Highlights from the the Indianapolis 500, Runnings 41-50

Associated PressApr 19, 2016, 10:15 AM EDT
Graham Hill won 50th running in 1966. Photo: IMS Archives
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The Associated Press has compiled a list of highlights of all past Indianapolis 500 races, as the buildup to the 100th running presented by PennGrade Motor Oil takes place this May 29.

Here are runnings 31-40, from 1957 through 1966.

Past pieces:

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RACE: 41st Indianapolis 500

DATE: May 30, 1957

WINNER: Sam Hanks

AVERAGE SPEED: 135.601 mph

WHAT HAPPENED: Hanks won the Indy 500, then promptly retired in victory lane. Hanks is considered the only Indianapolis 500 driver who competed in the race before World War II, served in combat, then raced again in Indy after the war. He drove the pace car at Indy from 1958 to 1963.

NOTABLE: Hanks won $103,844 in prize money, the first time a winner took home a six-figure purse. The total race purse was a record $300,000.

—

RACE: 42nd Indianapolis 500

DATE: May 30, 1958

WINNER: Jimmy Bryan

AVERAGE SPEED: 133.791 mph

WHAT HAPPENNED: Bryan, who would later die from injuries in a champ car race, won a race marred by a multi-car pileup that killed Pat O’Connor. Bryan won in the same car used by 1957 winner Sam Hanks. The 29-year-old O’Connor was killed in an accident on the first lap of the race. His car overturned and burst into flames.

NOTABLE: The 1958 race marked the debut of four-time Indy 500 winner A.J. Foyt. He finished 16th after his car spun on an oil slick and he completed 148 of the 200 laps.

—

RACE: 43rd Indianapolis 500

DATE: May 30, 1959

WINNER: Rodger Ward

AVERAGE SPEED: 135.857 mph

WHAT HAPPENED: Ward won the first of his two career Indy 500s in perhaps the most competitive race at the point. Indy had a record 16 cars complete all 200 miles. Ward would later call Indy car races in the late 1960s.

NOTABLE: At this point in Indy’s history, death on the track was still a regular occurrence and 1959 was no exception. Driver Jerry Unser and Bob Cortner were both killed in accidents leading up to the race.

—

RACE: 44th Indianapolis 500

DATE: May 30, 1960

WINNER: Jim Rathmann

AVERAGE SPEED: 138.767 mph

WHAT HAPPENED: Widely considered one of the greatest finishes in Indy 500 history, Rathmann and Roger Ward were entwined in a two-car duel to the finish. There were a record 29 lead changes and Rathman finally took the lead with three laps left once Ward was forced to slow down because of tire issues. Rathmann topped Ward by just 12.75 seconds, then the second-closest finish in Indy history.

NOTABLE: Tragedy struck again, but in the stands, not on the track when a privately owned temporary scaffold collapsed, killing two people and injuring at least 82. The homemade scaffold tipped over under the weight of about 100 fans who had paid $5 to $10 a seat in the infield of the speedway’s northeast turn.

—

RACE: 45th Indianapolis 500

DATE: May 30, 1961

WINNER: A. J. Foyt

AVERAGE SPEED: 139.130 mph

WHAT HAPPENED: Foyt, one of the greatest drivers in history, breaks through and wins the first of his four Indianapolis 500s. He took the lead with four laps left and nipped Eddie Sachs by just 8.28 seconds. Foyt won the last race with exposed brick as the entire Indianapolis Motor Speedway surface was paved in asphalt, with just a single yard of bricks at the start/finish line left exposed – the same as it is today.

NOTABLE: Tony Bettenhausen Sr. was killed in a crash during practice in early May. Also, track worker John Masariu of the fire/safety crew was killed following a wreck on the track.

