Race To 200 cont.

He pulled in, went directly to his garage and closed the doors behind him.
Mario said, “I was going for 200, make no bones about it, but by the same token I wasn’t going to scram.ble to race Foyt for it. If it was going to come, it was going to come in my own good time.”
The fans had gotten what they came for, and had enticed the drivers with their cheers. But practice laps mean very little. “It’s like an auc.tion,” said Jim McGee, Andretti’s crew chief at Penske. “You start bidding, you get car.ried away by the excitement, and pretty soon you’re bidding $25 for something that’s only worth about three bucks.”
Meanwhile, Rutherford and Team McLaren skipped “Happy Hour” and waited for Thursday. Rutherford topped everybody then with a lap at 200.624. That evening, the Rutherford’s and Andretti’s met for dinner at a local restaurant.
“Whew! You should have told me!” Johnny exclaimed as he patted his heart as if it were still thumping from his 200-mph ride.
“Yeah,” replied Andretti, “after 198, things really get tight, don’t they?”
The next day, Mario’s teammate, 28-year-old Tom Sneva nearly became the next driver over the 200-mph plateau. After Rutherford had clocked a 198.020, Sneva turned a 199.9 in his Penske McLaren Cosworth. Tom’s next lap, which he claimed would have been a 201, turned into a disaster when he spun exiting Turn 4. Sneva clipped the outer wall and slid 450 feet down the front straightaway, doing minor damage to his car. His crew would have to work past midnight to get the car ready for Pole Day the next morning. With no one running over 200 mph on Friday, there was still a lot of doubt if the mark would be reached during the official time trials the next day.
After the track closed, the Qualification Draw took place. Ongais would have the opportunity to be first out, followed by Foyt. Al Unser drew 5th, brother Bobby 8th, with Sneva 9th in line. Andretti was 24th and Rutherford 29th.
Saturday was another beautiful sunny day, and a huge crowd descended upon the Speedway in hopes of seeing record speeds. In the morning practice, both Foyt and Rutherford were over 196, but nobody eclipsed 200. Andretti was unable to practice at all when his crew discovered a frayed drive belt and spent the morning replacing it.
At 11 o’clock, the track was open for Qualifications, and Ongais passed on his attempt, so Foyt was the first car to roll off. The crowd groaned with disappointment as Foyt accepted a “slow” speed of 193.465. At this time, Foyt was still trying to break a tie with Rex Mays as being the only two four-time pole winners.
It took only 26 minutes for Al Unser to top Foyt’s speed. Al qualified his American Racing Parnelli-Cosworth at 195.950 to grab the provisional top spot. Just as he hit the bricks, a seal split on his turbocharger, and Unser finished his run in a cloud of white smoke.
Johnny Parsons would qualify next, and then Bobby Unser came in after one lap at 195.993. (Bobby would eventually come back and qualify his Lightning-Offy at 197.618 later in the day.)
It was now 11:47 a.m. and the blue and white Norton Spirit Penske McLaren of Tom Sneva was pushed away from the line.
Sneva took the green flag and flew into Turn 1 like no other before him. He used up so much racetrack on his exit that the car’s shadow could be seen on the short chute wall. In less than 45 seconds, he had done it! “IT’S A NEW TRACK RECORD!”, Tom Carnegie exclaimed over the Public Address and the 200,000 fans went wild with cheers. Sneva’s first lap was 200.401. He broke his own record on his second lap with a 200.535 before settling down to a 198.884 mph 4-lap average.
Phil Hedback, spokesman for the Bryant Heating and Cooling Company, awaited Sneva in pit lane following his run, and poured 200 silver dollars into Tom’s helmet, just as he had poured 150 silver dollars into Parnelli Jones’ helmet in 1962.
“You got to gamble,” said Penske.
“That’s the only way you get anywhere in this game. They’re going for the Pole,” said Andretti. “That’s what com.petition is all about.”
Rutherford further explained his wave-off by stating that he didn’t get enough turbocharger boost on his run causing his engine to lack the horsepower needed to beat Sneva’s time. Team McLaren pushed Johnny’s # 12 backup car into line, and at 5:18 p.m., Rutherford rolled away in an attempt to qualify it. He didn’t get far, as the car stalled to a halt on his warm-up lap.

Despite crashing the day before, Sneva's McLaren was the only car to top 200 mph in qualifying.
(Photo from Jim Gale collection)

With only 42 minutes remaining till the 6 o’clock gun, Rutherford could see disaster fast approaching, and the possibility of not being a first-day qualifier. He returned to the pits, as Team McLaren hurried back to the primary car, # 2. But the car was buried deep in the qualifying line. Time ran out with Lloyd Ruby on the track and Rutherford strapped into his car in the pits. Sneva had won the Pole.
Johnny was forced to qualify the following day, and ironically, his speed of 197.325 mph was just about what his wave-off was on Pole Day. But as a second-day qualifier, it would place him only 17th on the grid. Alexander’s Pole-day gamble had failed.
All week long when asked, Tyler had maintained McLaren’s focus was on the 500 itself. “The race is the only thing that counts,” he had said repeatedly. But his decision to wave Rutherford off had cost the team a front-row starting spot. Like the “auction” that rival crew chief McGee had referred to on Wednesday, Alexander had gotten caught up in the moment, and ended up overbidding.
Sneva, the eventual runner-up in 1977, would go on to be the 500 champion in 1983. But 1977 was his first of three pole positions at Indy. It would prove to be a special moment in Indianapolis 500 history, as Sneva had waited until the right day and the right moment to run his fastest laps of the month – a day after experiencing a minor accident. But on Saturday, May 14, 1977, Tom Sneva beat a list of legendary competitors and won the Race To 200.

Thank you to Jim Gale for taking his time to write this excellent story. We look forward to more of Jim’s work in the future – Greg