The 1971 Indy Pace Car
A 1971 Dodge
Challenger convertible was selected to be the pace car for the 1971
Indianapolis 500 race.
However what should have been a fantastic promotion for Dodge turned
into a nightmare when at the start of the race the car crashed into
a press stand killing one person and giving the rest something to write
headlines about.
Four local dealers provided 50 cars, to be sold to
the public or used on parade duties, fitted out like the actual pace
car.
Only the actual pace car had a big block (383) engine. Two others had
340 cubic inch small blocks and the other 47 were 318 powered. All of
the cars were painted orange and had white tops. The three cars with
the larger engines had the lettering hand painted on the sides but the
others had decals which were optional. Up to the day of the race the
pace car had the normal Challenger flat hood but after the crash it
was fitted with the R/T style Sport Hood. One of the 340ci cars had
this hood too. The rest of the cars all had the flat hood.
On race day (May 29th 1971) the pace car was driven
by Eldon Palmer, one of the local dealers, who to this day is still
very upset about the whole thing.
Eldon had quite rightly practiced the laps and had placed
cones at strategic points around the circuit to indicate when to start
to turn in and when to brake.
Unfortunately somebody moved a cone.
As Eldon came out of turn four with the 33 car field
hot on his tail he dived down into the pit area as planned and started
looking for the cone he had placed to tell him when to brake. By the
time he realised it was missing it was too late. As he slammed on the
(drum) brakes he saw he had two options. Either to go back out onto
the track and hit the pack of accelerating race cars or just keep braking
as best he could in a straight line.
He did the latter but could not stop in time to miss
the stand full of press photographers.
Some people feel that, had the car been fitted with the optional disc
brakes, this tragic accident could of been avoided.
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