Sports season
The1971 USAC Championship Car season consisted of 12 races, beginning inRafaela ,Argentina on February 28 and concluding inAvondale ,Arizona on October 23. TheUSAC National Champion wasJoe Leonard and theIndianapolis 500 winner wasAl Unser . For 1971 it was decided that there should be three separate points championships, forpaved ovals ,dirt ovals , androad courses .[ 1] [ 2]
The existing Championship Car championship was then restricted to only paved ovals, and two new championships were created. TheNational Dirt Car Championship (which would become the modernSilver Crown Series in 1981) was run over four races, and won byGeorge Snider .[ 1] Seattle International Raceway .Continental Championship cars were allowed, and made up the majority of the grid, with just 5 USAC specification cars entered. Jim Dittemore won the series in aFormula 5000 specificationLola T192 -Chevrolet .[ 1] [ 3]
(partial list)
Team Chassis Engine Drivers Rounds Vel's Parnelli Jones Racing Colt Ford Al Unser All Colt Ford Joe Leonard All A.J. Foyt Enterprises Coyote Ford A. J. Foyt 3, 5-12 Scorpion Ford Art Pollard 2-12 All American Racers Eagle Offenhauser Bobby Unser 1, 3-12 Eagle Offenhauser Swede Savage 1-3, 10-12 Eagle Offenhauser LeeRoy Yarbrough 4-5 Lola (1-3, 7-12),Ford Dick Simon 1, 3-12 Andy Granatelli McNamara Ford Mario Andretti 1, 3-12 Brawner Hawk (3-4), Ford (3-5, 7, 10), Steve Krisiloff 3-5, 7-12 Gene White Racing Mongoose Ford Lloyd Ruby All Mongoose Ford Cale Yarborough All Gerhardt Gerhardt Offenhauser Gary Bettenhausen All Grant King King Offenhauser Roger McCluskey 1-2 Jerry O'Connell Racing Heyhoe Offenhauser Bill Vukovich II 4-12 Leader Card Racing Watson Ford (1-5), Mike Mosley 1-5, 12 Lindsey Hopkins Racing Kuzma Offenhauser Wally Dallenbach 3-11 Kuzma Ford (3-11), Roger McCluskey 3-12 McLaren McLaren Offenhauser Peter Revson 5, 7, 10 Patrick Racing Eagle (3-8, 11), Offenhauser Johnny Rutherford 3-8, 10-12 Team Penske Lola (3-4, 7), Offenhauser (3, 5, 8, 10-12), Mark Donohue 3-5, 7-8, 10-12 Volstedt Ford Wally Dallenbach 12 Volstedt Offenhauser Johnny Rutherford 1-2
Schedule and results [ edit ] Grid before the start of the Rafaela Indy 300 All races were run on oval speedways. On February 18, the non-championship races at Rafaela were transformed into a points-paying double round, due to a request from race organizers. On June 3, the Langhorne round was cancelled by its promoter because of insufficient entries. He alleged that the event had been boycotted by a number of drivers refusing to race at the outdated venue, which was torn down at the end of the year. On June 30, USAC cancelled the race at the new Mountaineer Speedway, which was never built to completion. The 1971 season was the first time the 500 mile triple crown was on the schedule with the addition of Ontario Motor Speedway's California 500 the previous year and the Pocono 500 added in this season.[ 1] [ 2]
Rnd Date Race name Track Location Pole position Winning driver 1 February 28 Autódromo de Rafaela Rafaela ,Argentina Lloyd Ruby Al Unser 2 Al Unser Al Unser 3 March 27 Phoenix 150 Phoenix International Raceway Avondale ,Arizona Bobby Unser Al Unser 4 April 25 Trenton International Speedway Trenton ,New Jersey Bobby Unser Mike Mosley 5 May 29 International 500 Mile Sweepstakes Indianapolis Motor Speedway Speedway ,Indiana Peter Revson Al Unser 6 June 6 Rex Mays Classic 150 Wisconsin State Fair Park Speedway West Allis ,Wisconsin Bobby Unser Al Unser - June 13 Langhorne Speedway Langhorne ,Pennsylvania Race cancelled due to security concerns 7 July 3 Pocono 500 Pocono International Raceway Long Pond ,Pennsylvania Mark Donohue Mark Donohue 8 July 18 Michigan 200 Michigan International Speedway Brooklyn ,Michigan Bobby Unser Mark Donohue - August 8 Mountaineer Speedway Parkersburg ,West Virginia Race cancelled 9 August 15 Tony Bettenhausen 200 Wisconsin State Fair Park Speedway West Allis ,Wisconsin Bobby Unser Bobby Unser 10 September 5 California 500 Ontario Motor Speedway Ontario ,California Mark Donohue Joe Leonard 11 October 3 Trenton International Speedway Trenton ,New Jersey Bobby Unser Bobby Unser 12 October 23 Bobby Ball 150 Phoenix International Raceway Avondale ,Arizona Bobby Unser A. J. Foyt
Final points standings [ edit ] Note 1: Donnie Allison, Carlos Pairetti, Denny Hulme, David Hobbs and Jim Hurtubise were not eligible for points.
Note 2: John Mahler qualified 21st at Indianapolis. His car was driven in the race by Dick Simon who started 33rd as a result of the driver change.
Color Result Gold Winner Silver 2nd place Bronze 3rd place Green 4th & 5th place Light Blue 6th-10th place Dark Blue Finished Purple Did not finish Red Did not qualify Brown Withdrawn Black Disqualified White Did not start Blank Did not Not competing
In-line notation Bold Pole position Italics Ran fastest race lap * Led most race laps RY Rookie of the Year R Rookie
Åberg, Andreas."USAC National Championship 1971" . Driver Database.Archived from the original on March 25, 2008. RetrievedMay 3, 2009 . Harms, Phil; Ferner, Michael; Measures, Gerry; Brown, Allen."Indy 500 and USAC racing 1971" . OldRacingCars.com. "1971 USAC Marlboro Championship Trail" . ChampCarStats.com. RetrievedMay 11, 2009 .Harms, Phil."1971 Championship Driver Summary" (PDF) .Motorsport.com . Archived fromthe original (PDF) on August 10, 2012. RetrievedMay 3, 2011 . http://media.indycar.com/pdf/2011/IICS_2011_Historical_Record_Book_INT6.pdf Archived 2016-03-04 at theWayback Machine (p. 230-231)https://www.champcarstats.com/year/1971.htm Retrieved July 30, 2025https://www.oldracingcars.com/indy/1971/ Retrieved July 30, 2025
Seasons Indianapolis 500s National Champions Tracks
Joe Leonard
