1966 Indianapolis 500

The 50th International 500-Mile Sweepstakes was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana on Monday, May 30, 1966. The official program cover for the race celebrated both the 50th running of the race, and 150th anniversary of Indiana statehood.

Eleven of the 33 starters were eliminated in a first-lap accident right after receiving the green flag on the main stretch. Only A. J. Foyt was injured, hurting his hand scaling the catch fence trying to escape the wreck scene. Only seven cars, the fewest finishers ever, were still running by the end of the race. First-time starter Jackie Stewart led by over a lap late in the race in John Mecom's Lola T90-Ford.^[3] However, inside ten laps to go, his oil pressure dropped too low due to a broken scavenge pump. Stewart parked the car, and after briefly attempting to push some ways, he walked back to the pits. Fellow rookie Graham Hill inherited the lead and led a total of 10 laps to win, the first rookie winner since 1927. Despite parking the car, Stewart was voted the rookie of the year over Hill, completing enough laps to finish in 6th place.

Defending race winner Jim Clark spun twice during the race, and finished second. For the second year in a row, the Wood Brothers from the NASCAR Grand National circuit were invited to work pit stops, this time for Dan Gurney. However, the car dropped out of the race in the crash on the opening lap.^[4]

Race schedule

Practice and time trials

Background

Three-year veteran Johnny Rutherford was injured in a serious crash on April 3 at Eldora, and was forced to sit out the 1966 race.^[5]

The Mecom Racing Team was scheduled to field drivers Walt Hansgen, Rodger Ward, and Jackie Stewart. However, Hansgen died from injuries suffered in a crash during a test session at Le Mans on April 3. Graham Hill was named as a late replacement, and his name was not even listed on the entry list in the official program.

Practice

Practice for the "Golden Anniversary 500" opened on Saturday April 30,^[6] but cold temperatures and rainy weather for the first few days kept most cars off the track. Chuck Hulse (149.8 mph) was the fastest car over the first weekend.^[7] On Monday May 2, Art Pollard became the first rookie to pass the 145 mph rookie test.^[8] Jackie Stewart also passed his rookie test.

On Tuesday May 10, Mario Andretti turned a practice lap of 164.5 mph during practice, establishing himself as an early favorite for the pole position.^[6] Among the others over the 160 mph mark were A. J. Foyt, George Snider, and Dan Gurney.

Rain washed out practice on Wednesday May 11.^[9]

On Friday May 13, the final day of practice before time trials, Mario Andretti shattered the unofficial track record by more than 5 mph, running a lap of 167.411 mph. Rain hampered most of the day, but Andretti put together additional laps of 166 mph, and 164 mph. The next-fastest car was Jim Clark, whose best lap was 165.7 mph.^[10]

Saturday May 14 – Pole Day time trials

Mario Andretti won the pole position with a four-lap track record of 165.889 mph. His best single lap was a record 166.328 mph.^[11]

Chuck Rodee was killed in a crash. On his second warmup lap in turn one, Rodee backed into the outside wall, and he died of his injuries at the hospital.

A total of 18 cars completed qualifying runs on a chilly pole day.

Sunday May 15 – Second Day Time trials

After crashing on pole day, A. J. Foyt qualified at 161.355 mph, the fourth-fastest car in the field.

Saturday May 21 – Third Day Time trials

Unser brothers Bobby and Al qualified, with rookie Al (162.272 mph) leading the speeds for the day.^[12] Bobby Grim qualified his turbo Offy front-engined roadster at 158.367 mph, the only such car in the field.

Sunday May 22 – Bump Day Time trials

Two drivers managed to bump their way into the field, Ronnie Duman and Larry Dickson.^[13] Greg Weld wrecked two cars (one of which was a popular Granatelli-Novi), but was uninjured. Bobby Grim, the slowest qualifier, holds on to the make the field in his front-engined roadster.

Starting grid

Row	Inside	Middle	Outside
1	Mario Andretti	Jim Clark  W	George Snider
2	Parnelli Jones  W	Lloyd Ruby	Gordon Johncock
3	Jim McElreath	Chuck Hulse	Don Branson
4	Jerry Grant	Jackie Stewart  R	Billy Foster
5	Rodger Ward  W	Johnny Boyd	Graham Hill  R
6	Gary Congdon  R	Mel Kenyon  R	A. J. Foyt  W
7	Dan Gurney	Joe Leonard	Roger McCluskey
8	Jim Hurtubise	Al Unser	Cale Yarborough  R
9	Carl Williams  R	Arnie Knepper	Bud Tingelstad
10	Bobby Unser	Eddie Johnson	Al Miller
11	Bobby Grim	Larry Dickson  R	Ronnie Duman

  Yellow indicates the driver was eliminated in the first lap accident.

