Conference oass::racers

This race, the first one of the season, is on an oval.  It's at
Homestaed, Florida.  I think its similar in shape to the Indianapollis
Motor Speedway (ie 4 distinct turns) - but I cant remember if its
a 1 mile or 1.5 mile circuit.

martin

	Ok thanks - I'll record Babylon 5 instead !!!  I won't be around, so I
have to choose which channel to record...

Roll on road courses and F1 - well providing F1 isn't as deathly boring as it
has been recently.

FWIW  I watched some SCCA <something> racing (bit like the old Trans-Am) last
weekend with Derek Daly _and_ David Hobbs commentating together.  That would be
my vote (along with Varsha) for all racing coverage.  But there again, I'm
biased, I understand their accents !


Thanks again,

Charles

    
    	RE: .2
    
    
    	I love racing and Indy, but Babylon 5 is getting way too
    interesting to miss!  :^)
    
    
    								Scott.
    

    re .2
    
    Don't know if your in the states or not...but if you are buy
    Videoguide. It will record your shows for you - so you don't miss
    racing or B5.
    
    re .3
    
    I'm with you...race is the greatest (Indy..F1..Nascar..ect..) but is B5
    getting good now or what! I love the fact that some of the old Star
    Trek actors now have roles in B5. Great show!
    
    The Shadows are coming...
    
                                                              -mike-

    Vasser drove a good race and took the win, with DeFerran second.
    
    Penske cars were not a factor in the end, although Paul Tracy looked
    very strong until his gearbox problems. Al Jr. was coming up until he
    had a brush with Carlos Guerrero and lost the front wing. 
    
    Again there was a lousy start with 2 cars spinning and Roberto Moreno
    hitting the wall as the green flag was being dropped.
    
    It was not an exciting race to watch in my opinion, but the rain had
    something to do with it.
    
    
    Mark

Yep - overal not exciting, the yellows and the rain delay made it
very slow.  But once they got going the last 3rd was fairly decent with
quite a bit of overtaking.

Anybody else see that car move left on Michael A before he hit it ?
I certainly didn't and am just wondering if Michael is the only person
that saw it :-)

m

    I was actually beginning to wonder if the race would even start!  
    Tracy was COMPLETELY dominant through the first half and I was quite
    peeved to see his equipment fail him (yet again).  I hope Penske gets
    this worked out. 
    It was nice to see Vasser take the win.  He fought hard and ran a great
    race.
    Greg Moore was definately impressive.  I don't think it will be too
    long before he gets his first podium.
    
    Paul
    

    I agree with -2.  Think Michael suffers from the same lack of depth
    perception as his dad.  Also think the only Andretti with smarts is the
    one in NASCAR.  At least in NASCAR you get a couple of extra inches cos
    of the fenders!!1
    

    The end of the race was worth watching, given the close racing...
    
    jim
    

    The Grand Prix of Rio is this weekend is it not??
    Any predictions???  Is it a street course???
    
    P.
    

It is a "D" shaped oval.

It's a 300 mile-r if I'm not mistaken.  Hopefully it won't be over in a flash.

I agree "Go Tracy".  I thing this is his year.

Bill

Sorry,

It's a 400K or 248 mile race.

Bill

    Looking in the paper this morning and noticed that Channel 5 is not
    carrying the race (again).  Time to see if the antenna can get it from
    more "civilized" areas.
    
    Jeff

RE 13:

Last year ESPN would carry the ABC races the following day in the afternoon.  I
don't know if they are this year or not.

On a similar note, ESPN2 had the first F1 race live as well as the next.
Midnight the the following day on ESPN.  Give me a break. Time to badger my
local cable company for ESPN2.

Bill

Same here - I've already harrassed Cablevision in Fitchburg due to no ESPN2, but
got told to take a hike...  With all motorcycle racing now on '2 I think it's
time for DSS (crappy cable package anyway !)

I want my F1 and I want it LIVE    8-)

Another vote for Paul Tacy - though De Feran and Vasser are looking strong.
And what about that Greg More ??!  

I just found the EDS web pages, they're at URL:

	http://www.indycar.com/eds/MotorsportsHome.html

Excellent up to the minute (well, day) results of all the practice sessions,
final results, and lots of other stats.

I'm lucky enough to be able to get ESPN2 here in Nashua for a very cheap
buck a month.  I haven't checked yet, is Channel 9 in Manchester carrying
the race on Sunday - hopes so...

martin

    Re: last couple
    
    ESPN is doing rebroadcasts this year.  Usually they appear the next day
    (Monday).
    
