1980 Indianapolis 500
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1980 Indianapolis 500
The 64th 500 Mile International Sweepstakes was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana on Sunday, May 25, 1980. Johnny Rutherford won the pole position, led 118 laps, and won the race by a commanding 29.92 second margin. After failing to finish the race the year before (with Al Unser behind the wheel), Jim Hall's radical new Chaparral 2K ground effects chassis was a heavy favorite entering the month, and drove a flawless race. Rutherford, the winner in 1974 and 1976, became the sixth driver to win the Indy 500 three times. Tom Sneva broke an Indy 500 record by becoming the first driver to start last (33rd) and lead the race. Sneva led two times for 16 laps, and finished the race in second position. Sneva likewise became the first driver in Indy history to start last and finish second (a feat tied by Scott Goodyear in 1992). It was Sneva's third runner-up finish in four years, matching Bill Holland's achievement exactly 30 years earlier in 1947, 1948 and ...
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United States Auto Club
The United States Auto Club (USAC) is one of the sanctioning bodies of auto racing in the United States. From 1956 to 1979, USAC sanctioned the List of USAC Championship Car seasons, United States National Championship, and from 1956 to 1997 the organization sanctioned the Indianapolis 500. Today, USAC serves as the sport governing body, sanctioning body for a number of racing series, including the Silver Crown Series, National Sprint Cars, National Midgets, Speed2 Midget Series, .25 Midget Series, Stadium Super Trucks, and Pirelli World Challenge. Seven-time USAC champion Levi Jones (racing driver), Levi Jones is USAC's Competition Director. History When the American Automobile Association (AAA) withdrew from auto racing after the 1955 season, citing the 1955 Le Mans disaster, Le Mans disaster and the death of Bill Vukovich at 1955 Indianapolis 500, Indianapolis as contributing factors, both the Sports Car Club of America, SCCA and NASCAR were mentioned as its potential success ...
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Indianapolis Motor Speedway
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway is an automobile racing circuit located in Speedway, Indiana, an enclave suburb of Indianapolis, Indiana. It is the home of the Indianapolis 500 and the Verizon 200, and and formerly the home of the United States Grand Prix. It is located on the corner of 16th Street and Georgetown Road, approximately west of Downtown Indianapolis. Constructed in 1909, it is the second purpose-built, banked oval racing circuit after Brooklands and the first to be called a 'speedway'. It is the third-oldest permanent automobile race track in the world, behind Brooklands and the Milwaukee Mile. With a permanent seating capacity of 257,325, it is the highest-capacity sports venue in the world. Considered relatively flat by American standards, the track is a rectangular oval with dimensions that have remained essentially unchanged since its construction. It has two straightaways, four geometrically identical turns, connected by two short straightaways, termed ...
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1947 Indianapolis 500
The 31st International 500-Mile Sweepstakes was held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Friday, May 30, 1947. It was the opening round of the 11 races that comprised the 1947 AAA Championship Car season. The 1946 winner, George Robson, had been killed on September 2, 1946 in a racing incident. Driver Shorty Cantlon would be killed in a racing incident during the race. Beginning in 1947 the Speedway issued "Bronze" and "Silver" badges. Bronze badges allowed gate and garage access during the month and silver badges did the same but also allowed pit access. On race day, one needed a Back Up Card Early bronze badges were indeed bronze, but silver badges were only a silver colored pot metal. Bronze badges began being made of a bronze colored pot metal sometime in the late 1950's or early 1960's. Time trials & ASPAR boycott Time trials was scheduled for five days. The minimum speed to qualify was set at 115 mph. In the months leading up to the race, several top drivers that w ...