  Tan indicated the driver was involved in the first lap accident, but was able to restart the race.

Alternates

• First alternate: Dick Atkins  R  (#97)^[14]

Failed to qualify

Race recap

Start

As the field came down the main stretch for the start, Billy Foster was among those jockeying for position. As the green flag fell, he nearly touched wheels with Gordon Johncock and lost control.^[16] He spun directly into the outside wall, just beyond the start/finish line, and triggered a huge pileup. Sixteen cars were involved, with debris and loose wheels bouncing all over the racing surface.

As the drivers instinctively scurried out of their machines to avoid possible flames (although no significant fires had broken out), A. J. Foyt became the only driver casualty of the incident. He injured his hand climbing over the catch fence on the outside of the track.^[16] He was checked out at the infield hospital, and cleared to drive relief if needed. One spectator was hit by a wheel from the crash.

Of the sixteen cars, eleven were damaged beyond repair. The red flag came out, and after the cleanup, the race lined up for a restart with only 22 cars. The red flag delay was about 1 hour and 24 minutes.^[16]

When the race was restarted, the field took several warm up laps, and restarted single file. The yellow light came back on almost immediately when Johnny Boyd crashed in turn 1 on the first green lap.

Race

The early half of the race was dominated by Lloyd Ruby, who was seeking his first win in the Indianapolis 500. However, a bad pit stop resulted in Ruby losing a couple of laps and he went on to finish 11th. Jackie Stewart dominated the second half of the race, leading 40 laps. Stewart was leading by a little over a lap before his car broke with 10 laps to go. Graham Hill inherited the lead, led the final laps, and won the race. His original margin of victory was 42 seconds over second place, Jim Clark, pending the final results.

Controversy

During the race, confusion broke out over the running order, which resulted in people being unsure, even to this day, on who won the race. The confusion in the scoring led to a controversy, wherein second place Jim Clark's team thought they were the rightful winner.^[17] Clark had spun on two separate occasions during the race, but did not make serious contact during either incident. He did not stall his engine either time, and was able to drive to the pits for the crew to inspect the car quickly both times. Clark's team contended that he did not lose a significant amount of track position, and estimated that they were still one lap ahead of Graham Hill at the finish.^[18] The scoring pylon, which was manually controlled and unofficial, changed frequently and somewhat sporadically as the scoring was ironed out, much to the dismay of Clark's crew in particular, and much to the confusion of spectators. The unofficial results at the conclusion of the race showed Graham Hill winning by 41.13 seconds over Clark.

The morning after the race, USAC released the official results, and the standings were unchanged. Colin Chapman and Andy Granatelli, the entrants of Clark's Lotus team, declined to file an official protest. A possible explanation given was that the Lotus crew did not see Hill pass by Clark during the aftermath of the second spin.^[19]

Race winner Graham Hill admitted to having an "uneventful race", being "puzzled" and "surprised" to be the winner, while other unsatisfied competitors quipped that he had "never passed a car all day long."^[20] The IMS Radio Network, which scored the race independently from the USAC officials, also came up with Hill as the first place car.^[21] The apparent controversy died out quickly, and no official action was ever taken. Years later the subject is still mildly debated in racing circles.

A theory emerged that scorers accidentally omitted one lap from Jim Clark's official tally. Therefore, he was effectively placed behind Hill at the finish. The car of Al Unser was painted nearly identical to Clark's. The theory is that when Al Unser crashed out of the race on lap 161, scorers mistakenly thought it was Clark, and as Clark drove by in the immediate aftermath, they credited that lap to Unser by mistake.^[21] Another version of the theory suggests an opposite situation - one of Unser's laps was erroneously credited to Clark's tally early on, and when the scoring serials were compiled and settled later in the race, the extra lap was correctly deleted.

Alongside the controversy between Hill and Clark, fourth place Gordon Johncock is also theorized by some observers to have actually been the rightful winner of the race. Johncock completed the 500 miles in less elapsed time than Hill, Clark, and third place Jim McElreath. However, Johncock had suffered minor damage during the first lap accident, and restarted the race in the pit lane due to the crew changing the nose cone. USAC officials did not score his first lap out of the pit lane, and he effectively ran all day carrying a one lap penalty to the field.^[22]

