Need Good Race Stories

The 1967 Indy 500 STP Turbine car story comes to mind for the excitement factor. Almost won except for a failed $6 bearing with 3 laps to go.

 

Danny Sullivan's famous "Spin and Win" at the 1985 Indy 500 was a good one.

Here is the video of the spin and his amazing high-speed save.
And then, going on to win.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7tuBeLL0wg[/ame]

Here is how the spin is described in text form:

Danny Sullivan spin

Shortly after the halfway point, Danny Sullivan got a radio call from his crew, but he misunderstood the message. He thought they said there were only 12 laps to go. In reality, there were still over 80 laps remaining. Sullivan quickly turned up the turbocharger boost, and started closing in on Andretti for the lead. On lap 120, Sullivan pulled to the inside down the frontstretch, and took the lead going into turn one. Andretti held his ground, forcing Sullivan to make the pass down below the yellow line in the somewhat rough and flat apron. Suddenly, the car slipped as Sullivan came off the apron, and the back end snapped loose. Sullivan did a complete counterclockwise 360° spin directly in front of Andretti in the south shortchute. Andretti pinched his car down to the inside, and slipped by unscathed. Sullivan spun completely around, did not hit anything, and the engine stalled for an instant. When the tire smoked cleared, Sullivan noticed he was pointing in the correct direction, and he proceeded to put the car in gear, the engine caught, and he drove away to resume the race.

The spin was immediately considered one of the most electrifying moments in Indy history. Sullivan considered it 50/50 skill and "dumb luck" that he emerged from the spin unscathed. The yellow flag immediately came out, and both Sullivan and Andretti made pit stops for tires and fuel. Moments later, both cars were back out on the track. Andretti's maneuver to remarkably avoid the incident was also lauded. Andretti's split-second decision to veer to the inside (the more difficult move, pinching his own car down) was a result of his experience from an very similar incident two years earlier. In the 1983 race, Andretti was faced with a nearly identical situation when Johnny Parsons spun in front of him going into turn one. Andretti was forced to try to avoid Parson's car to the outside, the two cars collided, and Andretti crashed hard into the concrete wall.

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In 1980 Alan Jones (Williams) had a great car with an obvious downforce advantage. However, what was not always known was how fast it would burn through fuel and brakes (no pit stops back then).

A new circuit for the car was Montreal, naturally local hero Gilles Villeneuve was keen to win the race (today it is named after him).

First time the Williams was ran with full fuel was in warm-up for 30 minutes. Measure the brake wear, measure the fuel consumption when Jones was at typical race pace.

Uh-oh. At race pace the brakes would not last race distance and the fuel would run out as well.

Jones' race engineer Frank Dernie devised a plan to preserve the car: Let Villeneuve go, just try to stay close. Preserve the car, the tires, the brakes, short-shift to save fuel. It was still the best car and doing these things a good portion of the race, they might make it to the end. At some point Dernie would give the "PUMP" pit signal, one of the few signals that might not tip off anyone to their strategy.

For more than half the race Jones drove the car gingerly, trying to keep Villeneuve in sight. Finally he got the PUMP sign and went from 80% to 100%. He passed Villeneuve, but perhaps GV also had something in reserve as he immediately fought back. For the rest of the race they battled, both at near qualifying pace now that they had preserved their cars for a sprint at the last quarter of the race.

Eventually Jones won, barely finishing on fuel. It was a remarkable show of restraint and keeping your cards close for both drivers.

 

BTW, despite my dad have almost zero interest in Indy or motor racing in general, I always watched Indianapolis in the afternoon and would get up early to watch Monaco (one of the few F1 races live on broadcast TV) usually on that same Sunday morning. Started that when I was about 10.

1985 I would have been 12, and I vividly remember watching Sullivan's spin live on TV. It was an awesome moment and despite usually rooting for Mario, after that I had hoped Sullivan would win the race.

 

Here are two more.

1996 Spanish GP. Schumacher had switched to Ferrari and they had been in the weeds competitively for a few years.

It was pissing down rain, the new rainmaster (after Senna's death) showed everyone what he was capable of in a mediocre car.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xc787HaONwE

And likewise in 2008 the new wonder kid wins one in a Toro Rosso. A freakin' Minardi! The traditional backmarker of the grid.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-h_avMzSHew