Fly like an Eagle: When IndyCar broke the 200mph barrier

Indycar lap speeds went through the roof in the early seventies and it seemed only a matter of time before Eagles Bobby Unser broke the 200mph barrier but writes Preston Lerner, the script changed

2 Jerry Grant 1972 California 500 Ontario

Gurney celebrates Grant's pole – and 200mph record – at Ontario '72

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If Jerry Grant hadn’t been plagued with bad luck, he wouldn’t have had any luck at all. A perennial target for outrageous fortune’s slings and arrows, he saw victories slip through his fingers at Indianapolis, Sebring and Le Mans. But for one miraculous day in 1972, the sun shone on Grant while rain fell on his team-mate’s parade.

As disgruntled team leader Bobby Unser languished with a blown engine in the All American Racers‘ garage at Ontario Motor Speedway, Grant clicked off a banzai qualifying lap at 201.414mph. With this surprise coup, Grant’s Dan Gurney-built Eagle became the first IndyCar to break the 200mph closed-course barrier a jaw-dropping performance considering the pole speed at Ontario just two years earlier had been 177.567mph.

“Afterward, a lot of people told me how smooth I looked,” Grant recalls. “If they’d been watching from a helicopter, they would have been asking me, ‘What the hell were you doing?’ I’ve never been sideways so much before. It was like driving on a dirt track.”

3 Jerry Grant 1972 Indianapolis 500

Grant saw several big wins slip through his fingers, but still has a place in IndyCar history

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The next day, Unser obliterated Grant’s record. But nobody remembers the second guy to run a four-minute mile and, to this day, Unser is still irritated that he’s Number Two.

“That record should have been mine,” he says. “Letting Jerry get the record irks me like hell because I did all the development work on the car. Dan and I fought from that day on.”

From the archive

The road to 200mph began in 1971 with the debut of the McLaren M16 and the introduction of aerodynamically-efficient wings to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Distinguished by a chisel nose and hip radiators inspired by the Lotus 72, the M16 allowed driver Peter Revson to raise the Indianapolis four-lap qualifying record from 171.550mph to 178.696mph.

Speedway railbirds were stunned by the jump in speed. Yet in 1972, AAR designer Roman Slobodynsky – a former aerospace engineer – hatched an even-higher-flying Eagle that made the M16 look like a dodo.

“It was so far ahead of the competition that it was incomprehensible,” Unser says. During pre-season testing at Ontario — a carbon copy of Indianapolis with slightly more banking — Unser crept up on the 200 mph barrier. “We were fixing to break it when Dan showed up, and he didn’t want to do it until the press was there, so that it would generate some publicity,” Unser recalls.

Bobby proceeded to set track records at six consecutive races in 1972, including Indianapolis (196.678mph) and Michigan International Speedway (199.778mph). Everybody was expecting a 200mph lap at Ontario. But Unser lost three turbocharged Offenhausers during practice and qualifying. So all eyes turned to Jerry Grant and the purple Eagle he’d nearly taken to victory at Indianapolis.

Jerry Grant 1972 Indianapolis 500

Dragster-like engine boost gave Grant a shot at pole

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Since Unser was supposed to break the record, Grant had been practising with the turbo boost at a relatively modest race setting that limited his speed to 196.536. But as Grant waited in line to qualify, AAR engine wizard John Miller leaned into his cockpit.

“Can you stand some more horsepower?” Martin asked.

“Sure,” Grant answered.

“You think you can handle the whole enchilada?”

“The car handled so well that you could drive it sideways” Jerry Grant

For qualifying runs, the stout four-cylinder Offy could accommodate as much as 135 inches of turbo boost, which translated to approximately 1100bhp. After fiddling with the wastegate in the engine compartment, Martin strolled back to the cockpit “Better hang on, buddy! You’re getting it all,” he told Grant.

When Jerry pulled out of the pits, he immediately realised he was strapped to a rocket “Hell, I thought I was driving an AA dragster,” he says. “I short-shifted and still broke the tyres loose.”

From the archive

After one warm-up lap, Grant put the hammer down — and nearly put himself into the wall. The engine was developing so much power that the rear end stepped out when he accelerated out of Turn 1.

“But the car handled so well that you could actually drive it sideways,” he says. “You could get the tail out and hold it there with the throttle.”

Grant’s first white-knuckle lap was 201.414mph. His second was 200.874. When he finally got pitboard confirmation that he’d broken the record, he eased up and cruised to a four-lap average of 199.600mph. The next day, Unser turned four consecutive laps at better than 200mph, topping out at 201.965 mph. The M16s could not even reach 195.

The Eagle had landed. The following year, 21 of the 33 cars at Indianapolis would be Eagles. Two years after that, Unser would drive an updated Eagle to the second of his three victories at the Speedway.

Grant, alas, couldn’t buy a break. Starting from pole position after cracking the 200mph barrier at Ontario, his engine expired on the pace lap, and he went from first to last before taking the green flag. Roger McCluskey won the race. But you know what? All anybody remembers is Jerry Grant going 200mph.

Just ask Bobby Unser.

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