Carter Wins Indy Pole; Rivals Gone With Wind

A year ago, Pancho Carter came to Indianapolis Motor Speedway without a ride, his racing fortunes at a low ebb.

This year, he will start on the pole for the 69th Indianapolis 500 after he ran four laps at a record 212.583 m.p.h. early Saturday and then sat and watched as gusty winds and a warm day wiped out the pole hopes of Mario Andretti, Bobby Rahal and Rick Mears.

Carter and Scott Brayton, the second-fastest qualifier at 212.354, were both driving British-built Marches powered by turbocharged Buick V-6 stock block engines. Brayton set a one-lap record of 214.199 m.p.h. during his run.

It will be the first time since 1931 that a made-in-Detroit stock block engine will start on the pole. Russ Snowberger did it that year in a Studebaker. It is also the first time since 1977 that a British-built Cosworth engine has not been on the pole.

Starting on the outside of the front row in the May 26 race will be Rahal, who was the fastest of the Cosworth drivers at 211.818.

Andretti, who ran an unofficial all-time record of 215.600 on Friday and 214.234 in Saturday morning practice, fought cross winds at the third turn that reduced his speed to a disappointing 211.576 shortly before noon.

“Going into the third turn, I couldn’t get the car to turn,” a disappointed Andretti said. “That’s where I left all my speed. I got caught at the wrong time on the race track, and I knew it on the first lap. I was down 200 revs all the way around. I think the air picked up 15 degrees from the morning run.”

Andretti was fourth fastest and will start behind Carter on the second row.

Another disappointed legend was A. J. Foyt, who made some changes in his March-Cosworth after practice--and they backfired. Foyt qualified for his record 28th Indy 500 at 205.782 and is in the seventh row.

“The car ran like a tub of (expletive deleted),” A. J. roared over the public address system as a crowd of more than 100,000 listened. “I screwed it up myself. I can’t blame the crew because I’m the one who made the changes. I guessed wrong. I got caught with my britches down. On a deal like this, you’re a hero or an ass, and I was an ass today.”

Changing track conditions can also work the other way, as they did in the case of another former champion, Al Unser. After a disappointing week, Unser found some unexpected speed and qualified seventh fastest.

“This place is strange,” Unser said. “You get your car set up for one type of track, the weather changes and you go backward. It helped us today.”

Twenty-seven cars qualified on the first day, one shy of last year’s record 28. It would have been the same, but rookie Jim Crawford of Scotland was disqualified after running 205.269 when his car proved to be 20 pounds too light in the post-qualifying inspection.

The average speed of the field so far: 208.169 m.p.h., up 4.633 from last year. Qualifying for the 33-car lineup will continue today and next weekend.

Three rookies, Arie Luyendyk of Holland, Ed Pimm and Michael Roe of Ireland, qualified Saturday. Luyendyk, last year’s Bosch Super Vee champion, was fastest at 206.004.

Brayton was the first driver to qualify, and Carter was the fourth, getting on the track before the wind and sunshine arrived.

“I’m glad I went out early, but when I came in with 212, I didn’t think it would hold up,” Carter said. “I expected Mario (Andretti) to run faster, but then the weather changed. That’s the way it is in Indiana. Maybe that’s why I live here. I had another advantage this week. I got to sleep in my own bed every night.”

Carter lives in Brownsburg, eight miles from the Speedway. He graduated from Marina High in Huntington Beach and Cal State Long Beach, but moved to Indiana in the mid-70s when he started his career as a U. S. Auto Club midget and sprint car driver.

The 34-year-old pole-sitter is a second-generation Indy 500 driver. His father, Duane Sr., drove here 11 times between 1948 and 1963. This will be Pancho’s 12th 500.

The only drama of a long day was provided by car owner Roger Penske, who held Mears and Danny Sullivan in the pits for four hours while he hoped for better qualifying conditions late in the afternoon. Penske had two corporate jets flying around Indiana studying the weather as he gambled against the possibility of rain--which would have wiped out Mears’ and Sullivan’s hopes of qualifying for the pole--in order to run with the temperature lower.

Finally, at 5 p.m., when it was appreciably cooler but still just as windy, first Sullivan and then Mears took the track, but to no avail. Neither could muster a lap better than 210 m.p.h.

“Waiting for Penske sure stretched out the day,” Carter said. “I was concerned that one of his drivers might beat my time, but there was nothing to get nervous about. I couldn’t do anything but wait, like everyone else.”

Before his record run, Carter had problems of his own.

“We had a water-leak problem this morning, and in the last 30 minutes before we got in line to qualify, I made two wing changes and changed three sets of tires. I got in one good half-lap where everything felt neutral. I came in, told the crew to push it out and we’d take what we got.”

Last year, after arriving without a ride, Carter hooked on with Walter Wolf’s American Dream team and finished 19th.

What made the difference between 1984 and 1985?

“I can answer that in two words: Rick Galles,” Carter said. “When he needed a driver late last season, he hired me a week before the Michigan race. It was a disastrous debut with a new owner. I totally destroyed his race car.

“Rick was more concerned about me than he was about all the money I’d cost him. He said, ‘If you can’t win, at least be spectacular.’ I drove two more races for him and he signed me on for this year.”

Carter and Galles, and Brayton, too, received a break in the rules for Indianapolis. Stock block engines were allowed 57 inches of turbo boost pressure as opposed to 47 inches for Cosworth engines. At other Indy car races, the stock blocks are restricted to 48 inches of boost, the same as the Cosworths.

At Long Beach, Carter failed to qualify but was allowed to race under a sponsor’s option. He was never competitive, but finished 13th.

“We didn’t show much today,” Carter said at the time, “But we proved the Buick engine could run all day. Just wait until we get to Indy. We’ll show you something there.”

Carter’s best finish in the last 11 years here was a third in 1982. He was also rookie of the year in 1974 when he went from 21st to finish seventh.

A former two-time national sprint car champion, Carter has won only one Indy car race, the 1981 Michigan 500. That capped a long comeback after he was seriously injured in an accident during a test session Dec. 2, 1977 at Phoenix International Raceway. The crash left Carter with a permanently injured right leg. After spending two months in the hospital, Carter returned to racing in April and won the first two sprint car races he entered.

Brayton might have won the pole had not his transmission given out on the fourth lap.

“The way the car was going, I thought the fourth lap would be a screamer,” said Brayton, a youthful-looking 26 who is in his fourth Indy 500. “I know I had a hot lap going until I felt the engine tighten up in the third turn and the car started to vibrate. By the time I got to (turn) four, I knew there was big trouble ahead. About 300 yards from the start-finish line, the transmission broke.”

After progressively improving his laps from 211.815 to 213.189 to the record 214.199, Brayton fell off to 210.256 on the troubled fourth lap.