    F1 live on ESPN2 is the only viable option; the ratings were just too damn
    low on ESPN1.  Also, it's a good demand-pull strategy for Cap Cities:
    coerce every racing fan to call their cable system and ask for ESPN2.
    I believe the races are shown tape-delayed on ESPN1 sometime later in
    the week.
    
    George

    I couldn't see the race yesterday, but it looks like a close one.  Can
    anyone provide some comments?
    
    
    INDYCAR: Rio de Janeiro results 
    
        tomh@motorsport.com (Tom Haapanen) 
        MNI - Motorsport News International 
        Sun Mar 17 16:37:17 EST 1996 
    
    
    Pos  Driver                Nat  Chassis-Engine                Time
    ------------------------------------------------------------------
     1.  Andre Ribeiro         BR   Lola 96-Honda          2:06:08.100
     2.  Al Unser Jr.          USA  Penske 96-Mercedes          +2.141
     3.  Scott Pruett          USA  Lola 96-Ford                +2.732
     4.  Alessandro Zanardi    I    Reynard 96-Honda            +2.767
     5.  Christian Fittipaldi  BR   Lola 96-Ford                +3.540
     6.  Bobby Rahal           USA  Reynard 96-Mercedes         +4.051
     7.  Raul Boesel           BR   Reynard 96-Ford             +5.110
     8.  Jimmy Vasser          USA  Reynard 96-Honda           -1 laps
     9.  Roberto Moreno        BR   Lola 96-Ford               -1 laps
    10.  Gil de Ferran         BR   Reynard 96-Honda           -2 laps
    11.  Emerson Fittipaldi    BR   Penske 96-Mercedes         -2 laps
    12.  Marco Greco           BR   Lola 96-Ford               -2 laps
    13.  Bryan Herta           USA  Reynard 96-Mercedes        -2 laps
    14.  Adrian Fernandez      MEX  Lola 96-Honda              -7 laps
    
    15.  Robby Gordon          USA  Reynard 96-Ford         on lap 125
    16.  Parker Johnstone      USA  Reynard 96-Honda        on lap 119
    17.  Juan Manuel Fangio II ARG  Eagle 96-Toyota         on lap 119
    18.  Greg Moore            CDN  Reynard 96-Mercedes     on lap 117
    19.  Paul Tracy            CDN  Penske 96-Mercedes      on lap 101
    20.  Carlos Guerrero       MEX  Lola 96-Ford             on lap 96
    21.  Eddie Lawson          USA  Lola 96-Mercedes         on lap 88
    22.  Michael Andretti      USA  Lola 96-Ford             on lap 87
    23.  Stefan Johansson      S    Reynard 96-Mercedes      on lap 62
    24.  Hiro Matsushita       J    Lola 96-Ford             on lap 54
    25.  Mauricio Gugelmin     BR   Reynard 96-Ford          on lap 20
    26.  Jeff Krosnoff         USA  Reynard 96-Toyota        on lap 98
    27.  Mark Blundell         GB   Reynard 96-Ford          on lap 11
    
    DNS  Scott Goodyear        CDN  Reynard 96-Ford          
    
    
    
    All information courtesy of MNI - Motorsport News International 

    Well I watched the ESPN coverage live on Eurosport.
    
    Great finish for Ribiero in front of his home crowd
    they really went wild, great showers of hats in the air
    at the finish, and a "mexican wave" of cheering spectators
    as he went round in the final yellow.
    
    Greg Moore looks like a guy to watch! Honda/Firestone seemed
    to be the best combo, he had the tyres, but not the motor
    and still gave the  honda's (and little Al) a great fight.
    He touched the wall with a glancing blow with his RR didn't
    look to do any damage, but he limped to the pit and dropped
    out near the race end, not sure quite what went wrong.
    
    Mark Blundell looks like being a liability on speedways!
    he had an awfull crash early on, he dipped low into the grass
    and went straight accross the track, missing his team mate by
    millimeters, and into the wall at a nasty angle, he was ok
    but seemed to have been knocked out at first, strange to see
    as the shot only showed him from the grass onward, reminded
    me of that terrible accident at Indy last year. not sure why
    he went so low? got loose? brake seized, or tyre blow?
    or maybe just bad driving? looked a bit odd though, he really
    dived down very unnatural like.
    
    Mike Andretti blew his engine, rumour was he was using the old
    Ford engine at Florida, as he doesn't trust this new one.
    looks like he maybe right!
    
