bob jennings' WORLD O' RACING 02/18/2000
Off and running in Florida
1999 Indy Racing League champion Greg Ray and Menard team manager Thomas Knapp at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway - May 16, 1999
Bob Jennings
Things are going now. Racing 2000 is under way. With the exception of the annual indoor Chili Bowl midget show in Tulsa and the Copper World Classic at Phoenix International Raceway, the action has taken place in Florida, the Sunshine State.
On Super Bowl weekend Saturday the Indy Racing League began its fifth season at the Walt Disney World Speedway in Orlando. USAC started year 45 of competition the same day with the Coors Light Silver Bullet race following the Indy Cars at Disney World. The first weekend of this month, sports cars and road racers kicked off Daytona Speedweeks with their 24-hour extravaganza. The week before last CART held its annual "Spring Training" at the Miami Homestead oval.
This 42nd "Daytona 500" runs this Sunday. From this point forward the racing will run continuously through mid-November when NASCAR closes the season at Atlanta. I try hard to watch as many races as I can each season but the pace of life overlaps into racing and by May, it's a game of catch up to watch the racing I want to see. It's going to be difficult to complete the stuff I want to add to this website before the "Daytona 500" and it's going to almost as hard to watch all the racing video I want to see. It's a tough world isn't it?
Since things are becoming "hot and heavy" in a big hurry, I wanted to take some time and look at what's been going on already in racing's new millennium. Unfortunately some of what has taken place is very sad.
Tony Bettenhausen is dead. Bettenhausen, his wife Shirley and two other area businessmen were killed in a private plane crash near Lexington, Kentucky Monday. Bettenhausen was the youngest child of my earliest racing hero Tony Bettenhausen.
I knew about Tony Bettenhausen's little boy Tony Lee, when I idolized the great "Tinley Park Express" before his fatal crash at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on May 12, 1961. I wouldn't call Tony Bettenhausen (the younger) a strong racing talent. He was a good enough driver to start the "Indianapolis 500" eleven times from 1981 through 1993 however. Tony's best finish at Indianapolis was seventh in the 1981 "500." He had limited success as a driver in CART. The best finish that comes immediately to mind for Bettenhausen was a second to Pancho Carter in the inaugural CART 500 mile event at Michigan in 1981.
Bettenhausen started his Indy car team in the mid 1980's primarily because opportunities for CART drivers in those days were about as limited as they are now and Tony wanted to race. The Bettenhausen team had minor successes, here and there, in CART. Bettenhausen built a relationship with AMAX coal, which lasted from 1990 through the 1997 season. Stefan Johansson had some decent performances in Bettenhausen's cars and if I recall, either Patrick Carpentier or Helio Castro Neves (it's hard to keep up with the current bunch of CART drivers) had some podium finishes driving for Bettenhausen. When the AMAX/Alumax money dried up however, the Bettenhausen team was left to scratch for the money to run CART and it seems like Tony's team was on the outside looking in. Apparently Bettenhausen had a deal with Herdez, a Mexican food company, to run Michel Jourdain Jr. in CART this season.
After the Indy car split occurred in 1995, Bettenhausen was one of the more open critics of the Indy Racing League, which is unfortunate. Tony Bettenhausen was probably one of those racers made for the IRL. CART was too expensive for the Bettenhausen operation and I think Tony could've had a better shot running in Tony George's series.
I have personal memories of Tony Bettenhausen and another victim of the plane crash, Larry Rangel.
Rangel was the owner of El Matador Mexican restaurant at 30th and Georgetown, just north of the Speedway. During the mid to late 1980's I worked for a software firm located near the Indianapolis Airport. A group of my buddies from work and I used to hang out at El Matador. One of my friends Tommy Knight became pals with Larry Rangel and his brother Octavio. Rangel was a personable guy who was always checking to see if we were enjoying our food.
We were at El Matador on Friday evening prior to the second weekend of qualifications for the 1987 "Indianapolis 500." It was a busy night. Miller Brewing was having a party associated with its sponsorship of the Penske team. The three Penske drivers Rick Mears, Danny Sullivan and Al Unser showed up.
Tony Bettenhausen was a regular patron. He was there with his wife and kids, one of which was a cute little blond haired girl named Bryn. While I watched her, I thought that little girl is the granddaughter of my great racing hero Tony Bettenhausen. I spoke to Tony that night and told him how much I had admired his dad.
Bettenhausen's wife Shirley was the daughter of Jim McElreath, one of the best Indy car drivers of the 1960's. Her brother James was killed in a USAC sprint car race at Winchester in 1977.
