bob jennings' WORLD O' RACING  05/15/99

Michael Andretti passes Mauricio Gugelmin on the way to victory in the 1996 "Miller 200" at the Milwaukee Mile

Bob Jennings

Michael Andretti beat Al Unser Jr. on a restart to win the 1996 Milwaukee race. If CART hadn't changed their website recently and removed their statistics archive, I could recall more detail from that race. Anyway, it was one of the final classic battles between CART's two big second generation superstars.

Al Unser Jr.'s racing career needs a complete make over. Mikey has a gorgeous wife who appears to fill the need he once had to beat the hell out of racing cars. So, Andretti often runs behind Newman - Haas teammate Christian Fittipaldi, and I don't think Fittipaldi is that good.

I was still trying to maintain something of an interest, in CART, when I went to Milwaukee, the week after the 1996 "Indianapolis 500." But I found the atmosphere, at the Milwaukee race, to be sort of alien, as if I really didn't belong there. I stayed for the Indy Lights race and the Toyota Atlantic race too. It reminded me of being with a girl friend about the time you know you're ready to break up.

I went to Michigan and Road America, later that Summer. Andretti won the Road America race too, again at the expense of Little Al. He inherited the win, after Unser Jr. blew an engine, on the final lap, with a healthy lead. I went to Milwaukee again, in 1997, but that was the most recent of the 75 CART races I've attended.

I  am thinking seriously about going back to the 1999 Milwaukee race. I wonder what it will be like if I do.