When Stewart starred at Indy 500 and Hill 'stole' Clark's victory

Sir Jackie Stewart has been known his whole career for his peripatetic travel schedule, but even for the future three-time Formula 1 champion his travels during 1966 take the cake. There was a staggering array of places and events, from Down Under where he won the Tasman championship to Europe for grand prix racing, mixed in with several trips to the United States for sportscar contests such as the 12 Hours of Sebring, and a new race for Stewart, the Indianapolis 500.

Just a week after winning the Monaco GP for BRM, Stewart was ready for the 50th running of Indy’s self-proclaimed ‘Greatest Spectacle in Racing’. For all of his traveling back and forth to America, Stewart had not been among those F1 drivers participating in what became known as the rear-engined revolution at Indy, which had really got going in earnest when Jim Clark had nearly won the 1963 edition in Colin Chapman’s Lotus-Ford 29. Resistance to the ‘funny cars’ had gone by 1965, the year in which Clark in his elegant-looking green, 4.2-litre Ford DOHC V8-powered Lotus 38 won the 500 at an average speed of 150mph, leading 190 of the 200 laps. Clark’s victory thoroughly vanquished the myth that the front-engined Offy roadsters that had dominated the Speedway were the fastest way around the famous 2.5-mile oval track.

PLUS: Jim Clark’s greatest races

In light of the undeniable success of Lotus-Ford, even the Brickyard regulars had become believers and were scrambling in preparation for the 1966 Indy 500, building their own rear-engined chassis, some adapting to the Ford engine while other designers continued to cling to the legendary four-cylinder, 4.2-litre Offenhauser engine, this time located at the rear. Dan Gurney, charter member of the Lotus-Ford contingent at Indy, was by 1966 not only a driver but a constructor, having formed All American Racers, and AAR’s Eagles accounted for five of the 33 cars that qualified for the race.

There was also a new threat from Britain: Eric Broadley of Lola Cars. Broadley was making a serious and well-funded effort to steal rival designer Chapman’s thunder at Indy.

John Mecom Jr of the Mecom Racing Team, headquartered in Texas, was Lola’s distributor in the States and entered three Lola T90s for the 1966 Indy 500. Two of the T90s were powered by the Ford DOHC V8, to be driven by erstwhile BRM team-mates Stewart and Graham Hill. MRT, Stewart and Hill were in a sense all rookies at Indy. To hedge their bets, a third T90 had an Offy engine and was to be driven by Rodger Ward, winner of the Indy 500 in 1959 and 1962 in front-engined roadsters.

Although Stewart was late to the party at the Speedway, he adapted well to the oval, and he and Hill qualified in respectable fashion. Stewart put his #43 Lola on the fourth row of the 33-car field, with Hill’s #24 Lola on the fifth row. Clark’s #19 Lotus was in the middle of the front row, next to polesitter Mario Andretti in the #1 Brawner-Ford Dean Van Lines Special, a chassis built up by master mechanic Clint Brawner based upon a 1964 Brabham spaceframe design, as authorised by the Brabham team.

Andretti was confident because his Brawner-Ford was faster than Clark’s Lotus all month long at Indy. He was, says the 85-year-old, “looking at the easiest race of my life”.

Clark's Lotus looked wild in STP colours, but that livery would have unintended consequences

Photo by: Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Clark’s Lotus was a truly wild-looking car, decked out in the colours of its new sponsor, Andy Granatelli’s STP Corporation: hot, fluorescent, Day-Glo Red as the body colour, with a white racing stripe down the centre that wrapped around the nose, white cylinder covers on the Ford engine, the now familiar Ford header pipes painted white and protruding out the back. To complete the picture, in race trim the car had whitewall Firestone tyres on the left side only. Team-mate Al Unser in car #18 had the same garish paint job but no whitewalls. The theatrical STP colour scheme may have actually confused scorers and timekeepers; some observers believe that confusion may have cost Clark the race…

Disaster struck as the 33 cars roared down the front straightaway at the start. Billy Foster jockeyed for position with Gordon Johncock, causing a huge chain reaction involving nearly half of the field, with 16 cars crashing into each other, leading to a red flag. Eleven cars were out of the race for good.