Judging by the stories appearing since the Bettenhausen air crash in The Indianapolis Star, Tony Bettenhausen and his wife were a well-liked couple as were the other two victims. Bettenhausen created a nice life for his family, from racing and he must have been a fine guy to have so many nice things written and said about him.
It was tough to lose Sam Schmidt's talent and charisma to paralysis during testing at Walt Disney World. Schmidt was a good driver getting better. Taking over for Arie Luyendyk in the Treadway Sprint PCS G Force after Indianapolis, Schmidt kept improving as 1999 progressed. He was a consistent front-runner by mid-season and last September Sam won the IRL race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. In the Indy Racing League season finale in Texas, Schmidt was hurt in a three-car crash in which part of his foot was amputated. He was still recovering from the earlier accident when he injured his spinal cord testing at Disney World. Schmidt is quadriplegic now and is going through intense therapy to recover his mobility.
Sam Schmidt's injuries are another reminder that racing remains a violent
and dangerous sport, even in this era of high tech safety. For whatever reason,
danger has shown its face in too many situations over the past several months.
The current trend started with the deaths of three spectators at Michigan
Speedway during the CART race in July 1998. In May three more spectators
lost their lives at the IRL race in Charlotte. Driver Gonzalo Rodriguez was
killed in a spectacular crash in practice for the CART race at Laguna Seca.
Greg Moore lost his life in a violent crash on live network television early
in the CART season finale at California Speedway on October 31. Obviously
there are many more gains to be made in racing safety.
Fortunately both Davey Hamilton and Jaques Lazier will recover from the injuries they received at the recent Indy Racing League opener at Disney World. The most frightening thing about the Hamilton and Lazier crashes is that neither mishap looked particularly serious. For that matter, Schmidt's crash wasn't that violent either. Whether it's physics in the way the cars are making contact with the walls, the focus on protecting other parts of the driver's anatomy or other elements, too many drivers are suffering spinal injuries. The spinal column is not being protected properly in high-speed rear engine open wheel racing cars. Perhaps efforts to correct this problem will have to take priority in much the same way racing car constructors reacted to the many foot and leg injuries in the 1980's.
Other than the injuries to Schmidt, Hamilton and Lazier, I thought the race at Disney World was a good one and the weekend has to be considered positive for the Indy Racing League. Rain prevented qualifying, but held off on race day and the grandstands appeared full under overcast skies.
I often wonder how many of the people each January at the Disney World race are Indianapolis area "snow birds" anxious to get away from winter in the Midwest and eager to get an early taste of May at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. I had hoped to be at Disney World myself for the race but my wife's college schedule kept us from going. The local "snow birds" probably represent a high percentage of the crowd at the race each January. The Disney race always seems to draw good attendance and the event appears to be a popular start to each racing season.
There were two big stories going into the IRL opener at Disney World. The first was the arrival of Al Unser Jr. to the series. The second was the new IRL cars and engine package.
Little Al's entry into the Indy Racing League reminds me in some ways of Nigel Mansell's arrival in CART. Perhaps Unser is more important to the IRL in 2000 than Mansell was to CART seven years ago. I hope Al Jr. can be as successful as Nigel was in his rookie Indy car season. Things didn't start the same way for Unser as they did at Surfers Paradise in March 1993 when Mansell won in his CART debut. Junior started 24th due to the cancellation of qualifying and finished 25th in the race after losing the Oldsmobile Aurora V8 engine in the Galles ECR Racing Tickets.com G Force.
Unser did show a glimpse of what we might expect from him this season while
he was racing. He had the wild looking white, black and red Galles car moving
in traffic after a cautious start. Al moved to ninth place before his retirement
and there was a smile on his face when he interviewed on ABC. It must've
been fun for Little Al to pass racing cars in a style reminiscent of earlier
days. I thought it was fun to watch and it brings more enthusiasm than
usual for the Phoenix race next month to see how Al Jr. runs.
After running three seasons with the same specs, the IRL switched from four-liter to 3.5 liter-V8 configurations. Most of the teams were running the new engine with a 180-degree crankshaft. This changed the pitch and resonance of the IRL engines from their previous harsh roar to a whine similar to the sound of the Cosworth series of turbocharged V8 engines that won the "Indianapolis 500" from 1978 through 1987. I like the looks of the three new IRL chassis models. The cars have a "swoopy" shape and the new G Force has a raised nose and high wide side pods that give it the slight appearance of a Formula One car.
