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This is the 60th Indianapolis 500, run on May 30, 1976.
NOTE: While I use the host segments for the Indy 500: The Classics airing of the highlight film, this is, in fact, a combined version between the SpeedVision version and ESPN's Legends of the Brickyard series, which started with this race. Thus virtually the entire film is presented in one upload.
The month of May at Indy in 1976 began with a horrifying crash by Eddie Miller, one of the first of the Super Vee graduates, who brushed the wall coming off turn one during a practice run and then spun through the infield, over the catchfence, and under the infield scoreboard. But aside from that incident, the month of May at Indy in '76 was a very safe month.
While the battle for the pole position figured to be between 1974 Indy champion Johnny Rutherford and A.J. Foyt, who was bidding to become the first to win the pole position three years in a row, Foyt encountered handling problems during his qualifying run, allowing Rutherford to take his secoind Indy pole. For some reason, much like the film of the 1974 race, there is no mention at all of the runs of the other two front row drivers, in this case, Gordon Johncock and Tom Sneva, though other drivers' qualifying runs are mentioned, such as Al and Bobby Unser, Johnny PArson, Jr., 1975 Indy Rookie of the Year Bill Puterbaugh, Vern Schuppan, who won that honor in '76, and Mario Andretti, who actually became that year's fastest qualifier during the second weekend of time trials.
1976 is notable because of two other things. The first was the opening of the IMS Hall of Fame, as we see Tony Hulman and Karl Kaiser take Bud Lindemann, of Car and Track fame (and who would narrate the Indy films for the next three years, taking the mantle from Marvin Miller, who narrated this film) through the Hall of Fame museum. The second was the effort by Janet Guthrie to become the first woman to qualify for the race, but a litany of problems kept her from even making a qualifying run. In addition, we go inside the paddock to look at the Patrick Racing Team's efforts with Herb Porter and George Bignotti.
For some reason, there's a heavy emphasis in this presentation on the efforts of Grant King's team, and particularly journeyman driver John Martin, who does gives you a look at how driving the track felt like back then.
As for the race itself, Johnny Rutherford and A.J. Foyt, for the most part, had the duel many expected them to have during qualifications, as they dominated the race. On the 10th lap, 1973 USAC champion Roger McCluskey crashed in turn three, the race's only crash. He was the fourth driver to drop out of the race. Only two others, David Hobbs and Gary Bettenhausen, would fall out after McCluskey's crash. On the pit stop sequence during that caution, Foyt's team left the adjusting wrech in, and just after the restart on lap 14, it fell off, causing another brief caution. The Patrick Racing duo of Wally Dallenbach and Gordon Johncock led laps 17-37, but after Tom Sneva stopped on the 39th lap, Rutherford and Foyt led the rest of the way. Just after Rutherford's pit stop on the 60th lap, Foyt caught a big break when Johnny Parsons, Jr. lost a wheel, allowing Foyt to stop under caution and gain a 9 second lead, but at about that same time, Foyt suffered a broken sway bar (which wasn't discovered until after the race was stopped for rain on lap 103), allowing Rutherford to rapidly close in as weather was approaching. JR blew by A.J., and then rapidly pulled away, building a 15 second lead before Jerry Grant brought out the caution just before halfway, and then the rains came, stopping the race just after the halfway mark. Despite the efforts of the IMS crews, they could never get the race restarted, and Rutherford became the only Indianapolis 500 winner to walk into victory lane.
The biggest surprise of the race (other than the one caused by the weather) was the run of Salt Walther, who ran with the biggest names in the sport and more than held his own, finishing ninth in a top ten that included Rutherford, Foyt, Johncock (third), Dallenbach (fourth), Pancho Carter (fifth), Tom Sneva (sixth), Al Unser (seventh), Mario Andretti (eighth), and Bobby Unser (tenth). Because of the race only going 102 laps (making it the shortest race in Indy history), a record 27 cars were running at the finish.
All credits go to SPEED (SpeedVision, the predecessor to the SPEED Channel, aired much of the content in this presentation), ESPN/The Walt Disney Company, who also aired quite a bit of what is seen in this video, USAC, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and Championship Racefilms.
If there are any others who I'm forgetting, please let me know so I can add them to the list of those to credit.
28 дек 2019
