Shadow F-5000 adds another chapter to its legend at Brickyard Invitational

The 1975 Shadow DN6-Dodge was flying around the road course, taking in the glory that is the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Thursday during qualifying. Then there was the tire barrier that would end the car's day and landed it in the hands of a new, but not unfamiliar owner.

"I had just gone up to the fence and saw this car come by and thought, boy he's really on it," Jim Bartel, the car's new owner said. As he realized the car wasn't going to stop, he thought, "Oh yeah he is."

The car sustained damage to the right-front suspension that will cost more than $30,000 to fix. That, however, doesn't dampen Bartel's spirit. His team just moved the car over to its tent and set to work cleaning it up and getting it ready to be repaired.

"We will be back," he beamed. "That is the fun of it."

Bartel approached Jim Kelleher after he returned to the paddock area and asked if the car was for sale.

"The interesting thing is, we restored this car 10 years ago," Bartel said. "We sold it away and it went through a couple of owners and it has always been my favorite."

He plans to restore the car in time for next year's vintage racing season.

The Shadow has a small-block Dodge engine from the mid-1970s. Bartel noted that it was the same type of engine the company used to put in the famous Barracuda. It boasts 600 horsepower, a 5-speed transmission and can reach speeds up to 180mph.

The car ran in the Formula 5000 series and had an interesting advantage over the rest of the field.

Dodge didn't have the 305 cubic inch engine required to run in the series, as it only had the more powerful 340. Bartel explains the SCCA wanted Dodge to participate, so they allowed it to run the more-powerful engine and kept it under wraps, leaving the competition fuming at its power.

"40 cubic inches usually does that," Bartels laughs.

Jackie Oliver, Jody Scheckter and Tom Pryce all drove this particular black, white and orange car at one point. Oliver won his first F-5000 race in it at Elkhart Lake in 1976, beating Al Unser by 4.8 seconds.

The chassis is actually based on Shadow's Formula 1 chassis of the time.

"From the firewall forward is the same car, then they bolted a Dodge motor in the back," Bartel explains.

Although the ending wasn't good, he is excited that this car, along with his other vintage collection, got to run at Indianapolis.

"I think it is a very good event, obviously a tremendous size," Bartel says of the Brickyard Invitational. "It has a few teething problems, but they are working them out very quickly. The enthusiasm of the participants – because it is Indy and getting to be a first-time participant – was worth it."

Seen at the Brickyard Invitational – enjoy this gallery of cars and stars from the first two days of the vintage meeting at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (all images courtesy of IMS photo)

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