Motor Racing / Shav Glick : Purses for Indy Cars Could Reach $15.5 Million

Indy car drivers and owners received a belated Christmas present here Wednesday when Championship Auto Racing Teams announced at its annual convention that teams will run for as much as $15.5 million in this year’s CART/PPG Indy Car World Series.

That is up from last year’s record $11.5-million payoff.

They will have to work harder for their money, however. Part of the increase, $1 million of it, is the result of two additional races, a spring event in Phoenix that will be the season opener April 6, and a second race in Canada, a street event July 20 in Toronto.

Some driver will also have to be very lucky or very dominant to collect an extra million for winning what is called the Domino’s pizza triple crown--the Indy 500, Michigan 500 and Pocono 500.

The only Indy car driver who ever has won three 500 mile races in a season is Al Unser. In 1978, he won at Indy, Ontario and Pocono, but there was no bonus for such an accomplishment then.

Winning the Indy car million will be more difficult than Bill Elliott’s winning the Winston million in a stock car last year. Elliott had to win three of NASCAR’s four major events but not three in a row. He won the first two at Daytona and Talladega, then missed at Charlotte before winning his $1 million at Darlington.

Single-race purse money is up across the board. The Long Beach Grand Prix, which paid $648,000 last year, will be worth $700,000 when it is run April 13.

The Indianapolis 500 has been projected as worth $4 million, but that is only conjecture. CART has nothing to do with the Indy 500, which is sanctioned by the United States Auto Club, but because it is part of the PPG Indy car season, its purse was included in the CART announcement.

“It is only an estimate, but it is based on solid projections,” a CART spokesman said. “With ABC carrying the race live on television for the first time, we expect the purse to be raised substantially. We would not be surprised if the winner gets $1 million.”

Danny Sullivan got $517,662 of a $3,282,010 purse last year.

When the season opens April 6, defending CART champion Al Unser could be without a ride.

As things stand today, Unser will drive only the three 500-mile races for car owner Roger Penske. That is the same arrangement Unser had last season before he was called on to replace the injured Rick Mears, which enabled him to go on and edge out his son, Al Unser Jr., for the national championship.

Sullivan and Mears, who are Penske’s regular drivers, will probably have year-old cars at Phoenix because the Ilmor engine being developed by Penske and Chevrolet is not expected to be ready in time. Penske has promised that the engines will be at Indy.

After the elder Unser, the next six finishers in the 1985 standings--Unser Jr., Bobby Rahal, Sullivan, Mario Andretti, Emerson Fittipaldi and Tom Sneva, will return this year with little change. Fittipaldi has a new sponsor and Sneva will campaign a new March, instead of Dan Gurney’s Eagle, but he will still operate out of Gurney-Curb’s All-American Racers garage in Santa Ana.

Jacques Villeneuve, the No. 8 finisher, lost his ride when the Canadian Tire team folded. Villeneuve, who won at Road America last year, may drive a second car for Dave Hasselhoff, whose No. 1 driver is Arie Luyendyk, last season’s Indy car rookie of the year.

In other changes on the Indy car circuit, Kraco will switch from two cars to one, with Michael Andretti driving and former Forsyth crew chief Barry Green in charge; Dutchman Jan Lammers will replace Ed Pimm in Gurney’s team Eagle, with Pimm apparently going to Pace Racing as a replacement for Dennis Firestone; Indy 500 pole sitter Pancho Carter will drive only the 500s for Rick Galles, who will have new Lolas for Geoff Brabham and Roberto Moreno to drive the full season; Kevin Cogan will move from Kraco to Pat Patrick’s team as a teammate of Fittipaldi, and Chip Ganassi, who suffered a serious head injury in 1984, will come back for a full campaign as Josele Garza’s Machinists Union teammate.

Four-time Indy winner A.J. Foyt, who is doing better in sports car these days than in Jim Gilmore’s Indy car, plans to run six races, presumably the three 500s, two at Phoenix and one at Milwaukee.

Gordon Johncock, who retired abruptly last year a few hours before he was to qualify for the Indy 500, says he will be back with his own Johncock Enterprises team.

Few rookie drivers appear ready to campaign the expensive Indy cars. Can-Am champion Richard Miakowicz bought the Canadian Tire team cars and has a CART evaluation test scheduled to get his license. Cheryl Glass’ father bought a car from Cotter Racing in hopes of becoming Indy’s first black woman driver but she is not expected to drive this season.

Dominic Dobson, who drove two races at the end of 1985, has formed a new Intersport team and hopes to campaign the entire season.

There are plenty of old drivers around, however. Here this week to rub shoulders with owners and sponsors in hope of finding a ride were Howdy Holmes, who sat on the front row at Indy two years ago; Pete Halsmer, who is keeping sharp by driving a truck in closed course off-road races; Tony Bettenhausen; Herm Johnson; Johnny Parsons; and Dick Simon, who is phasing out as a driver to serve as a mentor of Brazilian Raul Boesel.

“I’d still be driving my own car full time if he (Boesel) hadn’t come along,” Simon said. “At my age (52) I had to start looking to the future and Raul is such a talent I didn’t want to lose him. I still plan on running at Indy, but I don’t have the budget to run two cars all year.”

The Southland scene and other notes:

MOTOCROSS--Defending champion Johnny O’Mara and 1986 supercross winners David Bailey and Jeff Ward will be favored Saturday night when the Chief Auto Parts Supercross is held at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego. Bailey overtook Rick Johnson and won the Nippondenso series opener before 70,000 at Anaheim. Ward won Round 2 at Houston.

OFF ROAD--Steve Millen, winner of the Hoosierdome indoor pickup truck race two weeks ago in Indianapolis, will race Saturday night in Detroit’s Silverdome in pursuit of Toyota’s fourth Manufacturers’ Cup in Mickey Thompson’s Off-Road Gran Prix. Millen, who drove last week in the 24 Hours of Daytona, won last year’s Detroit race.

SPRINT CARS--The World of Outlaws season will open later this month with three West Coast programs. The winged sprinters will run Feb. 22 and 23 in afternoon shows at Ascot Park in Gardena, then will move to Hanford for a midweek night program at Kings Speedway Feb. 26. The Western swing closes with a night/day program at Manzanita Speedway in Phoenix Feb. 28-March 1.

NEWSWORTHY--Indy 500 winner Danny Sullivan’s debut as an actor in “Miami Vice” has been postponed a week until Feb. 14.