SWC75
Bored Historian
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Rick Mears won his first of 4 Indy 500’s. A. J. Foyt, in search of a 5th win that never came, provided some thrills by nursing his broken car across the finish line at less than 50MPH while Mike Mosley was closing in on him for second. AJ held on, (by 2 ½ seconds), and got a bigger ovation than the winner.
The biggest story of the year was the formation of Championship Auto Racing Teams, or CART. The Automobile Association of America, (AAA), had been the ruling body in American Motor Sports from 1905 until 1955, when they withdrew following the Le Mans disaster. The United States Auto Club, (USAC) took over after that. But by 1979, the major team owners, especially Dan Gurney and Roger Penske. They felt that USAC was incompetently run and had done a poor job of marketing the sport in America, with too much emphasis on the Indianapolis 500 and not enough on the other races, resulting in lower purses. They compared it unfavorably to the way Formula One was run in Europe. This would eventually create a split with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which formed a rival group, the Indy Racing League. These two would fight over the golden eggs their goose was laying. And while they were doing it, NASCAR, like a car running in the slip stream of the car ahead of then, would find an opening in between them and use it to accelerate to the lead in American auto racing.
But that’s a story for the 80’s. Next year.
Drivers not previously mentioned:
- Todd Gibson was a stock car guy who tried several times in the late 70’s to qualify at Indy but failed each time. After his 1979 crash, he gave up the ghost.
- Billy Englehart crashed in his first attempt at Indy and broke his leg but made the field the next year and finished 11th. It was his high water-mark.
- Lee Kunzman was at Indy from 1970-82. He qualified four times and finished 7th twice. This was the last time he made the race and he finished 30th.
Here is ABC’s full coverage of the 1979 race:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cf_d9VP1Yho
(No, it wasn’t always Jim Nabors singing “Back Home in Indiana”.)
