When Indycar’s mistimed experiment briefly beat F1 at Silverstone

If Josef Newgarden rocked up at Silverstone and used his Team Penske-run Dallara-Chevrolet to break Max Verstappen’s Red Bull Formula 1 lap record, it would be a sensation. Given that Colton Herta’s best time in IndyCar’s 2019 visit to Circuit of The Americas was more than 12 seconds slower than Charles Leclerc’s fastest lap from that year’s United States Grand Prix, that would never happen. But there was a time when an American invasion broke records at the home of the British GP.

Thanks to a chance meeting between Brands Hatch impresario John Webb and United States Automobile Club president Dick King, a plan was formed to bring Indycars, then under the auspices of USAC, to the UK. Webb, who died earlier this year aged 92, was a visionary always looking to find new ways of promoting motorsport – and was prepared to try novel ideas. Formula Ford and F5000 were just two of his most-famous initiatives, which stuck a lot longer than the USAC experiment.

Webb, whose Motor Circuit Developments concern ran Brands, Snetterton, Oulton Park and Mallory Park, hired Silverstone so that two events – both counting for the USAC championship – could be held in late 1978, the first at Silverstone and the second at Brands.

Both offered sizeable prize money, keeping in the tradition of American motorsport, and the races would include Indycar’s refuelling stops, a novelty in European single-seater racing at the time. Somewhat bizarrely, a ‘qualifying’ session to determine the 16 car-driver combinations that would visit Britain was held at Michigan International Speedway in July, perhaps not the most relevant venue given pacesetter Tom Sneva lapped the oval at 209.1mph…

But what about beating F1 at Silverstone? At the time, McLaren designer Gordon Coppuck estimated pole for the Indycars would be 1m19s. Despite changeable weather that dogged the event, the estimate was blown out of the water by Danny Ongais. His Parnelli VPJ6B, based on the team’s 1975 F1 car, and with nearly 900bhp from its turbocharged, methanol-fuelled 2.65-litre Cosworth DFX, was the quickest combination in the pack.

His 1m16.25s effort was 2.24s faster than James Hunt’s pole time for the previous year’s British GP, set in a McLaren M26. Ronnie Peterson had managed a 1m16.07s lap in practice for that March’s British Racing Drivers’ Club International Trophy in the ground-breaking Lotus 78, but rain on race day had meant the lap record remained Hunt’s 1m18.81s from 1976 in a McLaren M23.

Ongais's pole time for the 1978 USAC meeting at Silverstone was 2.24s faster than Hunt's 1977 British GP pole lap

Photo by: Motorsport Images

Autosport’s F1 reporter Nigel Roebuck, who was at Silverstone that weekend rather than the clashing United States GP at Watkins Glen, was impressed with the spectacle as well as the lap times. In the event programme, he had written of the chance to see “some of the greatest race drivers in the world, grappling with entirely unfamiliar conditions, in the most powerful single-seaters ever seen in this country”.

Then, in our report, he said of practice: “They were shooting past the pits at unimaginable speeds, way quicker than anything we had seen before. The Hawaiian [Ongais] provided the most exciting spectacle I have seen for a very long time.”

Come the race, which was postponed by a day thanks to rain, Ongais predictably held the early lead, but any expectations of a scrap between him and fellow front-row starter Al Unser’s Lola did not last long. Ongais pulled away – and then retired on lap five when a halfshaft broke, but only after setting a new outright lap record of 1m18.45s. That would survive until Clay Regazzoni’s 1979 British GP best in the ground-effect Williams FW07. After Ongais’s exit, Unser moved ahead, but the star of the show was now making his presence felt…

"That back straightaway was very, very fast. And you can get in that corner [Stowe] a lot faster than you realise"
AJ Foyt

The early part of the weekend had not looked good for AJ Foyt. His Coyote was not cutting edge, nor was its Ford engine, which was a turbocharged version of a unit that had first appeared in the 1960s, and also carried all its fuel on the left-hand side, unlike its leading rivals. That was fine for left-corner-only ovals, not so great when it came to traversing Silverstone.

“The one I was worried about was on the back straightaway where you had to make a right-hand turn [into Stowe],” recalls Foyt of the asymmetric set-up. “The left-hand turns never bothered me that much, just that right-hander after that straight. You couldn’t overdrive it.”

