call in and tell him i had messed up he said the helm was going up over his eye so he had to come in and take a couple laps to fix his helmet because he had a car that day and the way he was running he might have been the winner that very first time he ran with us and it's the first thought through my mind was well now here's the rookie you know making them making a mistake but you know we were able to get going and the car was very competitive that day al unser and danny on gaias are now fighting for the lead at the 136th lap while mirrors fell back on gaia surged forward the flying hawaiian was making his mark on the famed oval then on gaia's machine blows an engine on lap 145 once again lady luck frowns on a dominant driver [Music] with a new car and a new team al unser slips into the lead the quiet contender surprises even himself a third 500 win is within reach when the race started about fourth of the way through they just came back to me i said my gosh i like this pretty soon we were leading and that's one of those days that you know prior you can say that morning that i thought i could maybe run with them to outrun them i didn't think so and then all of a sudden there we were you know we were out running them with 20 laps to go unser makes his last pit stop but flirts with disaster in those days we didn't have a speed limit you came in 150 200 mile an hour through that pit gate down there and when i came in i didn't even know i hit it but it damaged my wing and it it did slow me down a little bit but we had enough of a cushion that i was able to win al unser is the winner of the 1978 500 mile race and he joins that elite group of three time winners at the indianapolis motor speedway hunzer had pegged 1978 as a learning year with jim hall racing always a quick study albuquerque al led 121 laps and found victory lane for the third time in nine years when i won in 70 people said well now you ought to retire retire i just got started you know and then every year thereafter they kept saying well you don't need to come back but you know it isn't a fact of needing to come back it's wanting to come back to the to the greatest sporting event in the world and that's the indianapolis motor speedway so to be able to win there and walk away with that that honor it's just terrific if i were a car owner i was not a driver al unser's who i'd want to drive my race car al was was a very smart driver he wasn't flash but he was always there steady and he wanted a lot of races and did good tom sniva became an indie bridesmaid for the second straight year his penske teammate rick mears lost an engine on lap 103 but shared top rookie honors with larry rice nursing a broken wrist janet guthrie completed her first indy 500 with a 9th place finish it's hard to express the meaning of a top 10 finish at indianapolis it's something that any driver can be proud of do i wish i had gone on and had a chance to win there of course i do that could be the only better thing that i could think of the 1978 season ended on a bitter note when a faction of car owners founded their own race series that winter championship auto racing teams was formed to compete against the 500 sanctioning body the united states auto club the final 500 of the decade pitted racing legends against the next generation the 1979 speed classic was to be one of the most competitive but change and controversy clouded everything [Music] the month of may started in the courtroom with an injunction by the united states auto club against the new league cart i remember having to go to court to downtown and john frasco you know was our attorney and here we were with great drivers and uh potentially penske cars couldn't even run the race and uh i remember the judge finally said we couldn't it wasn't about penske not being able to be in the race it was about people like mirrors and under and people like that that wouldn't be able to qualify and do their business and we were given a temporary restraining order so that we were lifted the injunction i guess it was on the racetrack officials feared another jump in speeds so cusack reduced the boost on the turbochargers by another 10 miles an hour that didn't stop jim hall from creating an ultra innovative design called the chaparral with al unser at the wheel the ground effects car ran as good as it looked no longer a penske pilot tom sniva tried to be the first to win three straight poles it looked like the sugar right prune special might make history then 27 year old rick nears rolled out of pit lane i was the last car in line to go out to had a shot and i think everybody kind of conceded the fact neva was on the pole and until we ran and bumped him off and roger got pretty thick it was kind of a surprise i think it was a very big smile on roger's face that day coming down pit lane after the run and he had young mirrors who was you know an off-road driver and came in and really stuck it to him really when he sat on the pole i think that was a very telling day that we had attracted and hired one of the greatest race drivers to be at indianapolis ladies and gentlemen start your engine [Applause] [Music] al unser the defending champion of the 500 the beautiful pennzoil chaparral number two leads the first lap it's all al from the start the chaparral is on rails unzir is a sure threat to join the four timers club at the halfway point a seal breaks on unser's cosworth engine and the black flag is being given to al unser his car has begun smoking in the right rear again there seem to be a small show of flame after leading 85 laps al's indie glory is cut short i could look in my mirror and see that i was in trouble so it's one of those the way you just say another day at work bad day at work big brother bobby takes the lead on lap 97 and here is rick mears he's going to try his teammate bob bobby unser and indeed he's going to try to go low and it was time to go and so we just started you know picking the pace up and i felt like we had you know we just made a couple of attempts at him at the time and i felt like we had enough um you know if got positioned right to be able to get by i'm sure he doesn't think so but i felt we did now it's a battle between the heroes of racing's past and racing's future unzir against meers team pinsky versus team finskey we just had one instinct that's we wanted to win and we'd do every anything it took to win bobby unser looks like he's going to head in for a pit stop bobby unser indeed heading no something's wrong in bobby unser's car something appears to be wrong with bobby under his machine bobby loses the gear and with it the lead another indy victory snatched from the unser family the fourth gear broke in the transmission the one thing that you just never break but that one i think of of all the races as far as really just being sad that's the race that i was established at or for dropping out of that was a pretty good feeling on one hand on the other hand it wasn't because you know he had a he had a problem that's why we got buying so i didn't get to earn the pass and which i would much rather have done it that way than you know the other way now mirrors must endure the toughest 25 laps of his career once i got past the pit entrance then i knew if all four wheels fell off the thing i could slide the rest away and that was the only time i let myself feel we had the race one [Applause] mile range it was a great feeling it really was i mean you just can't explain it it's something you can take whatever whatever you've been the most excited about all your you know throughout your lifetime and just you know double triplet whatever you just really can't explain it after seven years sabbatical roger pinsky returns to victory lane with a storybook finish it's also the first win for the penske works chassis every time you go there you can't believe it because you know it's just so monumental you know the crowd the feeling and you know for for my company you know for my family and obviously for these drivers and teams it was you know a dream come true and i've never said that one was better than the other but the 79 victory with mirrors after having a drought after you've won you can't come back here and do anything else so anything else but winning is certainly a big big letdown if ever a driver looked over the entire field and decided where he wanted to go it'd have to be roger penske's team because they are they are state of the art uh you know they're exactly what what you would want what i would want if i were a new driver coming in the crowd is carrying aj point as he coasts over the line and waves [Applause] four-time winner aj point brought the crowd to its speed with the courageous second place finish a new pack up rule was put into place in 1979 during caution periods the pace car would now lead a bunched up field with safety and better competition in mind the 1970s redefined gracie technology reshaped it a new level of competition created faster speeds and famous faces a mix of innovation and necessity sparked a revolution and the speedway was witness to it all dynamic designs and broken barriers transformed the sport forever while the speedway lost many close friends it gained several new ones drivers and teams who would build the foundation of the 500s future while the 70s have come and gone their impact is far from over an era defined by drama in danger will long be remembered as a decade of legends [Music]

Channel: Chad Smith

Views: 449,963

Keywords:

Id: 2qv19VPkuhA

Length: 84min 51sec (5091 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 14 2022