Jabby Crombac

The race I remember most was Indy 1963, no doubt about it. For Team Lotus it started out as just another race to win, a nice adventure and so forth, but when we got there, the ambience changed completely because the American establishment was so upset that Ford had chosen a foreign team to give its dollars to.

Everything was used to try to get in the way, all the time there were problems. Scrutineering was unbelievable. The race became a crusade of the old world against the new.

I arrived just before Carburetion Day which was three days before the race. In those days Team Lotus was working on a very tight basis. Colin Chapman and Jimmy Clark were sharing a room and Cyril Audrey, the chief timekeeper with the RAC was there too - every time Lotus ran at Indy he was there to do the lap chart. He had a cot in the corner, while I was sleeping on the carpet between the beds of Colin and Jimmy because that was the only space left!

Come race day, Jimmy was superb. The Lotus was slower than the American roadsters, as it was running on gasoline instead of the dope they ran in America. So it was cutting on pitstops. Jimmy's advantage was endurance more than speed. He was on the third or fourth row, I think. It was his first race at Indy although he had been there before in October after Watkins Glen, when Colin decided to take a Formula 1 car there to gather data.

In the race, he was always a threat, although he was really down on power compared to the Offys. He would hang on behind them, catching in the corners; but losing out on the straights which are so important at Indy. Anyway, when the Americans pitted he would be ahead.

We were a little disappointed because we hadn't accounted for the number of yellow lights, and each time there was a yellow the Americans were using it to refuel which meant that the possible advantage wasn't as great.

Jimmy had been told that when there was a yellow he was not to overtake, so he didn't, but the others were passing, because they knew how to cheat, for instance they were overtaking where they knew there was no observer and things like that which Jimmy didn't dare do because he didn't know the ropes.

Not many laps from the finish the roadster of Parnelli Jones was leading with Jimmy not far behind and closing. Then suddenly Parnelli's car started to leak fuel from its outside tank - a sort of oval shaped canister on the left side of the car. It had a split at the top and people in the pits could easily see fuel gushing out of it.

Immediately Colin realised this, because Jimmy was just behind Parnelli and he had to slow because he was getting oil all over his face and his tyres, so Colin rushed to the Clerk of the Course, who was Harlan Fengler, a real member of the Indy establishment, a former driver and so forth.

I was watching through binoculars from the press grandstand, which was on a balcony just across from the pits and I could see Colin gesticulating and Harlan looked to be saying 'Calm down". He sent for a pair of binoculars - which took a very long time to find and, in the meantime, JC Agajanian, the owner of Parnelli's car, had turned up and was shouting against Colin. There was real pandemonium.

When they finally produced the binoculars, everybody stood back with respect and Harlan trained the glasses on the car and after Parnelli went by Harlan said he couldn't see anything. Colin later confirmed that this had happened, but it was so obvious to me
through the binoculars, from the way they were acting.

It took Harlan three laps and then he said, "He is not losing any more oil." Well that was right because the level of the fuel had dropped below the level of the cut in the tank.

And so Parnelli went on to win, although lots of drivers spun on his oil in the closing laps, including Eddie Sachs, who was a very outspoken driver. The next day at the restaurant of the Holiday Inn there was some sort of function, I forget what it was, and Eddie had a go at Parnelli, who just stood up and hit him!

They really should have stopped Parnelli in the race because they had insisted at the driver's briefing that dropping oil was bad and there would be blackflagging and all the rest of it.

Historically it was an extremely important race, because after Colin had showed the Americans the way to go-even if the Lotus did not win - they began to switch to rear-engined cars, causing a revolution in Indycar design. It was the beginning of the modern era.

More importantly, perhaps, was the fact that the Lotus was fitted with 15ins tyres at a time when the roadsters had 16 on 17ins. When the Lotus started practising and went so quick the Americans had special 15ins roadster tyres made by Firestone. Everyone wanted 15ins tyres and Firestone was in real trouble.

At that time AJ Foyt picked up the phone to Goodyear and said "Come on we are waiting for you." Leo Mehl of Goodyear has confirmed since that this was the actual start of the real Goodyear effort in motor racing.

Goodyear coming into racing meant a big war with Firestone which led to increased costs and the oil companies pulling out. Thus sponsorship increased and changed the face of motor racing all over the world. And it had all started at Indy in '63.