On the Edge of Greatness – Formula 5000 in 1973

The decade of the 1960s was a historic time on dear old Planet Earth, as the evolution of human civilization rolled inevitably forward, advancing hard and fast with accelerated progress on cultural, social and scientific fronts. This was certainly true for the United States, despite the decade developing against the turbulent backdrop of senseless assassinations of public figures in Dallas, New York City, Memphis and L.A., racial riots in many of the nation’s major cities and the unending war in Vietnam. Still, when a man named Neil Armstrong stepped onto the surface of the moon as the decade was closing, mankind moved tentatively into an extra-terrestrial age.

In the world of motor sport, the advent of the rear-engined car rearranged racing’s dynamic reality, opening new frontiers of performance and rewriting record books around the globe. This new technology—much of it borrowed from the space program and adapted for racing use—rolled along at great speeds on low-profile tires made of freshly formulated, highly adhesive racing rubber, with everything catalyzed further by the discovery of downforce.