    Unser drove a good measured race, looked a threat at the end
    but Ribiero clearly had the fastest car on the track, the way
    he pilled away after each yellow was amazing.
    
    Ah well off to Aussie for some real racing in 2 weeks :-)
    should be fun!
    Matt.

    Echo a lot of .19.  Great race, interesting "D-shape" track.
    
    Blundell's team mate came out of the race later on as well.  I believe
    it is Guegleman (sp).  ABC was talking with him to see why he was out
    and mentioned something about a rear hub breaking, and that he was
    luckier than Blundell in the way he found out.  
    
    Turns 1 and 4 required absolute braking capability, look at the other
    who when into the wall, especially Robby Gordon.  He, too, ran a great
    race until he last it in turn 1.
    
    Great race for Zanardi, too bad pit strategy led him astray.  
    
    Did anyone else see the fracas after the Bobby Rahal stop where he ran
    into one of his own crew?  The guy is OK, but it did look like it
    could have been worse.
    
    Australia is alway an interesting race.
    
    Carl

                <<< OASS::DKA400:[NOTES$LIBRARY]RACERS.NOTE;1 >>>
                             -< Racers and Racing >-
================================================================================
Note 378.21                   1996 IndyCar results                      21 of 21
STAR::KING                                           14 lines  18-MAR-1996 09:08
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pretty exciting race.  Lots of close racing and overtaking.

Greg Moore was stunning, again.  Shame his equipment gave up.

In a brief interview with Mark Blundel after, he said that his
brakes went, his foot went down to the floor, so he headed for the grass
in the hope he could spin the car to scrub some speed before he hit the
wall - unfortunately his plan didn't work and he went straight on though
and had heavy impact with the wall - as Matt said (.19), JUST missing his
team mate!

He suffered a small (I think) fracture in his right foot.

martin

It was rather a messy race, with lots of caution periods.  I think 
this was partly due to the bumpiness of the track.  It is a very 
atypical, flat, D-shaped oval, with very tight turns leading onto and 
from a very long front straight (as long as that at Indy).  Not only 
do the drivers have to brake heavily going onto and leaving the front 
straight, they have to downshift two gears at those corners.  Usually 
on an oval you put the car in top gear and leave it there.  IMO this 
is a road course with only four corners.

The Ganassi team dominated qualifying, with Zanardi on pole and 
Vasser next door.  Mo Nunn's engineering genius is showing through.  
Vasser faded in the early going, then Moore snatched the lead and was 
looking to win until something in the engine broke.  Ribiero 
inherited the lead and was able to bring it home.  Robby Gordon and 
the Walker team got out of synch on pit stops early on and were 
playing some interesting pit strategy games that kept Gordon in the 
fight, but then he lost it and hit the wall.  Little Al managed to 
climb from way down in the field to finish on the podium.  Christian 
Fittipaldi managed a magnificent charge from the very back of the 
grid (he posted no time in official qualifying).

Danny Sullivan described the phenomenon that caused Blundell's 
problem.  Breakage of that particular rear upright results in a 
temporary loss of hydraulic pressure to the brakes.  The pedal goes 
down to the floor just as Blundell described when you first step on 
it.  If you pump the brakes back up they'll be OK.  The problem is, 
by then he'd lost the car and was a passenger in a ride up to the 
wall.  It was a horrifying crash to watch, but the car did its job in 
protecting the survival cell.

    I didn't think the Players team could come up with a driver even
    close to Villeneuve, but Moore is impressive!!
    
    If I were Blundell I might consider taking up knitting rather than
    driving ;-)  As the commentator mentioned, his car did what it was
    supposed to, i.e. coming apart.  I can remember an Indy 500 from
    the early 70's; in those days there would have been a fuel cell
    on the side of the car the smacked the wall, a similar smack in
    those days also meant a horrible fire/explosion.  I remember an
    Indy 500 marred by a hideous fire that seriously injured several
    drivers and I believe one of the drivers did succumb to his burns
    eventually (I'm not sure at all, but for some reason Bettenhausen
    comes to mind).
    
    Usually I prefer the road courses to the oval, but this race was
    most interesting.  Let's face it Emmo owns the track, I would have
    been surprised if he had put his name to a track that wouldn't be
    a challenge for the drivers.
    
    Regarding the Rahal incident; it was caused by a member of the
    pit crew for the driver who pitted in front of Rahal.  They neglected
    to get the tire out of way after changing the tires, Rahal's crew
    member lunged to get it out of Rahal's path almost getting wiped
    out in the process.
    
