1962 Indy 500: A.J. Foyt in the Bowes Seal Fast Special
(first posted 1/7/2013) I bought a bunch of postcards, probably when I attended the Indy 500 in 1964. Many of my heroes were shown still driving Offy dinosaurs. That would change within a couple of years, forever. The postcards depict cars than ran from 1962-64.
AJ qualified 5th for the ’62 500 in the Bignotti-Bowes Racing Associates Offy with a speed of 149.074 mph. On the 69th lap he lost a wheel and finished 23rd. The number one on his car indicates that he finished first in the 1961 USAC Championship. This year Bignotti ran a Trevis chassis. Notice the skinny Firestones that are on his car. Foyt was pissed off that Firestone had built low-profile wide tires for Mickey Thompson but wouldn’t supply the same to him. In 1964 Foyt ran fat Goodyears, thus initiating the tire wars. Bignotti’s cars were always immaculately prepared with pearlescent paint jobs and chrome accents. The Formula One guys thought that this level of detail was ridiculous and typically ran chipped paint and rusted exhaust systems. Times have changed.
1963 Indy 500: Parnelli Jones in the #98 Agajanian Willard Battery Special
Parnelli was the first driver to qualify for the 500 with a speed in excess of 150 mph, 151.153 to be precise, and won with an average speed of 143.137 mph in a Watson chassis. His win was controversial as it was alleged that a crack in his oil tank made it difficult for Jimmy Clark to see, if not handle the corners with speed. Clark finished second although it was clear that he had the faster car.
1963 Indy 500: Rodger Ward in the Leader Cards Kaiser Aluminum Special
Ward was a two-time winner of the 500 (’59 & ’62, both with Leader Cards). In 1963 he qualified fourth and finished fourth in a Watson chassis.
1963 Indy 500: Dan Gurney in a Lotus Ford
Gurney qualified 12th and finished 7th on the lead lap. Other sources indicate that Gurney was driving a white and blue Lotus, not the BRG and yellow car shown in this photo. This photo was probably taken early in May before Ford decided that Gurney should be more patriotic and drive a car with USA racing colors.
1962 Indy 500: Eddie Sachs in the #2 Dean Van Lines-Autolite Special
Sachs was one of the most popular drivers at Indy, and was naturally intuitive when it came to driving. But he was the consummate “shoe”. He couldn’t tell you if the car was pushing (understeering) or loose (oversteering), but regardless, was able to get the most out of a car no matter how it was behaving. In 1962 Sachs drove a Ewing chassis and finished third. In 1964 he drove a new-fangled rear-engine Halibrand chassis with a 4-cam Ford and died when he ran into Dave McDonald’s car, which had crashed in turn four on the first lap. McDonald died as well.
1962 Indy 500: Len Sutton in a Leader Card Watson roadster
Sutton qualified fourth and finished second in his Offy dinosaur, his best finish in the 500. Sutton was from Portland, Oregon and died at the age of 81 in 2006. Sutton also won midget championships in the Pacific Northwest for fellow Portland owner/builder Rolla Volstedt.
1963 Indy 500: Jim Hurtubise in a Kurtis-chassied Novi
Herk, as he was known, qualified second but dropped out after 122 laps with an oil leak. He finished 22nd. Nothing else at Indy sounded like the Novis. High pitched screamers. Fan favorites. Never won a USAC race.
Interesting, Indy cars has never caught on here roundy roundy racing isnt very much fun if not on dirt. Notice the aerodynamic difference from the Indy cars to dan Gurneys F1 Lotus, i read somewhere the LeMans Jaguar team entered the Indy 500 and finished 4th 5th 6th in road race D types
Your Indy shots are so cool, thanks. I listened on a transistor radio to these races, I remember them well. Even now I still prefer the radio coverage sometimes. Haven’t been to the 500 yet. Someday I’d like to do a great lakes road trip, Chicago, the Henry Ford, and include the ‘greatest spectacle’.
I’m sure this has been answered here before, but what’s the teardrop casing sticking out the side of the front-engine cars?
Was 1963 the last year when the front-engine roadsters were real contenders?
