Once upon a time..the "Great American Race" wasn't held in Florida. Here's a little historical document from those golden days of yesteryear.
I love it that ABC hired Paul Page. Yeah, I'm a road race boy..but I'm still an "American". I used to listen to the 500 on the radio every year when I was a kid.
First hour of this vid will not be interesting to folks who are just looking for the race footage. OTOH, there's some really cool stuff in it as ABC tries to treat the 500 like other TV companies have done the Super Bowl. Danny, his mom, and the cookies? Sam Posey interviews The Captain? And is it 'foreshadowing' that they spent so much time bothering Mr. Mears?
A note to my friends & subscribers elsewhere in the world..here in the US, we don't hold Remembrance Day in November like everyone else. We call it "Memorial Day", and it's in the spring.
So much for the 'social commentary' stuff..let's go racing.
Danny drops the hammer, and is immediately forced to slow down after 1/3rd of a lap. Brayton catches Guerrero back in the pack, and the world is yellow.
On the restart, Danny seems to tow the entire Unser family (except for Uncle Bobby, who is in the commentary booth) behind him. They go run pretty good!
More yellows, and not just for contact. AJ loses the handle on that pig with no grip. So does Steve Chassey. Mario and Al Jr. try to fix stuff that broke, but didn't break bad enough to put them in the fence.
"Old guy, did that really happen?!?" stuff: Yes. The beer can yellow, and the dead rabbit yellow are both here. I didn't record the times during the upload, but I will look for them once the upload process is complete.
And again...just watch the guy up front doing the deed. Rick Mears built a lead, kept his cool, and just hit his marks. Hell, IMO..finishing under FCY after Michael lost his side-pod was the only reason he didn't win it by a lap or more. At the finish, there's already confusion over the official results, but none of those things keeps Rick from having his face carved onto the Borg-Warner trophy for a third time.
Aside to my SCCA folks: Source tape from the collection of Jacob W. and M. Vivian Shoemaker. I really don't know why Jake & Vivian taped the whole damn day, but I'm glad they did!
29 фев 2016
