IF YOU AIN’ T CHEATING, YOU AIN’ T TRYING
Brawner Hawk III
After a major disaster, Mario Andretti started the 1969 Indianapolis 500 in a car unlikely to be competitive. However, with a few tweaks, he qualified in second place. With a few more, he won the race
For the 1969 Indianapolis 500, Mario Andretti was to race a Lotus. But this is not, as you might expect, a story about how Colin Chapman may have pushed the rules, eschewed safety for lightness or imaginatively reinterpreted the rules. No, the turbocharged fourwheel drive Lotus 64 that Andretti intended to race, a car he was a fan of because of its exceptional speed, failed during practice. One of the hubs, taken from a Lotus F1 car and not up to the demands of the boosted V8 engine and extra driven wheels, let alone the Indianapolis banking, failed and the car crashed spectacularly. Andretti walked away with only a few burns on his face. It could have been much worse, and, seeing the potential for tragedy, Chapman withdrew the Lotus cars he’ d also built for Jochen Rindt and Graham Hill.
Andretti still wanted to race, so he needed a new car. But he didn’ t want to be seen – he didn’ t like the look of his burns – so he needed a new face, too. The car came in the form of the Brawner Hawk III, the latter situation was helped by Mario’ s twin, Aldo.
Despite having won at Hanford Motor Speedway a month earlier, the odds were stacked against Mario and the Brawner Hawk. The car hadn’ t completed a 38-lap race at Phoenix and Mario suggested the Hawk team had entered the car in the Indy 500 only to enjoy the garage space. To make the car as streamlined as possible, the Hawk team removed its jutting-out oil cooler. It helped, and Mario qualified on the front row of the grid in second position between AJ Foyt and Bobby Unser. Now in such a prominent position, but not wanting the attention, Mario enlisted Aldo to take his place in the official photoshoot before the race. Removing the cooler, however, had meant the car had started to overheat during qualifying. So, for Carb Day, the Friday before the Indianapolis 500 where there’ s a music festival, fun competitions and the final practice session before the main race, the oil cooler was refitted. The opposing teams were outraged, arguing correctly that a car’ s qualifying and race configuration must be the same.
Knowing that the car wouldn’ t last the 500 miles of the race without its cooler, the Hawk team rallied through the night to find a hidden solution. A cooler was added behind Mario’ s seat, drawing air up from underneath the car and exiting behind his head. So rushed was the solution that the only testing the team could do was to make sure it didn’ t leak when the engine was running. No one knew it would actually work.
But it did, just about. Mario took an early lead, only to see the engine temperatures rise. He backed off, let go of first place and followed the pace of the other front runners. This kept the Hawk cool enough, and all he had to do was bide his time.
One by one, his challengers all dropped out with mechanical issues and Mario was able to cross the line first with a then-fastest-ever Indy 500 time of three hours, 11 minutes and 14.71 seconds, and more than two minutes ahead of second-place Dan Gurney. A win with an illegal oil cooler didn’ t go unpunished,‘ Because I was running 270 ° F oil temperatures the whole race, I got these blisters on my back,’ said Andretti.‘ My whole back was burned. But I didn’ t really feel it. Not until later.’
Not Mario Andretti’ s first choice for the’ 69 Indy 500, but the Brawner Hawk III helped him to victory. With a few tweaks
58 The Engine Rebuilder Issue 06