Perhaps the big surprises of the race were how well the new Riley and Scott chassis and the Infiniti V8 engine ran. Buddy Lazier and Eddie Cheever were in Riley and Scotts. Those two looked like the fastest guys for much of the race. Had it not been for both drivers experiencing problems in traffic during the final eight laps either Lazier or Cheever would've won the race. Eddie took the lead from Buddy with eight laps to go when Lazier got caught behind rookie Sam Hormish. On lap 199, Cheever had the same problem with a slower Doug Didero, which enabled Robbie Buhl to go by and win the race. Still, Nissan has to feel pretty good about how close they came to their first Indy Racing League win. I even read a quote from Disney World winner Buhl that his Dreyer & Reinbold team was considering running an Infiniti V8. There is a Dreyer & Reinbold Infiniti dealership in Indianapolis.
Buhl's win can't be completely attributed to traffic problems for Lazier and Cheever though. Robbie had the deep blue, day glow orange and yellow (pretty race car) Purex G Force running well throughout the race. Buhl started the race 22nd and made his move through the pack by pitting out of sequence during the first series of stops. Buhl's car 24 ran in front after that, leading a race high 49 laps. During the final laps, Lazier, Cheever, Buhl and Scott Goodyear were all running close together and it would've been pretty tight at the finish even without the late race traffic jams.
There were some other good runs during the race. Mark Dismore ran with the leaders and was in front for 30 laps. Dismore has become a consistent threat in the IRL and seems to usually out pace Kelley racing teammate Scott Sharp. He was racing with Lazier and Cheever, when his Dallara lost an oil cooler 17 laps from the finish. Robby McGehee had an early race spin but showed some speed in Fred Treadway's G Force. That's the old Arie Luyendyk - Sam Schmidt crew and that ought to benefit McGehee this season. Billy Boat ran a year-old Dallara for the Pelfrey team, led six laps and finished ninth, on the leader's lap behind Buhl, Lazier, Cheever, Goodyear, Eliseo Salazar, Donnie Beechler, Jeff Ward and Buzz Calkins. Beechler, like Boat, another former USAC competitor, had another of his frequent good runs for the low budget Cahill team.
IRL Champion Greg Ray had gearbox problems, which necessitated a 20-minute pit stop for repairs that dropped him to 17th at the finish. Ray led the first 45 laps of the race but lacked the speed of the other leading cars.
This was another in a series of typical Indy Racing League events, fast with
tight racing and the competition spread out over a wide range of cars. Say
what you will about the IRL, but I don't think better racing can be found
anywhere!
According to Buhl, the deal to put his new team together came on Christmas Eve, five weeks before the race at Walt Disney World. Mitch Davis brought his crew from ISM and Pagan Racing and John O'Gara, who was Greg Ray's crew chief on the Menard team, also came on board. Davis and O'Gara are a couple talented guys who have both been among the major players in the IRL since the earliest days of the series. Judging from Buhl's run at Walt Disney World, the Dreyer & Reinbold operation could play a big part in the action this season.
The announcement came during the race at Disney World that Northern Lights Technology had agreed to a five-year $50 million deal to sponsor the IRL series. The package exceeds the sponsorship agreement CART has with series sponsor Federal Express. The deal was put together on Thursday before the Disney World race. It had to be welcome news.
I read that Chip Ganassi would announce his entry for the 84th "Indianapolis 500" this week, but that hasn't taken place yet. Roger Penske announced last week in Miami that he would not be coming to Indianapolis as previously announced. I hope Ganassi does indeed bring cars to the Speedway for Juan Montoya and Jimmy Vasser. As for Penske, who cares? The Penske team is on a downward slide and I don't think the switch to Reynard, Honda, Firestone, Gil de Ferran and Helio Castro Neves will make much difference. I may be wrong, but my opinion is that Roger Penske has forgotten how to race. I've been writing about the Penske downfall since I started this website and so far I've been right. Stay home Roger! We don't need you. For that matter, other than the Ganassi drivers, 1999 "500" winner Kenny Brack and Michael Andretti, I don't think it particularly matters whether CART participates at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway or not.
Another observation about the race at Walt Disney World is that while the most of the better-known racing sponsors are absent from the IRL, there does seem to be a trend toward technology and Internet firms to be involved. Northern Lights, Lycos, Delphi, Nortel, Tickets.com, Exodus and Ericsson are examples of what I'm referring to.
Bill France supposedly pulled the plug on an Indy Racing League event at
Nazareth in September. However Chris Powell who runs Las Vegas Motor Speedway
for Bruton Smith has expressed interest in a second IRL race this year. There
has also been some talk that the IRL has discussed an August race with the
people who run the Milwaukee Mile. Does that mean Carl Haas will become
an IRL promoter?