Peter Dempsey’s astonishing Indy 100 victory
“I’ve been asked about it a lot,” Peter Dempsey tells Motorsport News. Little wonder, as the subject is his 2013 Indy Lights win at Indianapolis. He prevailed via a breath-taking four-abreast run to the finishing line.
“I remember all of it, it was a very emotional race,” Dempsey adds.
For literally until the last corner a win didn’t look on for him though. Sage Karam and Carlos Munoz, later joined by Gabby Chaves, contested first place; Dempsey was apparently scarcely clinging to their coattails.
“I had to just sit there the whole race and be very patient about it,” Dempsey recalls. “Sixth gear in the car was slightly short, so we could never really pass the guys because I was stuck on the rev limiter.”
On the final lap the trio ahead became three-wide in their victory scrap. Then on the run to the line
Dempsey found his short sixth gear suddenly was a bonus.
“With the start-finish line being closer to the last corner the sixth gear actually pulled me probably to the line ahead of them. And when they did go three-wide they were scrubbing a lot of speed and I had the freedom to position the car where I wanted and still get the draught.
“I had the momentum and if there’s room for a car width I’m going to send it in there as I tended to have done my whole career. Fortunately we were able to pull it off.” He won by a mere 0.0026 seconds. Literally not even a nose.
It was Dempsey’s only Indy Lights win, one he describes as “my last heroic as a driver”. He added: “I was hoping that it was going to spring on to an Indycar driver test after that but unfortunately it just never materialised due to budget restrictions.”