Andretti and Clark were ahead of the pile-up, while both Stewart and Hill also emerged from the flying chassis parts, axles and tyres without damage. “I seemed to be in the middle of it,” said Hill. “I was busy trying to avoid the cars, the half shafts and various other bits flying around. I thought I was being bombed!”

The clean-up took over an hour and almost immediately more things began to go wrong after the restart. On lap five, Indy veteran Johnny Boyd hit the wall coming out of Turn 1, bringing out yet another yellow flag and a clean-up delay since Boyd’s car hit the wall hard enough that oil leaked down the nine-degree banking of Turn 1 and onto the racing line.

Today, it would be commonplace for a driver to be sanctioned for running over a hose, usually a drive-through penalty, but the pretty skimpy 15-page 1966 rulebook was silent on the subject of imposing anything

The race was barely under way after Boyd’s accident when leader Andretti began blowing blue smoke. Clark took the lead on the backstretch as Andretti headed to the pits. The Brawner-Ford’s engine had dropped a valve and Andretti was black-flagged after several pitstops. Scratch another of the favourites.

Clark’s main competition now seemed to be Lloyd Ruby’s Bardahl Eagle-Ford and they swapped the lead during pitstops. One of the changes in the lead occurred on lap 64 when Clark had an uncharacteristic but spectacular spin in Turn 4, from which the Scotsman miraculously recovered.

Jim Shelton, the track spotter at Turn 4 who had participated in the Indy 500 radio broadcast of the race for 17 years, saw the whole thing at close range: “We have just seen some of the greatest driving in our history with this Speedway. Jimmy Clark lost it up here completely, turned around two or three times, got into the grass on the infield, finally righted himself and continued. It was utterly fantastic.”

Clark spins but saves it and is able to stay in the victory fight

Photo by: IndyCar Series

Not knowing if he had flat-spotted his Firestones, Clark headed at speed for the pits. During that era, the Indy 500 pitstops were fast and furious, and United States Auto Club rules meant that it was mandatory for each car to take on fuel during at least two pitstops. When the rear-engined cars came to a halt, if it was a refuelling stop, the crew members had the daunting task of handling the bulky and unwieldly fuel hoses that were used to refuel what were typically dual fuel tanks located ahead of the driver on either side of the monocoque.

In the case of Clark’s pitstop after his spin, while some of the Lotus crew refuelled #19, other crew members checked the tyres and concluded that they did not need changing. Clark’s pitstop took 26 seconds, which was typical in those days.

While other frontrunners, including Stewart and Hill, came in for refuelling during the four-minute yellow flag caution period brought on by Clark’s spin, Ruby stayed out and he took the lead from Clark for laps 65-75, a pattern of lead swapping between the two that continued throughout the race.

Shelton commented that he had seen “more oil on this turn up here than we have ever seen before so we could have some more of this”. He turned out to be prescient as Clark, having regained the lead from Ruby, spun again on lap 86, this time in Turn 3. Although most observers believed that Clark had again avoided hitting the wall, the Turn 3 spotter’s report to broadcaster Sid Collins and the radio audience was that Clark may have “clipped” the wall this time, the spotter remarking that he saw “red paint on the wall,” so another close call for Jimmy on the greasy track.

Once again Clark pitted, and this time both the left-side tyres were changed, and fuel added. Ruby took back the lead and held it until lap 132 of the 200, when he pitted and Clark went by.

Stewart and Hill also had some eventful pitstops. One of Jackie’s was 53s long because he stalled the engine; a short, 5s stop was made to replace a pair of goggles.

During Hill’s last fuel stop, the Mecom crew member refuelling the right-side tank did not manage to extract the hose out as quickly and cleanly as the left-side refueller, and Hill ran over the tangled right-side fuel hose as he exited the pits. Today, it would be commonplace for a driver to be sanctioned for running over a hose, usually a drive-through penalty, but the pretty skimpy 15-page 1966 rulebook was silent on the subject of imposing anything.

Had Hill been sanctioned for that botched refuelling episode on lap 135, it would have materially affected the outcome of the 1966 Indy 500…

Pitstops were far from straightforward back in 1966, one of Stewart's taking 53s

Photo by: Indianapolis Motor Speedway

After Clark’s second spin, the handling of the Lotus seemed compromised and Stewart, then in third behind Ruby, started closing in. The #43 Lola was proving to be the consistently strongest car in the field and, having assumed the lead on lap 150 when Ruby was forced to pit to deal with a cam stud failure, the 26-year-old rookie was in full command.