Engine failure in qualifying added to his challenges and so Foyt lined up down in 10th, more than 7s off pole! But he had a better set-up for the race and had charged into the top five even before Ongais retired. Foyt soon overcame Tom Sneva’s Penske for third before making his scheduled fuel stop. The stop was a good one and, with others losing time as they came perilously close to running out of fuel or experienced pick-up problems – including Unser – Foyt moved into second.

He was harassing the Penske of Rick Mears when rain arrived once more and temporarily stopped play. At the restart, it didn’t take long for Foyt to snatch the lead inside Mears at Stowe, having taken advice from three-time world champion Jackie Stewart.

A.J. Foyt emerged in the lead after a red flag at Silverstone and ultimately went on to win

Photo by: Motorsport Images

“Jackie told me that on the back straightaway you can get in that turn a lot faster than you thought, and that’s where I made my pass,” recalls Foyt, now 89. “I tried it, and I was like I might be up in the grandstands if it doesn’t turn, but it stuck perfect. I liked the race course, it was real good, but that back straightaway was very, very fast. And you can get in that corner [Stowe] a lot faster than you realise.”

Foyt was clear when more rain ended proceedings for good, confirming the Coyote, which is currently on display at the Silverstone Museum, as the winner. Mears and champion-to-be Sneva made it a Penske 2-3, while Gordon Johncock’s Wildcat came out on top of a fierce scrap with the McLaren of Johnny Rutherford for fourth.

Foyt, already a four-time Indy 500 and 1967 Le Mans winner, proved to be a popular victor. And the feelings seemed to be mutual. “This is the most fantastic road course I’ve ever seen,” he said. “I hope we’ll be back next year – and with rain tyres!”

Today, Foyt feels the same about the UK.

“Every time I went over to England to race, even when I went to run sportscars, everybody’s always so good to me,” he smiles. “So, I never had harsh words for anybody. I really enjoyed going over there, it was all so different.”

Roebuck was impressed by the way the American aces conducted themselves: “Foyt captivated Silverstone, on the track and off. For four long days he patiently signed autographs, posed for pictures and answered questions. What’s more, he did it with a smile on his face. Certain of our hallowed grand prix superstars could study this to advantage. In fact, every one of the USAC drivers behaved that way.”

More than that, he was convinced by the spectacle.

“Without the rain, the meeting would have been fabulous,” Roebuck wrote in Autosport’s report. “On the rare occasions when it wasn’t wet, the meeting was fabulous. The formula, with more power than roadholding, has tremendous spectator appeal. Driver ability counts for more and there was more overtaking than you see in an entire British GP at Silverstone. If you weren’t there to see it, you only have yourselves to blame.”

Foyt believes it was worth a punt to try racing in the UK, but the crowds were too small to ensure the event was profitable

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And that was the problem. It was deemed a success by many of those there, but there weren’t enough people present. The event lost money and it was the same story at Brands Hatch the following week, where the original plan was to use the GP circuit (some had tested there) but, with low spectator interest, the race meeting was moved to the short circuit, subsequently known as the Indy layout.

Ongais also starred at Brands, where again the frontrunners were on F1 pace, only to be denied once more. This time he was a lap clear with fewer than 20 of the 100 laps to go when his transmission failed. Mears and Sneva thus completed a Penske 1-2 but, once again, the spectator figures – not more than 15,000 at either event – proved insufficient for a repeat. Webb once said that “the question never arose as to whether we’d try again” because of the losses, thought to have wiped out the profit from that year’s British GP, held at Brands.

The British weather hadn’t helped, though the Brands weekend was dry. A track-drying device had been hired from the Santa Pod drag strip, and it did its job at Silverstone, but couldn’t help encourage more fans to brave the elements. The weather also played havoc with the Silverstone timetable: practice was delayed, qualifying was cancelled and the race moved from Saturday to the Sunday. Not all the spectators decided to return the next day.

"I thought it was good to get out of the United States and go over there and race our type of cars"
AJ Foyt

Some argued that the track layouts also didn’t allow the cars to show off their best attribute: speed. That sounds ludicrous given the top runners hit 200mph down Silverstone’s Hangar Straight, 170mph approaching Paddock Hill Bend at Brands, and the fastest lap at Silverstone represented an average of 134.5mph.

