The nineteen seventies

open-wheel race cars of Mario Andretti

During 2019, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum is celebrating the 50^th 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

Mario in the McNamara T-501 was not considered a threat to contend for the pole position, and he started the 1971 ‘500’ from ninth position, while Krisiloff qualified 22^nd then crashed later that day in practice, and the STP team worked overtime to repair Krisloff’s car.

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 30^th 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 24^th 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 15^th 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

“Little Al’s” Indy ‘500’ rookie ride

Al Unser Junior, born April 16, 1962, was known as “Little Al” when he arrived at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1983 to differentiate him from his father at the time a three-time “500 winner. 

After he started racing in sprint cars, Al Junior had worked his way up the road racing ladder, as he won the SCCA (Sports Car Club of America) Super Vee series in 1981 in a Ralt RT5, then the SCCA single-seat Canadian-America Challenge (Can-Am) revival series in 1982 in a Lola Frissbee-Chevrolet owned by New Mexico car dealer Rick Galles.

Al Junior made his CART (Championship Auto Racing teams) IndyCar debut in the 1982 ‘Air Cal 500’ at Riverside Raceway in a March 82C owned by Gerry Forsythe and finished fifth in a race marked with high level of mechanical carnage, as only four of the race’s 28 starters finished. The following year, Unser Junior was slated for a full 13-race slate for the 1983 CART season.

The 1983 Indianapolis 500-mile race appeared on the CART schedule although the race was still sanctioned by the United States Auto Club. Junior in the Coors Light Silver Bullet/Roman Wheels Special, an All-American Racers Eagle chassis powered by a 167-cubic inch turbocharged Cosworth DFX V-8 engine that developed approximately 750 horsepower.  

Al Junior easily passed his required rookie test and qualified on the first day of time trials with the fifth fastest average speed of 202.146 miles per hour for his ten-mile run.

In the late stages of the Memorial Day race, Unser Junior ran in tenth place as he father led, with Tom Sneva in second place and in pursuit of the lead. Unser Senior passed his son, and Junior blocked Tom Sneva for over a dozen laps. With 10 laps to go, Sneva finally passed Junior in lapped traffic and then quickly cleared Unser Senior for the lead and the eventual victory over Unser Senior. Unser Junior's Eagle ran out of fuel and he was scored in tenth place.

“Little Al” was roundly criticized for his late race blocking of Sneva, but it was his earlier action of passing two cars before the green flag off a caution period that netted him a two-lap penalty form USAC officials. Despite the criticism, everyone recognized that “Little Al” was bound to be a star, a prediction proven correct when he won the Indianapolis 500-mile race in 1992 and 1994 and reigned as the CART champion in 1990 and 1994 with 31 race wins during his 17 seasons in CART.  

Yes, that is Tom Sneva's signature on the rear wing! 

  

Al Unser Junior’s restored rookie ride was shown in the special Unser Family Tribute presented by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum at the 2018 Performance Racing Industry (PRI) trade show in Indianapolis Indiana.  

All photos by the author 

1968 Gurney AAR Eagle

One of the stars of the recent Vintage Motor Racing exhibit with a special tribute to Dan Gurney at the Lyon Air Museum was Dan Gurney’s own 1968 Eagle race car.

The 1968 Eagle chassis designed by former Lola engineer Tony Southgate featured a lower flatter nose due to the use of outboard suspension assemblies. The car’s main tub was also lower in profile, with a laid-back windscreen and a body/engine cover which ended with a squared off tail section instead of the earlier rounded tail used in the 1966 and 1967 Eagle designs.

There were five 1968 Eagles built by All American Racers on Santa Ana California in the 33-car starting field for the 1968 Indianapolis 500-mile race,  First was the featured car owned by Gurney’s primary sponsor Oscar L “Ozzie” Olson of the Olsonite Corporation, manufacturer of molded one-piece plastic toilet seats. 

Gurney’s entry was powered by a 303-cubic inch stock-block Ford V-8 engine fitted with Gurney-Weslake Mark Four cylinder heads. For qualifying with the addition of nitromethane to the alcohol fuel the Gurney-Weslake engine could develop 525 horsepower.

