The Indianapolis Star from Indianapolis, Indiana • Page 9

jonnny Kuiiierjom 's ink iry Wins 5w- lie icaee 4 4' Continued From l'nc foreign driver in I lie field, placed tilth aiier tomph-tin lit,) his longest trip in three liics at tin- Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Only Karl ami Iniatie Carter Jr. liiadc contact with the wall during the race that took 3:110: lfl.fi to run with Rutherford averaging 158.589 miles an hour, despite seven caution periods taking up 34 minutes and 21 Karl crunched his car nn the 1 1st lap he lost control in the third turn, lie was treated in the track hospital for a slight loot injury, CARTER, one of rookies in the race, did his wall act in the first turn and barely tapped the concrete, turning on the yellow light lie continued around and ended up with a seventh-place finish. Otherwise, it was a beautiful race, In sharp contralto last year's debacle that tuck 72 hours to complete and ended up with a final downpour of rain hailing the show well short of completion. No one in yesterday's race could deny that this was truly Rutherford's day.

He is the only man in the history of the Speedway to start 25th and win. Only three driurs have started farther hack mid won. Tyler Alexander, the man who directs the Team McLaren oMTalion on the United States Aulo (Tub championship trail, admitted his team hail found an "answer" to the fuel mileage problem that caused more tow-ins for a fresh supply of fuel than in any other Indianapolis race. "We had enough fuel left in our pit tank for another stop," said Tyler, who refused to reveal his team's "secret." "Johnny drove a beautiful race for us. The car was just perfect, but Johnny did the job.

Honestly, the only thing we've changed on this car since the day we arrived at Indy was to raise the right front wing one Otherwise, it has stayed exactly the same." IT TOOK Rutherford 64 laps to work into the lead as Wally Uallen-bach, pole-sitter A. J. Foyt and Bobby Unser took turns at the head of the pack that eventually shrank from a starting 33 to a finishing 12. But once he forged into first jilace, only pit stops cost him the lead the rest of the way as Foyt finally retired with mechanical problems and Bobby U. simply couldn't keep up.

i i A 9 y4 If a Wis 4 T- km U.AlJ,s A A i. 'A 3 ft, Mi was an unofficial sixth, Carter seventh, lion Ilarkey eighth, Lloyd Huby ninth and Jerry Grant rounded out the top HI. It was Dallenbach who had the first surprise of the day on a start that was described as "ulmost perfect" by most of the drivers in the field. "I WAS READY for the start," said Dallenbach. "I had the brakes nailed down and alxiut 65 pounds of boost.

When I saw lite motion of the starting flag, I let it all go and had 600 horsepower working for me all at once." Wally Dallenbach had his No. 4(1 STP Eagle into first place well before the first turn-but lasted only two laps before he broke a piston and had to retire the car that caused the "great blower controversy" during time trials. That put Foyt's Gilmore Coyote into first place a position most of the slimmed-down crowd of 275.000 watchers had expected Super Tex to be in. BUT RUTHERFORD was moving up in the pack and Bobby U. was continuing the same calm and con-.

trolled strategy that has helped him to no lower than a second-place finish in five USAC champ races this season. Bobby U. actually took the lead first from Foyt on the 25lh lap during a pit slop exchange. A. J.

reclaimed it two laps later when Bobby pitted and Rutherford kept up his charging. It wasn't until the 65th lap that Johnny could claim the top spot first. He held it through one pit stop and then he and Foyt played turnaround until A. J. was black-flagged for leaking oil then flagged again immediately for the same offense.

a 's when Foyt drove right through the pit exit gate and hurried into his garage with nothing but disgust evident as he stripped off his gloves and unfastened his helmet before disappearing into seclusion. Only Bobby U. could challenge Rutherford then and the two had a dandy battle with the elder Unser brother closing down the lead to as little as 11 seconds before falling farther and farther behind near the finish as he tried desperately to conserve fuel with his 11th pit stop almost completely draining his pit tank. In between, there was a lot of lovely dueling for position before the attrition rate gradually took its toll. Tom Sneva, the smiling rookie in Grant King's No.

