Indy 500 and USAC racing 1971-1978

AJ Foyt in the second of his two 1974 Coyotes at Milwaukee in 1974. Copyright Glenn Snyder 2009. Used with permission.

Indy 500 and USAC racing 1971-1978

A new era of US motor racing began in 1971 with the separation of the USAC championship into separate divisions for dirt racing, road courses and paved ovals. This section follows the highly successful oval racing series through to the arrival of the CART series in 1979.

This eight-year, 110-race period spans from the 1971 McLaren M16 and "Johnny Lightning 500" Lola T150-based Bignotti Colt-Offy to the 1978 Penske PC6-Cosworth DFX, but is more than anything the era of the classic 1972 Eagle Model 5. The period saw 29 Eagle victories, 26 for McLaren, 19 for AJ Foyt's Coyotes, 15 for Parnelli, eight for the Patrick Racing Wildcats and three for Chaparral Racing's 1978 Lola T500.

Numerically, Eagle dominates this period with 37% of all entries, followed by McLaren on 15% and then Wildcat leading the rest on just 5%. Only four other constructors average more than one entry per race: AJ Foyt's Coyotes, Grant King's various creations, Parnelli, and late-comers Lightning. Of the designers, Bob Riley is well-represented with the 1973 Coyote design, the 1974 'Riley' for Lindsey Hopkins, and the 1975-1980 Wildcats; Roman Slobodynskyj designed the classic 1972-74 Eagles and the 1976-78 Lightnings.

Car histories (by constructor)

Antares > 1972

Atlanta > 1972

Brabham > 1964 BT12 | 1968 BT25 | 1970 BT32

Cecil > 1966 | 1969

Colt > 1970 | 1971

Cooper > 1961 T54

Coyote > 1966-1970 | 1971 | 1972 | 1973-1978 | 1981

Dragon (King) > 1976

Eagle > 1966 | 1967 | 1968 | 1969 | 1970 | 1971 | 1972 | 1973 | 1974 | 1977 | 1978 ...

Eisert > 1964-1968 Harrison Specials | 1969

Finley > 1973 Fleagle | 1980 "PC6" | 1982

Gerhardt > 1964 | 1965 | 1966 | 1967 | 1968 | 1969 | 1970

Gilbert > 1968

Halibrand > 1964 | 1965

Hawk (Brawner) > 1965 | 1967 | 1968

Hayhoe > 1968

Huffaker > 1964 | 1966

Kingfish > 1970-71 | 1972 | 1973 (also Dragon 76 and King "PC7")

Kuzma > 1970-71

Lightning > 1976-78 | 1980

Lola > 1965 T80 | 1966-67 T90-T92 | 1968 T150 | 1969 T152 | 1970 T153 | 1972 T270 | 1978 T500 ...

Lotus > 1963 29 | 1964 34 | 1965 38 | 1966-67 42 | 1968 56 | 1969 64

McLaren > 1970 M15A | 1971 M16 | 1972 M16B | 1973 M16C | 1975 M16E | 1977 M24 | 1978-79 M24B

McNamara > 1970 T500 | 1971 T501

Mongoose > 1967 | 1968 | 1969 | 1970 | 1971

Morris > 1968 | 1969 | 1970 | 1971

Parnelli > 1972 VPJ1 | 1973 VPJ2 | 1974 VPJ3 | 1975-77 VPJ6

Peat-Lola > 1971

Penske > 1977 PC5 | 1978 PC6 | 1979 PC7 | 1980 PC9 ...

Phoenix > 1980

Riley > 1974

Scorpion > 1970-71

STP Special (Granatelli) > 1967 Turbocar | 1969 Plymouth

Tipke > 1972

Vollstedt > 1965 | 1966 | 1967 | 1972-73 | 1977

Watson > 1964 | 1965 | 1966 | 1967 | 1968-69 | 1977-79 | 1981 'PC7' | 1982 '82C'

Wildcat > 1975 Mk 1 | 1976 Mk 2 | 1977 Mk 3 | 1978 'Mk 4' | 1979 'Mk 5' | 1980 Mk 6 ...

Wolverine > 1970

This list is not yet complete of course. All rear-engined Indy cars from 1961 up to the start of mass production in 1982 are being researched and will be added here in due course.

Indy seasons

Indy sections

The research

The results in this section are based on the ground-breaking research performed by the late, and much-missed, Phil Harms. This data was kindly made available by Michael Ferner who has added much new information. Since then, a group of researchers has worked on identifying the exact racing history of each car that took part, a mammoth task only made possibly by collecting photographs of every car at every race, an ongoing project. Simmo Iskül, Michael Ferner, 'gbl', Gerry Measures and Luis Mateus have played a major part in this research, and we have been helped by a large number of car owners, restorers and other researchers.

There was an aggregate total of 2,663 race starts at the Indy races held between 1971 and 1978. Histories of the cars responsible for 1,840 (69%) of those starts have been published so far, leaving 823 (31%) still to complete. The main models still to be published are Cicada 72 (11 race starts between 1971 and 1978), Colt 71 (12), Coyote 66-70 (15), Eagle 74 (307), Eagle 78 (12), Lola T150 (12), Lola T500 (16), McLaren M16/A (67), McLaren M16B (85), Mongoose 70 and 71 (37), Parnelli VPJ-1 (26), Parnelli VPJ2 (49), Parnelli VPJ6/VPJ6B/VPJ6C (61), Penske PC6 (37), Scorpion 70/71 (17) and Vollstedt 77 (17).

All comments, clarifications, corrections, additions (and photographs!) are most welcome. Please email Allen (allen@oldracingcars.com) if you have any additions, corrections or comments.