Gordon Johncock
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Gordon Johncock (born 5 August 1937, Coldwater, Michigan) is a former racing driver, best known as a two-time winner of the Indianapolis 500 and 1976 USAC Marlboro Championship Trail champion.
Johncock's first USAC Champ car victory was scored at Milwaukee, Wisconsin in August 1965. He won six further races before winning the Indy 500 in 1973.
The 1973 Indianapolis 500 win was a bitter-sweet victory. At the time, Johncock was racing for the STP/Pat Patrick team. A major accident at the start involving Salt Walther, coupled with two days of rain, postponed the race until late Wednesday afternoon. When the race was finally held, Johncock's teammate Swede Savage was severely injured in a fiery crash on lap 58. A moment later, Armando Teran, a pit crew member on the same STP/Patrick team, was struck by a fire truck going northbound in the pits, and was fatally injured at the scene. When the race resumed, Johncock who had led the most laps, was leading when rain fell again on the 133rd lap. Nearing 6 p.m. in the evening, the race was red flagged and declared over. After a short and muted victory lane celebration, Johncock went to visit his friend and teamate Savage at the hospital. Afterwards, due to the tragic circumstances, the celebratory victory banquet was cancelled, and Johncock and his team instead grabbed a somber fast-food supper at Burger King About a month later, Savage died from his injuries.
Johncock won the USAC Champcar title in 1976, but was frustrated at Indianapolis; in 1975 he started the race on the front row but retired with ignition problems on the 11th lap. In 1976 and 1978 he was 3rd, and in 1977 he was leading A.J. Foyt comfortably when the car's crankshaft broke on with sixteen laps to go.
Johncock had the distinction of winning the first CART sanctioned Champ Car race at Phoenix in March, 1979, but only won one further race until May, 1982.
Johncock took a second Indianapolis 500 victory in 1982, but by only 0.16 second from Rick Mears. Johncock was a dominant force for much of the race, but by the closing laps Mears was rapidly closing in. In Mears' final pit stop, Mears' team made a miscalculation and filled his car with more fuel than it needed to finish the race. As a consequence Mears had to catch up with Johncock again, and on the 197th and 198th laps came from 3 seconds back to within car lengths. The final lap was one of the most thrilling laps in motorsport history as Mears tried to pass Johncock for the win, with Johncock making a decisive defense of first place in Turn One. Mears would later joke about watching the tape over and over to see if 'this time I get around Gordy'.
Johncock took another three Champ car wins, including the 1982 Michigan 500 to complete two legs of what was then known as the Triple Crown (the three 500-mile races on the USAC Marlboro Championship Trail were known as such from 1970 until 1989, when the Pocono 500 was discontinued afterwards), before retiring from racing in 1985. He returned for occasional appearances in 1987, 1988, 1989, 1991 and finally quit after the 1992 Indianapolis 500 (also the final '500' for Mears).
Johncock also completed in twenty-one NASCAR Nextel Cup Series (then Winston Cup) events in his career. Johncock raced respectably, earning three top-fives and four top-tens in his limited schedules. The best of those finishes were a pair of fourths in 1973 at Daytona and 1966 at Rockingham.
Johncock abruptly retired from Indycar racing after 1984. He served on the IMS Radio Network in 1985, but decided to return to racing in 1987. His final race was the 1992 Indy 500, where he dropped out with engine failure. Since his retirement, Johncock has distanced himself from motorsports, and focuses on his timber business in Michigan. He participated in a 2004 interview on ESPN Classic's "Big Ticket" review of the 1982 Indy 500. In the interview, he admitted that his interests in racing were now limited, and was no longer his daily focus. In discussing the tragic 1973 race, Johncock appeared to have made peace with the tragic circumstances. While most discredit the race as being rain-shortened, and for its overall miserable memories, Johncock insisted that his car was the fastest on the track, led easily, and was not simply in front at the time of the red flag by chance.
[edit] Awards
- In 1999 he was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame
- He was inducted in the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2002.
[edit] Indianapolis 500 results
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- Johncock ranks 3rd on the list of laps completed at Indianapolis.
[edit] References
- Kallmann, Dave. "Looking back: Tragedy of '73 burns in Indy history", Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, 1998.
- Moses, Sam. "Wee Gordy wins big", Sports Illustrated, 7 Jun 1982.
- NASCAR Stats at Racing-Refrence.info
| Preceded by Mark Donohue |
Indianapolis 500 Winner 1973 |
Succeeded by Johnny Rutherford |
| Preceded by Bobby Unser |
Indianapolis 500 Winner 1982 |
Succeeded by Tom Sneva |
| Indianapolis 500 Winners |
|---|
| Four-time winners A. J. Foyt • Al Unser, Sr. • Rick Mears Three-time winners Two-time winners One win |
