Front Rows of the 1970s: 1973

 

Majeske collection

Johnny Rutherford came close to breaking the 200 mph barrier in his Gulf McLaren
in qualifying for the 1973 Indianapolis 500. Bobby Unser was again fast in the Olsonite
Eagle, while defending 500 winner Mark Donohue switched from a McLaren to an Eagle.

In addition to the usual 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.

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 on 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 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 shortly after – 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.

 

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