Word: foyt
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...With reference to "Auto Racing" [July 7]: Mr. Foyt should remain with those bulky old Offenhausers in the interest of saving the public from other crybaby winners. The U.S.A.C. shows a great lack of imagination if it cannot formulate a scheme whereby the turbine cars, an attempt at progress, can be worked into competition with the now almost obsolete Lotus-Fords. Nothing is so boring as to watch a race between tortoises when there is a hare waiting in the wings to tear up the track...
Granatelli and Jones naturally branded the U.S.A.C. decision unfair. "Sure, we had an edge with our car this year," said Jones, "but it wasn't that big an edge." Not so, countered A. J. Foyt, who won this year's 500 in a conven tional 550-h.p. Ford after Jones broke down. A.J. claimed that the STP Special had more horses than Granatelli or Jones admitted - perhaps as many as 700. He may have a point. Turbines are notoriously affected by weather. On a hot day, a turbine engine may op erate at only 80% of its normal...
...That left only one Mark IV in the running - driven by Dan Gurney and Indianapolis 500 Winner A. J. Foyt. But it was exactly where it was supposed to be-in the lead. "We kept expecting mechanical trouble," Gurney said later, "but it never came. The Ferraris were no real threat." With Foyt at the wheel, the first man ever to win at both Indy and Le Mans, No. 1 merely coasted across the finish line, 32.5 miles ahead of the pack. In 24 hours, Gurney and Foyt had covered 3,251 miles at a record average speed...
...strategy, as it turned out, worked perfectly-but not until Foyt had just about given up hope. "I thought the turbine would be out of business within 300 laps," he said later. "When the darn thing was still going by then, I figured Parnelli had won." Then came Lap 197. Just eight miles from the finish, a $6 ball bearing failed inside Jones's gearbox. Into the pits went Parnelli, and into the lead went Foyt. Victory was just around the corner. Or disaster. Sweeping through the last turn and into the main straightaway, Foyt was only yards from...
Records All Around. Foyt became the fourth driver in history to score three victories at Indy. His purse for this one-$171,227-set a record. So did the average speed: 151.207 m.p.h. Finally, by using Goodyear tires on his Coyote, Foyt snapped Firestone's 43-year-victory string at Indy...