1970 Indianapolis 500 Film

No copyright infringement is intended with this, or any other video I upload. The purpose of uploading this video is for the viewing pleasure for those that watch it.

This is the 54th Indianapolis 500, run on May 30, 1970.

There are two words that can best describe the 1970 Indianapolis 500. "Al Unser". Al Unser had a car as dominant as any driver has had in the modern history of the event. He was the dominant driver at the end of the 1969 season, rallying to finish second in the championship behind Mario Andretti, despite missing the Indianapolis 500 due to a broken ankle from a motorcycle accident at Indy the previous May. And in 1970, he picked up right where he left off.

However, his one weakness nearly cost him the pole, as his qualifying effort was underwhelming, turning what should have been a breeze for the pole into a real battle, slowing down while the other main contenders sped up. But the real surprise of qualifying was Johnny Rutherford, who had never previously qualified in the top ten, came within 0.01 seconds of Unser's pole time, the closest in event history, and A.J. Foyt completed the closest front row in the history of the Indianapolis 500.

On race day, Mother Nature briefly intervened, causing a short delay. The start was delayed again when Jim Malloy's radius rod broke, causing him to crash. When the race finally started, it took Unser precisely half a lap to reassert his dominance. The real story of this race was another of Lloyd Ruby's charges. In 1969, he came from 20th to battle with the leaders. This time, he started even farther back, in 25th place, yet in the first 100 miles, raced into the top five, and when the leaders pitted for the first time, Ruby inherited the lead, only to get black flagged to due a smoking engine, which blew in turn one.

That effectively ended the drama in this race, as Unser would dominate, leading all but 10 laps during pit stops. Johnny Rutherford's surprising run ended on his first stop when he couldn't get out of the pits, and Foyt later experienced transmission problems of his own. The best of the rest was Mark Donohue, who ran second most of the race, while Dan Gurney was consistent, as usual, winding up third. 3-time World Champion Jack Brabham, the driver that was the first to qualify at Indy with a rear-engine car in modern times, also briefly led during pit stops.

Perhaps the biggest story of this race was NASCAR driver Donnie Allison. Six days earlier, he destroyed the field to win the World 600 at Charlotte. He was no less impressive at Indy, finishing fourth in one of Foyt's cars, easily earning Rookie of the Year honors, while Jim McElreath, who would win the first California 500 later that year, took fifth in another of Foyt's cars.

The most dramatic moment of this race came when Roger McCluskey, relieving Mel Kenyon, spun in turn three late, taking Ronnie Bucknum and Sam Sessions with him, and two other cars spun out, though neither of those were damaged. That incident cost Al Unser the race record due to the number of laps run under caution for it. But that's about the only thing Al didn't get as he easily won the race, becoming the eighth driver to win the Indianapolis 500 from the pole, and the first since his team co-owner Parnelli Jones did so in 1963.

All credits go to SPEED (SpeedVision, the predecessor to the current SPEED Channel, originally aired the content in the video), the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, USAC, and Chapionship Racefilms.

If there are any others who I'm forgetting, please let me know so I can add them to the list of those to credit.

Видео 1970 Indianapolis 500 Film канала cjs83172