    

I thought Rahal would get a stop and go penalty for that.  It's not ok to run
over a hose, but it's ok to run over a person?  Lucky the guy wasn't hurt.

What happened to Tracy?  I didn't see it on ABC?

Bill

    Tracy was a tad over zealous and put the nose of his car under the back
    of someone elses car, sending that person into the wall.  he then
    retired a lap or two later.  I would venture to say that something
    might have gone wrong in the car, as he seemed pretty hot when he
    climbed out of the car and left without speaking to anyone.  This is
    not encouraging when he DNF's the first 2 races.....not a great way to
    get the championship points.
    
    Hey Mod, looks like we are going to have to change the title of this
    note. 
    
    I read this morning that Tony (the a$$hole) George has rescinded the
    rights to use the name "Indycar" from CART.  Just when I think he might
    go away, he does something else stupid.  Mr George is looking more and
    more like a baby every day.  Me thinks perhaps he is a little miffed
    that CART has gone ahead and rolled along without him and his track.  I
    wonder what CART will retaliate with.
    
    Pablo

Shame about Tracy - though we didn't see it on ABC, the commentators 
indicated that Tracy was taken out by someone that span in front of him.
I hope it was that, and not Tracy doing an 'Andretti' move.

Geeze, Tony George is trying everything he can.  But, he's not making
me like him or the IRL any more than I did.  I've been to Loudon for
the last 3 IndyCar races, but I'm missing this year (IRL race) to send a
message....

When the US500 was first a rumor, it was said the Penske would honour
any Indianapolis Motor Speedway tickets at the Michigan Speedway.  Is this
actually happening ?  It would be interesting to see packed stands in
Michigan and a low turnout at the Indy500.  

Anyone here going to either ?

martin

    re: .23, Rahal/Moore incident
    
    It was caused by Rahal's crew standing at the extreme edges of their
    pit box, forcing Moore to stop at an angle and complicating his stop.
    Moore's people thoughtfully stacked a couple of changed-out wheels  in
    BR's way (but within the Forsythe pit box).  Payback's a bitch.
    
    I'm liking BR less and less as the years roll on.  Desperation doesn't
    become him.
    
    George

Let me know what the new title of the series is and I'll make the change...

Dave

There's a clause in the license of the "Indy Car" trademark from the 
Speedway to CART that allows the Speedway to revoke the license with 
30 day's notice if CART does anything that brings either the Speedway 
or the sport into disrepute or damages the Speedway.  IMS is claiming 
that the US 500 being scheduled head-to-head with the Indy 500 is 
grounds for pulling the license.

This is going to make a bunch of lawyers rich.

--PSW

    Any catch the race in Surfer's Paradise yesterday?  (The Globe TV
    Guide was rather misleading in that it was carried on Channel 5.
    
    I was visiting but did manage to catch bits and pieces.  I know Paul 
    Tracy and Micheal Andretti got together, eventually taking both out.  
    Vassar was leading the last time I saw.
    
    Any news?
    
    Carl
    

    Vasser did capture the race, with Scott Pruett coming in second.
    
    Is it me or what, but does Michael Andretti have a problem out there?
    
    This is alomost getting to be an every race occurance where he makes
    contact with someone. I understand he's aggressive, but come on...
    
    
    Mark

    It was actually a pretty clean race all around.  Not alot of contact. 
    Gil De Ferran seems to have sold his soul to the devil.  How many times
    did he spin off?  and kept going!
    
    Michael Andretti is trying too hard to make up for insufficient
    equipment.  I truly think if he was at a better team (Forsythe, Penske)
    he would be incredibly fast.  But he IS taking far too many chances and
    is making an a$$ out of himself in the process.  Tracy had every right
    to walk over and punch him in the head!
    
    It was nice to see him publicly admit 100% fault for the accident.  He
    stated that he came in too hot, locked up the front, and could do
    nothing to avoid hitting Tracy.  He stated that he'd hoped Tracy had 
    seen him, but obviously didn't.
    
    Tracy is having a hell of a time with it this year, but reports are
    that Penske is thrilled with his race-to-win attitude and doesn't mind
    that he blows an engine or car in the process.  How long will that
    last??
    
    P

 >   It was nice to see him publicly admit 100% fault for the accident.  He
 >   stated that he came in too hot, locked up the front, and could do
 >   nothing to avoid hitting Tracy.  He stated that he'd hoped Tracy had 
 >   seen him, but obviously didn't.

