1981–82 USAC Championship Car season

1981-82 USAC Championship Car season
USAC Gold Crown Championship
Season
Races 6
Start date May 24, 1981
End date May 30, 1982
Awards
National champion George Snider
Indianapolis 500 winner Bobby Unser (1981)
Gordon Johncock (1982)
Chronology
Previous season Next season
1980 1982-83

The 1981-82 USAC Championship Car season consisted of six races, beginning in Speedway, Indiana on May 24, 1981 and concluding at the same location on May 30, 1982. The USAC National Champion was George Snider. The season included two Indianapolis 500 races. The 1981 winner was Bobby Unser, while the 1982 winner was Gordon Johncock. The schedule included dirt courses for the first time since 1970.

Contents

Schedule and results

Rnd Date Race Name Length Track Location Type Pole Position Winning Driver
1 May 24, 1981 Indianapolis 500-Mile Race 500 mi (800 km) Indianapolis Motor Speedway Speedway, Indiana Paved oval Bobby Unser Bobby Unser
2 June 21, 1981 Van Scoy Diamond Mines 500 305 mi (491 km)A Pocono International Raceway Long Pond, Pennsylvania Paved oval A. J. Foyt A. J. Foyt
3 August 15, 1981 Tony Bettenhausen 100 100 mi (160 km) Illinois State Fairgrounds Springfield, Illinois Dirt oval Tom Bigelow George Snider
4 August 30, 1981 DuQuoin 100 100 mi (160 km) DuQuoin State Fairgrounds Du Quoin, Illinois Dirt oval Bill Engelhart Rich Vogler
5 September 12, 1981 Hoosier Hundred 100 mi (160 km) Indiana State Fairgrounds Indianapolis, Indiana Dirt oval Larry Rice Larry Rice
6 May 30, 1982 Indianapolis 500-Mile Race 500 mi (800 km) Indianapolis Motor Speedway Speedway, Indiana Paved oval Rick Mears Gordon Johncock

^A Scheduled for 500 miles, stopped early due to rain.

National Championship standings

 #  Driver Team Points
1 George Snider A. J. Foyt Enterprises 1395
2 Geoff Brabham 1310
3 Tom Bigelow 1280
4 A. J. Foyt A. J. Foyt Enterprises 1045
5 Gordon Johncock 1000
6 Mario Andretti 805
7 Rick Mears 800
8 Rich Vogler 760
9 Larry Rice 730
10 Vern Schuppan 720
11 Tom Sneva 635
12 Jim McElreath 594
13 Billy Vukovich II 568
14 Sheldon Kinser 536
15 Harry MacDonald 500
16 Jack Hewitt 490
17 Don Whittington 405
18 Gary Bettenhausen 366
19 Joe Saldana 366
20 Roger Rager 350
21 Tony Bettenhausen, Jr. 310
22 Jim Hickman 300
23 Herm Johnson 200
24 Dennis Firestone 160
25 Johnny Parsons 151
26 Bill Henderson 150
Howdy Holmes 150
28 Bobby Rahal 100
29 Greg Leffler 80
30 Mike Chandler 70
31 Bill Whittington 40
32 Larry Dickson 32
33 Héctor Rebaque 25
34 Steve Ball 25
Tim Richmond 25
Danny Sullivan 25
37 Chip Ganassi 25
Jerry Karl 25
39 Jerry Sneva 25
40 Richard Hubbard 20
41 Dick Simon 20
42 Josele Garza 20
43 Dean Vetrock 15
44 Steve Chassey 14
45 Salt Walther 10
46 Bobby Olivero 8
47 Kevin Cogan 5
48 Tom Klausler 5
Jan Sneva 5
50 Roger Mears 5
Mike Mosley 5

References

See also

AAA
NASCAR
USAC
CART / CCWS
IRL / INDYCAR
Years marked in italics are not official championship years.
Seasons
1971 • 1972 • 1973 • 1974 • 1975 • 1976 • 1977 • 1978 • 1979 • 1980 • 1981–82 • 1982–83 • 1983–84
Indianapolis 500s
1971 • 1972 • 1973 • 1974 • 1975 • 1976 • 1977 • 1978 • 1979 • 1980 • 1981 • 1982 • 1983 • 1984 • 1985 • 1986 • 1987 • 1988 • 1989 • 1990 • 1991 • 1992 • 1993 • 1994 • 1995
National Champions
Emerson Fittipaldi (twice) • A. J. Foyt (twice) • Gordon Johncock • Joe Leonard (twice) • Arie Luyendyk • Roger McCluskey • Rick Mears (three times) • Bobby Rahal • Johnny Rutherford • Tom Sneva (three times) • George Snider • Danny Sullivan • Al Unser • Al Unser, Jr. (twice) • Bobby Unser • Jacques Villeneuve
Tracks
The Indianapolis 500 was the only race in the USAC National Championship from 1984-85 onwards