REAR VIEW: Vukovich Jr's Michigan mix-up

WHAT: USAC IndyCar double-header
WHERE: Michigan International Speedway
WHEN: September 16, 1973

What should have been the greatest day of Bill Vukovich's career instead turned into a controversial muck-up that robbed the second-generation racer of any joy, celebration or notoriety.

On September 16, 1973 in the opening 125-miler at Michigan International Speedway, Vuky scored his first and only IndyCar victory driving Jerry O'Connell's Sugaripe Prune Eagle by besting his good buddy Gary Bettenhausen. (The pair are pictured together in 1968).

But, after taking the checkered flag, Vuky found Johnny Rutherford in Victory Lane and Bettenhausen listed first on the scoring pylon. He hopped out of his car and confronted a USAC official, who explained that he'd been penalized a lap for illegally passing the pace car.

"I kinda lost it," recalls Vukovich, who jumped onto the USAC pace car's hood and began pounding his fist on the window, screaming at USAC official Stan Worley and pace car driver Paul Russo. "They waved me around the pace car just like they did Gary and they knew it.

"We were running 1-2 at the time, and then later on Gary got loose and I got by him and I knew I was the winner. But USAC said I was sixth because of the penalty and that was bulls*&t."

O'Connell filed a $100 protest with USAC while Vuky was vibrating like a Chevy pushrod. The runner-up in that year's Indianapolis 500 climbed in his car for the second part of the doubleheader and stormed from sixth to first in one lap before crashing in Turn 3 in a race eventually won by Rutherford.

USAC named a three-man appeals board and they heard testimony from Joe Leonard, Vuky, Worley and Russo – who admitted he'd waved Vukovich around. USAC confessed that Gary B. should not have been waved around because he was the leader, and the panel awarded "The Mad Russian's" son his trophy – eight days after he rightly drove home seething at the outcome.

"I always felt bad about yelling at Russo, he raced with my dad and they were friends, and I apologized," said Vukovich, now 72 and living in Avon, Ind. with wife Joyce. "But I knew I hadn't done anything wrong."