It's good he admitted his fault (albeit grudgingly and in a roundabout
fashion), but that sort of excuse doesn't wash when you've got his
level of experience.  A guy in his first couple of years in Indy cars
can get away with excuses like that; by now, Michael should know better.
Tracy's got every right to be hopping mad.  I noticed that Carl Haas
seemed none too pleased, either.

--PSW

    Good to see Vasser win.  Nice to see that there is some driver parity
    this year instead of the walk away season of the last few.
    
    It is not you, Michael just doesn't seem to have the will to race, at
    least in my opinion.  Since returing from his failed sojourn with F1,
    it just doesn't seem like he is into it anymore.
    
    I think Paul had a right to be upset, but hey, these are big boys in
    machines that if you don't go for it, you don't make the big money. 
    Some of Paul's past driving can be seen as a little suspect too.
    
    I hope Penske has big money sponsoring Paul, because if this is coming
    out of his pocket, he can't be too happy.
    
    How did Al Jr do?
    
    Carl

    Little Al placed third I believe.
    
    Penske has stated that he likes Tracy alot because he sees alot of Rick
    Mears' qualities in him.  Mears won him a championship.....
    
    Paul 
    

1. Jimmy Vasser
2. Parker Johnston
3. Little Al
4. Paul Tracy
5. Gil de Feran
.
.

Gil was very unlucky having dominated the race and pulled out a gap
at each re-start after yellows, only to have his cat let him down
4 or 5 laps from the end.  He hung in for 5th.  Vasser's 3 win out
of the 4 races this year - this years champion, or is it too early 
to say ?!

Paul Tracy could have been nearer the front after a good showing if
he hadn't passed someone under a yellow near the end of the race and
had to go in for a stop'n'go.  

Robby Gordon seem to run at least 5 races!  Going off a few times and
actually getting out of his car in the pits at one point for a fuel
fire.  He got back in a wet car to keep in the hunt!

Michael drove a lot of the race with his wing damaged after chopping
under Fangio - but I guess he's used to running with no front wing
by now :-)

martin 

    Thanks for the report Martin...looks like Jimmy is going to run away
    with it. Who could have seen that coming before the season. Thought he
    would do well but not this well. It looked like for awhile that his
    teammate Alex was going to be in the top 3 at the end, but the Beach
    got him 8-(
    
                                                             -mike-

    It was a very good race to watch.  I am not a Long Beach fan, but this
    race was good.
    
    It did look like de Feren would walk away with the whole shooting
    match, until the car broke with 5 laps left.  Vasser was in the right
    place at the right time for the duration.
    
    It was interesting to note that Parker Johnstone was clearly more
    emotional about his 2nd place finish.  Good to see some of the also
    rans getting intot he frakas now.
    
    I think one of the more interesting events was the Greg Moore/Christian
    Fittapaldi boxing match after they took each other out of the race. 
    The results of their collision also took out Uncle Emmo.
    
    Good race to watch.
    
    Carl

Can anyone shed any light on this spin = yellow flag rule?  Parker Johnstone
spins, doesn't hit anything, looses maybe 3 positions and they go yellow for
3 laps.  It doesn't seem to make any sense, but maybe it's just me.

Same thing late in the race when Greg Moore got a little sideways.

Bill

    Prely speculation on my part...debris on the track that needed to be
    cleaned?!

    May be to do with this new rule of aligning lapped cars behind
    the lead lap cars? this means lots of shuffling and takes
    some time?
    
    Matt

My guess is on the ovals they go yellow as soon as they see someone spin - its
just too dangerous to leave someone on the track.  In some cases, as in this,
the driver does a 360 and keeps going or manages to get going again from
a stand-still.  But by that time the yellow is out and the rules around
a yellow that Matt mentions in .-1 then come into play, so it takes a 
while to get going again.

martin

    The championship looks pretty close. The form is shifting towards
    Andretti, de Ferran etc. I would say that anyone from Vasser down to
    Ribiero and Rahal could be in with a shout given a consistent run of
    results.
    
    Paul

It's good to see Mike Andretti back on form.  He hasn't been himself since
leaving for F1.  Hopefully this will continue.

Bill

    Betcha Little Al was a bit upset with his dumb move that took him out.
    Ditto for Rahal. 
    
    This garbage about waiting 3-4 laps to sort out the front is good only
    for commercials. The pace car should grab the leader and everyone in
    front should be waived by to get to their back positions.
    
    jim

    Either everbody who used to note here has gone, or IndyCar is dying in
    the US!
    
