1961 Indianapolis 500


The 45th International 500-Mile Sweepstakes was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana on Tuesday, May 30, 1961. For the first time since 1949, the Indianapolis 500 was not recognized on the World Championship calendar. The race celebrated the 50th anniversary of the first Indy 500 in 1911.
Eddie Sachs and A. J. Foyt were battling for 1st-2nd in the latter stages of the race. On Foyt's final scheduled pit stop, his crew was unable to properly engage the fuel mechanism, and his car did not take on a full load of fuel. Foyt returned to the track, and was pulling away from Sachs. Foyt's car was running faster due to the light fuel load, but his crew signaled him that he would be unable to make it to the finish without another pit stop. The crew borrowed a fuel feed mechanism from Len Sutton's team, and signaled Foyt to the pits.
Foyt gave up the lead on lap 184 for a splash-and-go. That handed the lead to Sachs, who was now leading by 25 seconds. With three laps to go, the warning tread showed on Sachs' rear tire and Sachs decided to play it safe. Rather than nurse the car around, he pitted to replace the worn tire on lap 197. Foyt took the lead with three laps to go and won his first Indy 500 victories by a margin of 8.28 seconds.
A notable story included the appearance of two-time defending Formula One World Champion Jack Brabham from Australia, who drove the race in a low-slung, British built Cooper powered by a Coventry Climax engine. Dubbed the "British Invasion," it would be the first notable post-war appearance of a rear-engined car, and within five years the rear-engined revolution would take over the Speedway. The venerable front-engined roadsters with their larger and more powerful engines were much faster down the long straights, but the superior handling of Brabham's Cooper in the corners kept his car competitive. Brabham qualified 17th at 145.144 mp/h and drove the car to a respectable 9th-place finish, completing all 200 laps. He had planned to run conservatively and make only two pit stops, but tire wear and fuel consumption forced him to make a 3rd stop, negating his strategy. Had he driven more aggressively with three pit stops, he might have been much closer to the lead serial.
Five months after the race in October 1961, the front straight of the track was paved over with asphalt, and thus the entire track was now paved in asphalt and only a single yard of bricks at the start/finish line was left exposed from the original 1909 brick surface. The remainder of the original 3,200,000 bricks now lie underneath the asphalt surface. This meant that the 1961 race was the last 500 in which cars raced on the original bricks other than those at the start/finish line.

Practice and time trials

Nicknamed the "Tinley Park Express," Tony Bettenhausen, Sr. was killed in a crash during a practice run on May 12. He was testing a car for Paul Russo. It was determined that an anchor bolt fell off the front radius rod support, permitting the front axle to twist and mis-align the front wheels when the brakes were applied. The car plunged into the outside wall, then rode along the top, snapping fence poles and tearing segments of the catch fence. The car came to rest upside-down on top of the outside wall, and Bettenhausen was killed instantly. Before the time trials Bettenhausen had been the favorite to become the first driver to break the 150 mph barrier at the Speedway.
Time trials was scheduled for four days:
Eddie Sachs sat on the pole with an average speed of 147.481 mph.

Box score

FinishStartNoNameQualRankLapsLedStatus
171 A. J. Foyt145.903920071Running
2112 Eddie Sachs147.481120044Running
342 Rodger Ward '146.18752007Running
4187 Shorty Templeman144.341272000Running
52619 Al Keller146.15762000Running
62818 Chuck Stevenson145.191162000Running
73331 Bobby Marshman '144.293292000Running
8255 Lloyd Ruby146.90922000Running
91317 Jack Brabham '145.144172000Running
103234 Norm Hall '144.555262000Running
111528 Gene Hartley144.817221980Flagged
12598 Parnelli Jones '146.080719227Flagged
13697 Dick Rathmann146.03381640Fuel Pump
141710 Paul Goldsmith144.741251600Connecting Rod
151215 Wayne Weiler145.349141470Wheel Bearing
163135 Dempsey Wilson144.202311450Fuel Pump
171632 Bob Christie144.782241320Piston
181033 Eddie Johnson145.843121270Crash T4
1988 Len Sutton145.897101100Clutch
202252 Troy Ruttman '144.7992310510Clutch
212041 Johnny Boyd144.092321050Clutch
22399 Jim Hurtubise146.306410235Piston
231986 Ebb Rose '144.33828930Rod
243026 Cliff Griffith145.03819550Piston
252145 Jack Turner144.90421520Crash FS
261473 A. J. Shepherd '144.95420510Crash FS
272922 Roger McCluskey '145.06818510Crash FS
28914 Bill Cheesbourg145.87311500Crash FS
292783 Don Davis '145.34915490Crash FS
30114 Jim Rathmann 145.41313486Magneto
312355 Jimmy Daywalt144.21930270Brake Line
322416 Bobby Grim144.02933260Piston
3323 Don Branson146.843320Bent Valves

Alternates

Track worker fatality

John Masariu, 38 father of 6, of Danville, Indiana was serving as a member of the fire/safety crew. On the 127th lap of the race, driver Eddie Johnson spun out in turn 4, but did not suffer significant damage and he was not injured. A small fire broke out on the car. A safety fire truck went to his aid. John Masariu, who was the principal of Ben Davis Junior High and was serving as a safety worker, fell or jumped off the back of the fire truck. A moment later, the truck driven by James Williams accidentally backed over him, and he was injured fatally.

Broadcasting

Radio

The race was carried live on the IMS Radio Network. Sid Collins served as chief announcer with Fred Agabashian serving as "driver expert" The broadcast represented the 10th anniversary of the network, which was formed in 1952. This was Mike Ahern's first year on the network. This was Ahern's only year in Turn 2.
The broadcast was heard on over 450 affiliates, including Armed Forces Radio. The broadcast reached all 50 U.S. states. The race reached approximately 100 million listeners worldwide.

Television

The race itself was not televised in full. However, ABC Sports showed highlights of time trials and a few minutes of film clips of the race on Wide World of Sports.

Gallery

Works cited