1968 was the height of innovation at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway which was reflected in the variety of powerplants fitted to the other AAR Eagles that were entered. Roger McCluskey drove an Eagle owned by Atlanta sportsman Lindsey Hopkins that was powered by a 159-cubic inch 4-cylinder Offenhauser engine fitted with a turbocharger which was sponsored by G C Murphy stores. 

Bobby Unser drove a similar chassis and engine combination owned by Bob Wilke’s Leader Card Racers with sponsorship from Rislone oil treatment. IN 1968, a turbocharged Offehauser engine could develop 625 horsepower in qualifying trim.  

Gurney’s teammate on the Olsonite team for the ‘500” would be 1967 Formula One world champion Denis Hulme who became available after his original entry, the Shelby-Wallis turbine powered machine was withdrawn. Hulme drove the #42 Olsonite AAR Eagle which was powered a conventional 255-cubic inch DOHC (double overhead camshaft) Ford V-8 engine.   

The last Eagle entry in the Indianapolis 500-mile race field was owned by PSA airline heir Tom Friedkin powered by a 159-cubic inch turbocharged DOHC Ford engine driven by Jerry Grant with sponsorship from Bardahl oil treatment. 

While it could potentially produce the highest horsepower of the available engine, at high boost levels, the Schwitzer turbocharged Ford engine suffered both head gasket and fuel distribution issues which resulted in burned pistons.

In qualifying time trials, Unser led the Eagle contingent as he started third, on the outside of the front row, with McCluskey next in seventh place. Gurney himself started the 1968 ‘500’ in tenth place, while Grant started fifteenth, and Hulme in a late-developing program started in twentieth place.

After the leading STP Lotus turbines broke with nine laps left in the race, Bobby Unser lead the final nine laps and won by 53.81 seconds over Gurney. In a stunning debut, the 1968 AAR Eagles swept three of the top five finishing positions as Hulme finished in fourth place.

Two weeks later at the mid-June 1968 two-heat ‘Telegraph Trophy 200’ at the Mosport International Raceway in Bowmanville Ontario Canada, Gurney and his Eagle swept the program. 

A new 1968 Eagle powered by a 305-cubic inch Chevrolet V-8 stock-block engine built by Traco Engineering was entered for the event by Roger Penske for sports car ace Mark Donohue which finished in the top five of both heat races. This marked Penske’s first Indianapolis type racing car entry.

Gurney started from the pole position with a 110 MPH (mile per hour) average speed around the 2.5-mile road course. At the drop of the green flag, Dan led all forty laps of the first heat as Indianapolis ‘500’ winner Bobby Unser crashed his 1968 Eagle on the first lap. In the second Mosport heat with only 15 starters, Gurney again dominated from the pole position,as he led every lap and finished the 100-mile heat race in 55 minutes.  

Gurney did not race his Eagle Indy Car again for five and half months as he next appeared at the 1968 United States Auto Club (USAC) season finale at the Riverside International Raceway for the ‘Rex Mays 300.’ 

Gurney qualified the AAR Eagle now fitted with stubby front wings on the nose and a rudimentary wing that spanned across the rear exhaust pipes, qualified for the pole position with an average speed of 118-1/2 MPH around the historic 2.6-mile road course.

Gurney led the first four laps of the race, before Mario Andretti in a tight battle for the 1968 USAC national championship led the next four circuits. Gurney surged back into the lead on lap nine and never looked back as he led the remaining 108 laps and won by a lap over Bobby Unser’s 1968 Eagle which had been repaired from its Mosport damage and fitted with a DOHC Ford engine. 

The #48 Olsonite AAR Eagle raced five times during the 1968 USAC season and scored three victories and one second place result  was displayed at the Lyon Air Museum as it appeared at its final race as a tribute to Dan Gurney who passed away on January 14 2018.  

The 1972 AAR "Mystery Eagle" on display 

The Lyon Air Museum of Santa Ana California recently hosted the “Vintage Motor Racing exhibit” with a special tribute to Dan Gurney. This was a fitting memorial as Gurney’s All American Racers has been based in Santa Ana since 1970. One of the two AAR Eagle race cars on display was a recreation of the historic 1972 “Mystery Eagle.” shown as it appeared at the 1972 ‘California 500.’