    Great race last night with the result in doubt until the last corner.
    Good tactics by de Ferran & Jim Hall, called it just right. With just
    10 points covering the first 3 drivers and 7(?) races to go the title
    looks to be going down to the wire. De Ferran would have been well
    clear with better luck, but Jim & Co seems to be pulling him right to
    the top now.
    
    Paul

    I have to agree with you.  It was a good race and a nail biter right
    down to the wire.  Had the driver being lapped on the last turn not
    been there it could have been a different finish.
    I was a tad confused as to what the hell happened to Tracy though.  He
    was in the lead after the first stops, prior to his own, and then after
    his stop, a short one at that, he ended up in 17th position.  He never
    seemed to regain the positions after that.  I don't understand how he
    could go into the pits in first place and come out after only 10
    seconds that far back.  Odd?!?
    
    Paul

    RE: .48  about Indycardying in the US.
    
    I don't think it's dying. As for myself though I just can't
    stand watching these races anymore for 1 reason - ATTRITION.
    These cars are just too delicate. Simple tire bumping sends these
    guys packing. Also far too many mechanical problems putting guys
    out...like Michael Andretti with 10 laps left.
    
    Watching a race like the Indy 500 where 9 or 10 cars finish, or,
    the Formual 1 grand prix of monte carlo (similar cars but not
    the same) where 4 cars finish just makes for a crappy race.
    
    Give me the Winston Cup...Slam that wall, take her to the pits,
    remove the fenders, hood, throw on a couple tie rods, and send her
    back out to finish the race....That's more like it.
    
    FWIW                 

    Re: -1
    
    That may be true of Winston Cup, but REAL race cars don't have:
    
    Doors
    Fenders
    Hoods
    Trunks
    
    8^)
    
    Mark

I caught the last 45 minutes or so of the race.  Another stroke of bad luck 
for Michael A, but a great battle for the flag.  I thought it was interesting 
that they mentioned Buddy Lazier was looking for the ride.  The IRL must 
really be bad if the Indy 500 winner is jumping ship and has to go searching 
for a ride.

Dave

    re .50
    
    The Winston Cup and the Bush series were designed to promote close racing 
    in full bodied cars, using low-tech reliable designs/parts. This makes
    for close "full contact" racing...mostly oval racing. Fans can see the cars
    go all the way around the track...and if they get hit...just duct tape
    it and keep on going. Many fans love this kind of racing.
    
    IndyCar and F1 are open wheel series - totally different animal.
    Technology is very high in F1 and a little less so in IndyCar, but still
    much more complex then NASCAR. It takes BIG bucks to run IndyCar and F1
    teams... F1 teams take $30 million + a year to run. 
    
    I'm sure most of what I've said, you already know. It's just good to
    write down what each series is all about, because they are soooo
    different. I watch and enjoy both full-bodied and open-wheel series
    BECAUSE THEY ARE DIFFERENT.
    
    BTW - Full-bodied series also includes British/German Touring Car
          series....and open-wheeled also includes Indy Lites, Toyota
          Formula Atlantic, sprints..etc.. 
    
    								-mike-

    Some racing news updates...
    
                     
    Talk on the streets is that Robby Gordon is out of the Valvoline car
    for next year. He and Derrick Walker are going there seperate ways.
    Gordon may end up in the Kool sponsored car, which is looking for an
    American driver supposedly. Also, talk is his father may get an IRL car
    and he'll race that along wiht his Off Road racing which is his first
    love.
    
    Al Unser Jr. has re-signed with Penske Racing, but the talk is
    that he's got a clause which let's him run the Indy 500. The contract
    is a 1 year deal.
    
    Scott Pruett is looking for more than a 1 year deal to stay with
    Firestone/Patrick racing. He may go to the Kool Racing in a second
    car. Kool by the way is moving up from Indy Lights to CART/IndyCar next
    year.
    
    Scott Goodyear is rumored to be heading for the IRL to run the second
    car of Treadway Racing. Arie Luyendyk is the other driver for Treadway
    who has always liked Goodyear and wants him to run with him as well.
    
    Gil de Ferran is being pursued once again for an F1 ride, supposedly
    with Jackie Stewart's new Ford team. de Ferran has 1 more year with Hall
    Racing but is the hottest driver as far as other teams within F1 and
    CART/IndyCar looking to grab his services. Speaking of Jim Hall,
    Pennzoil has told him that he will lose his sponsorship with them.
    Since they are aligned with the IRL, they will not be as invloved with
    the CART/IndyCar series.
    