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Bill Holland
Willard Holland (December 18, 1907 – May 19, 1984)) was an American race car driver from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, who won the Indianapolis 500 in 1949 and finished second in 1947, 1948 and 1950. He also was runner up in the 1947 American Automobile Association (AAA) National Championship. Background Holland was born on December 18, 1907, the son of major league baseball player Willard Holland. He was excellent at skating and tried out for the 1932 Olympics. Racing career Holland was getting better results in big car (now sprint car) in 1937. He recorded his first win on July 30, 1938 at Mineola, New York. He won three times in 1939 and nine times in 1940. Holland finished second to Joie Chitwood in the 1940 AAA Eastern championship and he won the championship in 1941. No racing happened in the United States between 1942 and 1945 due to World War II. In 1946, Holland won 15 Eastern and 1 Midwestern "big car" (now sprint car) races to finish fourth in the AAA national ...
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1992 Indianapolis 500
The 76th Indianapolis 500 was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana, on Sunday, May 24, 1992. The race is famous for the fierce battle in the closing laps, as race winner Al Unser Jr. held off second place Scott Goodyear for the victory by 0.043 seconds, the closest finish in Indy history. Unser Jr. became the first second-generation driver to win the Indy 500, following in the footsteps of his father Al Unser Sr. He also became the third member of the famous Unser family to win the race. Cold temperatures and high winds turned the race into a crash-filled, marathon day. The tone for the race was set early when pole position winner Roberto Guerrero spun out and crashed on the parade lap. The race was dominated by Michael Andretti in the debut of the Cosworth, Ford Cosworth XB engine. Andretti led 160 laps and was 30 seconds in front when his fuel pump suddenly Andretti curse, failed with eleven laps to go. Thirteen cars were eliminated in crashes during th ...
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Scott Goodyear
Scott Goodyear (born December 20, 1959) is a Canadian former race car driver. He ran the Indy Racing League and Champ Car series during his career from 1987, winning the Michigan 500 in 1992 and 1994. Goodyear qualified for eleven runnings of the Indy 500 races from 1990 to 2001, missing only the 1996 race which he did not enter. After starting last (33rd position) in the 1992 race, he finished second to Al Unser Jr. by 0.043 seconds. Goodyear could have won the 1995 race, driving with Tasman Motorsports. But after leading 42 laps, he mistakenly passed the pace car on a late, very slow restart. He was penalized to fourteenth place after ignoring the black flags. That race was given to Jacques Villaneuve. Goodyear again finished second in the 1997 race after being passed by Arie Luyendyk on the backstraightaway at lap 194. He might have won if not for a controversial restart on the last lap, when the green and white flag waved despite the on-track lights still signaling yellow ...
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Tom Sneva
Thomas E. Sneva (born June 1, 1948) is a retired American race car driver who won the Indianapolis 500 in 1983. He primarily raced in Indy cars, and was named to the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2005. A former math teacher from Spokane, Washington, Sneva's win at Indianapolis followed several runner-up finishes and notable crashes. Nicknamed "The Gas Man," he was an outstanding qualifier, winning the pole position three times ( 1977, 1978, 1984). He was also the fastest qualifier on a fourth occasion in 1981, but because of qualifying rules did not start the race from the pole position. Sneva won two consecutive USAC National Championships for Indy cars in 1977 and 1978. Career Born in Spokane, Sneva played football and basketball at Lewis and Clark High School and a year of college basketball at Eastern Washington State College in nearby Cheney. After graduation from Eastern, he worked as a math teacher before racing full-time. Sneva was the eldest of five brother ...
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1976 Indianapolis 500
The 60th 500 Mile International Sweepstakes was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana on Sunday, May 30, 1976. Polesitter Johnny Rutherford took the lead on lap 80, and was leading when rain halted the race on lap 103. Two hours later, the race was about to be resumed, but rain fell again. USAC officials called the race at that point, reverted the scoring back to the completion of lap 102, and Johnny Rutherford was declared the winner. Rutherford famously walked to Victory Lane, his second career Indy 500 triumph, having completed only , the shortest official race on record. Janet Guthrie became the first female driver to enter the Indianapolis 500. However, her team was underfunded, and she experienced numerous mechanical and engine problems during the month. While she managed to pass her rookie test, and ran numerous practice laps in multiple cars, she was unable to make an attempt to qualify. She would return with a successful effort a year later in 1977. ...