Veteran racer Jerry Grant began the month of May 1972 without a ride for the Indianapolis 500-mile race but campaigned for the seat in the second Eagle for Dan Gurney’s All-American Racers (AAR) team. Grant was an ideal candidate for the highly sought-after ride in second AAR Eagle, but there was a problem: Gurney had a fast machine but no sponsorship.

Photo of Jerry Grant in 1972 courtesy of

the IUPUI University of Digital Studies

Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection

Gurney and Grant had a long relationship which dated back to 1965, when Grant first co-drove with Gurney in a Lotus 19 in the Daytona 2000-kilometer race. Grant had driven for All-American Racers in 1966 in the ill-fated Gurney-Weslake Ford engine powered Lola T70 sports car in the USRRC and SCCA Can-Am series.

On Thursday, May 18, 1972 Jerry Grant was formally announced as the driver of the second AAR 1972 Eagle painted purple and white and dubbed “the Mystery Eagle.” The car appeared to outsiders to be unsponsored, as aside from contingency decals, there was only the logo of CV Enterprises on the rear wing and the company logo “You Name it” emblazoned across the nose of the car and on the rear wing end plates.  

CV Enterprises was a company operated by the mysterious Christopher A. Vallo Junior, a self-described millionaire from the Chicago suburb of Highland Indiana who also owned property and a restaurant in Minnesota.  Vallo, a Korean War veteran of Greek descent, had been convicted in 1965 of passing counterfeit currency and was sentenced to three years of probation.

In late 1970, the 265-pound Vallo approached stock car builder and racer Ray Nichels and his son Terry with a check for $1 million for the Nichels’ to build Vallo a team of winning Pontiac stock cars.  In November 1971 Nichels filed an $8 million lawsuit against Vallo that alleged non-payment per their contract terms.  

According to fellow historian and writer William LaDow, the contact for the 1972 Indianapolis ‘500’ CV Enterprises sponsorship came through Bobby Unser, who introduced Vallo to Gurney during the month of May when Gurney was desperately searching for sponsorship for a second Indianapolis entry. In hindsight, given the nationwide publicity given to Nichels’ lawsuit, one wonders why (or if) Gurney was not wary of Chris Vallo, or perhaps he was that desperate for sponsorship.  

The terms of the agreement between the pair was never revealed, but Grant got the ride on May 18 over Unser’s objections, as Unser reportedly wanted a sprint car driver as his teammate according to Gordon Kirby. On Friday May 19, 1972, Grant took his first laps in the #48 “Mystery Eagle” and after just 20 or so laps of practice, posted a best lap of 186.881 MPH.

The following day, after the remaining “first day” qualifiers failed to knock Unser from the pole position, Grant qualified for the 1972 Indianapolis 500, his sixth Indianapolis start, in the 15th position. Grant’s four-lap average speed of 189.294 MPH with the last lap run at 191.164 MPH, was the fourth fastest run overall, and the fastest qualifier of the third day non-pole position eligible cars.

 

In a post-qualifying interview with the Associated Press, Grant commented on such a fast run after so few practice laps. “Sure, I’m excited. But it’s easy to explain. I have the world’s best former driver as a car owner and the world’s best current driver as a teammate.” According to Gordon Kirby, however, there was tension behind the scenes, as Unser who had done all the testing and development work, resented Grant’s immediate success. 

The 1972 Indianapolis 500 featured a new rule that required that, a car take on fuel during at least four mandatory pit stops during the 500-mile race. The rule further stated that “approved procedures under this supplementary regulation will be covered in bulletin form.”  The total amount of fuel allowed for each car to complete the 500 miles was 325 gallons, the same as 1971 but with one additional stop required.

Each car started the race with 75 gallons of methanol fuel on board, and the pit tank limited to 250 gallons. While a total of 325 gallons seems like a lot of fuel today with contemporary electronic engine controls, it was going to be close for many teams in 1972 to average better than 1-1/2 miles to the gallon with their mechanical fuel injected turbocharged engines. 

At the start of the 1972 Indianapolis ‘500’ on Saturday May 27, pole-sitter Bobby Unser took the lead at the drop of the green flag and led the first 30 laps until his car retired on lap 31 with ignition problems. Gary Bettenhausen, in Roger Penske’s McLaren then took control of the race.  

