@@Yosemite-George-61 because this is more important than his incredible knowledge of the sport and his selfless efforts to lead the charge for a safer sport. His pushed for safety has saved countless lives. Jackie Stewart is a legend both on and off the track.
Love the old races and the race coverage. They really were able to separate the men underneath the helmet from just being a race car driver. To hear Jim McKay say “Rick Myers” though…awesome!
Jim Hall took Indy Car racing by storm when he started in 1978. He won the 500 in his 1st year as a team owner, revolutionized the sport in 1979 with the passive ground-effect Chaparral 2K, then won the race again in 1980.
The 1978 500 marked the start of ten straight years of Cosworth DFX V8 domination at Indianapolis. The whistling wailing exhaust notes of those old Cosworths were glorious.
I love how the guy at 6:58 absolutely loses his mind and screams, “You got it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” after Mary Hulman commands them to start their engines.
I was listening to the radio broadcast of the race that morning, and their mic picked up more than what the tv network heard. He actually said "YOU GOT IT RIGHT!!!!!!!....YEEEAAAHHHH"!!!!!!!!!!!
There's so much nostalgia in this video. There's the legendary drivers and commentators. The graphics and music. The Indy cars and Corvette pace cars. There's a lot of other things too. Great video. I'm so happy it was uploaded in such great quality.
I know....I was only 9 years old at this time...My Grandfather worked on Larry Dickson 's car #80....Larry drove Sprint car for my Grandfather just a few yrs earlier...This makes my heart ache !
@ 7:26 you can hear one car revving the engine over and over and over again. This sounds SO cool. This was back in the day when Indy cars sounded like real race cars. I still love present day Indy Car racing, but geez, when they start the engines of today's cars they sound like lawn mowers instead of race cars.
Back when the 500 was fun,entertaining both the race and the fans. The infield was drive in, park and have a good time,lawn chairs with cooler of beer. Now infield is mostly bleachers and times have changed to military style security entry and limited personal items allowed.
He was leading the race in 1966 as a rookie by more than a lap when his car broke with 10 laps remaining. That enabled another Indy rookie, 1962 World Champion Graham Hill, to win the race. And it was Stewart, not Hill, who won the race, that was named Indy's Rookie of the Year that year.
@@healthyone100 Agree, hey Rossi! Dave Marr always called Rosburg Rossi! When Jack Whitaker left CBS for ABC that was great also! Jack the erudite wordsmith was awesome! The later Shell's Wonderful World of Golf on ABC was great!
@@jacksmith5692 Open wheel racing on dirt and asphalt is my favorite sport grew up around it, !973 was my first 500 (bad year), always remember the intro theme to the U.S. Open "Loves theme) by Barry White really put me in the mood for golf, Tom Watson and Hale Irwin were my favorite Golfers remember when they both won the Open!
@@jacksmith5692 Remember when Jack Whitaker did his first 500 on ABC he was riding in the back of the pace car on the parade lap he said he never felt anything like that in his life he had chills running through his body!
@Silvain D; Yes those were the BEST days of the 500. When every car was a vision of that one specific designer/builder, not the cookie cutter spec racing series which we've had to accept since 1997. Ps, I Loved the roadster era; post WW ll through 1965
Said it more than once...the ONLY TIME one driver won all three major 500-mile races in a single season. And the only time I was able to see all three races in a single season. Al Unser Sr. was a fantastic driver. Too bad he took that Longhorn deal and left Team Hall.
Roger McCluskey --- spanned the Indy motorsports evolution like no other driver --- drove Offy roadsters with skinny tires --- and now in this race --- not many people know that he was credited with saving Mario Andretti's life.
