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1961 Indianapolis 500

45th running of the Indianapolis 500

Field	Value
race_name	45th Indianapolis 500
race_logo	Indy500winningcar1961.JPG
sanction	USAC
season	[1961 USAC season](1961-usac-championship-car-season)
team	Bignotti-Bowes Racing Associates
date	May 30, 1961
winner	A. J. Foyt
mph	139.130 mi/h
pole	Eddie Sachs
pole_speed	147.481 mi/h
fast_time	Eddie Sachs
rookie	Bobby Marshman & Parnelli Jones (co-winners)
leader	A. J. Foyt (71)
anthem	Purdue Band
back_home	Mel Torme
start_engines	Tony Hulman
pace_car	Ford Thunderbird
pace_driver	Sam Hanks
starter	Bill Vanderwater
honorary_ref	Raymond Firestone
attendance	300,000
network	N/A
announcers	N/A
rating	N/A
share	N/A
previous	[1960](1960-indianapolis-500)
next	[1962](1962-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 (of four) Indy 500 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 mph and drove the car to a respectable 9th-place finish, completing all 200 laps.

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.[[File:Cooper-Climax T54 "The Kimberly Special" - Flickr - andrewbasterfield.jpg|thumb|The rear-engined [[Cooper T54]] with which dual and reigning [[Formula One|World F1 Drivers' Champion]] [[Jack Brabham]] placed ninth. Jack and the Cooper are credited with starting the rear-engine revolution at Indianapolis]]Time trials was scheduled for four days:

Saturday May 13 – Pole Day time trials
Sunday May 14 – Second day time trials
Saturday May 20 – Third day time trials
Sunday May 21 – Fourth day time trials

Eddie Sachs sat on the pole with an average speed of 147.481 mph (237.348 km/h).

Starting grid

Row	Inside	Middle	Outside	1	2
12	USA Eddie Sachs	3	USA Don Branson	99	USA Jim Hurtubise
2	USA Rodger Ward	98	USA Parnelli Jones	97	USA Dick Rathmann
1	USA A. J. Foyt	8	USA Len Sutton	14	USA Bill Cheesbourg
33	USA Eddie Johnson	4	USA Jim Rathmann	15	USA Wayne Weiler
17	AUS Jack Brabham	73	USA A. J. Shepherd	28	USA Gene Hartley
32	USA Bob Christie	10	USA Paul Goldsmith	7	USA Shorty Templeman
86	USA Ebb Rose	41	USA Johnny Boyd	45	USA Jack Turner
52	USA Troy Ruttman	55	USA Jimmy Daywalt	16	USA Bobby Grim
5	USA Lloyd Ruby	19	USA Al Keller	83	USA Don Davis
18	USA Chuck Stevenson	22	USA Roger McCluskey	26	USA Cliff Griffith
35	USA Dempsey Wilson	34	USA Norm Hall	31	USA Bobby Marshman

Alternates

First alternate: Paul Russo (#21, #24)

Failed to qualify

Chuck Arnold (#62)
Harry Beck **** (#95) – Entry declined, lack of experience
Tony Bettenhausen (#15, #24) – Fatal accident
Bert Brooks **** (#79)
Duane Carter (#61, #64)
Bob Cleberg **** (#6)
Leon Clum **** (#77)
Russ Congdon **** (#69)
Ray Crawford (#94)
Ronnie Duman **** (#43)
Jack Ensley **** (#84)
Cotton Farmer **** (#23)
Don Freeland (#27, #47)
Chuck Hulse **** (#37)
Danny Jones **** (#47)
Ralph Ligouri **** (#75)
Mike Magill (#82)
Jim McWithey (#29)
Bill Randall **** (#95)
Chuck Rodee **** (#89)
Jack Rounds **** (#44, #87)
Bud Tingelstad (#54)
Bob Veith (#23, #25, #44, #85)
Bob Wente **** (#88)
Chuck Weyant (#88)

