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.
and Al Unser.
1979 Indianapolis 500 front row: Rick Mears (pole), Tom Sneva (middle), Al Unser
How it started: 3 Indianapolis 500 victories (All by Al Unser)
How it ended: 9 Indianapolis 500 victories (Rick Mears 1979, 1984, 1988, 1991; Tom Sneva 1983; Al Unser 1970, 1971, 1978, 1987)
About the 1979 race: The year 1979 was one of transition and controversy in major open-wheel racing. A new group, Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART), sprang up in the off-season. Featuring almost all the big-name drivers and teams, it held events at familiar tracks (like Phoenix and Trenton) that once were the purview of the United States Auto Club (USAC), the sanctioning body of the Indianapolis 500.
The Month of May was basically one giant headache, with lawsuits, shenanigans during time trials and an added session of qualifying – the day before the race, no less – all part of the “fun.” You can read my retrospective here.
From a competition perspective, the big news was Al Unser’s beautiful and futuristic Pennzoil Chaparral/Cosworth, one of the first “ground-effects” cars in Indy racing. No other car looked remotely like it. Not surprisingly, Unser set fast time in qualifying before Tom Sneva, going for a record third-straight pole, nudged him over one spot in his Sugaripe Prune McLaren/Cosworth.
Then, dramatically, Rick Mears, with the final pole run of the day, knocked Sneva off his perch for the first of what would be a record six Indianapolis poles, all with Penske.
Al Unser dominated the first half of the race before retiring with a bad transmission seal after 104 laps. That left it to brother Bobby Unser, who replaced Sneva at Penske. Bobby Unser looked like a sure three-time winner in his Norton Spirit Penske PC7/Cosworth before he broke top gear, which almost never happens.
Unser tried his best to hold on, but faded. Mears, driving the older PC6/Cosworth, rolled home in the Gould Charge for the first of his record-tying four Indianapolis 500 victories.
1979 front-row starters Mears, Sneva and Al Unser all would notch at least one Indianapolis 500 victory in the 1980s. The 1970s were truly a remarkable decade featuring some of the greatest drivers of all time. During this competitive era, all but one of the 12 front-row starters at Indianapolis won an IndyCar race during their careers. The exception was Mike Hiss, who started third in 1974.
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