@TDale Martin; Thank you Sir for recognizing Roger McCluskey, he has been a hero of mine since those beautiful Offy, Watson style roadster days. I have a Speedway official post qualifying photo of Rog sitting in his #14 black and gold Konstant Hot Special circa 1963. That year he was running third to Parnelli Jones and Jimmy Clark when he spun out in turn one on the last (200th) lap. I recall that he finished way down in the order and there were only 12 cars running at he end. A good 3rd place finish may have altered his career, enabling him to get ride offers in better cars. (Please note that Roger ALWAYS got the most from ever car he ever drove.) Robin Miller highlighted Roger in his "Tough Guys" series several years ago, it's on RU-vid. Anyway, I wish there were more fans such as yourself that remembered and heralded Roger McCluskey for the Great Race Car Driver that he was!
@@timford3599 Thank you, he was a hero of mine too. I remember that '63 race because I was scoring it from live radio. I was just a kid ... but when you grow up in Indianapolis the month of May was IT. And I was always rooting for Roger.
Back when the 500 was the official start of summer. Loved to grow up listening to this every year throughout the 70s to the 90s. Wish it was the same...
Say what your want about Salt Walther, but I saw him do one of the most selfless things at the California 500 in the late seventies at the Ontario Motor Speedway. He was probably the most in contention that he was ever in an IndyCar race. Danny Ongais crashed on the back straight and got upside down. Salt was in sixth place, or something like that, and he stopped his car on the back straight to help Danny. I will never forget this. RIP Salt.
It's both incredibly refreshing yet simultaneously depressing to see how less commercialized sports broadcasting in general but especially auto racing was then compared to now. Today it's so disgusting to watch a race with literally every possible contrived opportunity, no matter how absurd,, for getting a check from somebody for sponsoring ANYTHING, including the RESTART ZONE, seeing a driver humiliating himself by drinking an obviously fake sip from an obviously empty can of his sponsor's poison 'energy drink' like a mindless robotic windup toy...literally every piece of an event and human beings participating sliced, diced and sold off. It's cheapened and demeaned the sports and events beyond redemption. To watch an Indy 500 that's actually about THE INDY 500, not about endless pimping of anything for anyone, and described by broadcasters that wouldn't have been caught dead saying something like 'the Dominos Pizza Pit Lane' or 'we have another Charmin Toilet Paper Yellow Flag' is to see a phenomenal glimpse into an America that still had some sense of dignity and integrity,. And the events meant so much more as a result. We sold out this society to such a degree I doubt anyone under 35 would even have a clue what the term even means. 'What else IS there but branding and selling things and yourself, and buying things and others? How can anything or anyone be anything other than a brand, a commodity? What else could possibly have meaning or value? HUH??'
Al Unser a three-time winner at this point there would be another down the line. Tom Sneva earning the name of bride's maid at Indy he would have four second places before he would win. Al Unser would win four STRAIGHT 500-mile races from 1977 to 1978. In 1977 he won the California 500 at Ontario Motor Speedway then in 1978 he went on to win Indy, Pocono, and win the California 500 again making four 500-mile race wins. I miss the old Indy Cars when you had two totally different engines, Offy & Cosworth, and many different chassis' like: Penske, Wildcat, Coyote, Lola, Eagle and Lightning all in one race. Oh, those were the days.
A very good explanation of the Electro Pacer system. It was easy to take advantage of it, just make a pit stop, the pace does not apply to the pit. Bobby Unser used this much.
I was 5 years old when this race aired. Crazy how little information you get compared to now. Every now and then you get the top 5 but they hardly ever tell you what lap they are on. I do not miss those days.
ABC went 2 hours and 10 minutes with the coverage so they could show some of the pre race festivities. 1980 is when they went to three hours and of course 1986 is when they went live.
My bro and dad used to listen to the race live on the radio so by the time the coverage aired we already know who won. The race that sticks in my mind was when Cogan hit Foyt at the start of the 82 500
The Walther deal still happens these days. Ronnie Dawes did the same thing to Jimmy Kite when he made the race with Hemelgarn. He changed the entire car the day before the race on Kite and he couldn't drive it and he had to park it. it still pisses Kite off to this day
This is what RU-vid is about. Someone has recorded this 40 years ago. Now it is digitally backed up for every one to see. Untill ABC/Disney go medieval on this 😉
Its crazy to think that 40 years ago the pole sitting time was 201mph. fast forward to today and the average speed is about 238mph out of a twin turbo v6. Crazy how far Technology has come.
