Controversy was the topic of the year in 1981. Bobby Unser, having pitted under the yellow flag, passed 14 cars as he exited the pit. Second place Mario Andretti radioed this information to his crew and wanted the incident formally noted for the record. Nothing else was said or noted at the time of the infraction. ABC TV, however, had other ideas. Since ABC aired the race on a tape delay basis and did much of the commentary in post production after the race was over, they made a big deal over the infraction which forced USAC to take a hard look at the incident in light of a protest filed by Andretti's team, Patrick Racing. The following morning it was announced that Unser had been penalized one position (not one lap as widely reported) and Andretti was elevated to winner. It was Mario who posed for pictures on the main straightaway the day after the race. However in October 1981 a court overturned the penalty and restored the win to Unser. While Mario gave up his title of 1981 Indianapolis 500 champion - he did not give up the winner's ring he received.
Copyright 2020
MP2 Enterprises Inc.
Website design by
Michael Portaro
Made on a Mac
with Adobe Dreamweaver CC
Indycals makes the tire decals for this car. Note, if you are using tires with raised lettering you will need to remove that before applying decals. Click Image for details.
click image for larger views
Note - top photo is the car at Michigan Interntional Speedway in September 1981 and varies sligtly from our sheet which depicts the car as it raced in the Indy 500.
These decals come with a masking template to paint the dayglo red to match our white outlines.