bob jennings' WORLD O' RACING
Little Al Versus the World
(originally
presented
08/10/96)
How things change and nowhere in racing have they changed more than in the CART PPG World Series. Thinking back to the 1994 season seems like years ago. Roger Penske made the shock announcement, in mid April, 1994, that a brand new 209 cid pushrod V8 turbocharged engine, from Ilmor, carrying the Mercedes Benz badge, and using the same 55 inches of turbo boost allowed for production based designs, would power the 1994 Penske challenge, at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. From that point, Roger's Marlboro cars took absolute control. The three Marlboro Penske entries dominated May, 1994, in Indianapolis, with Al Unser Jr. taking his first Indy pole position and second Indy win. Teammate Emerson Fittipaldi crashed, with 16 laps remaining in the 1994 race, after dominating the "500", and looking well on the way to becoming the first driver to win back to back since Al Unser Sr. in 1970 - 71.
During the 1994 CART season, despite having to switch back to more conventional Ilmor (ex Chevrolet) turbo power, after Indianapolis, the Marlboro cars continued to dominate. They took 12 wins, in the 16 race season, with Unser winning eight and his second CART title. Paul Tracy won three times, with a strong run at late season, and Fittipaldi had one win. In five races, the Penskes had one-two-three finishes.
The Penske Racing success, in 1994, was expected, with the addition of Al Unser Jr. and the history of success that Roger Penske's racing cars have achieved throughout the past 25 years; ten Indianapolis wins, USAC championships in 1977 and 1978, CART titles in 1979, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1985, 1988 and 1994, and I've lost count of the number of total USAC and CART wins.
Everybody knows Roger Penske was the "main man" in the sport of Indianapolis style racing!
How things change!
Little Al and Emmo couldn't get the Penskes, powered by conventional Mercedes (Ilmor) power, anywhere near competitive speed, at Indianapolis, during May, 1995. By the beginning of the second week of "500" practice, Penske was scrambling around, trying 1994 Reynards and backup Bobby Rahal Lolas. It was all to no avail, as Al and Emmo still struggled to reach speed. Penske, himself, committed the biggest goof, when he called off a qualifying run by Fittipaldi, which would have made the 1995 "500" field. The unthinkable had happened. Roger Penske, the all time champion "Indianapolis 500" competitor, had blown it and failed to qualify for the race. In going down for the count, he had also dragged his drivers, Unser and Fittipaldi, who had won the three previous runnings of Indy, down with him.
Fittipaldi's driving hasn't been the same since. Several weeks before the 1995 "500", Emmo ran like crazy, in Phoenix, losing only because he needed a late race fuel stop. Two weeks before the official opening of Indianapolis practice, Emmo took a win at Nazareth, which followed Little Al's sixth win at Long Beach by two weeks. After May, though, Emmo never regained his old form. Little Al managed wins, at Portland, Mid Ohio and Vancouver. By the end of the 1995 season, it appeared that Unser was actually carrying the car and the Penske team and took second place in the final CART point standings.
With 12 races complete, in the 1996 season, a Penske car hasn't visited a CART winner's circle, and it's beginning to look as if that trend may continue. Tracy dominated most of the season opener, in Miami, and he was looking strong, in Nazareth, until he ran over one of his crew members, during a pit stop. Little Al looked like he was going to win Milwaukee, but lost to Michael Andretti, on the final NASCAR style restart.
Fittipaldi ran afoul of Greg Moore's front wheel, going through turn one, on lap two, of the recent Michigan race. Emmo was lucky to escape from the crash, without paralysis. Although he'll probably change his mind, he as much as said, last week, that he was done as a driver.
Michigan brought an especially bad weekend for the Penske organization. Tracy had another of those accidents he seems to experience so often. Unfortunately he was hurt in this one, and will miss tomorrow's Mid Ohio race. Paul is usually very fast and has real talent, but he has been an accident waiting to happen since he made his CART debut, with a crash, at Michigan, in 1991.
Now the Penske power has shifted east, to the Far East, and the Japanese essentially own the CART series. It's similar to a few years ago, when Japan was buying up so much of the US. CART racing 1996 hardly seems a contest. Honda powered cars have won all but three races this season. For one reason or another, they couldn't seem to figure out Nazareth and Milwaukee, and Detroit was a disaster, primarily, because Bridgestone/Firestone apparently hadn't quite gotten the knack of building rain tires.
If it weren't for Michael Andretti, Ford Cosworth would be winless, as Ilmor Mercedes is. Other than Mikey, Goodyear's other win came. in Cleveland, with Gil de Ferran's Reynard - Honda --what else?
It's a Japanese engine and tire that have blown the lid off the CART series. I wonder how Gordon Kirby, the CART reporter for Racer magazine, feels about the competitiveness of the series this year. After last season, Kirby was beside himself, with enthusiasm, about the 1995 CART season, with nine different drivers winning, in three different chassis, powered by three different engines and shod on two different brands of tires.