On lap 161, Unser – running third behind Stewart and Clark and ahead of Hill – lost control and hit the wall hard coming out of Turn 4. He slithered down the main straightaway, losing a wheel and coming to a halt just across from the pit entrance with a thoroughly demolished Lotus.

By the time the lengthy Unser accident clean-up was completed, the nine remaining cars were grouped together. The Speedway’s legendary track announcer, Tom Carnegie, advised the crowd that Stewart had almost a full lap lead over Clark and that just those two cars were still on the same lap. It is important to recognise that because, to the people in the grandstands, the famous scoring pylon showed the standings but, significantly, not the gaps between the cars.

The worldwide radio audience was hearing the same standings from former driver Len Sutton, who was in the master control tower. Sutton reported as of lap 179 that, although the three top drivers were running close to one another on the track – Stewart, Clark and Hill – Stewart had one lap on Clark and had two laps on Hill. That was the consensus among the officials scoring the race, with just 20 laps to go.

“Do you know what Graham’s first words were? ‘It’s a pity Jackie didn’t win: he deserved it!’ And isn’t that something for him to say?” John Mecom

Shockingly, just a few laps later, Carnegie reversed himself, telling the crowd that reports from official scoring are that “Graham Hill has moved into second position”. Sure enough, the scoring pylon was changed on lap 181 to show Stewart in first, from Hill and Clark.

On lap 182, the change in standings was also reported to the radio audience by Sutton: “It would appear as though the standings at this moment could be Jackie Stewart first, Graham Hill second, Jimmy Clark, third and Jim McElreath fourth.” The usually imperturbable Collins maintained his professional demeanour but recognised the significance of what Sutton was saying and remarked: “So that would be something, wouldn’t it!”

Imagine how confused the radio audience must have been by now since they could not see the cars themselves and were not in a position to make their own judgement as to the conflicting reports being received from the radio broadcasters that were, to be fair, based upon what the timing and scoring number crunchers in the tower were telling them. It was clear that three British drivers were out in front and running 1-2-3, but in what order seemed to be anyone’s guess.

"Crowd-pleaser" Stewart continued to entertain even after his Lola ground to a halt

Photo by: Indianapolis Motor Speedway

More pivotal events began to unfold on-track, too. Stewart’s Lola-Ford, which had run flawlessly and had been leading for the 40 laps, slowed. Clark caught and passed Stewart, who pulled the Lola down low on the inside of the track below the white line and coasted to a halt.

PLUS: Jackie Stewart’s greatest races

Stewart unbuckled his seat belts and, after waving to the thousands of clapping spectators at Turn 4, began pushing his 600kg+ Lola into the pits, while still occasionally waving to the crowd that was embracing this special moment.

Speedway historian Donald Davidson summed up the sight for the radio audience: “He walked in but he did [it] with such a flair with the bouncy walk that he had… and the way that he played to the audience and waved, it was like he had the audience in the palm of his hand. This fellow was a real showman, a real crowd-pleaser.”

With Stewart out, there was more chagrin in the Lotus/STP ranks as the scoring pylon now showed Hill’s Lola as the leader, with Clark second. On the closed-circuit TV coverage, Chapman could be seen vigorously consulting with his Lotus timing and scoring assistant, and with Granatelli.

By lap 197, Sutton – relying on the official scorers – confirmed that Hill was 30.37s ahead of Clark instead of behind, as Lotus and Granatelli believed. It should be understood that one lap around Indy in those days took about 56-60s so basically the official scorers were saying that Clark was about half a lap behind Hill whereas Lotus and STP believed it was the other way around.

Granatelli, never a shrinking violet, went up to the tower to the timing and scoring floor and to the press room while the last few laps were being run and told everyone that he was going to protest the race. “[Granatelli] came up to the timing and scoring floor and asked us not to give out any chequered flag but of course we go according to the records,” said a member of the timing and scoring staff while being interviewed by Collins. “Granatelli is going to protest the race and of course we will have our official reports [prepared] all night long to confirm who we think the real winner is.”

