1979 Arizona Republic / Jimmy Bryan 150

First round of the 1979 CART season February 2025 United States Arizona Republic / Jimmy Bryan 150 Phoenix-international-raceway-2011.svg Map of the Track March 11 1979 Arizona Republic / Jimmy Bryan 150 1 14 CART Phoenix International RacewayAvondale, Arizona, United States Tri-Oval 1.000 1.610 150 150.000 241.500 Temperatures reaching up to 80.1 F C; wind speeds reaching up to 12.7 mph km/hWeather information for the 1979 Arizona Republic / Jimmy Bryan 150 at The Old Farmers' Almanac Bobby Unser Roger Penske 24.714 United States Gordon Johncock Pat Patrick United States Rick Mears Roger Penske United States Johnny Rutherford Bruce McLaren United States The 1979 Arizona Republic / Jimmy Bryan 150 was the first round of the 1979 CART season, held on March 11, at Phoenix International Raceway, Avondale, Arizona. It marked the debut of the Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) era of Indy car racing. Race Summary In the inaugural race for the new sanctioning body, Bobby Unser won the pole with Tom Sneva starting in second. Johnny Rutherford started third, Danny Ongais started fourth, and Rick Mears rounded out the top five starters. From his pole position, Bobby Unser led almost all of the first 86 laps, only giving up the lead for pit stops. The first caution of the day flew on lap 2, after Vern Schuppan broke a joint and went off track in the first turn.https://motorsportstribune.com/historical-carts-first-race-at-phoenix/ Historical: CART's first race at Phoenix Motorsports Tribune en-US 2018-10-01 The second caution flew due to a stalled car at lap 15, and the third due to debris picked up when Gordon Johncock left the pits on lap 69. After Unser was forced to make an unscheduled pit stop due to tire problems, Danny Ongais took the lead on lap 87, and held it for the next 33 laps, but soon after giving up the lead to Johncock retired with a blown engine, bringing out the final caution of the day.https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/281892944/ The Morning Call from Allentown, Pennsylvania on March 12, 1979 · 19 Newspapers.com 2018-10-01 en Johncock went on to win the race, with Rick Mears finishing second, Johnny Rutherford third, Al Unser fourth, and Bobby Unser rounding out the top five. There was some confusion in the final few laps, with Al Unser listed as running higher than he actually was.https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/209464052/ Lansing State Journal from Lansing, Michigan on March 12, 1979 · Page 22 Newspapers.com 2018-10-01 en Results Pos Sta # Driver Owner Laps Time/Retired Led Pts 1 2 20 USA Gordon Johncock Pat Patrick 150 1:15:23.016 33 300 2 5 9 USA Rick Mears Roger Penske 150 - 0 240 3 3 4 USA Johnny Rutherford Bruce McLaren 150 - 0 210 4 10 2 USA Al Unser Chaparral Cars 150 - 0 180 5 1 12 USA Bobby Unser Roger Penske 149 + 1 Lap 84 150 6 7 36 USA Mike Mosley Dan Gurney 148 + 2 Laps 0 120 7 6 40 USA Wally Dallenbach Pat Patrick 147 + 3 Laps 0 90 8 9 11 USA Tom Bagley Bobby Hillin 145 + 5 Laps 0 75 9 17 21 USA Lee Kunzman Conqueste Racing Team 143 + 7 Laps 0 60 10 19 35 USA Larry Rice Private 143 + 7 Laps 0 45 11 21 41 USA Bill Alsup Bill Alsup 141 + 9 Laps 0 30 12 15 77 USA Salt Walther Walmotors 139 + 11 Laps 0 15 13 13 69 USA Joe Saldana Hoffman Racing 139b + 11 Laps 0 8 14 18 28 USA Tom Frantz Tom Frantz 139 + 11 Laps 0 8 15 4 25 USA Danny Ongais Ted Field 128 Engine 33 8 16 11 7 USA Steve Krisiloff Fletcher Racing 63 Gearbox 0 8 17 2 1 USA Tom Sneva Jerry O'Connell Racing 43 Engine 0 6 18 14 19 USA Spike Gehlhausen Carl Gehlhausen 12 Water Line 0 6 19 16 92 USA John Mahler Intercomp 12 Piston 0 6 20 12 10 USA Pancho Carter Alex Morales 7 Gearbox 0 6 21 20 34 AUS Vern Schuppan Herb Wysard 2 U-Joint 0 5 Caution flag breakdown Condition From Lap To Lap # Of Laps Reason Green 1 2 2 Yellow 3 6 4 Vern Schuppan off at turn 1 Green 7 14 8 Yellow 15 16 2 stalled car Green 17 68 52 Yellow 69 76 8 debris Green 77 128 52 Yellow 129 139 11 Danny Ongais oil on track Green 140 150 11 16.7% of race run under caution. Lap leader breakdown Leader From Lap To Lap # Of Laps Bobby Unser 1 64 64 Gordon Johncock 65 66 2 Bobby Unser 67 86 20 Danny Ongais 87 119 33 Gordon Johncock 120 150 31 Points standings after this race Note: Only the top ten positions are listed. Rank Driver Points Diff 1 Gordon Johncock 300 2 Rick Mears 240 -60 3 Johnny Rutherford 210 -90 4 Al Unser 180 -120 5 Bobby Unser 150 -150 6 Mike Mosley 120 -180 7 Wally Dallenbach 90 -210 8 Tom Bagley 75 -225 9 Lee Kunzman 60 -240 10 Larry Rice 45 -255 References External links Full Weekend Times & Results racing-referenceFebruary 2019 InternetArchiveBot yes Arizona Republic / Jimmy Bryan 150 1979 - First Race of Series - 1979 Gould Twin Dixie 125 - Not Held - 1979 Miller High Life 150 Arizona Republic Jimmy Bryan 150, 1979 Arizona Republic Jimmy Bryan 150 Arizona Republic Jimmy Bryan 150