1 car, was having himself an absolute ball, running as high as fifth before the rear end came apart in his machine. Mario Andretti i had his usual "bad" Indianapolis luck when he departed the field after two laps with a broken piston while run J-i I I Star Photo By, Frank H. Flsss THAT WON FOR JOHNNY RUTHERFORD (CAR NO. 3) On 124th Lap Involved A. J.

Foyt (Car 14) V-uks th i w4a hi of Billy Vukovich, I knew I had goofed up because he shook his fist at me." THERE WAS LOTS of frustration all down the line. Mike Hiss lost 22 laps and the Roger Penske team never did figure out what was wrong when his engine stalled but Hiss went back to run laps at 183 mph before another lengthly stop occurred to change a faulty magneto. Bobby U. ran out of fuel coming in for his third pit stop and lost a full minute a vital factor in his 43-second deficit on 11 pit stops charged against Rutherford's minimum of eight. And Foyt had a long stop when he asked for four new tires and they weren't immediately available, necessitating another quick stop when the new compound tires were mounted and ready for him.

BOTH JOHNCOCK and STP teammate Steve Krisiloff ran out of fuel on the same lap eitrly in the race but both made it into the pits for new supplies and kept on going. HAD MOMENTS (Star Photo) Victory Lane 'Bumpy' It remained for Lloyd Ruby, Up evenutal ninth-place finisher and mort hard-luck guy ai the Speedway in recent years, to suffer the final embarrassment. The fuel diaphragm broke on hjs car with 40 laps to go and from then on, he was getting only .9 mile to the gallon and pulled in with no fuel left in either his car or pit tank with 13 laps still to go the only driver to run through his 280-gallon allotment for the race. JOHNCOCK, like Dallenbach, wjis running the king-sized blower on his STP Eagle and his fourth-place finish was a tribute to George Bignottf solving of fuel and boost-lag problems presented by running the outsized ttir-bocharger. The million-dollar prize fund will be handed out during tonight's Victory Dinner in the Convention Center and any protests against the pack's finishing order must be filed at the USAC office on the Speedway grounds this morning.

wanted to take it on the race track." Rutherford had ambivalent feelings while watching A. J. Foyt's Gilmore Coyote expire in front of him between 140 and 150 laps. "I knew what was happening to him because I had the oil all over the windscreen on my helmet," he said. "I HATED to see it, though A.

J. and I have become pretty close friends over the last few years and I know how much it meant to him to run all day here. "At the same time I was racing the guy and I knew I'd have to rassle him if he kept going. "I still would have rather won it with A. J.

on the track all the way." It probably would have been a battle equal to the Rodger Ward-Jim Rathmann duel in 1960. "I could catch A. J. at will but 1 couldn't pass him," said Rutherford. "I could run all over him in the turns but he was faster down the straightaways." AT THAT, Rutherford thought he was in the ball game.

"I know we had some tricks left with the boost," he said, "and I suspect they did too." In the end, Rutherford fulfilled, his own prophecy. "Ever since I was a rookie here, I've said that I would win this race or finish in the top three if I ever finished," he said. Yesterday he finished the "500" for the first OVERPECK HERE'S THE DUEL Action Thirteen cars had already dropped out when Karl had his excitement in the third turn on the 117th lap. Carter had come a little too close to the wall in the fourth turn and brushed it enough to bring out a yellow, although he continued on his way. Jan Opperman, another rookie, had spun in the same spot but didn't make CARTER had his second bit of excitement on the 148th circuit when he got out of control in the first turn, locked up the binders and almost took Rutherford out of the race.

