Indianapolis 500

1969

INDIANAPOLIS (AP)- Little Mario Andretti cast aside past frustrations this Memorial Day and breezed to record-setting victory in the $750,000 Indianapolis 500 auto race as mechanical woes struck down his opposition one by one.

The 29-year-old Italian-born Andretti, still smarting from burns suffered in a crash only nine days ago, roared to a two lap lead over the field with almost 150 miles to go and never was seriously challenged (video).

"I prayed those last 150 miles," the wiry 135-pound driver said. "So many things have happened to me here in the past..."

His average speed of 156.867 miles per hour was a record for this 53-year-old premiere event in U.S. motorsports, His time, for the distance was 3 hours, 11 minutes and 14.71 seconds.

Dan Gurney, driving a stock block Ford of his own design, came in second, a bare eight seconds ahead of last year's winner Bobby Unser. Mel Kenyon of Lebanon, Ind., was fourth while fifth place went to Joe Leonard of San Jose, Calif., in a conventional piston car.

Andretti's victory in a Hawk-Ford built by veteran mechanic Clint Brawner was the first for car owner Andy Granatelli, a Chicago manufacturer of engine additives.

Granatelli, a competitor at the speedway as a driver and owner since 1946, bought the Andretti operation earlier this year as the key to an 11-car assault on this year's event. Only three of the cars made the field, and Andretti's was the only Granatelli car that finished.

The winning car was Andretti's second choice for the race. He crashed his No. 1 car, a wedge-shaped Ford, on May 21 and received facial burns.

Andretti, a two-time U.S. driving champion, had never won the 500 in five previous starts. Although he was the fastest qualifier twice, his best previous finish was third in 1965.

His payoff could top the $177,000 paid Unser for his 1968 victory. His lap money alone amounted to $17,400.

Except for mechanical failures that eliminated all but half of the original 33-car starting cars, the race was free of major accidents. The caution flag was out for only 14 minutes, once when a car driven by veteran Jim McElreath of Arlington, Tex. caught fire as it sped past the front grandstand, and another time when Arnie Knepper hit a wall after a half-shaft broke. Both McEIreath and Knepper escaped injury.

There were only four leaders-Andretti, A.J. Foyt, Wally Dallenbach and Lloyd Ruby as Andretti dominated from the halfway point on.

Foyt, who swapped the lead with Andretti three times in the early going, still was making a race of it when he had to pit for 23 minutes to rebuild the turbocharger on his Coyote Ford. He never got back into contention.

Ruby, who was the leader briefly at the midway point, pulled out his fueling tank connections on a pit stop and had to retire.

Dallenbach, driving the sprite turbo-charged Offy spun off the track after charging to the front from his seventh row starting position.

Curney's average speed for second place was 155.333. It, too, was well above Unser's record setting 152.882 m.p.h. of last year.

The terrific pace took its toll of cars early in the race. Jack Brabham of Australia ran into mechanical problems after two laps and spent an hour and 15 minutes in the pits repairing a faulty ignition. He never was a contender and stopped on the 139th lap because of an oil leak.

Art Pollard of Medford, Ore., driving a turbo-charged Offy, was the first of the three STP sponsored cars to depart. He made only seven laps.

An hour later, Carl Williams in another of the Andy Granatelli entries had to leave because of clutch troubles.

Southern stock car ace LeeRoy Yarbrough, who started a turbo-charged Ford in the third row, had to quit after 67 laps. But, Yarbrough, who won the World 600 stock car race at Charlotte. N.C. last Sunday, had his troubles from the start. His car wouldn't fire when the field moved off behind the pace car. His crew managed to get it going after the other cars had made one circuit and the 30-year-old Columbia. S.C. driver played catch up after that. He got as high as ninth before quitting.

Another Australian, Denis Hulme, ran well with the leaders for more than half the race before encountering mechanical woes. He was in third place when his Gurney Eagle-Ford stalled in the pits.

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