AJ Foyt’s four Indy '500' winning cars at PRI 2017

 

 

 

This year’s Performance Racing Industry (PRI) trade show, the thirtieth annual event, honored four-time Indianapolis 500-mile race winner Anthony Joseph “A J” Foyt with a display of his four Indianapolis winning cars that were shown courtesy of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum.

 

The 1961 winning “Bowes Seal Fast Special” carried the number 1 that denoted Foyt’s United States Auto Club (USAC) drivers’ championship in 1961. The tubular chassis built by Youngstown Ohio’s Floyd Trevis from AJ Watson blueprints is powered by a 252-cubic inch 4-cylinder Offenhauser engine and completed the 200-lap race around the 2-1/2 mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway in three hours and thirty five minutes at an average speed of 139.130 miles per hour.

Foyt started the 1961 “Golden Anniversary” race from seventh position and first led the race on lap 73 and for the balance of the race carried out a spirited duel for the lead with Eddie Sachs and Rodger Ward. Foyt made his last scheduled pit stop on lap 160, but due to a fueling malfunction the car did not received a full load of fuel. Foyt led the race when crew chief George Bignotti signaled via the sign board that another fuel stop was needed. Foyt’s lap 184 stop for a splash of fuel seemingly handed the victory to Sachs, but Eddie pitted with three laps to go to replace a badly worn right rear tire and Foyt claimed his first '500' victory.

 

 

The 1964 winning “Sheraton-Thompson Special” built by AJ Watson with Offenhauser power that carried Foyt to victory had already won the first two 1964 season races at Phoenix International Raceway and Trenton international Speedway, and the Indianapolis ‘500’ win for Foyt was the third of seven USAC championship race wins in a row.  Foyt started the 500-mile race in fifth place slotted behind the front row which was comprised of all rear engine cars powered by Ford double overhead camshaft (DOHC) engines and all of whom had shattered Parnelli Jones’ one year old track record.

At the drop of the green flag, the pole winner Jim Clark  and second qualifier Bobby Marshman set the pace but they were eliminated; Clark by tire failure and Marshman by a broken oil pan. Defending winner Jones took the point but his #98 roadster was eliminated by a pit fire and Foyt took the lead on lap 55 and dominated the rest of the way. Foyt won by over a minute and a half over Rodger Ward and averaged over 147 MPH in the last victory at the Brickyard by a front engine roadster.

 

 

For the 1967 Indianapolis 500-mile race AJ Foyt drove a new rear-engine creation known as the “Coyote” with the aluminum monocoque chassis built by metal craftsmen Lujie Lesovsky and Eddie Kuzma covered by a fiberglass body crafted by AJ’s father Tony.  The new car powered by a DOHC Ford engine operated “under the radar” for most of the month of May 1967 as everyone’s interest was focused on the STP (Scientifically Tested Products) Granatelli four-wheel-drive turbine-powered machine.

Foyt’s “Sheraton-Thompson Special” qualified fourth and along with the rest of the starting field watched as Parnelli Jones and his turbine “Silent Sam” motored into the distance.  Jones led four times for a total of 171 laps, but while on his 196th lap a bearing in the transmission failed and Jones rolled into the pits.

Foyt in second place nearly a lap down inherited the lead and looked bound for victory but the race was far from over. As Foyt steered his Coyote through the final turn on his last lap, the crashing cars of Chuck Hulse, Carl Williams, Bobby Grim, Bud Tinglestad and Larry Dickson nearly blocked the main straightaway. Foyt slowed dramatically and carefully picked his way through the wreckage to claim his third Indianapolis victory.

 

 

In 1977, ten years had passed since Foyt’s last Indianapolis victory though he had finished third in 1975 and second in 1976 in rain-shortened races at the Speedway. The latest iteration of the “Coyote” chassis designed by Bob Riley which first debuted in 1973 was powered by a turbocharged 159-cubic inch version of the Ford DOHC engine, known as a “Foyt” engine after AJ had purchased the rights after the Ford Motor Company pulled out of racing in November 1970.    

AJ in the Poppy Red #14 sponsored by broadcaster Jim Gilmore started from the fourth starting position and Foyt first appeared at the head of the pack on lap 21. Foyt remained in the mix but the race was dominated by Gordon Johncock in the STP Wildcat who led Foyt by 10 seconds when he made his last scheduled pit stop on lap 180.

Johncock regained the lead from Foyt on the exchange of pit stops but on lap 184 the crankshaft in Johncock’s Offenhauser engine broke and a huge plume of smoke signaled the end of Johncock’s race.  Foyt inherited the lead with a cushion of over 30 seconds over second place Tom Sneva and he cruised to claim his historic fourth victory, the first man to conquer the Brickyard four times.

Foyt would continue to race in the Indianapolis 500-mile race until he retired before the race in 1993 with a record 35 consecutive starts, a year after he set the record as the race’s oldest starter at 57 years and 128 days old.  Foyt held the record for the most years between wins (10) until it was surpassed by Juan Pablo Montoya with 15 years between wins in 2000 and 2015. 

Foyt holds the record for the most Indianapolis 500-mile races led with thirteen and leads all drivers with a remarkable 12,272-1/2 miles completed in competition at Indianapolis to go along with being the first man to capture four Indianapolis 500-mile race wins.