"I had just gathered up Jimmy McElreath when Pancho started his said Rutherford, who never had led a lap at the Speedway until yesterday. "I got up in the gray stuff, but got straightened out all right. "The only other trouble 1 had was when I missed a shift and cut in front RUTHERFORD RECALLS Route To Johnny Rutherford had two scary moments en route to victory and he acknowledged responsibility for both yesterday in Victory Lane. The first incident followed a pit stop. "I messed up a gearshift on the backstretch and Billy Vukovich came by me on the left, shaking his fist.

So I've got to think I moved up in front of him. "I really couldn't see that much because the oil coming up (off the track had coated the sides of my windshield and I couldn't see out of my mirrors very much at all." THE SECOND incident came at the three-quarter mark and resulted in rookie Duane Carter spinning in the first turn. "I had been trying to lap Jim McElreath for a couple of laps," Rutherford told a post-race press conference. "I finally caught him behind Carter at the end of the main stretch. "But Carter really got on the brakes going into the turn, and all of a sudden I found myself underneath him going Into the turn.

"1 guess I must hove slid up into him a little bit and forced him into the gray stuff. Anyway, he spun and 1 feel sorry that I put him in that position." OTHERWISE his performance was nearly flawless. Not since Louis Meyer won from 2lllh starting position in 1936 bad a winner come from as deep in the field to Victory Lane and that was long before today's full-speod-ahead racing. Rutherford was confident from the word "go" yesterday morning. "I really felt this morning that this was going to be my day," said Rutherford, who dedicated this race to his 61-year-old father, who is near death because of cancer in Fort Worth.

DESPITE his deep starting position, Rutherford said, "1 thought this was the best chance 1 ever had in my life (to win the His opening move was spectacular. He was 16th in the backstretch of the first lap and had moved into third BACK PRECIOUS FLUID Fuel Preceded Race S3 A. J. FOYT POURS Test Of Limited 4 a I ning fourth. GARY BETTENHAUSEN, one of the pre-race favorites, made it through only two laps when a broken valve stopped him and Dick Simon became the first man out of the race as he dropped a valve in his TraveLodge Eagle.

ISIar Photo Bv John H. Slaikeyl JOHNNY RUTHERFORD Critically 111' 1 "4 by the ninth lap of the track. "1 really was surprised I was able to move up as easily as I did," he said afterward. "I had only one objective and that was to go to the front as quickly as possible. "I WOULD have liked to have gone from 25th to first in the first turn, but that just can't be done.

It sure would have been flashy though!" Rutherford paid compliments to his Team McLaren Offy which was prepared under the supervision of McLaren chief Teddy Mayer and crew boss Tyler Alexander. Betty Rutherford saw only one man and Johnny Rutherford eyed only one woman. HE KISSED the girl of his dreams, talked to the TV folks, drank some milk, bussed the "500" queen and handled well the same questions again for radio and the track P.A. Meanwhile, Betty responded to shouts from friend Lou Ann Wallin, whose photographer-husband missed the race because of a busted rib suffered in last Thursday's bicycle race, and sister-in-law Bonnie Hoyer from the deck above. Finally came the pressure to move away for the victor's lap around the Speedway in the pace car.

A most accommodating winner posed for a few more pictures and answered a few more questions before departing. "The car handled beautifully," said Rutherford. "The car went wherever I ULwiws 20 laps I Laps 20 40 60 80 100 10 110 IliO 180 2110 Johnny Rutherford 3 2 2 1 1 I 1 I 1 I Bobby Unser 2 3 4 4 3 3 2 2 2 2 Bill Vukovich 7 5 5 5 4 4 3 3 Gordon Johncock 7 8.x 8 6 55 David Ilobbs 9 9 9 7 6 I Jim McElreath 9 7 7 6 Duane tarter Jr. xxxxxxl0 88 7 Bob Ilarkey 9 9 Lloyd Ruby 9 7 5 8 6 6 5 3 4 9 Jerry Grant 8 7 8 7 10 10 10 VAROOM! AND IT'S ACROSS THE FINISH LINE FOR WINNER I'd Mkc To Dedicate This Unco To My Dad Who Is.