Indianapolis 500 1972

Mark Donahue wins the 72 Indy 500 in a Penske McLaren (film ends in Victory Lane)

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• Indianapolis
• 500
• Indy
• Mark
• Donahue
• 1972
• Victory
• Lane
• Parnelli
• auto
• racing
• motor
• sportsPenske
• Mclaren

[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."

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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!

[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,

[brtaylor20]

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

[machiiniiima]

@NicksEvilTwin1 thats amazing!

[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.

[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

[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.

[jenie0]

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

[Rightsideup]

I just saw this car today!!!!!