1961 Indianapolis 500

45th Indianapolis 500

Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Indianapolis 500
Sanctioning body	USAC
Season	1961 USAC season
Date	May 30, 1961
Winner	A. J. Foyt
Winning team	Bignotti-Bowes Racing Associates
Average speed	139.130 mph (223.908 km/h)
Pole position	Eddie Sachs
Pole speed	147.481 mph (237.348 km/h)
Fastest qualifier	Eddie Sachs
Rookie of the Year	Bobby Marshman & Parnelli Jones (co-winners)
Most laps led	A. J. Foyt (71)
Pre-race ceremonies
National anthem	Purdue Band
"Back Home Again in Indiana"	Mel Torme
Starting Command	Tony Hulman
Pace car	Ford Thunderbird
Pace car driver	Sam Hanks
Honorary starter	N/A
Attendance	300,000 (estimated)
TV in the United States
Network	N/A
Announcers	N/A
Nielsen Ratings	N/A / N/A
Chronology
Previous Next 1960 1962

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 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.^[1]

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).

Box score

Finish	Start	No	Name	Qual	Rank	Laps	Led	Status
1	7	1	A. J. Foyt	145.903	9	200	71	Running
2	1	12	Eddie Sachs	147.481	1	200	44	Running
3	4	2	Rodger Ward (W)	146.187	5	200	7	Running
4	18	7	Shorty Templeman	144.341	27	200	0	Running
5	26	19	Al Keller	146.157	6	200	0	Running
6	28	18	Chuck Stevenson	145.191	16	200	0	Running
7	33	31	Bobby Marshman (R)	144.293	29	200	0	Running
8	25	5	Lloyd Ruby	146.909	2	200	0	Running
9	13	17	Jack Brabham (R)	145.144	17	200	0	Running
10	32	34	Norm Hall (R)	144.555	26	200	0	Running
11	15	28	Gene Hartley	144.817	22	198	0	Flagged
12	5	98	Parnelli Jones (R)	146.080	7	192	27	Flagged
13	6	97	Dick Rathmann	146.033	8	164	0	Fuel Pump
14	17	10	Paul Goldsmith	144.741	25	160	0	Connecting Rod
15	12	15	Wayne Weiler	145.349	14	147	0	Wheel Bearing
16	31	35	Dempsey Wilson	144.202	31	145	0	Fuel Pump
17	16	32	Bob Christie	144.782	24	132	0	Piston
18	10	33	Eddie Johnson	145.843	12	127	0	Crash T4
19	8	8	Len Sutton	145.897	10	110	0	Clutch
20	22	52	Troy Ruttman (W)	144.799	23	105	10	Clutch
21	20	41	Johnny Boyd	144.092	32	105	0	Clutch
22	3	99	Jim Hurtubise	146.306	4	102	35	Piston
23	19	86	Ebb Rose (R)	144.338	28	93	0	Rod
24	30	26	Cliff Griffith	145.038	19	55	0	Piston
25	21	45	Jack Turner	144.904	21	52	0	Crash FS
26	14	73	A. J. Shepherd (R)	144.954	20	51	0	Crash FS
27	29	22	Roger McCluskey (R)	145.068	18	51	0	Crash FS
28	9	14	Bill Cheesbourg	145.873	11	50	0	Crash FS
29	27	83	Don Davis (R)	145.349	15	49	0	Crash FS
30	11	4	Jim Rathmann (W)	145.413	13	48	6	Magneto
31	23	55	Jimmy Daywalt	144.219	30	27	0	Brake Line
32	24	16	Bobby Grim	144.029	33	26	0	Piston
33	2	3	Don Branson	146.843	3	2	0	Bent Valves

Alternates

• First alternate: Paul Russo (#21, #24)^[2]

Failed to qualify

Race statistics

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.^[4]

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.

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.^[5]

Gallery

Wikimedia Commons has media related to 1961 Indianapolis 500.

• 

  1961 winning car

• 

  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