Indianapolis 500 1972

[brtaylor20]

Love this. Those were the days, for sure. Thanks!

[svrhodes77]

God what a magical time this was at Indianapolis...Donahue, Unser, Rutherford, Foyt, Johncock...wow.

[MrRothstein44]

classic footage, Penskes 1st 500 win that lead to many..and damn Mark Donohue got to drive some bad ass race cars man lol.

[ekartpa]

What a great post. Reminds me of my home movie of the '71 Pocono 500. Maybe I will figure out how to upload it someday. Thanks for sharing this.

[wolfstyle68]

My father used to get my sister and me during visitation rights in early seventies San Jose and we would go to a lounge to watch Wide World of Sports and the Indy 500 in May while he nursed a hangover.Those were the years of class in racing.I felt a part of it.Then dad moved to Monterey,to Cannery Row,to go build his boat.Not before going to the 1976 Indy 500,though.Happy 75th birthday,dad.It's been 8 years,but maybe one day,we will speak again.

[Rightsideup]

I just saw this car today!!!!!

[ralphglennhoward]

Nick, that's a great story! I'll always think of Mark now, saying to himself when he drinks the milk in Victory Lane, "I could have used that about three hours ago."

[NicksEvilTwin1]

This is AWESOME...it was my first race (age 8) and pre race I actually shared a peanutbutter sandwich with Mark (as we were Penske guests all month) and acutally told Mark that he was going to win, Roger asked how I could be so sure, and I said well he likes peanutbutter, and for years after that I always took Roger a P-butter sanwich, the last one was in 2006 Yep Sam Won. Great memory here...Thanks

[machiiniiima]

@NicksEvilTwin1 thats amazing!

[portr8trouble]

Interesting footage I imagine from a 16mm movie camera ?

Thanks for sharing reminded me of my only trip to Indy in 1988 especially all those balloons :-)

Interesting choice of music not heard the Cure for a good while :-)

[mikek0525]

I have watched literally hundreds of Indy 500 videos on this site and yours is my favorite. They eyes in which you watched the race were the same as the ones I did when I was about the same age on my first trip to the Speedway in 1979. Everything on this video is why I've kept coming back for 31 years. I took my 14 and 10 year old sons to time trials for the first time this year and they can't wait to go back. It is amazing how this race gets passed through the generations.

[ralphglennhoward]

Obviously. It's says Sunoco Special McLaren on the side of the car. It's a Team Penske car, purchased from McLaren Cars, Ltd. Please take your pedantry to another page.

[thevmanvj]

@ralphglennhoward  Amen. Penske had been using McLarens since 1971 at that point.

[McLarenMercedes]

Penske McLaren??

I thought he was driving a McLaren Offenhauser. Maybe Roger Penske's team but the car was a McLaren design.

[stick500]

Joey Ramone "What a Wonderful World"! Great music choice. '72 was my first trip to IMS at age 12. Been an Indy nu ever since. Gary B. was my guy in those days and Lee Kunzman.

[AutoSportScrew]

thanks for the trip down memory lane... wow, great video. '70 was my first year, and thanks for the shot of Linda Vaughn!

[daddydawg]

Thanks man...this was my first Indy 500 age 8, and actually got to sit with Mark & Gary B. before the race and talk with both of them. Great stuff !!!!

[kirkconway]

Indy needs to have more choices on engines and chassis not all Ralt and not all honda engines,

Its gotten kind of boring to see all one kind of car and one kind of engine,

Used to be offy's and cosworth V-8's and even stock block chevys,

now its all rudimentery and boring,

I mean who cares about if you can do 218 in a lap and then not be in the placing if you dont do atleast that ,,,

or even 190, or 200,

this rule making hAS GOTTEN TO BE A FARSE,

[revonah87]

hey ralph how old were you when you shot this? '73 was my first race and i was 7, only missed one since. do you remember your seat number, i think my dad is in your video, our old tickets were section 33 row U, they are gone when they built the new tower terrace

[mazdatruck1]

Yeah.....I met Mark in 75 in Great Briton a month before his passing....He was a Nice Man. and a Great Race Car Driver....

[mitchnoriss]

THANK YOU! What a trip into childhood! I forgot what a loss Mark was!!!!

[U3X6785]

Yeah I grew up in eagledale too. Last good carb day was in 88 for me. Was some crazy times over there in that snake pit.

[meglovesit]

my 4th indy...these days r long gone but thanks to people like you i can come here and relive my childhood..i grew up in eagledale and my house was just outside turn 3 we would rent out the yard and sit in the back and you could actually smell the burnt fuel on the days when the wind was right...god it brings a tear to my eye to think these days r gone forever

[1more4theroad]

I sure miss these years of Indy. Nothing like getting to the track shortly after the military bomb signals that the gates are open, to hear the big band sounds over the world's largest public address system....to hear Tom Carnegie, have the spectacle of bands parade by, with the bagpipes, too. Good old days!

[ralphglennhoward]

Yeah, there was a magic then that's been long since gone.

[answerstolucky]

@1more4theroad I was reading this, realizing I could not have agreed more with this post, then I realized I made it under my old name! I just found out today Tom Carnegie passed away. Such a huge loss

[blackcatjim]

amazing stuff. thank you so much.

[zenmachinefilms]

Nice slice of history here. Thanks for posting this.

[ralphglennhoward]

Thanks. I was just a kid when I shot it, so it's pretty awful when it comes to the never still camera, but it does have some treasures: Mark pulling the gorgeous M16 into Victory Lane being one. It was a great race. Check out INDIANAPOLIS 500 TIME TRIALS 1972. I snuck into Gasoline Alley and got some good stuff, along with Bobby Unser's then record-breaking pole run.

[2014cwajts71]

Whaddaya mean pretty awful?! I think it was a helluva good camera job, especially the shots of the cars passing by and some of the pit work. If you have any more Indy footage, please post it. That would be great. Thanks.

[ralphglennhoward]

It was my second race; was there as in '71, just a year or so older than you (thus the pretty lame camera work on my part). Glad you enjoyed it. Those were the days when the race really was at its best.

[jenie0]

@ralphglennhoward Nonsense, you shot excellent video. Thank you so much for this post, brings back ALOT of great memories

[jennifersman]

WOW! This was the first 500 I ever saw on tv, back when it was taped and run in prime time. There's so many observations I can make here. Donahue's average speed was something like 162mph, a record that stood for like 20 years. He was an amazing driver who died too soon. The girl in the parade lap was "Miss Hurst" Linda Vaughan. I spotted "Mr. STP" Andy Granatelli there too. Whomever posted this has an amazing home movie

[indyjim1969]

Bobby goes out early after dominating all month! I was in turn 4 that day, the crowd moaned the first time Gary Bettenhausen came by with his engine sounding sick. 11 years after his dad died, the Bettenhausens should have gotten their win that day. (not to take anything away from Mark)

Thanks for the great video!

[ralphglennhoward]

It was a shame for Gary, but no one deserved it more than Mark. One of the great guys.

[ljostarter]

Great footage of Pat Vidan!