Dramatic and close finishes have become something of a common feature of the Indianapolis 500 in recent years, where it be the battle for the win between Helio Castroneves and Ryan Hunter-Reay in the 2014 running of the race or JR Hildebrand’s dramatic last lap crash to hand Dan Wheldon victory in 2011. For many fans however the most dramatic finish in the race’s history came in 1982, where youthful exuberance came up against veteran intuition in a battle that would go down in 500 folklore.

By the 1982 Indianapolis 500, Rick Mears had firmly cemented his place as one of the rising stars of American Auto Racing. The Bakersfield native had first applied his trade competing in off-road events in his home state of California before turning his attentions to Indycar racing with the underfunded Art Sugai team in 1977. Although Rick was unable to qualify the bright pink machine for that season’s Indianapolis 500, his performances throughout the season (including a fifth place at the Michigan 500) soon began to attract the attention of Indycar supreme Roger Penske, who hired Rick to run a part-time schedule for his team for the 1978 season, filling in for Mario Andretti when the reigning World Champion was competing in Formula One.

Despite only running 11 races of the season, Mears finished a credible ninth in the standings to secure a full time driver with the team in 1979, and repayed the faith shown in him by the Captain by claiming his first Indianapolis 500 on his way to that season’s driver’s championship. A second championship success would soon follow in 1981, and amid speculation linking him with a drive for the Brabham Formula One team, the Rocket arrived at Indianapolis confident that a second victory at the Brickyard would be just around the corner.

Whilst Rick entered that season’s month of May in the zenith of his racing career the same couldn’t be said for Gordon Johncock. The 45 year old had been a veteran of the Brickyard for nearly 20 years, competing in his first Indianapolis 500 in 1965 in which he finished fifth in one of only six roadstars competing in that season’s race. From then on Gordy earned a status as an ever-present threat when it came to Indianapolis, often qualifying well for the event only to be hampered with mechanical issues whilst in contention for victory, including in 197 where he heading into the race’s later stages only to suffer mechanical failure with 19 laps to go. Although Johncock had claimed victory in the 1973 500, the tragic circumstances surrounding that race (including the passing of Johncock’s team-mate Swede Savage) meant that the win was seen as somewhat tainted in the eyes of the Michigan native, and this, added with the long-term illness of his mother Frances, served as the main motivation of the Patrick Racing driver heading into the Brickyard.

Even before the later stages of the race there had been an aura surrounding the 1982 running of the 500; Kevin Cogan’s start-line accident with Mario Andretti had seen two of the race’s favourites taken out of the race before it had even begun, whilst the early stages of the race saw AJ Foyt take the lead in what prove to be the final laps led at the Brickyard in Super Tex’s illustrious career. By the 400 mile mark however the battle for the win had turned into a two-way tussle between Mears and Johncock, with Gordy using his veteran wiles to keep the hard charging Mears at bay as the race entered its final stages.

With 18 laps remaining in the race, Mears darted into the pits for what was scheduled to be his final pit-stop, but saw his entrance into pit-road hampered by a slow-moving Herm Johnson, the two making brief contact as Mears pulled into his pit-box, his Team Penske crew choosing to fill Mears’ machine full of fuel in his bid to hunt down the Patrick Racing machine. Two laps later, Johncock entered the pits for his final stop, his team choosing to fill the car with just enough fuel to allow Gordy to make it to the end of the race. The move from the Patrick Racing crew, added with the extended stop for Mears, meant that Johncock now held an 11 second lead over the Team Penske driver heading into the closing laps, and all but secure of claiming a second 500 victory.

Entering the final ten laps however Johncock began to develop handling problems, the car’s heavier fuel load helping to exasperate a pushing problem which had plagued his car during the race, and forcing Johncock to run lower and lower down the track in a bid to compensate for the issue. Meanwhile, Mears, full of fuel and with nothing to lose, had began carving into Johncock’s lead closing in at a rate of over a second a lap, and sparking mass excitement from the capacity crowd as the scale of Rick’s pace became more evident.

Approaching the final lap, Mears had closed to under a second behind Johncock’s struggling machine, and as the two entered the start/finish straight to start the final lap pulled up alongside Gordy to make a pass for the lead. Determined to hold onto his lead, Johncock refused to yield, chop-blocking Mears heading into turn one and forcing the Team Penske driver to lose momentum through turn two and onto the backstretch. Such was the depth that Johncock was running on the track however that the car bobbled entering turn three, allowing Mears to close up one last time entering the front stretch. Mears remained in Johncock’s slipstream for as long as possible, before attempting a slingshot pass heading to the line, Johncock however was able to hold on, claiming victory by less then a car-length over Mears in what was at the time the closest finish in 500 victory.

In victory lane Johncock’s win was greeted with strong appreciation from both fans and paddock members alike, giving the Michigan native the ceremonial fanfare and aplomb that had been missing from his victory in 1973, whilst Mears remained respectful in defeat, stating that he no complaints whatsoever about his team or Johncock’s driving and appreciative of being part of arguably one of the greatest battles in Indycar history. Other race ending battles of the 500 have been closer and more dramatic, but Johncock Vs Mears continues to remain the benchmark by which all others are measure by, and it’s the reason why it was one of the first locks to feature when I first envisioned this project three months ago.

For today’s video, there’s nothing else I could really show apart from the finish itself, along with the return of the ABC wife-cam: