The nineteen seventies
open-wheel race cars of Mario Andretti
During 2019, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum is celebrating
the 50th anniversary of Mario Andretti’s 1969 Indianapolis 500-mile
race win with a special exhibit open through November 10, 2019. The exhibition entitled
“Mario Andretti: ICON” was the genesis of this article that focuses on several
of the significant cars from Mario Andretti’s nineteen seventies open-wheel racing
career.
The story of Mario Andretti’s nineteen seventies USAC (United
States Auto Club) career began with an unknown chassis manufacturer, McNamara,
and none of these cars were represented in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Museum “ICON” anniversary display for reasons that will become clear to the
reader.
1970 USAC season
In 1969, Andretti joined Andy Granatelli’s STP Racing Team,
and won the 1969 Indianapolis ‘500’ and the 1969 USAC National Championship. Before
the 1970 season, Andretti’s long-time crew chief Clint Brawner left the STP
racing team after disputes with car owner Andy Granatelli, and Jim McGee became
Andretti’s crew chief.
In early 1970, Andy Granatelli, always an innovator, (witness
his experimentation with turbine power and four-wheel drive) announced that he
had ordered four new cars to be built in West Germany by expatriate American
Francis McNamara, who had two years of experience in building Formula Vee and
Formula Ford race cars. The day-glo STP red McNamara cars, designed by Austrian
Josef Karasek, would be powered by 159-cubic inch turbocharged DOHC (double
overhead camshaft) “short stroke” Ford engines.
Granatelli outlined in the mid-January press release that
there would be four different cars built – one specifically for the
Indianapolis ‘500,’ and another for the road courses (of which there were three
on the 1970 USAC schedule) possibly powered by a 320-cubic inch Ford stock-block
engine. A third chassis configuration would be built specifically to race on
one-mile ovals, and finally Granatelli promised a specific car would be built for
the new Ontario Motor Speedway.
Andy described the Ontario car as “a super car for a super
track, it will be designed to cope with possible high temperatures and high
wind conditions in the first California 500 on September 6.” The press release did not provide clarity on
what the differences between the chassis were to be, and nearly 50 years later,
it is difficult for a historian to confirm how many McNamara T-500 chassis,
with its signature wide triangular-shaped aluminum tub were built, and what, if
any, differences existed between them.
The first McNamara T-500 chassis arrived late in Indianapolis,
with the shipment from California delayed due to the trucker’s strike according
to Granatelli. The car arrived on May 10, 1970, passed technical inspection on
May 11 and Andretti crashed the McNamara that afternoon in a turn four crash. Mario
told reporters that a universal joint broke which caused the McNamara to spin
and hit the wall hard, which severely damaged the left side of the car.
Mario and the 1970 McNamara T-500
Photo courtesy of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Over two days and nights, the STP team rebuilt the McNamara
with a new monocoque but Mario got only two days of track time before
qualifying opened on May 16. In a gritty performance, Andretti posted the day’s
eighth fastest run on ‘Pole Day’ with a four-lap average that was only two
miles per hour slower than that of pole position winner Al Unser.
During the 1970 Indianapolis 500-mile race Andretti was
never in contention, as he made several unscheduled pit stops. In his post-race
interview with Robin Miller, published in the Indianapolis Star
newspaper, Andretti explained that “everything was beautiful for the first four
laps then all of a sudden I didn’t have a race car under me anymore.”
Mario explained to Miller “I couldn’t go through the turns
or come off of them. I figured I was dangerous as hell - to me and everybody
else - and I nearly quit ten times. It was a feeling of total helplessness.” On lap 172, Andretti drove into the infield
grass in turn two to avoid a five-car incident and after the McNamara T-500 ran
over something, he heard “a real loud bink.” Back on track, rather than being
knocked out of the race, as he first feared, Mario claimed the McNamara chassis
handled better afterward and “I was flying,” but he finished the 500-mile race
in sixth position one lap behind first-time winner Al Unser.
