12 replies to this topic

[fines]

Does someone know when the Chaparral 2K raced for the first time? Phil Harms is of no use here, he assigns a Chaparral chassis to all Jim Hall entries in 1978 already.

I have pictorial evidence that Unser drove the Lola T500 at Phoenix (Mar 11, CART round 1), and the 2K at Indy (May 27, CART round 4). But did he have it already at the Twin Atlanta meeting (Apr 22, CART rounds 2 & 3)? In an interview with John Barnard I read a few years ago, that the 2K was ready six weeks before Indy. That's a week before Atlanta. But I recall reading elsewhere that it ran for the first time at Indy. Help!

[rdrcr]

I think Jim Hall's return to autoracing in 1980 was with the Chaparral 2K Indycar. Johnny Rutherford won the Indy 500 and the championship that year in the car. So the debut of the car would have been at the Ontario Motor Speedway.

NOTE: CART and USAC united in 1980 under the banner of the Championship Racing League (CRL).
The first five races of the season were run under CRL sanction before the union dissolved.
The year's seven remaining races were under CART sanction. Indianapolis was USAC-sanctioned but counted in the PPG Indy Car World Series.

[Jeremy Jackson]

According to Autosport's report of the April 22 meeting at Atlanta, Unser used the T500 "with it's usual handling troubles"

The 2K's qualifying & race debut were at Indy.

Jeremy

[rdrcr]

hmmm,

What sort of Chaparral-Cosworth did Rutherford use in the Ontario race Jeremy?

http://www.swisstiming.com/cart/1980/

and

http://www.silhouet....t/people/r.html

Rutherford, Johnny (USA) b 12/3/1938 (Coffeyville, Kansas)

1965 - Indycars (Watson-Ford) 1 win (Atlanta)
1973 - Indycars (McLaren-Offenhauser M16C) 2 wins (California 500 Qualifying Race 2, Michigan Race 2)
1974 - Indycars (McLaren-Offenhauser M16C/D) 4 wins (California 500 Qualifying Race 2, Indy 500, Milwaukee Race 1, Pocono 500)
1975 - Indycars (McLaren-Offenhauser M16D) 1 win (Phoenix)
1976 - Indycars (McLaren-Offenhauser M16E) 3 wins (Trenton, Indy 500, Texas)
1977 - Indycars (McLaren-Cosworth M24) 4 wins (Phoenix, Milwaukee Races 1 & 2, Texas)
1978 - Indycars (McLaren-Cosworth M24B) 2 wins (Michigan, Phoenix)
1979 - Indycars (McLaren-Cosworth M24B) 2 wins (Atlanta Races 1 & 2)
1980 - Indycars (Chaparral-Cosworth 2K) Champion, 5 wins (Ontario, Indy 500, Mid-Ohio, Michigan, Milwaukee)
1981 - Indycars (Chaparral-Cosworth 2K) 1 win (Phoenix)
1985 - Indycars (March-Cosworth 85C) 1 win (Sanair)
1986 - Indycars (March-Cosworth 86C) 1 win (Michigan 500)

[Jeremy Jackson]

We're talking about the 2K's debut in 1979 with Al Unser, not it's second season in 1980 with Rutherford.

[rdrcr]

oh... right.

It appears that he finished 22nd in the race.

[fines]

Thanks Jeremy, and Richard ;)

Now does anyone know how many 2Ks were built? Did they have a back-up car? I don't really recall any info about that!

[Rainer Nyberg]

The 2K ran at INDY for the first time on May 7, 1979, the second day of practice. That is three weeks before the race itself. But I am not sure if it ran elsewhere prior to that.

[Jeremy Jackson]

From memory only, I believe there were 3 2Ks built, one was destroyed in Phoenix in November 1980, when the car flipped after a collision.

Jim Hall still has one in his collection, and there's one at the Indy Hall of Fame, I think ...?

Not sure when the second and third chassis became available, sorry!

[McRonalds]

I think three built chassis are correct- read a little about that cars in Johnny Rutherford's biography 'Lone Star J.R.'. As far as I remember the cars (called the 'Yellow Submarine') was constructed by Bob Sparshott of B.S. Fabrications in England.

Here's the result of Rutherford's horrible crash at Phoenix. I wonder whether it was a total wreck..

[Jeremy Jackson]

You're probably right that this might not be a write-off, but I think one was destroyed in an accident, maybe in 1981, as JR finished just about every race in 1980.

