Trip Down Victory Lane: Gordon Johncock prefers talking timber

Fifth in a series of visits with Indianapolis 500 winners.

SOUTH BRANCH, Mich. – Until Tuesday, one of Gordon Johncock’s employees at Quigley Lumber didn’t know Johncock once was an Indy-car driver.

The two-time Indianapolis 500 winner didn't give the man the rest of the story.

“He was getting paid by the hour, and he needed to get back to work,” Johncock said.

Johncock was amused telling the story, but his no-nonsense approach is part of his charm. Those days as a national champion hang with the Indy 500 plaques he received three-plus decades ago, a reminder for the person he used to be, nothing more.

“Do I ever talk about (racing)?” Johncock said to his wife, Sue, during this gathering at their kitchen table. “I don’t.

“It was a job I used to have; now I have a different job.”

Johncock is 79 years old, hard of hearing and sometimes struggling to breathe due to the effects of breaking so many ribs over his career. Still, he rises each morning for the short drive to the sawmill he owns in Huron National Forest.

To know Johncock is to understand him. He moved to this remote part of Michigan – South Branch is 200 miles north of Detroit – in 1999 to cut and sell timber. Earning a profit was as challenging as the work itself, and good employees were difficult to come by. He finally sold out, only later deciding to buy the sawmill to which he’d been selling.

The Johncocks have been married 25 years – he once farmed with her father near their hometown of Hastings, Mich. — and they have seven children between them (none together). Their home in the woods sits on seven acres, and they recently bought another 80 acres to ensure the noise is limited to what nature creates.

The sawmill’s first shift begins at 5 a.m.; the run ends at 11 p.m. Johncock doesn’t work the duration, but he’s there for much of it, loading the finished products. Sue’s there, too, controlling the finances of a 20-employee business.

South Branch is little more than a cluster of homes, a general store and the sawmill. In the dark it can be missed, especially amid all these piles of plowed snow. There is no sign honoring an Indy 500 winner in the midst. Johncock prefers it that way.

“I’ve never been a person who wanted to be out in public and make appearances – I don’t like that stuff,” Johncock said. “I’ve never said this before, but that’s one reason I never pressured Roger Penske for a ride. He had his guys doing PR work constantly; there never was any relief.

“Although, if I had (joined Team Penske), I probably would have had a lot better record than I did.”

Still, Johncock’s record ranks with all the sport’s greats. Mostly with Patrick Racing, he won 25 races, 20 poles and the 1976 national championship. Johncock competed in 24 Indy 500s from 1965-92 (that’s tied for fourth), finishing in the top five eight times and leading 339 laps.

Johncock has to be reminded of most of that.

“Donald (Davidson) could tell you more about me than I could about myself,” he said. “To me, racing was a job, and when I got done with a race, I went home and went to work.”

No. 1 to Gordon Johncock? Al Unser Jr.

Johncock won the 500 no one wants to remember – the rain-shortened 1973 event saw two fatalities, including his teammate, Swede Savage, and the fiery first-lap crash of Salt Walther that injured a dozen spectators. In 1982, Johncock won the race no one has forgotten.

What Johncock remembers most about that thrilling last-lap duel with Rick Mears is that he nearly crashed in Turn 3.

“I pertineer lost it,” he said. “Ask Rick; he saw it (because) he was right there.

“I had never run that low before in Turn 3, but I knew I had to if I was going to be able to stay in the throttle. It was just a little rougher down there than I expected.”

Johncock held on to win by 0.16 seconds, record-setting at the time and still the fifth-closest finish in race history.

Another 500 memory Johncock harbors came from the 1964 race. Johncock was just a sprint-car driver then, sitting in Turn 4’s infield bleachers. Driver Dave MacDonald lost control of his car on the second lap and slammed the fence in front of Johncock.

“I saw it all, and I could feel the heat of the explosion on my face,” he said.

MacDonald’s car caromed across the track and was struck by Eddie Sachs. Both drivers perished. The next year Johncock was driving in the race along with fellow rookies Mario Andretti and Al Unser.

In ’73, Johncock’s teammate, Swede Savage, was killed in a Turn 4 crash.

“They stopped all the cars in Turn 4, and I started walking up there (to the accident scene),” Johncock said. “(A.J.) Foyt grabbed ahold of me and said, ‘You don’t want to.’

“We went down to the hospital that night after the race.”

That’s another reason Johncock isn’t fond of recalling the past. Most of his racing memorabilia is stored in a room in his basement.

“Once in a while someone like you will bring up my racing,” Johncock said. “Otherwise, I don’t even think about it.”

Follow IndyStar reporter Curt Cavin on Facebook and Twitter: @curtcavin.

PREVIOUS TRIPS DOWN VICTORY LANE

• Scott Dixon a Hoosier at heart and home

• Eddie Cheever still outspoken

• Sam Hornish's life vastly different

• 'Champion Cave' tells Bobby Rahal's story

GORDON JOHNCOCK

Indy 500 wins: 1973 and ’82 for Patrick Racing.

Race facts: The first of his wins came in a tragic year that saw the deaths of drivers Art Pollard (on the morning of the first qualifying day) and Swede Savage (on Lap 58 of the race), along with crew member Armando Teran (struck by a rescue truck in the pits). Another driver, Salt Walther, also was severely burned in the 11-car crash on the front straightway that injured about a dozen spectators. Rain plagued the month, and the race was finally stopped after 133 laps. Johncock finally got his win to fully cherish in ’82 when he held off Rick Mears on the final lap. The margin of victory (0.16 seconds) broke the event record that had stood since 1937.

Margin of victories: The 1973 race finished under caution (Bill Vukovich II finished second); the ’82 margin was 0.16 seconds over Rick Mears.

Winner’s takes: $236,023 and $290,609.

Career: Won 25 races (tied with Will Power for 15th place) and 20 poles. Was part of Indy’s 1965 rookie class that included Mario Andretti, Al Unser and Joe Leonard. Won USAC’s 1976 national championship.

Post-race quote of his last-lap battle with Rick Mears: “When I went down into the No. 1 corner, I wasn’t about to back off no matter what happened. If we went through there side by side, that’s the way we’d go through there.”

– Curt Cavin