The companies that were selected to provide the Pack Car for the Indianapolis 500 race usually also provided support trucks for the field. During the 1950s through the 1970s, these pickups were often non-descript workhorses. This began to change during the early 1970s. In 1973, GMC provided a Cadillac Eldorado Pace Car along with pickup trucks in normal fashion. For 1974, the Hursts/Olds Cutlass was selected to pace the Indy 500, and GMC provided the support trucks. This time, however, they took advantage of the opportunity by releasing a special package for the Indy 500 Official truck. It was painted in white and gold to match the Hurst Olds. This would be the first time that an Indy 500 official truck was designed to match the Pace Car in style and color. GMC provided 55 trucks to the Indy 500 with this special paint scheme, including wreckers, crew cabs, and pickups which were used as emergency and safety vehicles. Other than decals and the paint scheme, these trucks were stock. GMC also sold a limited number of these Indy 500 trucks. The package included a special 'quadratone' paint scheme, Indy 500 decals, a rally striped tonneau cover, an insert gold grille, and steel belted radial white strip tires. 1,000 of these Pace Truck replicas were planned to be built by GM and many were used by dealerships to draw customers into their showrooms.
Another GM car was selected to pace the 1975 Indy 500, a 1975 Buick Century and again the official trucks were provided by GMC. Again, GMC used a special edition truck for official duties. The Buick Pace Car was painted in a red, white, and blue paint scheme and the GMC was done in a similar fashion. GMC then offered a limited number of these replicas to the public. Saginaw Steering Division used this opportunity to promote their newly offered Tilt Wheel option for GMC trucks. The Saginaw division awarded the pit crew chief of the winning car with a new 1975 GMC Indy 500 Official truck.
For 1975, GMC produced 500 official truck replicas to be sold on a limited basis. Again, these were basically a trim and decal package.
Buick paced the 1976 Indy 500 and GMC again supplied the official trucks. The Buick Century Pace Car wore a radical decal package and the trucks followed this theme. The GMC trucks had large eagle decals on their flanks and included an eagle decal, similar to the one found on the Trans Am, on its hood. Again, 500 Pace Truck replicas were planned to be produced. Saginaw again awarded a truck to the pit crew chief for the winning car.
The pace car for the 1977 Indy 500 was the Oldsmobile Delta 88 and GMC supplied the trucks. The paint scheme was white, silver, silver gray, gray, and flat black, with red accent stripes. The Truck was given subtle wheel flares and a chin spoiler. The replica trucks had a similar paint scheme along with spoked wheels trimmed in a silver vinyl applique, along with low profile raised white letter tires. Bodystyles included fleetside or fenderside bodies in either 6.5- or 8-foot box lengths, and in two- or 4-wheel drive.
The Chevy Corvette paced the 1978 edition of the Indy 500. Chevy trucks were used as the support vehicles, taking over the duties from the GMC trucks which had served the past five years. Chevrolet, however, did not decorate their trucks to match the pace car. Instead, they used a red-and-white paint scheme with red and orange stripes. This was much different than the silver Corvettes which paced the race. The Chevy Indy 500 Official Trucks also used a chin spoiler that was similar to the 1977 GMC trucks and had a body-color front bumper to match.
For 1979, the Ford Mustang was given the Pace Car duties. A special Indianapolis Speedway Official Truck Package was offered for their Ford pickups, and was available on the F-100, F-150, and F-250 2-wheel drive trucks and on F-150, F-250, and F-350 4×4 trucks. The Mustang and the Support Truck were painted in silver with black decals and red and orange accent stripes. The trucks had blacked-out grilles, side mirrors and front bumpers, along with a black GT bar roll bar. The theme continued to the interior, finished in black, silver, red, and orange. This was the same interior that was used in the Free Wheeling Ford Pickups.
The Pontiac Trans Am paced the 1980 Indy 500 and so the GMC returned as the official truck. The GMC Trucks were modeled to follow the theme set by the Pace Car and featured a white and gray paint job with black and red accent stripes. On the hood was the infamous 'screaming chicken' eagle decal. On the front was a similar chin spoiler used on the 1977 version. GMC dubbed their truck the 'Indy Haulers.' Buyers of the limited edition replicas had the option of short and long box trucks, fleetside or stepside.
This 1980 GMC Indy Pace Hauler short box pick-up truck is one of just 200 examples built and currently has 24,000 miles on its odometer. Power is from a 5.7-liter V8 fitted with a 4-barrel carburetor and mated to a TH-350 automatic transmission. It has two-tone paint, an original gray cloth bench seat, power steering, power brakes, power windows, power door locks, and air conditioning. Other features included a tilt wheel, an AM/FM 8-track stereo, and original aluminum wheels.
By Daniel Vaughan | Oct 2017
