The 1986 Indy 500 was delayed for an entire week for the 1st time in the history of the race….as ABC’s race day team of Jim McKay, Jim Lampley and Sam Posey do a great job of covering the time during the delay…..and then providing an inside look at how the major race teams dealt with the delay.
The 70th Indianapolis 500 was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana on Saturday, May 31, 1986…. after being rained out on May 25–26….the race was rescheduled for the following weekend….when Bobby Rahal was the winner….while becoming the first driver in Indy history to complete the 500 miles (800 km) in less than three hours.
Nearly the entire race unfolded as a three-way battle between pole-sitter Rick Mears, Bobby Rahal, and Kevin Cogan….as Cogan, who was a key fixture in the controversial crash on the opening lap of the 1982 race….took the lead in dramatic fashion with 13 laps to go….and appeared to be on his way to victory and career redemption…..but his lead evaporated when a caution came out on lap 194….then with two laps to go as the green flag came back out….and second place Bobby Rahal got the jump on the restart and grabbed the lead….while pulling away and winning the race…..with his car owner Jim Trueman, stricken with cancer, cheering him on in the pit area….as Trueman died eleven days after the victory.
The race was sanctioned by USAC….and was included as part of the 1986 CART PPG Indy Car World Series. For the first time ever, ABC Sports televised the race live “flag-to-flag” on network television in the United States. The race celebrated the 75th anniversary of the first 500, but there was very little fanfare of the milestone outside of the cover art of the official program.
