bob jennings' WORLD O' RACING  06/12/99

Winner Arie Luyendyk passes Emerson Fittipaldi low, during the 1990 "Indianapolis 500"

Bob Jennings

I believe that when I took this shot, standing on the edge of the creek, in turn one, Arie was lapping Emmo, who was running third. I also think, but don't remember for sure, that this photo was taken within the final moments of the 1990 "Indianapolis 500," as Arie was getting close to his first win.  

Given the hero's reception that Luyendyk received, during the two weeks of activity, for the 83rd "Indianapolis 500," it's easy to forget how strange it seemed, in 1990, for Arie Luyendyk to win the "greatest spectacle in racing." The 1990 "500" was Arie's first Indy car win. The only two drivers who took their first Indy car wins, at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, in recent memory, were Graham Hill, in 1966, and Troy Ruttman, in 1952. In Hill's case, he had been the 1962 World Champion, in Formula One, and was one of the most famous international racing personalities. I can't say too much about Ruttman, in 1952, because I wasn't paying attention yet, but Troy was a well known commodity on the U.S. racing scene by the time he won at Indianapolis.

A friend, Dave Fuller, who was a co-worker, at that time, used to exclaim how unusual it seemed for Arie Luyendyk to win the "500" and I agreed with him. Luyendyk wasn't driving for one of the elite CART teams, when he won the 1990 race for Douglas Shierson Racing. Arie's engineer, on the Dominos Pizza Lola - Chevrolet, was John Dick, who had some successes in the SCCA Trans Am series, but I'm having trouble remembering who else was on that team. I believe long time Shierson team member Ian Reed had gone to the Tom Walkinshaw IMSA GT project a couple seasons earlier, but I'm not sure whether Dennis Swan or Neil Micklewright were still on the team. 

Shierson and Luyendyk were in their first and only year of competition together. Raul Boesel had driven Shierson's Dominos Pizza Lola - Judd to third place in the 1989 "500." Arie drove for Dick Simon during 1988 and 1989. When Roger Penske, Chevrolet and Ilmor added the Shierson team to its "cherished" list of teams for 1990, Luyendyk joined the team, that also included rookie Scott Goodyear, in a Lola - Judd, sponsored by MacKenzie Financial, of Canada.

By the start of May, Shierson had sold half interest in Luyendyk's car to Bob Tezak, and then shortly after the race, sold the rest of the team to Tezak. Tezak was, I believe, a former Will County, Illinois prosecutor and invented the popular card game Uno. He also helped bring Tim Richmond into big time racing. If  I recall, Luyendyk had problems collecting his share of the "500" winner's purse, from Tezak. Tezak basically sold the team to Vince Granatelli at the end of 1990, which included Arie's contract and the right to lease the Chevy Indy V8 engine for 1991.  

During "500" practice and qualifications, Luyendyk, like most everyone else, was in the shadow of the "carry over" challengers from the 1989 "500," Emerson Fittipaldi and Al Unser Jr. Fittipaldi and Unser traded quick speeds back and forth, during practice, with Little Al's 228 mph lap, the Friday before qualifications, the fastest lap of the month. Pole day Saturday was completely rained out, but the following day, there was about two hours of qualifying, with Fittipaldi fastest, at 225.301 mph. Unser had to wait until the next Saturday to qualify and he ended up seventh, on the grid, with a disappointing 220.920 mph average, after having missed the set up on his Galles - Kraco Valvoline Lola - Chevy.

Luyendyk, consistently among the fastest drivers, in practice, qualified at 223.304 mph, to grab the outside front row starting spot, next to Fittipaldi and Rick Mears, at 224.215 mph.

Like most everyone else, I was pumped up for the "return match" between Fittipaldi and Unser Jr., and didn't think too much the other principals, Mears, Danny Sullivan, Mario, Michael or Bobby Rahal winning the "500." I didn't consider Luyendyk a possible winner.

I recall hearing Bobby Rahal, who was the co-host of WRTV channel 6's "500" coverage, in 1990, talking after the race about how Fittipaldi seemed "obsessed" with repeating his 1989 win. That was an interesting observation, which characterized Emmo's performance. He led 125 of the first 127 laps, in the race, and no one else was close. At the halfway point, Unser was running second, but that was as close as the two came to restoring their 1989 competition. Mario was out by lap 60. Michael was out by lap 146. Neither was a factor while they were running. Mears fell off the pace early, eventually finishing fifth. Sullivan crashed on lap 19 and was out.

Both Fittipaldi and Unser used over inflated tires, which Goodyear engineers had warned about, and both experienced blistered tires, which necessitated extra pit stops. The smart guys were Barry Green, who headed Rahal's Kraco crew and Shierson, because throughout the race, both Bobby and Arie followed the instructions, from Goodyear, and the race essentially fell to them.

When Fittipaldi faded, Rahal assumed the lead, but as the race entered its final third, Luyendyk was coming on fast. He caught Bobby on lap 163, in the third turn, and put a pass on Rahal's blue and yellow number 18 Lola - Chevy that was near to perfection. 

As Luyendyk completed his final laps, about the time I took the photo on this page, I happened to look at the scoring pylon. When I saw that the race average was "185," I wasn't sure I was seeing the right numbers, but the race was several laps past lap 185, so that caught my attention. In the years since, the closest any one has come to Luyendyk's record 185.981 mph average, was Rick Mears, at 176.457 mph, the following year. Arie must feel a lot of pride that he holds the official one lap record (237.4498 mph), the official four lap record (236.986) and the record for 500 miles.  

A side bar to the Arie's 1990 "500" win has to do with the primary sponsor on his winning car. Dominos Pizza became involved in Indy car racing to market its 30 second pizza delivery service; hence the number 30 on the Dominos cars. For a few years Dominos even offered a $1 million bonus for any driver who won all three 500 mile races, at Indianapolis, Michigan and Pocono. About one week before the 1990 "500," there was a fatal traffic accident involving a driver making a delivery for Dominos. The accident made it difficult to market Luyendyk's Indianapolis win and the company withdrew from racing at the end of the 1990 season.