Lotuses Among the Bricks

The Indianapolis 500 was still two weeks away. But a good round 150,000 fans were on hand to watch in disbelief as a little-known rookie named Mario Andretti rolled out for his first qualification spin in a rear-engined Brawner-Ford and blasted around the Speedway at a fantastic 159.4 m.p.h. That demolished the lap record set last year by Scotland's Jimmy Clark. So Clark squeezed into his own Lotus-Ford and got his record back with a clocking of 160.9 m.p.h. He held it only as long as it took A. J. Foyt to warm his engine up. A two-time winner of the Memorial

Day 500, Texan Foyt climbed into another Lotus-Ford and ripped off a lap at 161.9 m.p.h., won the pole position--and practically ensured that this year's race will be the fastest in the history of Indy's famed Brickyard.

Battling the Bugs. Barring accidents, of course. In 54 years, 30 drivers have lost their lives racing at Indianapolis, and it will be a long time before anybody forgets last year's flaming, seven-car crash that killed Eddie Sachs and Dave MacDonald. All sorts of new safety rules are in effect. Cars must be equipped with rubber sealers in their gas tanks, and drivers must make at least two stops for fuel--to keep pit crews from filling tanks to the brim, thereby increasing the danger of collision or fire. But as speeds soar at Indy, so do the risks. The sturdy old Offen-hauser-powered roadsters that once dominated the 500 have been largely replaced by light, rear-engined racers with massive Ford engines that generate 495 h.p.--v. 430 h.p. for the Offy. By week's end, 22 rear-engined entries had qualified for this year's race (v. only eight old-fashioned Offies), and the little cars were proving tricky to handle, even without bugs.

Pole Winner Foyt narrowly escaped injury when the rear suspension of his Lotus-Ford broke and the left rear wheel snapped off. Veteran Parnelli Jones, who won the 500 in 1963, was badly shaken up in a similar accident: he was drifting through the northwest turn at 150 m.p.h. when the suspension of his Lotus collapsed. "All of a sudden the back end started steering the front," Parnelli shuddered later. The car slammed into the wall, slid 570 ft., spun, slid again, and finally came to rest 110 ft. onto the infield grass.

Chunking Quarters. Then there was the Great Tire War. Since 1923 every 500 winner has used Firestone tires, a fact that nettles Firestone's competitors no end--especially The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. This year, Goodyear persuaded nine drivers to use its tires, including two of the three fastest qualifiers: A. J. Foyt and California's Dan Gurney, who won a spot in the first row by clocking 159 m.p.h. in yet another Lotus-Ford. Last week the company discovered to its horror that its specially made tires were "chunking"-spewing out quarter-size pieces of rubber. Goodyear officials blamed it all on a faulty tire-making machine and rushed in a new load of rubber which they promised would do the job.

If not, both Foyt and Gurney faced the choice of making repeated pit stops for tire changes--or risking blowouts and accidents. For Foyt, there was no choice at all. "Racing comes before my wife and family," he said, and a friend added: "A. J. would run with one wheel on top of the wall if he had to--to beat Jimmy Clark." Scotland's Clark, naturally, was unaffected by the fuss. There he was, smack-dab in the middle of the front row--with Firestones.

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