1982

INDIANAPOLIS 500

"Legends of the 500"
Plus:
"Run for the Bricks"

"Legends of the 500" and "Run For The Bricks" are two films on the 1982 500-mile race, and both are included in COLOR on this 51-minute DVD from Rare Sportsfilms! "Legends of the 500" by Championship Racefilms and narrated by Paul Page for Goodyear is the more generic film, with the most complete qualifying and race coverage. "Run For The Bricks" by Car & Track Productions is narrated by George Plimpton and shows the race from the perspective of the Red Roof Inns #19 March Cosworth team with rookie Bobby Rahal driving. Even as they both show the 1982 Indy 500, each film shows completely different footage of the race and the story of the month of May leading up to the spectacular classic on Memorial Day!

Beginning with "Legends of the 500" the DVD shows the most popular of the current legends, A.J. Foyt, this year starting in his 25th 500. You'll hear Foyt talk about what happened his first year at the track, and what makes him come back each year. With nine past or future 500 winners in the 1982 field, there are no shortages of true "legends" at the track. You'll see all of them - Gordon Johncock, Rick Mears, Al Unser, Tom Sneva, Johnny Rutherford, Foyt, Mario Andretti and rookies Bobby Rahal and Danny Sullivan. There are the usual on-track practice incidents, and shown are those of Danny Sullivan, Phil Krueger and Josele Garza. Qualifying shows the cars and/or drivers of #4 Kevin Cogan, #1 Rick Mears (on the pole with a new record of 207.004), #31 Roger Mears, #20 Gordon Johncock, #5 Johnny Rutherford, #3 Pancho Carter, #40 Mario Andretti, #7 Tom Sneva, #14 A.J. Foyt and #55 Josele Garza. Over-shadowing qualifications is the tragic Gordon Smiley attempt. Just after noon Gordon is shown leaving the pits in his red and white #35 Intermedics Innovator, but in turn 3 losing control, sliding 280 feet to the wall and smashing it almost head-on, sending the car disintegrating into three sections and about 50 feet into the air before coming down on the track in a pile of rubble. Smiley died instantly of massive head injuries. For the first time (and still the only time in Speedway history) three brothers make the starting field and all three yellow cars are shown: the #91, #94 and #95 entries of Don, Bill and Dale Whittington. The following week in practice, Bill Whittington spins his qualified #94 in turn 1, severely damaging the right side of the car with only a week to make repairs before the race! Earlier in the day Steve Chassey in the #11 Hubler/Q95 Rattlesnake is shown hitting the turn one wall and severely damaging the car. He did not make the race.

On raceday, drivers shown preparing to get into their cars are Carter, Foyt, Rutherford, Chip Ganassi, Sullivan and others. Cars of Roger Mears, Geoff Brabham and Chip Ganassi are also seen. As the field comes down the main straight for the start, middle front row starter Kevin Cogan's #4 makes contact with the left side of Foyt's car. A.J's car continues ahead, however Cogan's is suddenly thrown left across the track directly into the path of Mario Andretti who smashes into him, sending Kevin back across the track to the outside wall where he grinds to a halt, unable to continue! The cars of Dale Whittington and Roger Mears are also involved. Five cars are damaged and only Foyt is able to continue. On the re-start, Foyt blasts into the lead and stays there until his first pit stop at 22 laps. Racing incidents shown on this film include Tony Bettenhausen spinning down the main straightaway and stopping just north of the S/F line. Another shown is the Danny Ongais spin off turn two also involving Jerry Sneva which finished both drivers for the day. Johnny Parsons' spin and Danny Sullivan's crash are also shown. After 95 laps, Foyt has transmission troubles. He's shown in the pits trying to free a stuck gear shift and using a hammer on the rear of the car to no avail. Other pit stops shown include those of Pancho Carter and the last two of both Rick Mears and Gordon Johncock as they fight to the finish. This is the closest race in the history of the 500 at the time - Gordon Johncock with a slight late-race handling problem and Rick Mears gaining almost a second per lap for the last 10 laps, making it an unbelievable photo finish that left 300,000 racing fans limp at the finish!

"Run For The Bricks" is narrated by George Plimpton and is the story of the Jim Trueman Red Roof Inns team with Bobby Rahal driving car #19 in the exciting 1982 500. Early in the film Plimpton interviews the well-known Can AM driver who is just a rookie at Indy in '82. Rahal talks about the immensity of the speedway and his first impressions of it. Just before the team leaves for Indy, Trueman and Rahal give Plimpton a rare opportunity to drive one of their two cars on the track at Mid-Ohio and you'll take a ride with George as well as hear what he thinks about it! Once their car is in Gasoline Alley there are car preparation scenes in the garage area, some of the Festival Parade, and an interview with Mario Andretti on the pit wall in which Mario informs Plimpton that the month of May at Indy is "sort of a ritual" for the veterans. While driving the pace car on a trip around the track a week before the race, Bobby Unser is interviewed. Most of this film is from raceday however, and you'll see a lot of pre-race with some cars not shown in the first film, such as Al Unser's and those of Grant King and Jerry Karl which did not make the race. While on the grid, Plimpton interviews Debi Rahal who explains what it's like living with a driver the week before a race. And at this time in his career Bobby reveals what he fears most about his racing life (it's not being injured). The front row "Cogan incident" at the start is shown much more clearly and in better detail than in the first film, as are other race accidents: the Bettenhausen crash, Ongais-Sneva crash and Johnny Parsons incident for examples. Pit stops of Mears, Foyt, Rahal, Bettenhausen and Carter are shown. Unfortunately, Rahal in #19 is out of the race after 435 miles. He coasts into the pits, climbs out and explains to Trueman he thinks it's maybe rod bearings - "something in the engine". He then asks "Where were we"? Trueman holds up 7 fingers. With Bobby now out, the film then continues on to the exciting finish, as Johncock holds off Mears by one 16/100ths of a second!

To get your own DVD containing both of these historic films, send only $29.95 plus $4.00 shipping. (Illinois residents must add $3.20 state sales tax). Add $10 extra for BLU-RAY!         (Highly recommended if you have a BLU-RAY player or HD Large screen TV!)