SWC75
Bored Historian
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The battle between the traditional “Indy Roadster”, a front-engined care and the new rear-engined cars that had taken over European racing was on in full now. Colin Chapman of the British Lotus company came to Indianapolis with Jim Clark, who would win his first Formula One driving championship that year and Dan Gurney, an American who had a long a varied career in international racing, from Daytona to Indianapolis to Le Mans to Formula One raced in his cars, which were lighter, built lower to the ground and handled better than the American cars, which had the more powerful engines, including the Novi, which was still trying to find a way to finish a race.
Parnelli Jones, still holding out for the American design in a car called “Old Calhoun“, managed to finish and win the race this time but not without controversy. His oil case began leaking and making the track slippery for other cars, including Eddie Sachs, who spun into the infield, got back on the track and then hit a wall, (Eddie can be seen getting out of the car and leaping the same wall in the highlight film). Jones later punched Sachs at a banquet when Sachs claimed that Jones’ oil took him out of the race. Eddie would be back for one more try at the Brickyard.
Track authorities considered black-flagging Jones- forcing him out of the race and off the track. Jones later said that, since there were only a few laps to go, he would have completed the race and let them disqualify him if they did that. But they didn’t and he went into the books as the winner over Clark, who was coming on strong at the end, a harbinger of things to come. Chapman claimed that the American officials didn’t want Clark to win so they failed to black-flag Jones.
We see Bobby Unser, who would win the race three times, as a rookie, making an acquaintance with the wall. Duane Carter had been racing since 1932. He was USAC’s Director of Competition in the late 50’s . The “Race of the Two Worlds” at Monza in 1957 had been his idea and he had had some other “out of the box” ideas that turned some more conservative USAC members off. They kicked him out of that job so he went back to driving. Roger McClusky was a perennial contender who rarely won races at this level. He’d been racing since 1948 and was still racing at Indy as late as 1979. He’s running third when he spins out on lap 197. During his career he led more laps in USAC championship races than anyone except AJ Foyt. Jim McElreath does OK on the track in this one but has trouble in the pits, twice spinning out. The worst crash comes in practice as Jack Turner does several cartwheels. But he survived and so did everybody else- for this year.
The official highlight film, in two parts:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXS6vJXcdzA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-7B3OwCz60
A retrospective view with an emphasis on the controversy over whether Hones should have been black-flagged.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lyc9WXU9R4A
This is one of sixU-tune posts that feature the public address announcements for the 1963 race from an old LP, combined with stills of racing from that era, (not necessarily from this race):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hze1dDzFCRw
The PA announcer is Tom Carnegie, who had this job from 1946 to 2006. He was to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway what Bob Sheppard was to Yankee Stadium.
Parnelli Jones, still holding out for the American design in a car called “Old Calhoun“, managed to finish and win the race this time but not without controversy. His oil case began leaking and making the track slippery for other cars, including Eddie Sachs, who spun into the infield, got back on the track and then hit a wall, (Eddie can be seen getting out of the car and leaping the same wall in the highlight film). Jones later punched Sachs at a banquet when Sachs claimed that Jones’ oil took him out of the race. Eddie would be back for one more try at the Brickyard.
Track authorities considered black-flagging Jones- forcing him out of the race and off the track. Jones later said that, since there were only a few laps to go, he would have completed the race and let them disqualify him if they did that. But they didn’t and he went into the books as the winner over Clark, who was coming on strong at the end, a harbinger of things to come. Chapman claimed that the American officials didn’t want Clark to win so they failed to black-flag Jones.
We see Bobby Unser, who would win the race three times, as a rookie, making an acquaintance with the wall. Duane Carter had been racing since 1932. He was USAC’s Director of Competition in the late 50’s . The “Race of the Two Worlds” at Monza in 1957 had been his idea and he had had some other “out of the box” ideas that turned some more conservative USAC members off. They kicked him out of that job so he went back to driving. Roger McClusky was a perennial contender who rarely won races at this level. He’d been racing since 1948 and was still racing at Indy as late as 1979. He’s running third when he spins out on lap 197. During his career he led more laps in USAC championship races than anyone except AJ Foyt. Jim McElreath does OK on the track in this one but has trouble in the pits, twice spinning out. The worst crash comes in practice as Jack Turner does several cartwheels. But he survived and so did everybody else- for this year.
The official highlight film, in two parts:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXS6vJXcdzA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-7B3OwCz60
A retrospective view with an emphasis on the controversy over whether Hones should have been black-flagged.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lyc9WXU9R4A
This is one of sixU-tune posts that feature the public address announcements for the 1963 race from an old LP, combined with stills of racing from that era, (not necessarily from this race):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hze1dDzFCRw
The PA announcer is Tom Carnegie, who had this job from 1946 to 2006. He was to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway what Bob Sheppard was to Yankee Stadium.