—

RACE: 46th Indianapolis 500

DATE: May 30, 1962

WINNER: Rodger Ward

AVERAGE SPEED: 140.293 mph

WHAT HAPPENED: Ward won his second Indy 500 to pair with his 1959 triumph. He led the final 31 laps and made it a 1-2 finish with Leader Cards teammate Len Sutton. The sweep marked the first one since Blue Crown went back-to-back in 1947 and 1948. Parnelli Jones started on the pole and led 120 laps before he faded to seventh.

NOTABLE: Jones became the first driver to top 150 mph when he hit 150.729 on his pole day run. He averaged 150.370 mph over his four laps and broke the 150 mark in each one.

—

RACE: 47th Indianapolis 500

DATE: May 30, 1963

WINNER: Parnelli Jones

AVERAGE SPEED: 143.137 mph

WHAT HAPPENED: Jones won the pole for the second straight year and his speed of 151.150 mph set the track record. Jones’ win came with some controversy because he was not black-flagged when his car started spewing oil and mucked up the track for several laps. The oil was believed responsible for at least one crash.

NOTABLE: NASCAR driver Junior Johnson failed to qualify for the race. Jim Clark and Dan Gurney were the final two cars in Indy history to use carburetors – though one of Indy’s biggest events, “Carb Day,” remains. All cars to this day use fuel injection.

—

RACE: 48th Indianapolis 500

DATE: May 30, 1964

WINNER: A. J. Foyt

AVERAGE SPEED: 147.350 mph

WHAT HAPPENED: Foyt won the second of his four Indy 500s. Here’s something that would never happen today – Foyt raced all 500 miles on the same tires. His car was never restored to pre-race condition and remains in the collection of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame and Museum. Defending champion Parnelli Jones dropped out of the race after a fire on pit road and finished 23rd.

NOTABLE: Drivers Eddie Sachs and Dave MacDonald were killed in a fiery crash on just the second lap. Sachs was killed instantly. MacDonald was alive and taken to the infield care center. He later died at a hospital.

—

RACE: 49th Indianapolis 500

DATE: May 31, 1965

WINNER: Jim Clark

AVERAGE SPEED: 150.686 mph

WHAT HAPPENED: British driver Jim Clark started from the front row and led the most laps (190) since Bill Vukovich led 195 in 1953. Clark became the first driver to win the Indy 500 and Formula One World Championship in the same year. Mario Andretti, the 1969 winner, made his debut in the race. Cursed? Nope, he finished third.

NOTABLE: The race aired on ABC Sports for the first time under the “Wide World of Sports” banner.

—

RACE: 50th Indianapolis 500

DATE: May 30, 1966

WINNER: Graham Hill

AVERAGE SPEED: 144.317 mph

WHAT HAPPENED: The milestone 50th running was a disaster from the start when 11 of the 33 cars were eliminated in the wake of a first-lap accident on the main stretch. Only four cars finished 200 laps, led by Hill, and he became just the second rookie to win the race. There wouldn’t be another winner in his first Indy 500 until Juan Pablo Montoya in 2000.

NOTABLE: A.J. Foyt was the only driver seriously injured in the wreck and it didn’t happen behind the wheel. Long before Helio Castroneves made it an art form, Foyt hurt his hands trying to scale the fence and escape the wreck.

 

‘It’s gnarly, bro’: IndyCar drivers face new challenge on streets of downtown Detroit

By Jun 2, 2023, 7:32 PM EDT
IndyCar Detroit downtown
James Black/Penske Entertainment
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DETROIT – It was the 1968 motion picture, “Winning” when actress Joanne Woodward asked Paul Newman if he were going to Milwaukee in the days after he won the Indianapolis 500 as driver Frank Capua.

“Everybody goes to Milwaukee after Indianapolis,” Newman responded near the end of the film.

Milwaukee was a mainstay as the race on the weekend after the Indianapolis 500 for decades, but since 2012, the first race after the Indy 500 has been Detroit at Belle Isle Park.

This year, there is a twist.

Instead of IndyCar racing at the Belle Isle State Park, it’s the streets of downtown Detroit on a race course that is quite reminiscent of the old Formula One and CART race course that was used from 1982 to 1991.