Remember how we laughed at the end of the 1994 season, recalling how difficult Roger Penske, Carl Haas and their buddies made it for Honda to come into CART? The original "American" Honda engine, with the cast iron block, was a dud and it looked like the joke was on Honda. I doubt if Penske and Haas, with their strong ties to Mercedes and Ford, respectively, are laughing too hard these days. I also doubt if Bobby Rahal is laughing too hard either. Poor Bobby, I wonder what he must be thinking. Talk about poor management, Rahal could teach a seminar on the subject.
Tough luck Roger and Carl; you should have tried a little harder to keep Honda out of your game.
While the white and red Penske Marlboros remind us of earlier glory days, there are new kings standing on the hill, having been pushed up there by Honda and Firestone.
Floyd "Chip" Ganassi, the jovial rich kid, from Pittsburgh, who used to race (sort of), is the new CART king. It's not been a meteoric rise. Ganassi's team of Target cars have promised much over the past few seasons, but their only real success came with Arie Luyendyk's pole position, at Indianapolis, in 1993, and Michael's delivery of street wins, the following season, at Surfers Paradise and Toronto. The move to Honda and Firestone, last Winter, has paid rich dividends. Last Spring, Jimmy Vasser took wins in the Miami opener, Surfers Paradise, Long Beach, and in the May 26 race that featured the "real stars" in their "real cars", at Michigan. For that victory, Vasser got to drink champagne from the Vanderbilt Cup. By the way Jimmy, who needs milk?
Recently, its been Ganassi's other driver, ex Formula One journeyman driver Alex Zanardi, who has been leading the charge. His only win came at Portland, but he's been looking good and definitely is in line for a second CART win anytime. He has to keep from driving into those walls like he did at Michigan though.
Steve Horne, perhaps the key figure in Rahal's big successes, in the 1980's, in the Budweiser/Truesports cars, took the gamble, in late 1994, to become Honda's partner, for his return to CART, last season. For 1996, Horne's Tasman Motorsport team switched from Reynard to Lola, and his cars, with Adrian Fernandez, in Toronto, and Andre Ribeiro, in Michigan, have won the two most recent CART events. It was Ribeiro's neat looking dark blue, day glow yellow and red LCI Lola - Honda that won CART's initial race in Brazil, last March.
If Japanese technology powers CART and holds the cars to the ground, the soul of the series may be in Brazil. In the Michigan race, seven Brazilian drivers started. There are even more Brazilians expected to be coming from the Indy Lights series for 1997. At the current rate of increasing involvement, it's almost possible to envision a future CART starting grid, filled completely with drivers from Brazil. Imagine that. It could happen.
CART has also become the number one job opportunity for unemployed Formula One drivers. At present, there are no less than eight F1 "rejects" running CART and most are doing pretty well. Like the "Boys from Brazil", there will probably be more F1 immigrants coming over next season, after they get their pink slips from their current F1 teams, this October.
Looking at the current CART environment, it's hard to imagine a Rick Mears, Al Unser Sr., Bobby Unser, Johnny Rutherford, Gordon Johncock, Tom Sneva and even an A.J. Foyt or Mario Andretti coming into the series. They would probably all be running NASCAR.
Michael Andretti, who is looking a bit like the Mikey of old, this year, made an interesting observation on the state of CART racing. He was quoted in National Speed Sport News, from Michigan, as saying "The smaller teams had nothing to lose to take chances they did and it is paying off in spades for them. A lot of guys are running up front that normally wouldn't because they had the right combination. That is one of the things I didn't like about the tire war because if you are on the wrong tire or whatever, it doesn't matter who you are. It is tough when you are getting blown off by guys that you probably shouldn't be getting blown off by."
Andretti's views have some merit. I was at the Michigan race, and it was a good one. Although, as I stood watching Zanardi and Ribeiro running in front, I wondered how Tony Stewart, Arie Luyendyk and a healthy Buddy Lazier would have been running in the same cars. I came to the conclusion that each would have been in the same position; first.
Amidst all of this, stands Al Unser Jr. With apologies to Michael Schumacher and Jeff Gordon, if Little Al isn't the best racing driver in the world, there isn't one.
He doesn't have a competitive package. He seems to have the misfortune of coming to Penske Racing during a downward slide. Without wins or many laps in front, Little Al has made the most of every opportunity, and his limited resources, getting high points finishes in race after race. He trails Vasser by a single point for the CART points lead, with only four races remaining in the season. I watched Little Al closely, at Michigan. He could put on a charge in the laps immediately following pit stops and then would begin to fade. After a few laps, his Marlboro car 2 became a "sitting target" for any cars chasing after him. But at race's end, Little Al had scratched for a fourth place. I doubt that he can beat Vasser's Honda, for the title, but wouldn't it be something if he did?
Al's dad saved face for Roger Penske twice, during previous down times for the team, with the CART title in 1983 and the 1987 Indianapolis win. Is it going to happen again that an Unser pulls Penske out of the fire?
It's difficult to see Roger Penske regaining his lost glory. I think he has met his match with Honda. They have more money, than Penske, and they know how to race better. Penske is resourceful though and can't be counted out yet. Maybe he can find a way to ditch Ilmor, Mercedes and Goodyear and get back to the front. If that fails, perhaps he and some of his pals, who are also taking a beating from Honda and Firestone, can find a way to maneuver the Japanese out of the series. Maybe Andrew Craig already has a plan for that. Who knows?