Box score

Finish	Start	No	Name	Chassis	Engine	Qual	Laps	Status
1	15	24[23]	Graham Hill  R	Lola	Ford	159.243	200	Running
2	2	19	Jim Clark  W	Lotus	Ford	164.114	200	+41.10
3	7	3	Jim McElreath	Brabham	Ford	160.908	200	+49.89
4	6	72	Gordon Johncock	Gerhardt	Ford	161.059	200	+1:47.48
5	17	94	Mel Kenyon  R	Gerhardt	Offenhauser	158.555	198	Flagged
6	11	43	Jackie Stewart  R	Lola	Ford	159.972	190	Oil Pressure
7	29	54	Eddie Johnson	Huffaker	Offenhauser	158.898	175	Stalled
8	28	11	Bobby Unser	Huffaker	Offenhauser	159.109	171	Flagged
9	20	6	Joe Leonard	Eagle	Ford	159.560	170	Stalled
10	10	88	Jerry Grant	Eagle	Ford	160.335	167	Flagged
11	5	14	Lloyd Ruby	Eagle	Ford	162.433	166	Cam Stud
12	23	18	Al Unser	Lotus	Ford	162.372	161	Crash T4
13	21	8	Roger McCluskey	Eagle	Ford	159.271	129	Oil Leak
14	4	98	Parnelli Jones  W	Shrike	Offenhauser	162.484	87	Wheel Bearing
15	13	26	Rodger Ward  W	Lola	Offenhauser	159.468	74	Handling
16	25	77	Carl Williams  R	Gerhardt	Ford	159.645	38	Valve
17	22	56	Jim Hurtubise	Gerhardt	Offenhauser	159.208	29	Oil line
18	1	1	Mario Andretti	Brawner	Ford	165.849	27	Valve
19	3	82	George Snider	Coyote	Ford	162.521	22	Crash T2
20	8	12	Chuck Hulse	Watson	Ford	160.844	22	Crash T2
21	27	22	Bud Tingelstad	Gerhardt	Offenhauser	159.144	16	Overheating
22	14	28	Johnny Boyd	BRP	Ford	159.384	5	Crash T1
23	9	4	Don Branson	Gerhardt	Ford	160.385	0	Crash FS
24	12	27	Billy Foster	Vollstedt	Ford	159.490	0	Crash FS
25	16	53	Gary Congdon  R	Huffaker	Offenhauser	158.688	0	Crash FS
26	18	2	A. J. Foyt  W	Lotus	Ford	161.355	0	Crash FS
27	19	31	Dan Gurney	Eagle	Ford	160.499	0	Crash FS
28	24	66	Cale Yarborough  R	Vollstedt	Ford	159.794	0	Crash FS
29	26	37	Arnie Knepper	Cecil	Ford	159.440	0	Crash FS
30	30	75	Al Miller	Lotus	Ford	158.681	0	Crash FS
31	31	39	Bobby Grim	Watson	Offenhauser	158.367	0	Crash FS
32	32	34	Larry Dickson  R	Lola	Ford	159.144	0	Crash FS
33	33	96	Ronnie Duman	Eisert	Ford	158.646	0	Crash FS

 W  Former Indianapolis 500 winner

 R  Indianapolis 500 Rookie

Race statistics

Broadcasting

Radio

The race was carried live on the IMS Radio Network. Sid Collins served as chief announcer. Len Sutton joined the crew, serving as "driver expert," replacing Fred Agabashian. The network had gained sponsorship from Autolite, but Agabashian worked for Champion, and he considered it a conflict of interest, so he stepped aside.^[24] He would eventually return to the network in 1973–77. At the conclusion of the race, Lou Palmer reported from victory lane. The broadcast was scheduled for four and a half hours (including a 30-minute pre-race), but the red flag delay at the start extended it.

The broadcast was carried on over 725 affiliates in all 50 states, and 850 stations worldwide including shortwave transmissions from

The off-air, two-man serial scoring team of Bill Fleetemeyer and Bill Lamb[25] were commended for their contributions to the broadcast. During this era, the radio network crew typically facilitated its own team of unofficial serial scorers to track the progress of the race.^[21] That allowed the scoring reports to be announced on-air faster than the official USAC scorekeepers could produce them from race control. Despite the controversy over the scoring between winner Graham Hill and second place Jim Clark, Fleetemeyer and Lamb also came up with Hill as the first place car.^[21]

For 1967, the flagship station changed from

As a gesture celebrating the network's 15th anniversary, as well as the 50th running of the 500, guests were presented with a commemorative gold filled Zippo lighter. One station, KXO in California, was noted and recognized as being one of the few original affiliates to carry the race all fifteen years since the network's inception.

Television

The race was shown live on MCA closed-circuit television in nearly 200 theaters across the United States. Charlie Brockman served as anchor. For the first time, the feed was transmitted internationally to Europe utilizing the "Early Bird" satellite.^[26] A short video clip showing the restart after the first-lap accident, and a longer clip of the last 55 laps of the race, both synchronized to audio from the IMS Radio broadcast, have been posted on YouTube.

The race was

Gallery

Wikimedia Commons has media related to 1966 Indianapolis 500.

• 
  1966 pace car

Notes

References