“F5000 was a big deal”
Price Cobb is an American race car driver. He won the 1990 24 Hours of Le Mans in a Jaguar XJR-12 and was for years a star of the IMSA Series. In his early 20’s, he attended F5000 races as a spectator and fondly remembers these spectacular races exclusively for the Human Side of Racing:
“F5000 was a big deal in the USA for a while and I’ll never forget the once-upon-a-time race weekend I found myself at the Mid Ohio race course in 1976. There I was standing at turn 9 looking up at turn 8 (depending on layout I can also say standing at 6 looking up to 5).”
Price Cobb continues: “The racing was crazy with the thunder of the small black Chevy’s twin exhausts an unforgettable sound. As the group (Mario Andretti, Al Unser Sr, Brian Redman, David Hobbs, Vern Schuppan, Jackie Oliver, John Morton, Danny Ongais, Elliot Forbes-Robinson and other notable drivers) came thundering down the back straight into 7 hard on the brakes and as they turned right they disappeared briefly climbing up into turn 8.”
Picture above: Pretty and aggressive F5000’s. Here Mario Andretti thunders past in his Vel’s Parnelli Lola T332 at Riverside in 1975.
PC concludes: “You could still hear them but the first thing I remember seeing was a simultaneous flash of cars fish tailing, rear tires spinning, along with signs of an overly rich blackened exhaust blowing out of the tail pipes as each car laid wide black stripes down the hill until they lifted entering turn 9. It was like a well choreographed swimming event and absolutely mesmerizing. There was no way I wasn’t going to give this racing thing the best shot I could. How could anyone not see it as I did? :-)”
And Price Cobb, young promising race car driver, went for it, and succeeded beyond his own wildest expectations.
Picture below: Brian Redman (Lola T332C-Chevrolet) and Alan Jones (Theodore Racing Lola T332-Chevrolet) share the front row of the grid at Mosport in 1976. One can recognise Danny Ongais and Jackie Oliver on the second row, but Alan Jones won the race.