Matthew Blach Well In 1996 the current still standing track record was set at like 241 mph. Today 238 is average to almost slow. Then Tony George killed the innovation from INDY with his split and having spec chassis and engines. To bad that is still holding INDYCAR back and what could be now speeds at 250mph if Tony George didn’t have his power play with the CART owners. I wish Penske would have talked to him and say that CART teams wanted to race and were not hurting the speedway. USAC also hated foreign innovation, drivers and teams.
@Skip Tiburon I Agree 100% Skip. Makes me ask the question; Dannica Who? What?!?! Oh, you mean that disloyal little temper tantrum in a fire suit? The Great Trans Am Champion Tommy Kendall called her "Little Miss Sparkle Pony." LMAO!!!
It’s sad that Indy in May is the one of the only places you can go to nowadays where you can see a sellout crowd for a race. But that’s also what makes it so great too.
Well thank god there is a crowd back at INDY. Tony George almost killed of the Total sell out INDY 500 crowds thanks to his split from CART in the 90s when the race was a sell out for months before for years until 1996. He should be made to apologize before giving the command every year.
@@lpforever1854 Very Very few. And nothing close to Indy. Indys attendance numbers alone would sell out at least 5 other race tracks put together. Daytona took seating out (45,000 seats) a few years ago with the renovation and still struggles to sell out the Daytona 500. There are no major Racing series in the US that sell out races other than IndyCar. Nascar may have one actually and that would be the Truck race at Eldora but they maybe fit 15,000.
@@jesseg5923 I wasn´t talking about the U.S. only. There are quite a few races (Le Mans, Nürburgring, F1 races) that have high attendance figures even today.
Add the 1950' s and 1960's when those dinosaur roadsters ruled the world. Unfortunately, a lot of drivers died during those years due to poor safety standards.
In 1978 , the Citicorp Haas/Hall Lola T-333CS with 1980 F1 World Champion Alan Jones driving, also won the Citicorp Can Am Series. I'd say a very good year for Carl Haas, Jim Hall and Lola. Saw this winning Indycar in the great Chicago Museum of Science and Industry. I think it has since moved.
Absolutely..Prior to that they basically had the "honor system" where drivers were supposed to maintain the same following distance throughout the caution period. They instituted the lights to provide an additional visual cue and assist the drivers in maintaining that gap. By 1978 every other race on the USAC Championship Trail had adopted the pace car and pack-up system and the 500 was the lone holdout.
This was the last 500 before the first open wheel split, when CART was formed, and it wasn't until 2008 that everything was unified again. Also, I'm glad they did away with that whole "pacer light" thing. Penalties for something like closing too much on the car ahead could get extremely annoying.
Sir Jackie gets to show us a lap of Indy driving the winning car from 1977...and the spectator number given to us that year was 365,000. And that's INSIDE the track. There's probably another 150,000 hangers-on in or near the track. Think about it. And for those who weren't there or are too young, this was the pattern for 1978....the start, and Danny-On-The-Gas takes off into the distance. Not a surprise that he set a new record for an early lap...I hope someone loads up the California 500 from this year so you can see Danny really rip 'em. By the way, you'd think that winning ALL THREE 500 MILE RACES that the Lola chassis would be a must-have for that year and maybe the next. Nope. Didn't happen.
Somewhere in the grand stands along the outside of the north end of the front stretch, attending his 2nd "500" is a 15 year old boy named Doug Boles. Little did he know that one day he would be President of IMS.
i feel the 70s were the best Indy races, the cars were taking on a lot of changes visually and the drivetrain. Indy car and driver seem to have more grit, both were so raw. learning to trust the cars downforce in the turns, trying to find the balance weight to HP. like to have a device that could take me back in time to watch this race "live", wouldn't that be a cool device. go see yourself 50 years ago.
