Best Indy front row ever?
The 80s: part 1
Late 1978-1983
The first meeting between the team owners and USAC and IMS management to discuss the future of the series resulted in the first ever collective bargaining agreement and a major restructuring of the championship and the series's governance:
-A new oragnisation, Indycar Inc. [1], formed as a mean to promote Indycar racing throughout the country and governing.
-the teams forming their own union, CART [2], meant to represent their interests.
-The addition of a few road course events to add variety to the schedule, which will remain mainly ovals.
- Indycar Inc.'s first move was to get TV Deals to broadcast and promote races outside of Indianapolis. Their existing deal with ABC was expanded to also cover other major races like the Michigan 500 and the Pocono 500, and fledgling Cable channel ESPN were also brought onboard to cover the minor races of the calendar .
Next up was acquiring many race tracks that were in danger of being in disrepair or abandoned. Tracks like Texas World Speedway, Ontario Motor Speedway and Riverside International Speedway were bought and given major revamps by their new owners, while road courses like Road America and Watkins Glen were also bought in the early 80s, with the historic Glen, especially, getting some much needed relief and a new home in the Indycar series starting in 1982. [3]
On the tracks, two major developments happened:
1. Mario Andretti, after winning the Formula 1 world championship in 1978, decided to return to Indycars for Pat Patrick Racing. This news came in great fanfare, for Mario's status as F1 world champion brought a lot of new eyeballs onto the new indycar product. [4]
2. The rise of young talents. The first to make himself famous was young Rick Mears, who was a relative unknown when he got the call from Roger Penske to replace Mark Donohue in 1978. That faith would be repaid immediately, for he'd win three races in his penske debut that year before embarking in a star-making 1979 season, winning his first Indy 500 and dominating the season.
The second was an Ohio native, Tim Richmond. A late comer in motorsports, Richmond grinded and worked his way through various disciplines and lower level series before making his indy debut in 1979, scoring some impressive results, including 8th at watkins glen that year and even getting the pole at the 1980 Indy 500. While he would ultimately end up in 6th and running out of fuel at the last stretch, Johnny Rutherford gave him the ride back to the pits.
From then on, none other than Dan Gurney hired the fast ohio native to race the rest of the season, giving good performances at Milwaukee and even winning that year's michigan 500 [5]. After finishing in 3rd at the 1981 indy 500 behind Bobby Unser and winner Mario Andretti [6], Richmond would have a breakout season in 1982, beatin the odds and winning the indy 500 for Dan Gurney [7] and scoring wins at Milwaukee and the california 500 at Ontario Motor Speedway.
Finally, there was Jim Trueman and his team composed of Bobby Rahal and Willy T. Ribs. A veteran Can-Am team owner, Trueman brought Rahal back from europe to set up a new Indycar team in 1982. Bringing in his former Can-Am driver gave him a good foundation, but it was his trailblazing hiring of Ribs that helped Trusports get off the ground. Rahal would win two races en route to finishing 2nd behind Rick Mears, while Ribs would make history as the first black driver to win an Indycar race when he won at Road America [8].
All of these developments and storylines combined to make 1983 the first highly anticipated season in the new Indycar's history.
That, and two new storylines: Long time team owner Carl Haas entering the series teaming with actor Paul Newman and british chassis makers Lola, successfully poaching Mario Andretti from Pat Patrick, who strikes back by scoring perhaps the biggest coup in indycar since bringing back Mario fresh off his formula 1 world championship win: bringing none other than former 2-time F1 world champion Emerson Fittipaldi out of his prolonged hiatus and into America.
with his arrival, however, comes a new problem...
The news of Fitiipaldi's arrival in america, in a way, was the turning point of the new Indycar's ability to draw. Not only did national coverage on ABC expanded to 8 races, but a wave of ex-Formula 1 and european drivers came into the series: Irishman Derek Daly, Aussie Geoff Brabham, Canadian Jacques Villeneuve Sr., Colombian Roberto Guerrero, Italian Bruno Giacomelli, fellow Brazilians Roberto Moreno and Raul Boesel and south african female standout Desirée Wilson came into the series on the back of Emmo's arrival.
This, along with exciting races and an unpredictable title race, made the 1983 season the most successful and most watched indycar season so far. At the end of everything, it ended up being Teo Fabi, an Italian Formula 2 journeyman driving for the upstart Forsythe racing, Who would end up shocking the north american racing scene by winning the title at the last round at Ontario motor speedway [9].
The surprise 1983 Marlboro Champion
While publicly, the teams and drivers respectfully congratulated Fabi on his title win, in private, concerns were being made vocal about the influx of foreign talent into the series. That, combined with the ever rising costs of motorsports, were the main talking points between Indycar Inc. And CART as they entered the 1983 off-season's negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement...
Such rising costs started affecting young jeff gordon. Despite continuing his success from quarter midgets in his new ventures in Karting, winning all of the 25 races he entered, the increasing costs of racing, along with a costly move to Indiana due to his family having insurance issues, were factors in Gordon beginning to lose interest in racing and focuse on waterskiing...
Meanwhile, at around the same time, on the other side of Indiana, a young boy turned heads in the local karting scene, winning a championship in 1980 and showing lots of promise.
MARLBORO INDYCAR CHAMPIONS
1979: Rick Mears - Penske
1980: Johnny Rutherford - Jim Hall Racing
1981: Rick Mears - Penske
1982: Rick Mears - Penske
1983: Teo Fabi - Forsythe Racing
INDY 500 WINNERS
1979: Rick Mears - Penske
1980: Johnny Rutherford - Jim Hall Racing
1981: Mario Andretti - Patrick Racing
1982: Tim Richmond - All American Racers
1983: Tim Richmond - All American Racers
NOTES
[1] Basically, a new organisation that serves essentially as Indycar's FOM
[2] here, CART is just the Indycar equivalent of FOCA
[3] Ontario and Texas World were left to die IRL
[4] IRL, Mario competed part-time in Indycar, only returning full time in 1983
[5] and [7]: IRL races won by Gordon Johncock, and Richmond IRL quickly ssitched to NASCAR. Though nothing right now suggests he might not switch to stock cars down the road...
[6]: Bobby Unser's penalty stands and Mario wins it.
[8]: IRL Race won by Hector Rebaque. Also, IRL, Ribs got stuck in Formula Atlantic until switching to sports cars.
[9]IRL title won by Al Unser Sr.
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