Roger Penske commissioned Geoff Ferris to create a new car for the 1981 season, the Penske 9-B. It was a modification of the Penske PC-9 racer which effectively utilized ground effects. Ground effects increase the downforce on the car which helps to hold the car to the track.
All race cars are tested. Team Penske member Bobby Unser explains, “We’re testing a car, not to see if it has an oil leak or a fuel leak, but for handling, speed, and durability. Testing is the final thing for creating the speed the car is hopefully going to obtain.” Bobby Unser enjoyed testing and he did most of the development work on the car. In early March, Unser tested the new PC-9B at Indianapolis.
The Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) series began at Phoenix in late March. Then it was on to Indianapolis for the 500-mile race sanctioned by the United States Auto Club (USAC). Unser’s testing at Indianapolis paid off. Bobby Unser won the pole with a qualifying speed of 200.546 mph for Team Penske. He also won the Pit Stop Competition with a speed of 13 seconds.
Unser crossed the start/finish line first in the Indianapolis 500 with Mario Andretti finishing second. After the race, Andretti, his teammate Gordon Johncock, and team owner Pat Patrick filed a protest as Unser had passed several cars under yellow on the 149th lap. At the time, Unser and Andretti were running 1-2 and had pulled into the pits. The infraction occurred as they were leaving pit row. Andretti explained, “Instead of blending into traffic, Unser just went his merry way past four cars. I radioed my crew right away and told them what happened and that it should have been an automatic penalty if the officials had been on the ball.”
Roger Penske learned of the brouhaha at the press conference following the race. All the questions about the infraction concerned Penske, so he contacted chief steward Tom Binford hours later. Binford told him that he had not decided, and that he would have to wait until 8 a.m. when the official race results were posted.”
Binford assessed Unser a one lap penalty for passing under the yellow giving the victory to Andretti. Team owner Patrick was upset that the penalty wasn’t assessed when it occurred. He said, “The violation in question was reported promptly—on lap 149—and we feel the penalty should have been leveled at that time. If it had been imposed at that time, the final results would have been more fairly determined. The failure deprived Mario, our team, and our sponsor, STP, from participating in the post-race functions.
Upset, Penske immediately filed two protests—one that Andretti did the same thing and the other against the penalty. Penske explained, “We came here to race. A decision was made against us and we are going to try to do the best we can to state our case, and we’ll have to live with whatever the decision is.”
Binford tried to explain his decision, “After the race, we had an informal protest from [Jim] McGee, Mario, Gordy [Johncock] and signed by Foyt. We reviewed the timing and scoring records. All the evidence confirms that the number 3 car passed eight or nine cars.” A review of the ABC broadcast tape corroborated their conclusion. After a four-hour hearing, both of Penske’s protests were disallowed. It was the first time in Indianapolis 500 history that the driver at the top of the podium wasn’t the winner. While Andretti had been declared the winner, his and Penske’s winnings were placed in escrow as Penske had several days to appeal the decision.
After reviewing seven hours of race tape highlights, Unser felt that ABC played a major role in USAC’s decision to take the victory away from him in an effort to boost ratings. The next day, Unser vowed to fight the ruling. With a deadline of midnight on May 28, three Penske appeals were made at 10:19 p.m. by Bobby Unser with two Penske attorneys and the director of communications. Two of the appeals were related to the protest filed by Penske that were denied. The third appeal asked USAC to pick a federal judge, an impartial jury, and an open hearing. An open hearing was assembled but it would be limited to fourteen reporters with no cameras or recording equipment.
In the hearing, which lasted several days, Binford said he would have penalized Unser one lap during the running of the race if he had all the information. When questioned by Penske attorneys, Binford indicated that breakdowns in communications were not unusual. Binford stated he could not confirm the infraction and that they did not have the information from the observers. Art Graham, director of timing and scoring, testified that he had advised that an “unusual” situation involving Unser had occurred, but Binford told him to “look into it further after the race.” Graham never suggested to Binford that a check of the records be made immediately. An IBM employee testified that three of the observers had noticed the passing violation by Unser but that he had instructed the observers not to report incidents during the race.
After the initial testimony was taken, the trial was interrupted for several weeks as a majority of the participants had other commitments. The Penske/Unser appeal resumed after nearly a month. Penske testified he would have changed tactics if the penalty had been assessed. Penske believed there was plenty of time for Unser to catch Andretti if he had been penalized during the race. He pointed to four yellow flag periods during which Unser could have caught up to the field. To help substantiate the superiority of Unser’s racer, Penske’s attorney James Binns pointed to a chart that showed after one yellow flag period, Unser was going 13 mph to 14 mph faster than Andretti.
After the testimony was completed, there was another delay of two months while the testimony was transcribed, and briefs were filed for a decision by the panel.
All of this controversy resulted in rumors that Unser was going to leave Team Penske. He told Indianapolis Star reporter Robin Miller in an article published on September 3, 1981, “I am very bitter. That has an awful lot to do with my thinking at the moment. I’m not waiting for the court decision, either, the damage has already been done because whatever happens, it has been totally ruined. Racing hasn’t gotten old, but Indy has gotten old. And if I were drawing a picture of my future, I’d paint Indy out of it.”
Unser was on an elk hunting trip in northern New Mexico when the decision was handed down. He had developed an ulcer during the process and didn’t think he was going to win. Even though the panel believed that he had violated the rule against passing on the yellow, they felt that Binford’s penalty was too tough. They handed the Indianapolis 500 victory back to Unser and assessed a $40,000 penalty.
The drama wasn’t over. Patrick Racing, Pat Patrick, and Andretti appealed the decision to USAC. The appeal was based on three factors: the appeal was not conducted in accordance with the notice provisions; USAC did not have the authority to rule on the appeal; and although USAC had the facts correct, they came to the wrong conclusion. USAC quickly rejected this appeal because proper notice was given to all parties, and that the Indianapolis 500 entry form stated that a resolution of any dispute was in the sole control of Indianapolis Motor Speedway and/or USAC. There was the potential for an additional appeal to the Federation Internationalé de Automobile but Patrick did not exercise this right.