Grant battled with Bettenhausen and took the race lead of lap 162 when Gary pitted and then held it for three laps until he pitted and Bettenhausen resumed the lead. On lap 175, Grant retook the lead and held on while Bettenhausen’s car retired on lap 182 with ignition problems. Bettenhausen’s teammate Mark Donohue inherited second place but was nearly a lap in arrears.   

While in the lead, Grant’s Eagle began to vibrate and “push” or understeer entering the turns with what Grant thought was a bad right front tire, so with just thirteen laps to go, Grant was forced to pit a fifth time. Without working team radio communications since early in the race, with only hand signals from the driver, Gurney and the crew surmised that Grant’s Eagle was running out of fuel. With the “Mystery Eagle’s” 250-gallon pit side fuel tank empty, the crew stopped Grant in teammate Unser’s stall.  

In a chaotic situation, the crew connected the fuel hoses, and then Gurney realized the problem was not fuel and ordered the crew to disconnect the hoses. The AAR crew changed the right front tire before they realized the problem was with the left front tire. 

By the time the disastrous pit stop was over, Grant’s car had been stationary for 38 seconds and Mark Donohue in the Sunoco DX- sponsored McLaren had swept past into the lead. Over the final 12 laps, Grant could not close the gap and crossed the finish line nearly a lap behind Donohue.

To finish second after he led the ‘500’ with thirteen laps to go must have been a crushing disappointment to Grant and the AAR team, but the worst was yet to come.

George Bignotti, crew chief for Vel’s Parnelli Jones Racing, owner of third-place finisher Al Unser’s ‘Viceroy Special’ filed a post-race protest which claimed that Grant’s car should have been “automatically disqualified “after it took fuel from Unser’s fueling tank. Bignotti’s protest was reviewed by the stewards overnight, and meanwhile, the AAR team studied videotape as they suspected that the USAC scoring was wrong and that Grant had actually won the 1972 Indianapolis ‘500.’

When the official race results were posted at 8 AM on Sunday morning May 28 1972 , Jerry Grant and the “Mystery Eagle” were placed twelfth in the finishing order. Chief Steward Harlan Fengler, Referee Don Cummins, and Steward Walt Myers had upheld Bignotti’s protest and that Grant was not credited any laps after the pit violation, just as if the car had retired at that point.  

After a hearing the USAC Appeal Board announced their decision on Wednesday afternoon June 7 1972.  While the panel agreed with Dan Gurney’s claim that the lap 188 refueling of Grant’s car was a mistake, as the car did not need fuel to complete the race, Chief Judge Charlie Brockman said that Gurney’s  “line of testimony is not relevant. The stewards cannot be responsible for the mistake of a contestant. The panel respects Mr. Gurney’s forthright honesty as he admitted that he would have taken the same action and chanced whatever penalty had he positively identified the need for more fuel.”  

The USAC Appeal Panel determined that a violation of the rules had occurred and cited the 1972 500-mile race Approved Supplementary Regulation #23 which stated that the maximum fuel supply other than that carried in the car was 250 gallons.  

On the heels of the stunning loss of more than $71,000 of Indianapolis ‘500’ prize money, Gurney and Grant found that the mysterious Chris Vallo had disappeared. Like Ray Nichels and David Pearson the pair wound being owed a lot of money which they would never collect.  Until his death Jerry Grant would show visitors to his home a copy of 1972 check for $10,000 from CV Enterprises stamped twice by the bank “NSF” (Insufficient Funds). 

In March 1976, the law finally caught with Chris Vallo, then 45 years old, as he was convicted on several federal counts: failing to file income tax returns, making false statements to obtain bank loans and firearms and possession of firearms as a convicted felon.  Vallo who had earlier filed for bankruptcy to escape several civil judgments was sentenced to five years in federal prison. Upon his release, Vallo remained out of the public eye and passed away in 2000.

Grant’s promising 1972 USAC season came to a halt for lack of sponsorship with the purple and white #48 AAR Eagle grounded for three months. In mid-August, Gurney’s primary sponsor Oscar L “Ozzie” Olson of the Olsonite Corporation, manufacturer of molded one-piece plastic toilet seats, announced that he had purchased the “Mystery Eagle.” 