Hill led the three final laps according to the pylon and headed for Victory Lane. Coming into the pits after a cooldown lap, Clark also headed to Victory Lane, gunning the Lotus in the middle of the pits when he realised the situation, but he then braked at the end of the pitlane to confer with Chapman since Hill was already gulping down the traditional bottle of milk. “I am rather surprised to have won but naturally pleased to have done so,” said Hill with British understatement.

An interesting comment made by Hill just as he got to Victory Lane was reported in the Indianapolis Star newspaper the next day and shows the kind of man the 37-year-old was, as well as the camaraderie among the three Brits. Team owner Mecom was virtually the first person in the Victory Lane scrum and told reporters: “Do you know what Graham’s first words were? ‘It’s a pity Jackie didn’t win: he deserved it!’ And isn’t that something for him to say?”

Only seven cars were running at the end, still a record low for the Indy 500. The official record states that Clark was 41.1s behind Hill. “This is one of the most unusual races we have seen,” said Collins. “Jack Brabham brought the rear engine [car] here and things have not been the same since.”

The camaraderie among the British contenders was plain to see

Photo by: Indianapolis Motor Speedway

As for Clark, he came up to Hill in Victory Lane with a congratulations, as did Gurney. When asked what put him out of the race, Stewart reported that “the engine broke in the biggest possible way – a pretty big bang”. A scavenge pump failure in the Ford engine was the official explanation. But savvy veteran chief mechanic for the MRT Lola-Ford team, George Bignotti, gave a more revealing interview as to the reason Jackie’s #43 Lola went out of the race: “Jackie drove very hard even though the track was very slippery and had quite a bit of a tussle with [Roger] McCluskey. He had the race in the bag and his oil pressure started to go out and he is very cautious and he shut the engine off and parked the car. I guess if I was driving I would have probably blew the engine up.”

Earlier in the race, Andretti had been out there blowing oil smoke lap after lap, and Ruby did the same thing when he was leading in his Eagle, so maybe Bignotti, who had to be the happiest mechanic in the pitlane, might have been suggesting that Jackie was too Scottish frugal with the Ford engine and should not have shut it off.

What would Andretti have done? “I stayed out [for 18 laps] until they gave me the black flag.”

But who really won the 1966 Indy 500? Supporters of Hill say that when Clark was having one of his spins followed by a pitstop, Hill had passed Clark and maybe the Lotus and STP scorers missed that pass in the confusion.

“Those official tapes show that Unser was running ahead of Clark at the time Unser crashed. And that, of course, was impossible. So, it became apparent that the official tapes gave Unser one of Jimmy’s laps” Andy Granatelli

But Clark’s spins had occurred as long ago as laps 64 and 87 of this 200-lap race, and yet it was not until lap 181 that the scoring pylon showed Hill ahead of Clark. With so few cars actually running at this stage of the race, it is hard to fathom how a timing and scoring glitch of this magnitude could ever have happened. Is there a rational explanation for how this discrepancy developed so late in the race?

Granatelli, who died in 2013, traced the mistakes he believed were made by the Speedway’s scorers to Unser’s serious crash on lap 161. In Granatelli’s autobiography They Call Me Mister 500 he explained that the morning after the race he and Chapman had less than an hour to decide if they should protest the race once the results were posted by USAC. Chief steward Harlan Fengler told Chapman and Granatelli that the overnight check of the official USAC timing and scoring tapes showed that Hill had won.

PLUS: Graham Hill’s greatest races

Although both Granatelli and Chapman were furious on race day, they decided against filing a protest “on the grounds that there was the most remote chance we were wrong and it would be unfair to tie up the entire purse and the victory banquet with a formal protest. So Clark collected second-place prize money [$76,992].” Hill’s first-place prize money was $156,297.

Later on, after the decision not to protest had been made, Granatelli believed he found the explanation for the mistake he thought was made by the scorers: “Those same official tapes, when I finally had time to analyse them, show that Unser was running ahead of Clark at the time Unser crashed. And that, of course, was impossible. This I knew for sure; after all, they were both our cars. So, it became apparent that the official tapes gave Unser one of Jimmy’s laps.”

There were seven rookies in the field, including official winner Hill, but Stewart received the Rookie of the Year award for the valiant attempt he made to win the race and presumably for the endearing way he dealt with the crowd. It was that sort of day.

The 1966 Indy 500 began with a major first-lap crash, but that was just the start of the drama

Photo by: The Enthusiast Network / Getty Images