Johnny Rutherford

The best race for me was probably the 1974 Indianapolis 500. It was an incredible race from a driver's standpoint, because we had been quick all month in practice, so we hoped to be able to start from pole.

I had been on pole the previous year, with a new track record, and we thought we had a chance to do it again. But on Saturday morning, the day of qualifying for the pole, we were out practising, had run a pretty good lap, felt good, came in, checked the car, went back out... and the engine blew.

Obviously, it was our qualifying engine set-up, and something happened to it. Anyway, the crew had to change the engine. That's when everything fell apart. Harlan Fengler had been the chief steward Of the Indianapolis 500 for many, many years but he had retired; Tom Binford was the new chief steward, and that was his first year. Well, he interpreted the rules differently than Harlan Fengler did.

When we blew our engine and went back to the garage to fix it, if it had been with Harlan Fengler, all we would have had to do was make our change and come back out. So long as we had taken our place in line for technical inspection, it would've been fine.

But Binford interpreted the rule such that he went down the line, and took the car numbers, and everyone that was there after practice, in their place, they were OK. But if you weren't, then you got put to the end of the line.

We didn't know this until we brought the car out and then he said. Oh, no, you gotta go to the end of the line.' We were furious. My guys were upset, I was upset.

AI Unser had done the same thing, he had lost an engine that morning in practice, so we had no concern about not getting our position in line. Well, that was also the year, to add to the nightmare, of the energy crunch, so they compressed four days of qualifying into two. It got very complex at that point, but we wound up being in the third day's qualifying. By the time we fell in line, ready to go, it was the 'third day' - even though it was the second day!

Anyway, we qualified the car. We didn't make an exerted effort to push for a fast time, and wound up second quickest in the whole field, just a shade slower than AJ Foyt who was on the pole. But we had to start in 25th place, and AI Unser was right behind me.

The car was handling extremely well. The team got it ready to race. When the green flag dropped, the car was working so good that I was able to go from 25th to third in just 12 laps! It was phenomenal. I could drive high, low, pass guys wherever they allowed room. The car was just very, very good.

After a while I was able to get into the lead, and the race all came down to being between AJ Foyt and myself. We were running very close together, and we had the two fastest cars in the race.

Well, his car was j-u-s-t quick enough down the straightaway to make it extremely tough, but I was al over him in the turns. And I knew if I could keep the pressure up, keep AJ checking his mirrors and seeing me there, and just be there one side and the other - just generally be a nuisance behind him - that perhaps I could create a problem for his car. And especially with his tyres, since I knew that we had already blistered a couple.

It was a thrill, for me, to be able to race with AJ because he was such a legend in the sport and especially in the greatest race there is: the Indy 500. I was pushing him very hard, trying to get by, and then something happened in his engine, or with an oil line, and he started dumping a lot of oil.

I mean, a lot of oil. And I had to start backing away from him. It was coming back so thick and in such a spray that I really had to give him some room and watch the race track, to make sure it didn't get so slippery that I might slip into the wall or something.

I sat back there and after a while the officials saw the spray and black-flagged AJ and pulled him in, which gave me the lead. I then ran to the end unchallenged, and won my first Indy 500.

The slipstream had held all the oil in place on the car during the race, but when we got in Victory Lane it all started running down and the car was literally dripping oil off the front wings, the nose, and each side. It was really a mess.

But we were excited at McLaren to put together our first Indianapolis victory.