In summary, regarding the McNamara T-500 at Indianapolis, Mario
told Miller that “I was pleased at the performance when it ran and I’m going to
stick with it.” During the rest of the 1970 USAC season, Andretti posted two
pole position qualifying efforts but just one win with the McNamara T-500 at
the ‘Rocky Mountain 150’ at Colorado’s Continental Divide Raceway road course. Andretti
destroyed one McNamara T-500 chassis in a practice crash prior to the 1970 USAC
season finale at Phoenix Arizona. It is
unclear how many, if any, of the McNamara T-500 chassis remain.
1971 USAC season
It appears that only two 1971 McNamara T-501 chassis were
built. Compared to 1970, the T-501 used a lower profile monocoque with a wider
body, fitted with what a press release identified as “hydro-pneumatic load
leveler suspension” inboard rear brakes, radically offset fuel tanks and unique
“stair-step” side-mounted airfoils. In initial testing at Phoenix International
Raceway, Andretti claimed he ran within one second of the track record, and “we
think it will be successful.”
Press photo of Mario testing of the McNamara T-501
Author's collection
Mario crashed the new McNamara T-501 chassis later during
pre-season tire testing and he raced a “new” T-501 chassis at Phoenix and
Trenton. The original damaged McNamara T-501 chassis was rebuilt in time for
Mario’s new STP teammate, 24-year old Steve Krisiloff to drive for the 1971
Indianapolis ‘500’
Both Andretti and Krisiloff struggled with handling issues with
their McNamara T-501 chassis and never achieved lap speeds to match the new
McLaren M16s. The night before ‘Pole Day’ time trials, McNamara designer Josef
Karasek was awarded the 1971 Louis Schwitzer Award for Engineering Innovation
and Excellence by the Indiana section of the Society of Automotive Engineers
(SAE) for design innovations of the 1970 McNamara T-500.
Karasek’s 1970 McNamara T-500 design was cited by the SAE for
its use of “expanded water radiator areas for improved cooling” (definitely needed
with the heat generated by the DOHC turbocharged Ford engine) and “rear
suspension struts and braces mounted directly to the engine and transmission
case instead of the monocoque chassis.” This marked the third time that Indianapolis
entries from Andy Granatelli had won the Schwitzer award, as his previous
winners included the 1967 Paxton turbine car and the 1969 Lotus Type 64, which
was crashed by Andretti in practice withdrawn and never raced.
The ill-fated 1969 Lotus Type 64 in the Andretti: ICON exhibit
May 27, 1971, brought a surprise as Boone County (Indiana) Judge
C. Michael Riley granted a temporary injunction to McNamara Racing that barred
the Speedway from payment of race prize money to the STP Corporation based on
what McNamara claimed in his lawsuit was non-payment of $30,756.73.
On race day, in turn three on lap 11, the turbocharged DOHC Ford
engine in Krisiloff’s McNamara blew in spectacular fashion and he crashed. Gordon
Johncock spun in the oil from Krisiloff’s car and collided with Andretti. With
three other drivers involved in the same wreck - Krisiloff, Johncock, and Mel
Kenyon - Mario finished the 1971 Indianapolis ‘500’ in the 30th
place.
Both before and after the 1971 Indianapolis ‘500,’ there
were published rumors that Granatelli and Andretti were about to split, but
Mario finished the season with the STP Racing Team. Krisiloff’s car wrecked in the
‘500’ was repaired yet again and became Mario’s backup car for the rest of the
season. Throughout the 1971 season the McNamara was never competitive despite changes
made by crew chief Jim McGee to improve the car’s performance. Andretti scored best finishes of a second
place and two fourth place finishes in his ten-race USAC season and wound up
ninth in the USAC Marlboro Championship Trail standings.
