30 Days in May: No. 14, Roger McCluskey, 1972 American Marine Underwriters Antares

OK, so this year’s Indianapolis 500 won’t be run in the month of May. For many of us, however, May is more than just a month – it’s a state of mind. So let’s still celebrate great cars and drivers of the past anyway!

 

Photo credit: Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Roger McCluskey drove the radical Antares in the 1972 Indianapolis 500.

30 Days in May: No. 14, Roger McCluskey, 1972 American Marine Underwriters Antares/Offy. As chronicled in some of our other entries, 1972 was a year of dramatic change at Indianapolis. This change included how cars were built. Antares Engineering, Inc., based in Troy, Michigan (a city where I used to work), jumped into Indy car construction with cars for both the Lindsey Hopkins and Patrick-Michner teams, according to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s 1972 Press/TV/Radio Fact Book.

A supposed advantage of the Antares was that it was purported to be completely designed by computers and telemetry, a radically new concept. A key distinguishing feature was the boat-shaped front end to help aerodynamics.

Unfortunately, the Antares performed better in the lab than on the track. McCluskey, a capable veteran, qualified 20^th and finished 24^th, exiting with valve trouble after 92 laps. Trivia time: This was the last time someone other than A.J. Foyt, or a Foyt driver, used the No. 14 at Indianapolis.

The Hopkins team abandoned the Antares after Indianapolis in favor of a McLaren, which McCluskey drove to victory in that year’s California 500 at Ontario Motor Speedway. McCluskey used a McLaren quite successfully in 1973 as well, winning the USAC national championship.

The Antares popped up here and there as the alleged chassis for Indianapolis 500 entries for the rest of the decade. In 1979, Eldon Rasmussen heavily reworked an Antares, then called a Manta, and qualified for the race – a tremendous testament to his talent as a builder/fabricator and skill as a driver.

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