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This is the 63rd Indianapolis 500, run on May 27, 1979.
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. Thus virtually the entire film is presented in one upload.
1979 was a year of change in sports, and Indycar racing was certainly no exception. However, the change in IndyCar racing that took place in 1979 was, to say the least, acrimonial. That year, a group of car owners, including Roger Penske, Pat Patrick, and Dan Gurney, formed Championship auto Racing Teams, or CART. And when the Indianapolis Motor Speedway opened in 1979, the CART teams were initially denied entry into the Indianapolis 500, launching court battles and a year of controversy. In addition to that, USAC, which sanctioned the Indianapolis 500, lowered the maximum amount of turbocharger boost pressure, and the controversy that ensued over that resulted in an extra qualifying day and a 35-car field. There was also controversy regarding whether Danny Ongais would be allowed to drive in the race following a practice crash, and the controversies even spread into the race itself, when a scoring snafu following the first series of pit stops resulted in Mike Mosley's Dan Gurney-prepared car not being credited with a lap it completed, something that wasn't discovered until well after the race ended.
During qualifications, which were delayed a day by rain, the big headline was whether Tom Sneva would become the first driver to win the pole position three years in a row. It wasn't until former teammate Rick Mears, the last man eligible to win the pole, qualified at over 193 MPH, snatched the pole spot from Sneva, denying the Gasman that piece of history, which has still never been achieved. Al Unser, seeking to win back-to-back Indianapolis 500s for the second time, and who had won the previous four 500-mile IndyCar races in a row, completed the front row. Ongais later qualified his back-up car 27th for the race.
Also seen is the finals of the third addition of the now-annual pit stop contest, which was won by Sneva's team. Afterwards, for the first time since 1933, extra cars are added to the field on the day before the race. Any car that could have qualified faster than the slowest qualified car would be added to the field. Two did, with Billy Vukovich II and George Snider being added as the 34th and 35th starters.
As chaotic as the run-up to the race was in 1979, the race itself went off just as smoothly. Al Unser dominated in Jim Hall's new Chapparal car, the first modern ground effects IndyCar. However, for some reason gearboxes were to be a particular problem in this race. The first such victim was 2-time winner Johnny Rutherford, who lost his top gear near the halfway point, followed by Al Unser, who had a transmission seal go bad, ending his run at a fourth Indy win, and handing the lead to his older brother Bobby, who controlled the second half of the race as Al had the first half.
The 1979 Indianapolis 500 was accident-free until Larry Rice barely touched the wall on the 156th lap. By this time, Only the elder Unser and pole sitter Mears were on the same lap, but with 20 laps remaining, the same problem that eliminated Rutherford from contention would do the same to Bobby Unser, as he also lost his top gear, and moments later, A.J. Foyt passed Mears to join the lead lap. With 10 laps remaining, the rear wing on Tom Sneva's car broke, resulting in a hard crash and a restart with 5 laps remaining. The only drama Mears dealt with was a hard charging Mosley unlapping himself on the final lap as Mears sped to the win, but as that happened, Foyt's car died and he coasted across the finish line just seconds ahead of Mosley, who actually took the white flag twice.
Mears' win ushered in a changing of the guard in IndyCar racing, as he would go on to the first of three national championships in four years. Following Foyt and Mosley were Ongais, who scored a career-best fourth place finish ay Indy, Bobby Unser, still running in third gear was fifth, Gordon Johncock was sixth, Howdy Holmes, despite a very unscheduled early pit stop, still wound up seventh (he locked up Rookie of the Year simply by qualifying, as he was the only Indy rookie that year), Vukovich was eighth, Tom Bagley ninth, and Spike Gehlhausen, in a team car to Johncock's, completed the top ten (and there were scoring issues similar to those involved with Mosley regarding Gehlhausen).
The 1979 Indianapolis 500 would also be the last Indianapolis 500 for starter Pat Vidan, the chief starter since 1962. In addition, this was probably the last racing film narrated by the legendary Bud Lindemann.
5 мар 2022