Formula One competed in the United States Grand Prix from 1982 to 1988. Beginning in 1989, CART took over the famed street race through 1991. In 1992, the race was moved to Belle Isle, where it was held through last year (with a 2009-2011 hiatus after the Great Recession).

The Penske Corp. is the promoter of this race, and they did a lot of good at Belle Isle, including saving the Scott Fountain, modernizing the Belle Isle Casino, and basically cleaning up the park for Detroit citizens to enjoy.

The race, however, had outgrown the venue. Roger Penske had big ideas to create an even bigger event and moving it back to downtown Detroit benefitted race sponsor Chevrolet. The footprint of the race course goes around General Motors world headquarters in the GM Renaissance Center – the centerpiece building of Detroit’s modernized skyline.

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Motor City is about to roar with the sound of Chevrolet and Honda engines this weekend as the NTT IndyCar Series is the featured race on the nine-turn, 1.7-mile temporary street course.

It’s perhaps the most unique street course on the IndyCar schedule because of the bumps on the streets and the only split pit lane in the series.

The pit lanes has stalls on opposing sides and four lanes across an unusual rectangular pit area (but still only one entry and exit).

Combine that, with the bumps and the NTT IndyCar Series drivers look forward to a wild ride in Motor City.

“It’s gnarly, bro,” Arrow McLaren driver Pato O’Ward said before posting the fastest time in Friday’s first practice. “It will be very interesting because the closest thing that I can see it being like is Toronto-like surfaces with more of a Long Beach-esque layout.

“There’s less room for error than Long Beach. There’s no curbs. You’ve got walls. I think very unique to this place.

PRACTICE RESULTS: Speeds from the first session

“Then it’s a bit of Nashville built into it. The braking zones look really very bumpy. Certain pavements don’t look bumpy but with how the asphalt and concrete is laid out, there’s undulation with it. So, you can imagine the cars are going to be smashing on every single undulation because we’re going to go through those sections fairly fast, and obviously the cars are pretty low. I don’t know.

“It looks fun, man. It’s definitely going to be a challenge. It’s going to be learning through every single session, not just for drivers and teams but for race control. For everyone.

“Everybody has to go into it knowing not every call is going to be smooth. It’s a tall task to ask from such a demanding racetrack. I think it’ll ask a lot from the race cars as well.”

The track is bumpy, but O’Ward indicated he would be surprised if it is bumper than Nashville. By comparison to Toronto, driving at slow speed is quite smooth, but fast speed is very bumpy.

“This is a mix of Nashville high-speed characteristics and Toronto slow speed in significant areas,” O’Ward said. “I think it’ll be a mix of a lot of street courses we go to, and the layout looks like more space than Nashville, which is really tight from Turn 4 to 8. It looks to be a bit more spacious as a whole track, but it’ll get tight in multiple areas.”

The concept of having four-wide pit stops is something that excites the 24-year-old driver from Monterey, Mexico.

“I think it’s innovation, bro,” O’Ward said. “If it works out, we’ll look like heroes.

“If it doesn’t, we tried.”

Because of the four lanes on pit road, there is a blend line the drivers will have to adhere to. Otherwise, it would be chaos leaving the pits compared to a normal two-lane pit road.

“If it wasn’t there, there’d be guys fighting for real estate where there’s one car that fits, and there’d be cars crashing in pit lane,” O’Ward said. “I get why they did that. It’s the same for everybody. I don’t think there’s a lot of room to play with. That’s the problem.

“But it looks freaking gnarly for sure. Oh my God, that’s going to be crazy.”

Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing believes the best passing areas will be on the long straights because of the bumps in the turns. That is where much of the action will be in terms of gaining or losing a position in the race.

“It will also be really easy to defend in my opinion,” Palou said. “Being a 180-degree corner, you just have to go on the inside and that’s it. There’s going to be passes for sure but its’ going to be risky.

