IndyCar / USAC : 1970 (Volume 1)

1970 Phoenix 150   (94 min)

The first race of the 1970 USAC Season, as broadcast live on ABC’s “Wide World Of Sports”. Al Unser debuts his new
Johnny Lightning Special Lola T150, a car he would dominate the entire season with, taking the 1970 USAC
Championship. A crash occurs part way into this race as a car spins on the front straightaway. Looking innocent enough,
it turns into a multi-car pileup as cars swerve to avoid the mess. A small fire breaks out on Gordon Johncock’s crashed
car, and the fire crews douse it with so much CO2 that the front straightaway soon likes a war zone. No one is hurt, and
the race is red-flagged. ABC Commentators end up interviewing many of the drivers while the race is stopped. Live TV
coverage was not like it is today! The commentators are caught off guard, struggling to find something to talk about,
while cameramen keep busy panning the grandstands, showing the surrounding desert scenery.

Interesting to note that there is a front-engined car in the field, an Epperly chassis, with an
Offenhauser turbo engine, driven by George Snider. The car qualified 12th for the race, and finished 7th.

QUALITY NOTE – This race is incomplete, the TV transmission ends about 10 laps from the finish. There are some
framing issues about midway through the race where the video stutters due to an improper video conversion rate, but
this is the best copy we’ve seen. Most of the video stuttering occurs during the long red flag period. The quality of the
video is otherwise excellent and clear. I would normally delete this poor footage, or even not even bother including the
race at all on this DVD, but there are some good interviews with legendary drivers during this down time.

1970 Golden Gate 150   (8 min)

A short highlight reel, the quality is superb. This reel has classic 1970 incidental music
playing over the commentary, so you won’t hear any screaming Offy or Chevrolets, but the
footage is extremely clear, and has some great shots of Al Unser’s new Johnny Lightning car.

1970 California 500   (24 min)

The first race at Ontario Motor Speedway! While this highlight film covers the entire race, this is an STP
promotional film, and the focus is on the STP cars of Mario Andretti, George Follmer, and of course owner Andy
Granatelli. Jim McElreath takes the win in an A.J. Foyt owned car. All the greats are in this one; Peter Revson,
Gordon Johncock, Al Unser, LeeRoy Yarbrough, A.J. Foyt, Mark Donahue, and many others. Excellent film quality.