REAR VIEW: F1, IndyCar stars race in Japan

Above: Jackie Stewart at IMS, 1966

When: October 9, 1966
Where: Shinzuoka, Japan
What: USAC IndyCar race
Who: Andretti, Clark, Stewart, Hill, Bobby Unser

Fifty years ago there was a race in Japan that featured USAC stars, Formula 1 champions and IndyCars on a road course. Jackie Stewart won and Bobby Unser finished second while Jim Clark and Mario Andretti were spectators after their engines broke.

"It was a nice racetrack, smooth and fast, but most of the teams weren't prepared for a road course," Unser recalled of the 80-lap, non-points race around the 2.7-mile Fuji International Speedway in Shizuoka.

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"But it wasn't a fair fight because Graham Hill and Stewart had four-speed gearboxes and the rest of us only had two gears."

Japanese promoters paid the freight for 32 drivers and cars to make the trek and offered a $52,400 purse – huge money back then – and drew a crowd reported to be 60,000 in early October.

But of the eight Gerhardts, five Lolas, four Huffakers, two Eagles, two Vollstedts, two Lotuses, two BRPs and one Eisert, Cecil, Blum, Epperly, Shrike, Watson and Hawk chassis, only two sported four-speed boxes – John Mecom's cars for Hill and Stewart.

"Nobody had enough brains to think about gearboxes and gearing, and I'll bet a lot of guys never shifted gears," the three-time Indy 500 winner continued. "[Gordon] Johncock had a seven-inch offset and there were at least two right-hand turns, so he was really screwed.

"He was my teammate and he let me have the Eagle, which was a much better car."

Besides gearing, the other thing that wasn't in the game plan was spare engines. Al Unser, Art Pollard, Dick Atkins, Bob Harkey, Wally Dallenbach, Rick Muther, Bob Wente, Johncock, Clark and Andretti all blew engines in practice or qualifying, and that was the end of their weekend.

Stewart, who had that year's Indy 500 in his palm before breaking down 10 laps from the finish, captured the pole at 117.833mph, with Indy winner Hill alongside him on the front row.

Sir Jackie led 59 laps but surrendered the top spot to Billy Foster late in the race before Foster broke a ring and pinion. Stewart took the checkered flag 56 seconds ahead of Unser and three laps ahead of third-place Arnie Knepper as only 11 of the 24 starters were still running.

"If I had just one more gear I would have won it easily," declared Unser. "I think I ran out of fuel on the last lap too. It was our first road race and it was fun but I don't know if anybody back then could imagine how many they have today."