“Turn 1, if someone dives in, you end up in the wall. They’re not going to be able to pass you on the exit, so maybe with the straight being so long you can actually pass before you end up on the braking zone.”

Palou’s teammate, Marcus Ericsson, was at the Honda simulator in Brownsburg, Indiana, before coming to Detroit and said he was shocked by the amount of bumps on the simulator.

Race promoter Bud Denker, the President of Penske Corporation, and Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix President Michael Montri, sent the track crews onto the streets with grinders to smooth out the bumps on the race course several weeks ago.

“They’ve done a decent amount of work, and even doing the track walk, it looked a lot better than what we expected,” Ericsson said. “I don’t think it’ll be too bad. I hope not. That’ll be something to take into account.

“I think the track layout doesn’t look like the most fun. Maybe not the most challenging. But I love these types of tracks with rules everywhere. It’s a big challenge, and you have to build up to it. That’s the types of tracks that I love to drive. It’s a very much Marcus Ericsson type of track. I like it.”

Scott Dixon, who was second fastest in the opening session, has competed on many new street circuits throughout his legendary racing career. The six-time NTT IndyCar Series champion for Chip Ganassi Racing likes the track layout, even with the unusual pit lane.

“I don’t think that’s going to be something that catches on where every track becomes a double barrel,” Dixon said. “It’s new and interesting.

“As far as pit exit, I think Toronto exit is worse with how the wall sticks out. I think in both lanes, you’ve got enough lead time to make it and most guys will make a good decision.”

It wasn’t until shortly after 3 p.m. ET on Friday that the IndyCar drivers began the extended 90-minute practice session to try out the race course for the first time in real life.

As expected, there were several sketchy moments, but no major crashes during the first session despite 19 local yellow flags for incidents and two red flags.

Rookie Agustin Canapino had to cut his practice short after some damage to his No. 78 Dallara-Chevrolet, but he was among many who emerged mostly unscathed from scrapes with the wall.

“It was honestly less carnage than I expected,” said Andretti Autosport’s Kyle Kirkwood, who was third fastest in the practice after coming off his first career IndyCar victory in the most recent street race at Long Beach in April. “I think a lot of people went off in the runoffs, but no one actually hit the wall (too hard), which actually surprised me. Hats off to them for keeping it clean, including myself.

“It was quite a bit less grip than I think everyone expected. Maybe a little bit more bumpy down into Turn 3 than everyone expected. But overall they did a good job between the two manufacturers. I’m sure everyone had pretty much the same we were able to base everything off of. We felt pretty close to maximum right away.”

Most of the preparation for this event was done either on the General Motors Simulator in Huntersville, North Carolina, or the Honda Performance Development simulator in Brownsburg, Indiana.

“Now, we have simulators that can scan the track, so we have done plenty of laps already,” Power told NBC Sports. “They have ground and resurfaced a lot of the track, so it should be smoother.

“But nothing beats real-world experience. It’s going to be a learning experience in the first session.”

As a Team Penske driver, Power and his teammates were consulted about the progress and layout of the Detroit street course. They were shown what was possible with the streets that were available.

“We gave some input back after we were on the similar what might be ground and things like that,” Power said.

Racing on the streets of Belle Isle was a fairly pleasant experience for the fans and corporate sponsor that compete in the race.

But the vibe at the new location gives this a “big event” feel.

“The atmosphere is a lot better,” Power said. “The location, the accessibility for the fans, the crowd that will be here, it’s much easier. I think it will be a much better event.

“It feels like a Long Beach, only in a much bigger city. That is what street course racing is all about.”

Because the track promoter is also the team owner, Power and teammates Scott McLaughlin and Indy 500 winner Josef Newgarden will have a very busy weekend on the track, and with sponsor and personal appearances.

“That’s what pays the bills and allows us to do this,” Power said.

Follow Bruce Martin on Twitter at @BruceMartin_500