    I also spoke with Roberto Guerrero last night up in Concord, New
    Hampshire. He's been at NHIS testing for Goodyear. Richie Hearns, Scott
    Sharp and Davey Hamilton were also up testing. Hearns and 1 of Foyt's
    drivers hit the wall yesterday and were treated for minor injuries.
    Guerrero mentioned that the new track in Las Vegas is terrific. He also
    said that they are tearing up the track in Walt Disney World, moving it
    and making it wider with a minor configuration change to the layout. 
    
    Disney World has also backed out of the U.S. Grand Prix derby for F1.
    Las Vegas is the likely target for F1's return to the U.S. now.
    
    The 1997 Indy 500 has reportedly been sold out once again.
    
    
    Mark                
    
    

    WOW! Surprise, surprise.
    
    Robby Gordon leaving Walker racing does not seem too big a surprise
    though when you think about how little "lime-light" they have had this
    year.  He hasn't seemed to be too happy this year.  Come to think of it
    neither has Walker.
    
    Little Al, leaving Penske?!  Any reasons given as to why?
    
    Carl

Ummm Carl


>    Al Unser Jr. has re-signed with Penske Racing, but the talk is
                      ^^^^^^^^^
>    that he's got a clause which let's him run the Indy 500. The contract
>    is a 1 year deal.

Little Al has signed with Penske, not resigned.    

    He probably needed to re-sign since he'll have some alimony and child
    support payments.  Heard thru the grapvine a couple of months ago that
    he and Shelley were "no longer"
    
    

RE: .54

Great info Mark, thanks for sharing.

I noticed when one of the local TV stations did a report on NHIS for the
upcoming NASCAR race weekend that it was IndyCars on the circuit at the
time - confused me for a while...

martin

RE: Kool Racing

This is Team Green.  Kool is their new title sponsor for next year.


RE: Al and Shelley Unser

Last I heard, they were back to gether again, but Michael and Sandy 
Andretti had split up.

--PSW

    Condolences to the family & friends of Jeff Krosnoff and the track
    worker killed yesterday in Toronto. It was a truely horrific accident
    and could have been even worse. I must admit that I feared the worst
    when I saw the shunt in replay, the car seemed to hit a tree at the
    side of the track, full on the top of the cockpit area.
    
    It just won't stay away forever will it?
    
    Paul

    I watched it in slow motion a few times. Nasty.....   Any idea how the
    worker got killed? I saw the group on the left at the beginning of the
    accident start to duck down moments after he went airborn, but didn't 
    see if they got it there. If there was someone standing more towards
    the corner, that may be where s/he got it.
    
    jim
    

    re:.56
    
    Thanks, brain fade...and the understanding there of...
    
    I have yet to watch the race.  I caught some of the story last night on
    TNN's Race Day program.  Nasty, nasty accident.
    
    Condolences to the Krosnoff family.
    
    
    Carl

Does someone have the rankings available regarding the
driver's championship?


Willem

1 JIMMY VASSER	       107 
2 AL UNSER JR		99 
3 GIL DE FERRAN		92 
4 CHRISTIAN FITTIPALDI	84 
5 MICHAEL ANDRETTI	73 
6 ALEX ZANARDI		72 
7 GREG MOORE		72 
8 SCOTT PRUETT		62 
9 PAUL TRACY		59 
10 ADRIAN FERNANDEZ	56 
11 BOBBY RAHAL		54 
12 ANDRE RIBEIRO	50 
13 MAURICIO GUGELMIN	29 
14 EMERSON FITTIPALDI	29 
15 MARK BLUNDELL	29 
16 PARKER JOHNSTONE	28 
17 EDDIE LAWSON		26 
18 ROBERTO MORENO	24 
19 BRYAN HERTA		24 
20 ROBBY GORDON		21 
21 STEFAN JOHANSSON	19 
22 RAUL BOESEL		11 
23 P J JONES		 4 
24 HIRO MATSUSHITA	 3 
25 RICHIE HEARN		 3 
26 SCOTT GOODYEAR	 1 
27 MARCO GRECO		 1  

    re .61
    
    The replay that I saw shows the marshall, who was standing in the group
    that ducked, getting hit and flipped right over from the force of the
    contact.  He was standing the furthest down the track from the corner,
    and was apparently looking the opposite direction.  So at least he
    never saw it coming.  I was shocked actually at how the medical crews
    and the broadcasters seemed to think the worker would be ok, and it
    didn't appear that anyone even went over to check on him.  Odd!  I
    would think it would be rather serious when someone gets hit in the
    head by a tire doing 190 MPH.
    