In December 1971, the McNamara Racing lawsuit against the
STP Corporation was dismissed after a hearing during which Francis McNamara
testified that no money was owed and that there had been no financial
settlement outside of court. It was later announced that McNamara Racing had failed,
and that its German assets were being liquidated.
1972 USAC season
Another car that was not part of the Andretti “ICON” display
was the 1972 VPJ-1. For the 1972 USAC season, Mario and Jim McGee both joined
the Torrance California based Vel’s Parnelli Jones (VPJ) Racing Team which
arguably was the first modern “super team.” In addition to Andretti, the team
owned by Velko "Vel" Miletich and Parnelli
Jones, boasted the driving talents of Joe Leonard and two-time and defending
Indianapolis ‘500’ winner Al Unser who had driven a VPJ ‘Colt’ to victory in
1970 and 1971
Beside McGee, the VPJ “super team” featured the mechanical
talents of George Bignotti, James Dilamarter, and John Capels, along with
engine builder Charles Tabucchi, and dynamometer engineer Takeo “Chickie” Hirashima.
Parnelli Jones made the bold move to hire a full-team team designer, former
Lotus designer Maurice Philippe (also known as Phillippe).
Joe Leonard’s car carried full season sponsorship from
Samsonite luggage, while Andretti’s and Unser’s cars carried full season
sponsorship from Viceroy cigarettes. The Viceroy/VPJ sponsorship announcement caused
Phillip Morris USA, the makers of the Marlboro cigarette brand, which had
become the USAC National Championship series sponsor for 1971, to withdraw any
further series support. The individual car sponsorships were supplemented by a
massive influx of funding from the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, which was
engaged in a “tire war” with Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company.
The restored Samsonite VPJ-1 at the 2018 PRI show
A press photo of the VPJ drivers and Parnelli Jones
with the VPJ-1 at the official press unveiling
at Ontario Motor Speedway in 1972
Left to right - Joe Leonard, Al Unser, Parnelli Jones and Mario
Philippe's 1972 design for the VPJ Racing Team featured symmetrical
air foils that sprouted at a 45-degree angle off the monocoque beside the
driver - identified as “dihedral wings” which also contained the radiators. The
most shocking featured of Phillippe’s patented design was the lack of a rear
wing mounted behind the turbocharged Offenhauser engine, as Philippe believed
that the dihedral wings provided enough downforce as they reduced drag.
The new VPJ-1 design also featured new Phillipe-designed
suspension technology known as “dual camber compensators” which was designed to
keep the triangular shaped chassis monocoque level in all racing conditions and
the VPJ-1 rode on patented lightweight four-spoke cast racing wheels wrapped in
Firestone tires.
In early testing the VPJ-1 proved to be a horrible
combination – it was both scary and slow. The team went to work to revise the
design and develop the VPJ-1, which included the loss of the dihedral wings
during the month of May. Despite the early problems, the revised VPJ-1 race
cars finished second, third, and eighth in the 1972 Indianapolis 500.
As the 1972 season progressed the VPJ-1 cars evolved and by
the season finale at Phoenix, they all looked much different than the original
design with front wings on either side of the car’s nose and a massive rear
wing. In the middle of the 1972 USAC season, Joe Leonard won three consecutive
races – the 200-mile race at Michigan, the Schaefer (beer) 500-mile race at
Pocono Raceway and the ‘Tony Bettenhausen 200’ at Milwaukee Wisconsin.
On the strength of his strong finishes, and even though he
crashed in practice in Phoenix and did not start the season finale, Joe Leonard
captured his second straight USAC national championship and teammate Al Unser
finished in fourth place in the 1972 USAC points. Mario qualified for every
race in the top eight but suffered a series of mechanical maladies during the
1972 season with his VPJ-1 and finished the USAC Championship Trail in eleventh
place.
1973 USAC season
Maurice Phillipe penned the 1973 Vel’s Parnelli Jones Racing
Team entry, the VPJ-2 which used torsion bars on all four corners and a very
shallow monocoque tub, but the most notable feature of the original design was
the rear wing which was part of the bodywork over the turbocharged Offenhauser
engine.