I believe (somebody correct me if I’m wrong, the casing is the oil tank, because the Offies were dry-sump engines.
In ’64, the mid-engine switchover was well underway, but still Foyt won the race in the last hurrah for the Watson-Offy. Parnelli was also competitive in his winning car from ’63, but dropped out when a miscue on a pitstop resulted in a methanol fire.
I was there, in the stands just across from the pit exit. I couldn’t understand why Parnelli jumped out of the car and rolled on the ground after he left the pits. Ethanol burns invisibly. Ouch!
The teardrop tank was an oil reservoir.
“Was 1963 the last year when the front-engine roadsters were real contenders?” No. AJ Foyt won the 1964 500 in a front engine Watson, but that was the last of the front-engined wins. Gordon Johncock finished 5th in ’65 in a dino, but that was the last time a front-engined car qualified or finished at Indy.
Actually, there was 1 front-engined car in the ’66 race (Bobby Grim the driver), but it was taken out in the 11 car melee at the start of the race. The last year a front-engined car actually made the field was 1968, with Jim Hurtubise.
PDX,
I’m with you. I was in the process of dropping the fuel tank on my ’57 Chevy at my uncle’s tire shop during the ’66 race and I listened to the whole race on radio. I couldn’t believe the first lap. In my numerous trips across the USA (many, and I have loved them all) I have never heard a better live account than what the Indy provided us. ABC ruined anything resembling live coverage.
Thanks; always love old Indy stuff. So wanted to go when I was a kid.
One of these days I need to do a post on the Offy engine.
The front engine roadster era is highly underrated. Thanks for reminding us what things looked like back then. The Novi was front wheel drive
Sunny-Hate to burst your bubble, but all Novis were conventional setups-front engine, rear wheel drive.
Kevin,I hate to burst your bubble, but the early Novis were FWD, as were many Indy racers in the 30’s and 40’s. It first ran in the ’41 race, fitted to a FWD chassis designed for a Miller engine. In 1946 (picture below) it was installed in a Kurtis chassis. The long front nose overhang was indicative of this being a FWD chassis.
The Novi was used in that FWD chassis until about 1955 or 1956, when it found a new home in a new RWD chassis by Kurtis. But the Novi’s legend was established in a FWD chassis.
Wowie zowie! You are right! Late ’40s the hot setup was still FWD.
AJ was a local Houston guy. His name was all over the place when I left the military and came down here. Dictionary definition of grit has his picture.
Front engine or rear, love the look of wingless open-wheel cars. It is a little frightening to see how skimpy the roll bars are. Not a single one looks like it would hit the wall or ground before your head.
On all these front-engined cars….where the hell do the drivers’ feet go?
The engines are “lay-downs”, meaning that they’re slanted way over to one side, so the crank, transmission and drive shaft are off-center. The driver sit on the other side of them.
Before they did that, Indy cars were either very tall, with the driveshaft going right between the driver’s legs, or they were FWD. That’s the reason FWD was used at Indy: to allow the cars to be very low, by eliminating the drive shaft.
Y’know Kevin, I nearly skipped this article, thinking it wouldn’t interest me. How wrong I was. Great pictures and succinct yet informative writing. And I’ve learnt something new – what those teardrop shaped tanks were for! Thank you! As always, CC is a source of unexpected surprise and delight.
I love the old roadsters. Also, one of the side-benefits of living in Indianapolis is that TV coverage is on a delay so we who do not go to the race still listen on the radio, in what is always a great and exciting broadcast.
Thanks for this Kevin. I especially like the red-orange Novi with the white pipes. Nice!
So it was really a contest of front-mid-engine vs rear -mid engine. ie engine and driver were all between the axles.
Fascinating reading along with great photos .
– Nate
There were no FWD cars around when Lotus showed up. FWD, especially in the very powerful Novi, killed a bunch if guys and eventually disappeared. The comments in the press was that the guys couldn’t remember to use power to recover from a skid.
The very same thing happened when Detroit and Japan moved to FWD in road vehicles. There was stuff in the papers all the time. Finally it was said to forget it and drive like the RWD??