A Jesus Freak at Indy

The Indianapolis 500 is billed “The Greatest Spectacle” in auto racing. And “spectacle” is a great description. Because it’s not just the 500-mile race held the day before Memorial Day each year. The Indy 500 consumes the whole month of May, and contains a hundred stories of hope, heartache, and plenty of drama. And no part of Indy fuels the drama as much as the way cars qualified for the race. In 1976 they had four days of qualifying, with the last day known as “Bump” day, as in getting a last chance to “bump” the 33rd guy off the “bubble” and getting in the biggest race of the year.

On the last Sunday of qualifying, everyone that did not qualify gets a shot at the last 3 spots n the field. After spending several weeks to get to this point, teams and drivers whole racing existence seems to come down to what happens on this Sunday.

In 1976, Jan Opperman found himself knee-deep in the qualifying drama.

Jan Opperman was a brilliant sprint car racer who ran over 100 races a year, winning many of them. Long haired, Jan was known as an outlaw and a hippy. But Jan Opperman became best known for his faith. He was a devout Christian that used his fame to share Jesus’s message of hope and love.

The first time Opperman ran the Indianapolis 500 was in 1974 with much fanfare. He was invited to run for the Parnelli “super-team”. Parnelli had a 3-car team consisting of some of USAC’s best drivers including Mario Andretti, Al Unser and Joe Leonard. Leonard had been sidelined with a broken leg, and Jan had been given the nod to fill-in. Jan managed to just make the field qualifying 32nd. He had a spin during the 500 and finished 21st.

In 1975, Opperman came to Indy with the Don Gerhardt owned Thermo-King #46. The team had complications and Jan never had the chance to attempt to qualify.

Now in 1976, Opperman had showed up at Indy with a low budget team owned by Don Megard. Megard had purchased an older car that came with no spares at all. Add to this the fact that Megard and his race team had never set foot at Indy, the chances of Jan making the field were slim. But Jan had a strong inclination that God intended for Jan to be in the 1976 Indy 500 for one good reason: the money. Jan had been growing in his faith and had recently decided that he was going to devote all his stardom and race winnings to promote Jesus. He had set up Team Jesus with his sprint car team and was using all his winning to sponsor an evangelical team to travel with him around the country. The group included a Christian Country-Rock band, and Opperman’s Jesus Team was holding revival meetings everywhere he went.

Just starting the Indy 500 in 1976 would bring a team over $14,000, and Jan felt he was ordained to be in the race.

Opperman had managed to qualify the older car last in 33rd place by the time qualifying ended on Saturday. But his time still had to stand up against a lot of cars waiting to qualify on Sunday, or Bump Day.

It didn’t take long for Jan’s time to get beat, knocking him out of the Indy 500. But God was still at work and car owner Richard Routh asked Jan to try to qualify his car. Routh’s rookie driver was unable to get the car up to speed. The clock was ticking, and time was running out to make the race when Jan accepted the opportunity. To add to the frenzy of the day, Janet Guthrie was trying to qualify to become the first woman to run the Indy 500. After failing to qualify with the team she came with, AJ Foyt offered her a shot at practicing in his back up car. Guthrie’s practice speed showed she could be fast enough to make the field. But it never came to be. As time was running out, Foyt decided not to offer Guthrie the ride, and thus she did not get another shot at making the 1976 Indy 500.

The world would have to wait another year before a woman would race at Indy.

Now, with just two minutes left to qualify for the 1976 Indy 500, Jan finally rolled out, the last person to make an attempt to qualify. But Jan Opperman knew the vision God had given him, and he was going to push this unfamiliar car as hard as he could.

Three laps later, Jan Opperman had qualified 33rd for the race, beating out some more experienced drivers in better equipment.

Jan went on to finish 16th in the race, earning his team almost $19,000, giving him the seed money to expand his ministry.

Jan Opperman experienced a life-changing setback when he suffered a head trauma in a horrendous sprint car crash in the fall of 1976. He returned to racing in 1978, but his edge was missing. Then in 1981, he suffered another bad accident, this time leaving Jan in a state that required round the clock care until his death in 1997. Up until his death, a lot of people in the racing community kept Jan’s plight front and center, conducting several fund raisers to help with Jan’s care. Even in his state, God used Jan Opperman to have people demonstrate the Love and Hope of Jesus.

Just as Jan would want them to.