The 1973 VPJ car sponsorships carried over from the previous
season, with Andretti assigned one of the Viceroy sponsored machines. Throughout
the 1973 season the VPJ team experimented with several different engine cover
designs and rear wing mountings on the VPJ-2. The car owned by the Indianapolis
Motor Speedway Museum was shown at the Mario Andretti “ICON” exhibit as it
appeared at the 1973 Indianapolis ‘500;’
Mario won the second heat of the April 1973 “Trentonian
Split 300” in his VPJ-2 and in October won the pole position at the 2-mile
Texas World Speedway with a stunning 214.58 MPH lap that set a new world’s
closed course speed record. After his
historic qualifying effort, Mario led 16 laps in the Fall 1973 USAC “Texas 200”
before he retired with a broken valve in the 4-cylinder Offenhauser engine.
The Philippe VPJ-2 design in generally considered by
historians as a failure, as Unser and Andretti only won one race each during
the 1973 USAC season, while their teammate Joe Leonard scored only a pair of
early season fifth-place finishes as his best results in 1973. Andretti, in fifth place, was the highest
finishing VPJ-2 in the 1973 USAC National Championship, in a season dominated
by McLaren and Eagle chassis.
1974 USAC season
The 1974 season began as a disaster for Vel’s Parnelli Jones
as sponsor Samsonite pulled out and Firestone Tire slashed their funding, and
Joe Leonard was seriously injured in March in a crash at Ontario during the
“California 500” that ended Lenard’s racing career.
Press photo of Mario testing the VPJ-3
Author's collection
Maurice Phillipe’s VPJ-3 design appears to have borrowed a
lot from the All-American Racers (AAR) Eagle design. The new the VPJ-3 appeared
just once during the 1974 USAC season, at Trenton New Jersey in the “Trentonian
200” in Viceroy livery and Mario was the fastest qualifier. Mario’s VPJ-3 later appeared briefly during
May in practice at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but the Vel’s Parnelli
Jones Team soon switched to 1974 AAR Eagle customer chassis for the
Indianapolis 500-mile race and for most of the rest of the 1974 USAC season.
Andretti drove a modified VPJ-2 in two 1974 races at the
Ontario Motor Speedway and the “Rex Mays 200” at Milwaukee but spent most of
the season in this 1974 Eagle that was displayed at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Museum “ICON” exhibit in May. Powered by a 159-cubic inch Offenhauser and
carrying chassis number #7406, Andretti finished only three 1974 USAC races in
this car, with a best finish of third at the “Phoenix 150” season finale.
A big change for Mario Andretti was that his long-time crew
chief and friend Jim McGee left Vel’s Parnelli Jones Racing Team after the 1973
season and went to work in a similar role with Bob Fletcher's Cobre Tire team
1974-1975 Formula One
seasons
In 1968 Mario began to make occasional appearances in
Formula One races with the Gold Leaf Lotus Team, with one race in 1968 and
three races in 1969. For 1970, the STP Corporation entered Formula One racing
with the nascent March factory team with the March 701 for full-time drivers Jo
Siffert and Chris Amon with a third car for Andretti at five races.
Mario drove for Scuderia Ferrari in occasional appearances
during the 1971, during which he won the season opening Grand Prix of South
Africa in the dominant 12-cylinder Ferrari 312B for his first Formula One win.
Mario also won both the 32-lap heats of the non-championship 1971 Questor Grand
Prix, a race that included Formula 5000 cars, in a Ferrari 312 B. Andretti
drove a Ferrari 312B2 in five Formula One races during the 1972 season and then
made no Formula One appearances in 1973.
In 1974 the Vel’s Parnelli Jones Racing Team debuted the VPJ-4
Formula 1 car designed by Maurice Philippe which was powered by a 182-cubic
inch Cosworth DFV (Double Four Valve) engine. At that time in Formula One, ten
of the twelve teams used Cosworth engines – only Ferrari and BRM used their own
engines.