[fines]

Here's a quick and dirty list of all races of the 2K:

1979 06-Indianapolis 22 3 2 Al Unser Pennzoil Chaparral CoswTC 3:07.01 192.503 mph 104 Transmission seal
1979 08-Trenton 2 3 2 Al Unser Pennzoil Chaparral CoswTC 0:31.649 170.621 mph 67 Finished
1979 09-Trenton 12 2 2 Al Unser Pennzoil Chaparral CoswTC : .   52 Brkn LR Univ Joint
1979 11-Michigan 13 2 2 Al Unser Pennzoil Chaparral CoswTC 0:35.781 201.224 mph 59 Flagged
1979 12-Michigan 3 13 2 Al Unser Pennzoil Chaparral CoswTC : .   63 Finished
1979 13-Watkins Glen 5 1 2 Al Unser Pennzoil Chaparral CoswTC 1:04.42 135.657 mph 62 Finished
1979 16-Trenton 6 13 2 Al Unser Pennzoil Chaparral CoswTC 0:33.662 160.662 mph 99 Flagged
1979 17-Ontario 5 2 2 Al Unser Pennzoil Chaparral CoswTC 00:44.51 202.202 mph 197 Flagged
1979 18-Michigan 10 5 2 Al Unser Pennzoil Chaparral CoswTC 0:35.942 200.323 mph 53 Wrecked
1979 19-Atlanta 5 3 2 Al Unser Pennzoil Chaparral CoswTC 0:27.444 199.650 mph 97 Flagged
1979 20-Phoenix 1 2 2 Al Unser Pennzoil Chaparral CoswTC 0:24.355 147.813 mph 150 1:13:03 123.203
1980 01-Ontario 1 1 4 Johnny Rutherford Pennzoil Chaparral Coswth 1:31.46 196.803 mph 80 1:14:04.00 162.016
1980 02-Indianapolis 1 1 4 Johnny Rutherford Pennzoil Chaparral Coswth 3:07.25 192.256 mph 200 3:29:59.56 142.862
1980 03-Milwaukee 2 2 4 Johnny Rutherford Pennzoil Chaparral Coswth 0:27.51 130.862 mph 150 Finished
1980 04-Pocono 2 5 4 Johnny Rutherford Pennzoil Chaparral Coswth 0:49.365 182.315 mph 200 3:18:25.84 151.186
1980 04-Pocono     4 Johnny Rutherford Pennzoil Chaparral Coswth     0 Wrecked practice
1980 05-Mid-Ohio 1 4 4 Johnny Rutherford Pennzoil Chaparral Coswth 1:26.47 99.919 mph 65 1:48:04.93 86.601
1980 06-Michigan 1 2 4 Johnny Rutherford Pennzoil Chaparral Coswth 0:37.733 190.814 mph 100 1:20:48 148.515
1980 07-Watkins Glen 5 15 4 Johnny Rutherford Pennzoil Chaparral Coswth 1:08.743 127.152 mph 62 Finished
1980 08-Milwaukee 1 1 4 Johnny Rutherford Pennzoil Chaparral Coswth 0:26.898 133.838 mph 200 1:54:13 105.063
1980 09-Ontario 2 3 4 Johnny Rutherford Pennzoil Chaparral Coswth 1:34.89 189.685 mph 200 Finished
1980 10-Michigan 4 3 4 Johnny Rutherford Pennzoil Chaparral Coswth 0:37.012 194.532 mph 75 Finished
1980 11-Mexico 10 4 4 Johnny Rutherford Pennzoil Chaparral Coswth 1:14.236 120.265 mph 49 Accident
1980 12-Phoenix 13 2 4 Johnny Rutherford Pennzoil Chaparral Coswth 0:25.305 142.264 mph 71 Wrecked mainstretch
1981 01-Phoenix 1 3 1 Johnny Rutherford Pennzoil Chaparral CoswTC 0:25.448 141.464 mph 150 1:17:08 116.681
1981 02-Indianapolis 32 5 1 Johnny Rutherford Pennzoil Chaparral CoswTC 3:04.25 195.387 mph 25 Broken fuel pump
1981 03-Milwaukee 6 4 1 Johnny Rutherford Pennzoil Chaparral CoswTC 0:27.056 133.057 mph 146 Flagged
1981 04-Atlanta 2 1 1 Johnny Rutherford Pennzoil Chaparral CoswTC 0:27.326 200.512 mph 83 0:51:32 147.08
1981 05-Atlanta 3 2 1 Johnny Rutherford Pennzoil Chaparral CoswTC     83 Finished
1981 06-Michigan 22 2 1 Johnny Rutherford Pennzoil Chaparral CoswTC 0:35.840 200.892 mph 112 Cut tire, spun out
1981 07-Riverside 21 6 1 Johnny Rutherford Pennzoil Chaparral CoswTC 1:35.106 124.913 mph 22 Wrecked
1981 08-Milwaukee 4 1 1 Johnny Rutherford Pennzoil Chaparral CoswTC 0:26.492 135.890 mph 198 Flagged
1981 09-Michigan 20 4 1 Johnny Rutherford Pennzoil Chaparral CoswTC 0:36.722 196.068 mph 34 Piston
1981 10-Watkins Glen 2 4 1 Johnny Rutherford Pennzoil Chaparral CoswTC 2:00.117 101.211 mph 59 Flagged
1981 11-Mexico 26 7 1 Johnny Rutherford Pennzoil Chaparral CoswTC 1:13.701 122.115 mph 9 Piston
1981 12-Phoenix 21 2 1 Johnny Rutherford Pennzoil Chaparral CoswTC 0:24.332 147.953 mph 31 Cockpit fire
1982 01-Phoenix 4 6 5 Johnny Rutherford Pennzoil Chaparral Coswth 0:24.775 145.307 mph 149 Flagged
1982 02-Atlanta     5 Johnny Rutherford Pennzoil Chaparral Coswth 0:27.678 197.962 mph 0 Did not return
1982 03-Indianapolis 8 12 5 Johnny Rutherford Pennzoil Chaparral Coswth 3:02.68 197.066 mph 187 Engine
1982 04-Milwaukee 15 6 5 Johnny Rutherford Pennzoil Chaparral Coswth 0:26.430 136.209 mph 106 Gearbox
1982 05-Cleveland 23 16 5 Johnny Rutherford Pennzoil Chaparral Coswth 1:18.44 113.819 mph 4 Accident

