The ‘funny little’ car that changed Indy
Clark, Chapman and Ford’s 1965 triumph for Lotus redefined the racetrack world
The 1965 Indianapolis 500 marked the end of an era. The dinosaurs would no longer rule the Brickyard. Since the inception of the race in 1911, a front-engined car had won and, from 1934 until 1965, a variant of the mighty Offenhauser engine had powered the winning car 27 times.
That regime ended in 1965 thanks to the efforts of Colin Chapman, Jim Clark and the Ford Motor Company. For decades USAC’s (United States Auto Club) Champ Car Series (the forerunner of today’s Verizon IndyCar Series) was dominated by the front-engined, roadster-style race cars.
There had been some chinks in this domination by cars such as the fast but unreliable Novi and a handful of rear-engined cars, but after three attempts, Clark, Chapman, and Ford rewrote Indy history with their Grand Prix-inspired, V8-powered rear-engined Lotus.
In the early 1960s, Ford was on a mission to succeed in auto racing, whether it was stock car, Le Mans, drag racing or Indy cars. With a highly-modified version of its new smallblock V8 engine, Ford entered into an alliance with noted British Formula car builder Chapman, who had been very successful with his Lotus rear-engined cars, lighter and better-handling than others on road circuits. A Lotus consumed less fuel and provided longer tire life, factors crucial to running at Indy.
The Lotus team showed up at the 1963 Indy 500 with their “funny little green car,” as it was called by most of the Indy establishment. The snickering stopped when Clark qualified second in the 33-car field and finished second behind Parnelli Jones. For 1964, Clark started on the pole. The Dunlop tires on the car were not suitable for the 500-mile grind, and with early tire failure the suspension of the Lotus was damaged and Clark parked the car after only 47 laps.
A.J. Foyt won the 1964 race, his second of four, in the most tragic race in Indy history. The event was blackflagged for the first time ever, after the racing deaths of Eddie Sachs and Dave MacDonald in a fiery first-lap seven-car crash.
For 1965, Clark’s Lotus was shod with the stronger Firestone tires and he started the race second beside Foyt. This time, the team had the right combination. Clark took the lead from Foyt on the first lap and led 190 laps of the 200-lap race.
Jones, also in a Lotus-Ford and driving for J. C. Agajanian, took second. Jones’s car ran out of gas coming onto the front straight of the last lap and he was cheered by the fans as he pushed his car over the finish line. Mario Andretti took third in the rear-engined Brabham-Ford owned by Al Dean, and took rookie of the year honours as well.
Only 11 cars finished the 1965 Indy 500, and only two of those cars were the traditional Offy-powered roadsters. Contemporary press reports emphasized the demise of an era.
“A Scotsman completed the remodelling of the world’s biggest automobile race yesterday,” noted a newspaper account the day after the Memorial Day classic. “He buried an era with it.”
Clark’s tour of the Brickyard set a new race record with a 150.686m.p.h. average, besting Foyt’s 147.350-m.p.h. the year previous. And with leading so many laps, Clark’s winnings were expected to top $175,000.
“A ‘funny car,’ masterfully manipulated by the 29-year-old Clark became the first rear-engine car to win the rich Indianapolis 500 in its 49year history,” noted a press report of the day. “Also, the power for his victory was provided by Ford Motor Company in a triumphant climax to an expensive three-year program at Indianapolis that finally ended a three-decade reign of the four-cylinder Offenhauser engine.
“Yes, the Offy is dead,” the report continued. “And so is the front-engine car, the famed roadster that made its last stand in this biggest race of them all.”
Running on alcohol, the Ford engine burned about three to four miles per gallon, compared to the usual two to three for the Offys. The Lotus 38 required only two pit stops for the entire 500, both for fuel, which used a gravity flow system for replenishing, replacing the former pressurized system. The car required no tire changes. Ford, pulling out all the stops, for this race had brought in the Wood Brothers — the NASCAR Grand National team was known for its innovative and quick pit stop work.
Clark took second in the 1966 Indy 500, behind fellow GP racer Graham Hill. Jackie Stewart also raced in 1966, taking sixth. While it appeared the Offy’s days were over in Champ Car racing, it did power the winning entries in the 500 for several more years (in rear-engined cars) before the domination of the Ford Cosworth powerplant.
Considered one of the finest of Grand Prix drivers, Clark was well into his stride when he won the 500. Along with two Grand Prix championships (1963 and 1965), he competed at Le Mans with two class secondplace finishes (1959, 1960), USAC Indy-car racing from 1963 through 1967, British saloon racing (in Lotustweaked Ford Cortinas) and Formula Two events. He was killed during an F2 event when his Lotus crashed into trees on Germany’s Hockenheimring circuit in April of 1968. He was 32.
His win in the 1965 Classic was also the first for a foreign driver since Italian Dario Resta won in1916. Clark was not the only “foreign” driver in the 1965 Indy 500. Billy Foster of British Columbia was driving a Vollstedt/Offy for Jim Robbins in that race. He qualified in sixth, but a water leak forced an early retirement and he placed 17th.
Foster, born in 1937, raced Champ Car from 1964 to 1966, along with some NASCAR Grand National racing until he was killed in a NASCAR practice session early in 1967. Freelance writer Tim Miller is a regular contributor to Toronto Star Wheels. To reach Wheels Editor Norris McDonald: nmcdonald@thestar.ca