Olson announced that Jerry Grant would run the final three USAC races on the 1972 schedule, starting with the third leg of the USAC ”Triple Crown” the ‘California 500’ at the 2-1/2 mile “Indianapolis of the West,” Ontario Motor Speedway.

Practice at Ontario California began on August 22 1972 and both the Eagles of Grant and teammate Bobby Unser soon posted practice lap speeds of over 200 miles per hour (MPH). Experts calculated that the turbocharged Offenhauser engines in the AAR Eagles had to produce nearly 1,100 horsepower to accomplish the 200 MPH feat.

That huge amount of horsepower from 159 cubic inches of engine displacement came at a price as the high level of boost pressure put a tremendous strain of the engine’s internal components.  Unser experienced two engine failures in practice and then in pre-qualifying practice on the morning of August 26, Unser’s car suffered another engine failure, which opened the door for Grant.

Jerry Grant’s first lap around the Ontario Motor Speedway in the purple and white #48 “Olsonite Eagle” lap was completed in 44.7 seconds, or 201.414 MPH. Jerry Grant was the first man to officially turn a lap in an Indianapolis-type championship race car at over 200 MPH. Grant’s lap broke Peter Revson’s day-old Ontario track record of 194.470 MPH and set a new world’s closed course speed record and took the two-year old "world’s closed course speed record" away from NASCAR stock car racer Bobby Issac.

Grant’s last three laps of his 10-mile time trial run were progressively slower, but he would start the ‘California 500’ from the pole position with a four-lap average of 199.600 MPH. In a post-qualifying interview, Grant explained “I didn’t want to push it, so I backed off a little after that first lap. The track is slick, and I didn’t want to make a stupid mistake.”

Grant seemed a bit underwhelmed by his accomplishment. “Going 200 MPH to say you’ve gone 200 MPH is not the object. I want to get a good starting position in the race and any of the three in the front will be fine with me.”    

Meanwhile, the AAR crew replaced the engine in Unser’s car in time for him to make his time trial run later on Saturday, but rain showers in the area kept Unser off the track and therefore he was ineligible to make a run for the pole position. The next day, Sunday August 27, Unser’s Eagle blazed to a new track and world’s record with a lap of 201.965 MPH and a four-lap average of 201.374 MPH but because his run came a day too late, Unser started the 1972 ‘California 500’ from the twenty-third starting position.

If there was any question of the level of animosity between Grant and Unser, it was answered by Grant’s quote printed by the Associated Press after Unser’s record-setting run. “Isn’t it ironic?” said Grant, “the B team is sitting on the pole and the A team is back in 23rd?”  Unser later told Preston Lerner "that record should have been mine.  Letting Jerry get the record irks me like hell because I did all the development work on the car.”

In pre-race publicity, AJ Foyt predicted race laps would be in the 175-180 MPH range with engine turbocharger boost levels reduced and the cars carrying full fuel loads. In final practice on September 1, Grant ran a lap with full tanks at 190.779 MPH, and Unser practiced at 192.028 MPH. In an article published the day before the race the Long Beach Press-Telegram ranked Grant as a 10-1 favorite to win the race to be held on September 3 1972.  

Jerry Grant’s “Mystery Eagle” failed to complete the first parade lap of the third annual $700,000 “California 500” before a rod bolt in the Offenhauser engine broke. The magical flight of the "Mystery Eagle" at Ontario was over.


In an interview days later with Ohio sportswriter Rick Yocum, Grant revealed “I never felt more confident about a race in my life than I did about Ontario. Usually we change the engine after qualifying, but mine was running good, and you hate to fool with something that’s working so well. We changed pistons, valves and bearings, but not the bolts.” 

 Grant ran the two final 1972 USAC races - the penultimate event at Trenton New Jersey where the engine failed after 53 laps, then in the season finale at Phoenix were he was flagged as the eighth place finisher. While the 1972 season certainly did not have the results Grant and Gurney hoped for, Grant will forever be remembered as the first man to post an official lap in an IndyCar at over 200 MPH. 

Fellow historian Jacques Dresang noted that the original "Mystery Eagle" was sold to Bruce Crower in 1973 who still owns the chassis. The car shown at the Lyon Air Museum is a tribute built up with a NOS (New Old Stock) tub.     

All photos by the author except as noted