You can see there were also accidents at Michigan ('79), Pocono practice ('80), Mexico ('80), Michigan ('81), Riverside ('81) and Cleveland ('82).

[McRonalds]

According to J.R.'s biography, Pocono '80 was not a heavy impact. He told a lot about his race in Mexico, where there was a big earthquake hit that region at the time of the race. I hope there was no damage at one of the Chaparrals because of this. :)

Here are Johnny's own words:

'Shortly after we arrived at the racetrack, a big earthquake hit the region. We stood there, watching the ground undulate, the trees sway, and the telephone lines and electric wires swing back and forth. Betty and I got back to our high-rise hotel and found the walls of our room cracked, with two- to three-inch gaps at the corners. Plaster was all over the bed and the floor and in the bathtub. lt was an eerie scene. lt made us wonder if we were safe there. I had experi-
enced smaller earthquakes in California, but this one was between a 6 and a 7 on the Richter scale. The race itself, or at least its conclusion, was anticlimactic. I was running third, and Bobby Unser was running right in front of me in second. Big Al, Bobby's younger brother, was leading the race. I was really pushing the car hard to get past Bobby with a few laps to go. But I lost control, spun, and crashed. We walked away with a disappointing tenth-place finish. I really felt bad about that.'

More interesting things about the '81 season from the mouth of J.R.! He started about with a report about his race at Michigan - followed by a very interesting story about an incindent a Phoenix, where the Chaparral caught fire!

'For me, the race at Michigan wasn't as momentous. We experienced the first in a long and unhappy string of mechanical failures when we cut a tire and spun out, resulting in a twenty-second-place finish. In later races we ran into different problems, but it was always something - a burned piston, a wreck, a pit stop fire.

The fire occurred in Phoenix, at the last race of the season. I brought the car in for a pit stop to refuel. Some of the fuel spilled, and when I side-stepped the clutch to pull back onto the track, the fuel sloshed onto the red-hot headers and ignited. I was going around the warm-up lane, heading for the second turn to pull out onto the backstretch and rejoin the fray, when it got hot in the cockpit - real hot. I got on the radio and yelled, "Jim! This thing's on fire! I'm gonna have to get out of it somewhere around here!" I pulled the car up to the fire station in the first turn. They were ready with their extinguishers and doused the fire until it was out. The irony of the whole Situation is that I actually had the presence of mind to reach up and push the fire bottle button-the on-board fire extinguisher-and it didn't work.

I quickly unhooked my belts and got out of the car. I noticed that my left shoulder was smoldering and that the flame-retardant material on my uniform was bubbling. I yelled to a fireman that I was on fire. He ran over and rubbed the uniform with his gloved hands to get the embers off. Once I had determined that I was okay, I felt something hit me lightly in the back. I turned around to face a fan standing there holding his program and a pencil. Evidently he had stepped over the cable that divided the racetrack from the infield so he could drunkenly ask for my autograph. I was hot and dirty, and a second ago I had been on fire. The fireman who'd just put out the embers on my uniform picked up the fan and dropped him back on his feet about a yard from where he'd been standing. That was the end of that.

I've had fans try to get my autograph when I was dining out, in the bathroom, or standing in an elevator, but never when I was on fire. However, I was a race car driver and I guess that fan found it so exciting that he couldn't help himself - especially after knocking back a few.'

Probably the most intersting thing about the 2K for me is the fact that the car remained nearly the same over such a long period. If you look at Big Al's car from '79 it's nearly the same car the 'J.R.' drove three years later at Indy - and the car still was competitive, although no longer a winner...