In addition to the usual Month of May countdown, we’re also recounting the front rows of the 1970s, which included some of the most accomplished drivers in the history of the Indianapolis 500.
Next to him was Bobby Unser, with defending winner Mark Donohue on the outside.
1973 front
row: Johnny Rutherford (pole), Bobby Unser, Mark Donohue
How it
started: 2 Indianapolis 500 victories – Bobby Unser (1968) and Mark Donohue
(1972)
How it
ended: 7 Indianapolis 500 victories – Johnny Rutherford (1974, 1976, 1980),
Bobby Unser (1968, 1975, 1981), Mark Donohue (1972)
About the
1973 race: The entire Month of May in 1973 was seemingly cursed.
Anticipation and excitement over the first 200 mph lap at Indianapolis
dominated the early days of practice, though nobody was able to get
particularly close to that mark. During the practice session before the first
day of qualifications, popular veteran driver Art Pollard was fatally injured
in a crash, casting a pall over the day. Johnny Rutherford brightened spirits
with a lap tantalizingly close to the magic 200 mph mark at 199.071 mph on this
third qualifying lap. His four-lap average was 198.413 mph.
For the third straight
time, McLaren, All American Racers and Penske cars were on the front row.
The start of
the race, which was on Monday, Memorial Day, was delayed into the afternoon
because of rain. Then when the green flag fell, Salt Walther was involved in a
multi-car crash on the front stretch that severely burned Walther and also
injured a number of fans. The rains returned, delaying the race for another
day. When it rained again, the 500 was pushed to a third day, which was
Wednesday.
These
circumstances allowed me to attend my first Indianapolis 500 because we had
tickets left from people who were staying with us for the race, but had to
return home and go to work after Monday’s mess. The announcement that the race
was happening was a rather hurried and confusing situation – basically if you
were tuned to WIBC, you heard they were going to give it a go. So my mother
grabbed me, my sister and a few older neighbor girls and we trekked over.
Sadly, Swede
Savage lost his life after a terrible crash coming out of Turn 4. Armando
Teran, a crewman on the Patrick Racing Team, died after being hit by a fire
truck speeding to the site of Savage’s wreck. We left after that – that was
enough for us.
We listened to
the rest of the race at home on the radio. We were happy for Gordon Johncock
when he was declared the winner after the race was stopped after 133 laps
because of – you guessed it – rain. Just a very grim event all the way around.
#Indy500
#ThisIsMay #UncleBobby @Team_Penske @IMS @IndyCar @IMSMuseum @ArrowMcLarenSP
@McLarenIndy
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