In addition to
the Month of May countdown, we’re also looking back at the front rows of the
1970s, which included some of the most accomplished drivers in the history of
the Indianapolis 500.
Faithful
readers of this space know that this decade is part of my personal golden age
at the Speedway. I’m grateful I got to witness much of it first-hand as a boy.
Here’s a
statistical look at the front-row drivers of the 1970s:
|
Driver
|
Indianapolis
500 poles (career)
|
Indianapolis
500 wins (career)
|
|
Al Unser
|
1
|
4
|
|
Johnny
Rutherford
|
3
|
3
|
|
A.J. Foyt
|
4
|
4
|
|
Peter Revson
|
1
|
0
|
|
Mark Donohue
|
0
|
1
|
|
Bobby Unser
|
2
|
3
|
|
Wally
Dallenbach
|
0
|
0
|
|
Mike Hiss
|
0
|
0
|
|
Gordon
Johncock
|
0
|
2
|
|
Tom Sneva
|
3
|
1
|
|
Danny Ongais
|
0
|
0
|
|
Rick Mears
|
6
|
4
|
|
Totals
|
20
|
22
|
For each year,
we’ll have the front row, how many Indianapolis 500 wins were represented on
the front row at the start of the race, the number of Indianapolis 500 wins in
the drivers’ respective careers, and a brief recap of practice, qualifying and
the race.
 |
Penske Entertainment/Indianapolis Motor Speedway Peter Revson was the surprise pole-winner for the 1971 Indianapolis 500, edging
Mark Donohue. Bobby Unser was on the outside. |
1971 front row:
Peter Revson (pole), Mark Donohue, Bobby Unser
How it
started: 1 Indianapolis 500 victory. Bobby Unser’s triumph in 1968
accounted for the only 500 win before Pat Vidan’s green flag that year.
How it
ended: 4 Indianapolis 500 victories. Bobby Unser became the first to win
the Indianapolis 500 in three different decades (and with three different
teams) when he splashed to victory in Dan Gurney’s Jorgensen Eagle in the
rain-shortened 1975 event and won in Roger Penske’s Norton Spirit in 1981 in
what turned out to be his final 500 start. That meant Unser was last in his
first 500 and first in his last 500. (His win in 1968 came with Leader Card.)
Donohue, expected to dominate the 1971 race, got his redemption the following
year, earning Penske’s first of 20 (and counting) Indianapolis 500 victories.
About the
1971 race: Before getting to the race, let’s recap practice and qualifying.
Donohue’s performance in practice was literally off the charts as he consistently
lapped above 180 mph – a speed that wasn’t on at least some of the lap
time-and-speed conversions. In qualifying, Donohue did shatter the one- and
four-lap qualifications marks (178.607 mph and 177.087 mph, respectively) in
his Sunoco McLaren, but fell short of the 180 everyone expected him to hit.
Revson, also in
a McLaren (part of the McLaren works team with Denis Hulme), topped Donohue’s
marks with 179.354 mph and 178.696 mph. Some sources indicate that Donohue was
not happy with how his car was set up and either willingly or off-handedly
provided McLaren’s Teddy Mayer some insight on what went wrong and how to correct
it. Other sources say that Penske, always one for taking the long view,
willingly offered setup information to Team McLaren to remain in its good
graces.
Of course, a
great setup works only if you have a talented driver, and certainly Revson must
be given credit for doing an outstanding job to edge Donohue for the pole. This
gave him a bit of retribution as Revson felt that his performance in 1969
merited Rookie of the Year honors instead of Donohue. (Revson started 33rd
and finished fifth, two spots better than Donohue, who had started fourth.)
On Race Day,
Donohue shot away from the field and dominated before dropping out after 66
laps with a shattered gearbox. Revson stayed in the fight most of the race,
while Bobby Unser was eliminated when he crashed trying to avoid Mike Mosley,
who hit the wall coming out of Turn 4 on Lap 164.
That left it to
Al Unser to take home the Borg-Warner Trophy for the second straight year. In typical Al Unser fashion, he
stayed near the front all day, drove a heady, steady race and beat Revson to
the checkered flag by 22.48 seconds.
#Indy500
#ThisIsMay @Team_Penske @IMS @IndyCar @IMSMuseum @ArrowMcLaren