Click to enlarge- why does a Firestone
sponsored car carry a Goodyear logo on the wing?
Interestingly during the same period, Roger Penske’s Penske
Racing Team was building and developing its own Formula One car, the PC-1 designed
by Geoff Ferris also powered by a Cosworth engine. Both the new American Formula One entries, the
VPJ-4 and PC-1 debuted at the same race, the Canadian Grand Prix at Mosport,
the penultimate round of the 1974 Formula One season.
Andretti qualified sixteenth in VPJ-4, while 1972
Indianapolis 500-mile race winner Mark Donohue qualified the Penske PC-1 24th
in the 26-car starting grid. Andretti and the VPJ-1 finished seventh, one lap
behind the winner Emerson Fittipaldi’s Lotus, while Donohue finished twelfth.
Two weeks later at the 1974 United States Grand Prix,
Andretti qualified the VPJ-4 third on the starting grid but was disqualified
when the Cosworth engine stalled on the starting grid and the VPJ crew pushed
the car after the rest of the field was away.
For the 1975 racing season, Mario Andretti only appeared in
the three 500-mile ‘Triple Crown” USAC races for Vel’s Parnelli Jones Racing
Team, as he devoted most of his time and energy to the Formula One circuit.
Even so, due to scheduling conflicts Andretti missed the Belgium Grand Prix as
he raced at Indianapolis and the Dutch Grand Prix due to his Pocono “Schaefer
500” USAC commitment.
Mario appeared in
twelve 1975 Formula One Grand prix events in the VPJ-4, finished six races and
scored points in two races, with a fourth places in Sweden and a fifth place in
France. In qualifying, the VPJ-4 proved
to be a mid-pack performer, the exception being a fourth-place qualifying
effort at the Spanish Grand Prix.
1976 Formula One
season
Phillippe updated the VPJ-4 for the 1976 season, which was
known as the VPJ-4B, but the Vel’s Parnelli Jones Team lost the Viceroy
sponsorship in both Formula One and USAC. The Al Unser USAC team and the
Formula One team carried sponsorship from American Racing Wheels, in effect a
self-sponsored program, as Parnelli Jones and partner Art Hale ran American
Racing.
The VPJ team elected to skip the Formula One season opener
in Brazil and Andretti appeared in a Lotus 77 as the teammate to Ronnie
Petersen. At the next Grand Prix, Andretti and the VPJ-4B qualified thirteenth
and finished sixth. At the inaugural United States Grand Prix West at Long
Beach, Andretti set the fastest lap, but the VPJ-4B dropped out on the 15th
lap after a water leak caused the Cosworth DFV to overheat and fail.
Andretti soon found out from press reporters that team owner
"Vel" Miletich told people in the paddock that the VPJ Formula One
team was done. Andretti quit VPJ that day and the next day re-joined Lotus for
the rest of the Formula One season and finished sixth in the World Drivers
Championship. Meanwhile Andretti joined Penske Racing for four USAC races in
1976 in an updated McLaren M16C.
The VPJ-4 was later redesigned by John Barnard and became
the turbocharged Cosworth powered VPJ-6 that the VPJ team used from 1975
through the 1979 USAC seasons.
1977 USAC season
For 1977 Mario Andretti was fully engaged in his quest for
the Formula One championship with Lotus and he appeared in all seventeen Grand
Prix and won four but finished third in the World Drivers Championship for Team
Lotus. Andretti still found time in his busy schedule to appear in six races
for Penske Racing, four as the driver of this McLaren M24 powered by a
turbocharged Cosworth DFX engine.