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1974 Indianapolis 500
The 58th 500 Mile International Sweepstakes was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana on Sunday, May 26, 1974. Johnny Rutherford, in his eleventh attempt, won the race from the 25th starting position, the farthest back since Louis Meyer in 1936. It was the first of his three Indy victories, and started a three-year stretch where he finished 1st-2nd-1st. The race was run relatively clean, with no major crashes or injuries, a sharp contrast from the tragic 1973 event. In order to increase safety, significant improvements were made to the track and cars. Wings were reduced in size, fuel tank capacity was reduced, and pop-off valves were added to the turbocharger plenums in order to reduce horsepower and curtail speeds. For the first time in Indy history, the race was scheduled for the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. This ended the " never on a Sunday" policy previously held from 1911 to 1973. At the time, it was also the earliest calendar date (May 26) that t ...
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WFNI
WFNI (1070 AM) is a commercial radio station in Indianapolis, Indiana. It is owned by locally based Emmis Communications and carries a sports radio format, featuring ESPN Radio programming. The studios and offices are located at 40 Monument Circle in downtown Indianapolis. WFNI's sports format is also heard on sister station 93.1 WIBC-HD3. WFNI's AM signal, 50,000 watts by day and 10,000 watts at night, went dark at midnight on August 3, 2021. Emmis Broadcasting sold the land on which the six-tower array stood, off Perry Worth Drive near Interstate 65 in Whitestown, Indiana. Emmis says it's looking for a new site for its AM transmitter but none has been found yet. 1070 AM as WIBC Early years The station signed on the air on . Its original call sign, WIBC, stood for the owner, the Indiana Broadcasting Company. The construction permit had previously held the call letters WGVA, for Glenn Van Auken. He was the company's president. WIBC began as a 1,000-watt daytime-only s ...
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Ground Effect (cars)
Ground effect may refer to: * Ground effect (aerodynamics), the increased lift and decreased aerodynamic drag of a wing close to a fixed surface * Ground effect (cars), an effect that creates downforce, primarily in racing cars * Ground effect vehicle, a vehicle which attains level flight near the surface of the Earth due to ground effect * Ground effect train A ground effect train is a conceptualized alternative to a magnetic levitation (maglev) train. In both cases the objective is to prevent the vehicle from making contact with the ground. Whereas a maglev train accomplishes this through the use of ..., an alternative to a magnetic levitation train, using ground effect in aircraft to prevent the vehicle from making contact with the ground {{disambig ca:Efecte terra de:Bodeneffekt el:Αρχή επίδρασης του εδάφους es:Efecto suelo fr:Effet de sol ja:地面効果 lt:Ekrano efektas pl:Efekt przypowierzchniowy pt:Efeito Solo ru:Экранный эф ...
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Chaparral Cars
Chaparral Cars was a pioneering American automobile racing team and race car developer that engineered, built, and raced cars from 1963 through 1970. Founded in 1962 by American Formula One racers Hap Sharp and Jim Hall, it was named after the roadrunner, a fast-running ground cuckoo also known as a ''chaparral bird''. Background Dick Troutman and Tom Barnes were builders of the original Chaparral race cars (later referred to as Chaparral 1). Jim Hall purchased two Chaparral 1s to race. When Hall and Sharp began building their own cars, they asked Troutman and Barnes if they could continue to use the Chaparral name. That is why the Hall/Sharp cars are all named Chaparral 2s (models 2A through 2J for sports cars/CanAm cars, and the 2K which was the 1979–1982 Indycar). Despite winning the Indianapolis 500 in 1980, they left motor racing in 1982. Chaparral cars also featured in the SCCA/ CASC Can-Am series and Endurance racing. Jim Hall was a leader in the innovation and des ...
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