Bobby Unser passes cars under caution, 1981 Indy 500

[cjs3872]

There's one other odd aspect to this. It wasn't the first time that Bobby had passed a car under caution in a race he won at Indy. After making his second pit stop during the caution for Gary Bettenhausen's broken suspension piece late in the 1975 race, and with rain looming, Unser actually passed A.J. Foyt, lapping him under caution. Of course, he had to let Foyt repass him, which is why they were side-by-side, with Foyt barely ahead, but nearly 1 lap behind, when the monsoon hit that day.

[rogergraham66]

IndyCarTim, no, that recording was done in post-production.

[IndyCarTim]

No, Doc.. This was LIVE .. NOT post-production.. Unser cheated, and Andretti should've won his 2nd 500. Everyone knows it including Bobby...

[manthing43]

@IndyCarTim Only problem is: Mario also cheated, passing several cars under the yellow as well. I think it was local WRTV that captured it on video. Heck it was even captured in the official Indy 500 Films documentary. Two wrongs don't make a right. Which is why the win was handed back over to Unser. Just think ... if USAC had dealt with those two properly as they should have (right then & there),then it's possible Vern Schuppan would've wound up the winner - lol.

[CombatSportFan]

@IndyCarTim The original commentary was indeed done live for the tape delayed broadcast. However, while I initially thought that it was live to tape myself, it turns out that ABC television had the announcers go back and do special commentary for the controversial moment and a few other spots and insert it into the broadcast to help build up the controversy. Though it wasn't done for either driver, it was done for ABC's sake and to build up ratings.

[doctorindy]

Total grandstanding by Jim McKay and Jackie Stewart. They were doing all of that voice-over commentary during post-production (after the race was over). They knew ahead of time that a controversey was brewing, and tried to make an issue about it.

[CombatSportFan]

@doctorindy You can't place blame on Stewart and McKay. They were simply doing what ABC told them to do and nothing they said in that piece of announcing was incorrect in any form.

[jamie24cfc]

@CombatSportFan however by failing to comment that Mario Andretti had also passed cars under caution(although not as many as Bobby Unser) it would be easy to assume that ABC's commentary was biased in Andretti's favour

[CombatSportFan]

@jamie24cfc That much is true. Though I wouldn't necessarily say it was bias for Andretti, but more bias for their own ends. More controversy = more viewers = more ratings = more money.