After six seasons, the ground-breaking McLaren M16 design
was replaced by the M24, which was a derivative of the successful McLaren M23
Formula One car. The M24 featured an aluminum honeycomb monocoque chassis with
four-wheel double wishbone suspension with the front suspension fitted with
inboard coil over shock absorbers. In place of the Cosworth DFV V-8 engine used
in Formula One, the M24 was powered by a turbocharged 161-cubic-inch Cosworth
DFX engine that developed 725 horsepower in period.
Roger Penske had approached Cosworth Engineering in 1975
about turbocharging the DFV engine that had been raced since 1965 but was met
with little interest. The Vel’s Parnelli Jones team headed by Larry Slutter undertook
the project in-house beginning in the winter of 1974-1975.
The development period stretched through the 1975 season as the
VPJ team learned that there was a lot more to the conversion than the addition
of a turbocharger and shortening the cylinder stroke. VPJ eventually debuted their
version of the turbocharged Cosworth at the 1975 season finale at Phoenix and
Al Unser finished fifth, one spot behind his former teammate Andretti in a
one-off race for the Sugaripe Prune team.
During 1976, while the VPJ team raced their version of the
turbocharged Cosworth and won three races with Al Unser, others entered the
engine race - McLaren and Penske combined in a joint development venture and
Cosworth Engineering also began their own development program from a shop in
the same town as VPJ headquarters, Torrance California that employed several
key former VPJ development program employees.
At the 1977 USAC season opener, the “Jimmy Bryan 150” at
Phoenix, the Penske built turbocharged Cosworth engine in Andretti’s CAM2
McLaren blew up after he had qualified, and the car was scratched from the
race. The sponsorship of Andretti’s car came from CAM2 motor oil, a joint
venture of General Motors, Sun Oil Company and Penske Racing first introduced
in 1975.
Four of the five turbocharged Cosworth-powered entries
qualified in the top eight starting positions for the 1977 Indianapolis
500-mile race, including the pole position as Tom Sneva (in the other Penske
turbocharged Cosworth powered McLaren M24,) became the first driver to break
the 200 MPH barrier at the Speedway. Mario qualified sixth, but unfortunately, in
the ‘500,’ a broken exhaust header sidelined the McLaren M24 on lap 47.
In his other four 1977 USAC appearances in this CAM2 car,
Andretti never qualified worse than fifth – he started second twice and scored
three top five finishes with his best finish a second place at the “Schafer
500” at Pocono behind his teammate Tom Sneva.
In just six race appearances during the 14-race 1977 USAC
season, Andretti amassed enough points to finish seventh in the USAC National
Championship. After the 1977 season, the
McLaren M24 was sold to George Walther and driven by David “Salt” Walther
throughout the 1978 USAC season. Today the McLaren M24 as displayed is owned by
collector and vintage racer Jeff Urwin.
Postscript - 1978
Formula One and beyond
After his third-place finish in the World Driving
Championship in 1977 wherein he won more races than the World Champion Niki
Lauda, in 1978, Andretti was crowned the World Champion with six race victories
to his credit. Mario became the last American driver to win the World
Championship, and his victory at the 1978 Dutch Grand Prix is the last Grand Prix
race victory for an American driver. Mario maintained a full-time Formula One schedule
in the 1979, 1980 and 1981 seasons, then made his final Formula One appearance in
a turbocharged Ferrari at the 1982 Caesar’s Palace Grand Prix in Las Vegas
Nevada.
Mario returned full-time to Championship car racing for the
1982 CART (Championship Auto Racing Teams) season and finished third in season
points in in both 1982 and 1983 before he captured his fourth and final
National Championship in 1984. Mario
retired from active open-wheel competition at the end of the 1994 season, but
he continues to appear frequently as the driver of the Honda two-seat IndyCar.
Hopefully this length overview of Mario Andretti’s nineteen
seventies racing career has ignited your interest to the entire Andretti
exhibit. For more information about the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of
Fame and Museum and the “Mario Andretti: ICON” continuing exhibit please visit www.indyracingmuseum.org
All photos by the author unless noted