Box score

Finish	Start	No	Name	Chassis	Tire	Qual	Laps
7	1	USA A. J. Foyt	Trevis	Offenhauser	145.903	200	139.130 mph
1	12	USA Eddie Sachs	Ewing	Offenhauser	147.481	200	+8.28
4	2	USA Rodger Ward ****	Watson	Offenhauser	146.187	200	+55.19
18	7	USA Shorty Templeman	Meskowski	Offenhauser	144.341	200	+3:33.35
26	19	USA Al Keller	Phillips	Offenhauser	146.157	200	+4:54.45
28	18	USA Chuck Stevenson	Salih	Offenhauser	145.191	200	+5:22.96
33	31	USA Bobby Marshman ****	Epperly	Offenhauser	144.293	200	+5:43.28
25	5	USA Lloyd Ruby	Epperly	Offenhauser	146.909	200	+6:49.65
13	17	AUS Jack Brabham ****	Cooper	Coventry Climax	145.144	200	+8:03.37
32	34	USA Norm Hall ****	Kurtis Kraft	Offenhauser	144.555	200	+8:04.90
15	28	USA Gene Hartley	Trevis	Offenhauser	144.817	198	Flagged
5	98	USA Parnelli Jones ****	Watson	Offenhauser	146.080	192	Flagged
6	97	USA Dick Rathmann	Watson	Offenhauser	146.033	164	Fuel Pump
17	10	USA Paul Goldsmith	Lesovsky	Offenhauser	144.741	160	Connecting Rod
12	15	USA Wayne Weiler	Watson	Offenhauser	145.349	147	Wheel Bearing
31	35	USA Dempsey Wilson	Kuzma	Offenhauser	144.202	145	Fuel Pump
16	32	USA Bob Christie	Kurtis Kraft	Offenhauser	144.782	132	Piston
10	33	USA Eddie Johnson	Kuzma	Offenhauser	145.843	127	Crash T4
8	8	USA Len Sutton	Watson	Offenhauser	145.897	110	Clutch
22	52	USA Troy Ruttman ****	Watson	Offenhauser	144.799	105	Clutch
20	41	USA Johnny Boyd	Watson	Offenhauser	144.092	105	Clutch
3	99	USA Jim Hurtubise	Epperly	Offenhauser	146.306	102	Piston
19	86	USA Ebb Rose ****	Porter	Offenhauser	144.338	93	Rod
30	26	USA Cliff Griffith	Elder	Offenhauser	145.038	55	Piston
21	45	USA Jack Turner	Kurtis Kraft	Offenhauser	144.904	52	Crash FS
14	73	USA A. J. Shepherd ****	Christensen	Offenhauser	144.954	51	Crash FS
29	22	USA Roger McCluskey ****	Moore	Offenhauser	145.068	51	Crash FS
9	14	USA Bill Cheesbourg	Kuzma	Offenhauser	145.873	50	Crash FS
27	83	USA Don Davis ****	Trevis	Offenhauser	145.349	49	Crash FS
11	4	USA Jim Rathmann ****	Watson	Offenhauser	145.413	48	Magneto
23	55	USA Jimmy Daywalt	Kurtis Kraft	Offenhauser	144.219	27	Brake Line
24	16	USA Bobby Grim	Watson	Offenhauser	144.029	26	Piston
2	3	USA Don Branson	Epperly	Offenhauser	146.843	2	Bent Valves

**** Former Indianapolis 500 winner

**** Indianapolis 500 Rookie

Race statistics

Lap Leaders	Laps	Leader
1–35	Jim Hurtubise
36–41	Jim Rathmann
42–44	Parnelli Jones
45–51	Eddie Sachs
52–75	Parnelli Jones
76–83	A. J. Foyt
84–88	Troy Ruttman
89	A. J. Foyt
90–94	Troy Ruttman
95–124	A. J. Foyt
125–137	Eddie Sachs
138	A. J. Foyt
139–141	Eddie Sachs
142–146	A. J. Foyt
147–151	Eddie Sachs
152–160	A. J. Foyt
161–167	Rodger Ward
168–169	Eddie Sachs
170–183	A. J. Foyt
184–197	Eddie Sachs
198–200	A. J. Foyt

Total laps led	Driver	Laps
A. J. Foyt	71
Eddie Sachs	44
Jim Hurtubise	35
Parnelli Jones	27
Troy Ruttman	10
Rodger Ward	7
Jim Rathmann	6

Yellow Lights: 2 for 33 minutes, 2 seconds	Laps*	Reason
52–67	Davis, Shepherd, Turner, McCluskey, Cheesebourg crash mainstretch (25:12)
129–136	Eddie Johnson crash turn four (7:50)
* – Approximate lap counts

Tire participation chart	Supplier	No. of starters
Firestone	32*
Dunlop	1
* – Denotes race winner

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 (Johnny) 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.

Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network	Booth Announcers	Turn Reporters	Pit/garage reporters
		Jack Shapiro (north pits)
Luke Walton (center pits)
Johny Peterson (south pits)

Television

The race itself was not televised. However, ABC Sports showed highlights of time trials on Wide World of Sports.

Gallery

File:Indy500winningcar1961.JPG|1961 winning car Image:Cooper indy 1961.jpg|Replica of Jack Brabham's 1961 Cooper-Climax T54

Notes

References

Works cited

Indianapolis 500 History: Race & All-Time Stats - Official Site
1961 Indianapolis 500 Radio Broadcast, Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network

|Previous_year's_race = 1960 Indianapolis 500 |Next_year's_race = 1962 Indianapolis 500 (1960 Indianapolis 500) (1962 Indianapolis 500)

References

Fox, Jack C.. (1994). "The Illustrated History of the Indianapolis 500 1911-1994". Carl Hungness Publishing.
Cadou Jr., Jep. (May 31, 1961). "Averafe Speed Of 139.131 Sets New Track Mark". The Indianapolis Star.
"Indy 500 deadly accidents, Tony Bettenhausen Sr".
''[[Donald Davidson (historian). The Talk of Gasoline Alley]]'' - [[WIBC (FM). 1070-AM WIBC]], May 14, 2004
"1961 International 500 Mile Sweepstakes". ChampCarStats.com.
(2013). "Autocourse Official History of the Indianapolis 500". Icon Publishing.
(1998). "Indianapolis 500 Chronicle". Publications International.
"1961 Indianapolis 500". Racing-Reference.
(May 30, 1961). "7th Extra". [[Indianapolis News]].
Eggert, Bill. (May 27, 1961). "Firms Struggle To Get Products Used By Cars". [[The Indianapolis Star]].
"Truck Kills '500' Guard".
(1961-05-26). "Indianapolis Time Trials Telecast Saturday on ABC". [[Telegraph Herald]].

Info: Wikipedia Source

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Tire participation chart	Supplier	No. of starters
Firestone	32*
Dunlop	1
* – Denotes race winner