Gordon Johncock

Gordon Johncock (* August 5, 1937 in Hastings ) is a retired American race car driver.

Gordon Johncok belonged to the established USAC drivers, when he first won the 500-mile race at Indianapolis in 1973. His first success in the USAC racing series in 1965 he was able to celebrate Mile in Milwaukee.

The 500-mile race was overshadowed in 1973 by fatal accidents. John Cocks teammate Swede Savage had a fire accident in the 58th round and died a month later his severe burn injuries. A member of John Cocks pit crew was the exit of the pit lane run over by a fire truck and seriously injured. The race was stopped after 133 laps, was as Johncock in leadership due to rain and not restarted after hours of waiting. In 1976, he secured the overall victory of the USAC Championship by winning the last race at Phoenix. Until then leading in the championship Johnny Rutherford had to settle for second place overall.

1976 and 1978 he was in Indianapolis each third party and in March 1979 he won the first race of the new Champ Car racing series. In 1982, he won for the second time in the 500-mile race at Indianapolis. At the last pit stop Johncock was more fuel filled as necessary and thus made the car unnecessarily heavy. Rick Mears could therefore shorten the gap to Johncock within a few rounds and lost the race with a gap of 0.16 seconds.

Johncock won three Champ Car races in 1992 and entered final of racing back. In 1985 and 1987 he had resigned twice spontaneously, but both times came back. He also denied 21 NASCAR-R Ennen, his best finishes were each fourth ranks in Rockingham in 1966 and Daytona 1973.

Literature and sources

• Rick Popely, L. Spencer Riggs: Indianapolis 500 Chronicle. Publications International Ltd.. , Lincolnwood IL 1998, ISBN 0-7853-2798-3.

• Champ Car racer
• NASCAR driver
• Winner (Indianapolis 500)
• Born in 1937
• Man
• Racers (United States)
• Americans