    Paul
    

    Given the speed, I'm not sure he could have gotten out of the way even
    if he saw it coming. It appeared to me he wasn't looking down track
    either.
    
    jim

RE: .65

It might be that the medical crew could tell with one glance that the 
guy was beyond help.


RE: .66

According to corner workers who have posted to rec.autos.sport.indy, 
corner station teams work on a buddy system.  Each is responsible for 
constantly watching part of the track.  Looking down that part of the 
track was not this guy's assignment.  Unfortunately, it all happened 
too fast to react.

--PSW

    I finally got to watch the entire race last night, and even with all
    the discussions here and in the papers, I was just devastated when I
    saw it.  At least ABC had the decency to not keep replaying it (once
    was enough.)
    
    Please, I am not an a soapbox here.
    
    Ok, the buddy system might help explain why the course official was
    looking the otherway, (even though there were more stationed not very
    far away) but I have more of a generic question to ask.
    
    Why were they sooo close to the track with nothing but that concrete
    barrier between the cars and the marhsals?  At the other "real road"
    courses the marshals are behind a fence, which has cut outs if they
    need to get onto the course?
    
    Just curious!
    
    Carl
    
    

    re: -1
    
    Don't know why they may have been without fencing. If I was working
    that section, I'd feel safe, given the jersey barrier there. What
    happened was a real fluke.
    
    jim - who will be flagging at NHIS in 2 weeks....
    

    Wow, no one has talked about the MIS race this past weekend. One of my
    favorites, Emerson Fittipaldi takes a very hard crash. While it appears
    he will be OK, I heard on ESPN last night that he's leaning towards
    retiring. With Paul Tracy being hurt as well, and the unfortunate accident 
    involving Arceiro-Wells in Toronto, has their been any replacement drivers 
    announced?
    
    Jim Hall has announced he will be retiring after this year as well.
    
    Also, Mercedes may be pulling out of IndyCar also after this year it
    was reported.
    
    
    Mark
    
    
    

    RE: last
    
    Do you have a source on the Mercedes pullout rumor?  
    
    Re: Arciero-Wells, Max Papis, who has simply been amazing in the Momo
    Ferrari in IMSA this year, will have the ride for Mid-Ohio at least.
    
    George

What a race at Road America!  I couldn't believe Little Al's bad luck
with his engine self destructing on the last lap.  He would have been right
up there in points for the championship...

I was just thinking Mark Blundell was running a good strong race an in
with a chance for a high position finish - but Andre R thought differently!

Christian looked pretty dejected when his car died after a great run.

And two cars end their race upside down....!

No one hurt, glad to say.  I think Greg Moore was extremely lucky that
his car didn't flip at the speed he was going....

Gee...kept me on the edge of my seat.

martin

    re: a couple back...
    
    The article was front page news in National Speed Sport News. A source
    (named in the article) said Mercedes did not need to promote itself
    through racing (indy Car) They were upset at the split, but said that 
    the Indy 500 and not being there was not a big deal. Truthfully I
    haven't seen anything since.
    
    Interesting to hear there will be an IRL race at the new Texas Speedway
    on June 7th at night. I did hear, unconfirmed, that a CART race will
    also be held. Another good rumor is that Penske and George are talking
    about a CART sanctioned race at Indianpolis!
    
    Mark
    
    

    I heard a rumor while at NHIS this weekend (not from track folks...)
    that there are only 2 tracks that have signed with IRL for next year.
    
    jim
    

That would be Indy & Texas, correct?

    I didn't hear which tracks.
    

    As I understand it the IRL has these dates for the 1997 season which
    started in Loudon, August 18th.
    
    8/18 - NHIS
    9/15 - Las Vegas
    1/25 - Walt Disney World
    4/6  - Phoenix
    5/25 - Indianapolis
    
    1998 Season:
    
    6/7  - Pikes Peak Speedway
    6/28 - Texas Motor Speedway
    8/17 - NHIS
    
    Supposedly, Pocono Raceway is close to signing on for a July race.
    Atlanta Speedway and Charlotte are also under negotiation according to
    different sources. NHIS and Phoenix I believe had 3 year deals signed
    with the IRL beginning this year.
    
    According to ESPN2 last night, KOOL racing who is looking for an
    established American driver is pursuing Buddy Lazier. It looks like
    Raul Boesel may be out of a ride.
    
    Mark