But these were cars that routinely hit 200mph around ovals, and their cornering shortfall to contemporary F1 cars – due to a combination of narrower and harder tyres, chassis/aero technology, and being heavier – was more obvious on road circuits. Even Motor Sport magazine’s experienced and famed journalist Denis Jenkinson, though supportive of the experiment, thought bringing them to the wrong type of tracks was “misguided”.

That was perhaps true from a spectator’s point of view, though Foyt wasn’t the only driver to praise the British circuits. Ongais, who had tested F1 machinery around Silverstone, reckoned the USAC cars were more enjoyable there.

“This is much more fun,” said Ongais, who died in 2022. “I guess I’m cornering much slower but it doesn’t feel that way. For sure, it’s much harder work getting this car through the turns. It needs much more concentration.”

Similarly, Foyt feels the idea was worth a try. He adds: “I thought it was good to get out of the United States and go over there and race our type of cars.”

USAC also went to Brands Hatch, but there were criticisms that the UK circuits didn't allow the cars to show off their best attributes

Photo by: Motorsport Images

But a key factor behind the idea’s failure was Indycar’s almost non-existent profile in the UK. This was more than a decade since the Indy 500 wins of Jim Clark and Graham Hill, and Nigel Mansell’s legendary Stateside exploits right) were still nearly 15 years away. Marcus Pye, who covered the support races for Autosport, agrees the timing was probably wrong.

“There was such diversity of machinery, from the modern Penskes to the older cars, and the smell of the methanol really hit a lot of people,” he says. “It was very different, but I think the fact the crowd didn’t turn up probably shows it was the wrong time. Perhaps now, with all the coverage available, the engagement wouldn’t be so limited. We just didn’t see Indycar coverage here back then.”

And so, the pinnacle of American single-seater racing never returned. Or at least, not until the Rockingham CART events of 2001-02 and unsuccessful Brands comeback in 2003.

Autosport would love to see Newgarden, Scott Dixon and co head over to the UK for a repeat of the idea. But, until then, at least there’s a chance to go and see the winning car from a time when American machinery briefly outpaced F1 at the home of the British GP.

Ongais was on spectacular form at Silverstone and Brands, but came away from both events empty-handed

Photo by: Motorsport Images

Getting to see some historic Indycars

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum is currently undergoing a multi-million-dollar refurbishment, and Silverstone Museum saw an opportunity. In partnership with the impressive IMS collection, it has brought four Indycars to the UK for a new exhibition, dubbed The Indy 500: A British Success Story.

Highlight of the exhibition, which will remain open throughout the summer, is likely to be the Newman/Haas Lola T93/00 in which Nigel Mansell famously won the 1993 crown as a rookie. In what is believed to be a world exclusive, the Lola is on display alongside the Williams FW14B in which Mansell stormed to the 1992 F1 world title. Aside from some memorabilia and AJ Foyt’s 1978 Coyote, which finished seventh in that year’s Indianapolis 500, here’s what you’ll see if you head to Silverstone…

1922 Bentley 3 Litre
Before Bentley had even started its Le Mans 24 Hours legend, this purpose-built machine with streamlined bodywork took on the Indy 500. Car owner Douglas Hawkes shipped the car over from the UK and then drove it to the circuit. Ranged against more nimble machines, the Bentley finished the 1922 edition in 13th place.

1993 Lola T93/00
British constructor Lola had been a major player in American single-seater racing for years when reigning Formula 1 world champion Mansell joined Newman/Haas to drive the 800bhp T93/00 in 1993. The rival Penske was arguably better on road courses but Mansell was the king on ovals, taking four of his five victories on such circuits on his way to the title.

1968 Lotus 56
Colin Chapman had already conquered Indianapolis with Jim Clark’s 1965 success in the Lotus 38 when he tried to push the boundaries again with the gas turbine-powered, four-wheel-drive Lotus 56. The cars were fast – Joe Leonard and Graham Hill qualified 1-2 – but events were not kind to Lotus. Mike Spence was killed during practice and all three cars retired from the 1968 500.

Lotus 56 is among the Indycars on display at the Silverstone Museum in the British Success Story exhibit

Photo by: Silverstone Museum