3 replies to this topic

[RJ]

Hi there! Never posted here before, but one thing caught my eye as I was reading the Finnish F1 history by Juha Kärkkäinen. The USGP doesn't seem to fit in the calendar most years in the 50s at all. Obviously it's always held in the end of May. In '51 the Swiss GP was held just two days before Indy, in '58 the Dutch GP was held four days before Indy and in '60 GP in Monaco was held just the day before. In '50, '53, '55, '56, '58 and '59 a GP in Europe was held just few days after the USGP. So there was no realistic chance for teams to include the USGP in their programs in the 50s. So why was it a WC event in the first place? Seems that no WC contenders ran there either.
The Indy winner usually ended in 6th or 7th place in the WDC standings, once even 5th, on account of just that one race. The Indy participants in turn never ran in any other WC events it seems.
So was it just Indy's legendary status that kept it in the calendar or what? Just curious.

[Eric McLoughlin]

The inclusion of the Indy 500 was a gesture by the F1 governing body of the day towards the USA as they felt that the World Championship could not really be a true world event without the Americans being included. As there was no USGP as such, the Indy 500 would have to do. At various occasions in the past true GP machinery had run (and won) the 500. For their part, the Indy drivers ignored the gesture as the World Championship had no relevance to their racing careers whatsover. When the USGP started proper (1959 - Sebring) it was only a matter of time before Indianapolis was dropped as a point scoring event - the last race counting being 1960. Ironically, it was just at this point that European teams (Cooper and Lotus) began to get seriously involved in the Indy 500. From their point of view, the attraction was beating the Americans in their own back (brick?) yard - and the huge prize money. As an example of the gulf between European and American prize money, the winner of the 1966 Indianapolis 500 picked up £50,000 and the winner of the 1966 Monaco GP (held the same week-end)picked up £700!! No wonder Jim Clark and Graham Hill were in Indiana that Sunday.

[This message has been edited by Eric McLoughlin (edited 02-04-2000).]

[Dennis David]

"When Jimmy won in 1965, it was $150 for each lap you led on. He led for 190 of 200 laps. Jimmy never talked about money but he was so enchanted by this idea. He said, "It was so funny, I was like a cash register. I kept going
around thinking, click, click, $150, $150"

Walter Hayes, former head of public affairs at Ford of Britain, discussing Clark's win at Indianapolis


------------------
Regards,

Dennis David
Yahoo = dennis_a_david

Life is racing, the rest is waiting

Grand Prix History
www.ddavid.com/formula1/

[Ray Bell]

Look at the position in the context of the time - that is, in 1949, when the decisions were being made.
Pre-war F1 cars were still making their mark on the Indy fields at that time, though they were starting to lose their competitiveness.
It was logical to include Indy on the basis that there was a connection with that time, the formulae weren't so disparate in those days, and it was (as mentioned) an encouragement to Americans to be involved.
One ****** in the woodpile was the set date, which led to clashes. Indy might be on a Tuesday or a Thursday or a Sunday, and the European calendar was set around the European holidays - so traditions put races into conflict.
As jet travel arrived in 1959/60 it became viable to look at competing both sides of the Atlantic in the same week, leading to some hectic qualify-and-get-on-a-helicopter episodes on the part of many drivers.
Brabham went to Indy in 1961, then Gurney in '62 (from memory), with Hill, Clark and others joining in ensuing years.
But they had cars made available to them, inspired by the dollars available. The cars in Europe were all taken, and there was undoubtedly a perception that these guys only knew how to turn left. For some it was true, for others untrue.
But a win at Indy got the same points as at Monza, and not everyone won races during a given year so there was a chance for the Indy winner to walk fairly tall after just one race.