1967 Indianapolis 500 Film

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This is the 51st running of the Indianapolis 500, which was held on May 30-31, 1967.

Of course, as we all know, 1967 was the year that Andy Granatelli brought the turbine car, easily the most controversial car in Indianapolis 500 history, to the speedway. The car would be driven by Parnelli Jones, the winner in 1963. Granatelli also entered the cars that Jim Clark and Graham Hill, the previous two winners and the top two finishers in 1966, drove in the race, but they had nothing but trouble all month long.

However, qualifications went exactly as they had gone the year before, with 2-time USAC and reigning Daytona 500 and Sebring champion Mario Andretti setting new records and nearly became the first driver to run an official lap of over 170 MPH. Ironically, this film does not even mention the other two front row starters, Dan Gurney and Gordon Johncock, but does mention all the starters in rows two and three, including both of A.J. Foyt's cars, driven by Foyt and Joe Leonard, as well as Jones' turbine (he had the worst starting position of his career at Indy of sixth), Roger McCluskey, and the Unser brothers.

When the race begins, it becomes obvious that Parnelli's 4-wheel drive turbine is vastly superior to everyone else, but even Jones and the Granatreli brothers coldn't control the weather, as rain stopped the race after just 18 laps, making this the first multi-day race in Indy history. Even so, Lloyd Ruby's car didn't even make it that far and Andretti's car was in the pits when the race was stopped, but under new rules created as a result of what happened in 1966, all the teams were allowed to work on their cars while the race was stopped.

When the race resumed, so did Parnelli's domination, but the previous two winners were among the first out on the second day. It was also obvious that crashes would mar this race, though nobody was hurt in the crashes. However, Jones got collected in one of the incidents, when he tagged NASCAR driver LeeRoy Yarbrough, causing both to spin. That gave Dan Gurney the lead for the only time in his Indy career, brief as it was.

Shortly after that, Parnelli's race neary came to a premature end as a result of a botched pit stop when he tried to leave too soon with the fuel hose still attached. Andretti's bad luck also continued when he lost his right front tire.

But the crashes continued. One involved Jerry Grant, Bob Veith, and Carl Williams in turn 3, another invovled Wally Dallenbach on the main straightaway. Cale Yarborough, another NASCAR driver, spun under the caution for Dallenbach's crash, and LeeRoy Yarbrough and Ruby, relieving George Snider crash trying to avoid Cale's car. Cale pun later, taking Mel Kenyon with him, and Gordon Johncock blew a tire and spun in turn three.

While all this was going on, Parnelli continued to dominate, while A.J. Foyt stayed on the same lap and took the lead on Parnelli's pit stops. But the constant crashes, cautions, slow downs, and restarts may have taken a toll on Parnelli's car. With just four laps to go, a $6 ball bearing in his gearbox failed, giving Foyt the lead. But the crashes weren't over yet.

As Foyt exited turn four on the final lap, he had a preminition that something would go wrong, and boy did it, as four cars lost control in front of him. Foyt was able to steer his way through the carnage and take his third Indianapolis 500 win, joining Louis Meyer (1928, '33, '36), Wilbur Shaw (1937, '39-'40), and Mauri Rose (1941, '47-'48) as three-time Indianapolis 500 winners.

Al Unser was second, two laps behind Foyt, with Foyt's teammate Joe Leonard, Dennis Hulme, who won the Rookie of the Year at Indy and would go on to become World Champion, and Jim McElreath, finishing third, fourth, and fifth, all three laps behind Foyt. Hulme was driving for the legendary Smokey Yunick, who had won this race in 1960, and the Daytona 500 twice and sat on the pole for the Daytona 500 in 1967 with Curtis Turner. Jones' gearbox failure dropped him to sixth, and he might have finished as low as ninth had the race not been terminated at the finish due to the last-lap crash.

Due to all the spins and crashes, only eight cars were running at the finishes, though the mechanical attrition was not that great, as 23 cars ran at least 150 laps, though some of that may have had to do with the fact that one-third of the race was run under caution due to all the spins and crashes.

All credits go to SPEED (SpeedVision, the predecessor to the current SPEED Channel, originally aired this presentation), the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, USAC, and Dynamic Films.

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.