SWC75
Bored Historian
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Al Unser won his third Indy 500 in a race that was dominated, as many of them are, by attrition: basically he survived to the finish while his main competitors fell out due to mechanical problems or minor crashes. But the biggest story in American auto racing this year was Mario Andretti winning the Formula One World Driving championship, only the second American to do so. He had Mike Hiss qualify his car, (apparently it’s the car that qualifies, not the driver), but under the rules had to start 33rd. He never made up the difference.
Old-timer Jim Hurtubise wore out his welcome at Indy in this race, (Wikipedia):
“Jim Hurtubise, who had once again entered his now-infamous Mallard/Offy front-engined car, had been denied the permission to qualify, due to lack of speed. USAC had decided to set a 180 mph minimum speed in order to pass "final" inspection, receive the appropriate sticker, and be allowed to make a qualifying attempt. They deemed Hurtubise ineligible, claiming he had not broken 175 mph, despite some claiming he had lapped over 184 mph. ] Hurtubise considered the ruling a personal harassment, lies, and an effort by USAC, Goodyear, and the Speedway to single him out and keep him from qualifying. ] After being a popular fixture amongst the fans for many years, several episodes of antics had caused some to begin to view Hurtubise unfavorably. Hurtubise got into a heated exchange with chief steward Tom Binford, then proceeded to climb into Harkey's car, shouting "If I can't qualify, no one can!” After a few minutes, Hurtubise was coaxed out of the car, and Harkey climbed in to crank it up. With some encouragement from the crowd, Hurtubise then jumped in front of Harkey, preventing him from pulling out of the pits. He had to be restrained by safety patrol members, and Harkey managed to pull away. While Harkey was on the backstretch of his warm-up lap, Hurtubise jumped over the pit wall and ran out on the race track in order to disrupt and halt the qualifying attempt. Running down the mainstretch, several guards chased after him. Hurtubise was tackled by John Martin and was then detained by police. By this time, the crowd's opinion had changed, and they began booing and jeering Hurtubise for going too far by disrupting qualifying. Hurtubise was banned from the track for the remainder of the month.”
Drivers not previously mentioned:
- Louie Meyer was the first three-time winner of the race: 1928, 1933 and 1936. We see him touring the circuit the morning of the race in the car he ran in in 1929. Louis, (pronounced “Louie”), was age 73 at the time. He died at 91 in 1995.
- Roger Rager was a sprint car champion who crashed in practice. He managed to qualify in 1980 and finished 10th.
- Sheldon Kinser was at Indy from 1975-83, qualifying five times with a high finish of 6th in 1981. He died of cancer in 1988 at age 46.
- Rick Mears would become one of the great names in racing in the 1980 and 1990’s, winning Indy four times, (1979, 1984, 1988, 1991), winning the pole 6 times and the national IndyCar driving championship three times.
ABC’s full coverage of the race:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mK3-Pmvt7eo
