For Rick Murray and His Crew, It Was the Pits

For crew chief Rick Murray and his Toyota crew, the L.A. Times/Ford Grand Prix of Endurance was a weekend to forget.

When things got under way Friday, they had high hopes with their two cars. There was a brand new Supra GTO that they had just finished up earlier in the week, to be driven by Dennis Aase of Orange and Chris Cord of Beverly Hills. And there was an older Celica model with Rocky Moran of Arcadia and Argentine Juan Manuel Fangio, nephew of the many-time world champion, to do the driving.

It didn’t take long for the first of what would be a weekend of problems to surface. Only a few laps into Friday morning’s first practice session, the new Supra, with Aase at the wheel, caught fire when the body panels were ignited by the exhaust pipes.

“The fire didn’t damage the car badly other than the body panels, but, unfortunately, since it was brand new, we didn’t have any replacements,” Aase said. “The guys took the car back to Dan Gurney’s All-American Racing shops and tried to patch it up but finally determined that it couldn’t be done.”

Meanwhile, the rest of the crew was busy getting the Celica prepared. Things went smoothly, and Moran and Fangio got up to second in qualifying when trouble struck again.

Late in the final qualifying period Saturday, Fangio had troubles and hit the wall in turn six, damaging the left front of the car.

So for the second straight night, Murray and Co. headed back to Santa Ana for another all-night session to get ready for Sunday.

“We finished up at 4 a.m., so most of us got, at the most, one hour of sleep,” Murray said.

After a late check of the car and moving the loads of tires, fuel, spares into pit area from the huge transporter, the Celica, with Moran at the wheel, was driven to the starting grid for the noon start.

At 12:05, the field was waved off, and while Gurney and Gary Donahue, who was in radio contact with Moran, watched the cars roar around, the rest of the crew began preparations for the first pit stop that was scheduled for about 1 1/2 hours into the race, if all went according to plan.

Murray and Ron Perry filled the fueling rig they use to put gasoline in the car; engine man Ed Seeger carefully gapped an extra set of spark plugs he hoped he wouldn’t have to use, and others readied the tires that were to be changed on the first of four scheduled stops.

Meanwhile, Fangio rested in the shade getting ready to drive the second shift while Aase, standing by as a relief driver if needed, stuck his helmet under a cart and watched the cars come around the track.

In the early going, the Celica, which had started second in class, had dropped to third but was still doing well, even though Moran radioed that the car was pushing in the turns.

At about the 45-minute mark, Aase, who was watching as Moran went into turn one, shouted, “Oh God,” as Moran got the right-side tires in the dirt. He saved it, but radioed he was coming in because he thought he had damaged a tire in the off-course excursion.

He came in and took on fuel and four tires in a little more than a minute. Not a bad stop, but he lost a lap to the leaders and fell back in the pack.

Now the job was to make up the lost lap. Moran was running well again when, just after one hour, three of the GTP cars collided in turn one, bringing out the red flag while officials attend to the drivers. Then began the huge job of cleaning up the debris and fixing a retaining wall that was broken in the crash.

While the field ran a slow pace behind the pace car while repairs were being made, Gurney and Murray decided to call Moran in. They put Fangio in the car and adjusted the rear spoiler on the car in an effort to cure the pushing.

While fuel was being added and tires were being replaced, Moran hopped out and Fangio got in. Because of the difference in size--Moran is 6-3 and 200 pounds, while Fangio is 5-7 and 150--several pads were added to the seat while the spoiler was being lowered. After Moran got his helmet off and got a drink of water, Aase asked him about the trip through the dirt.

“It was my fault,” he said, “I gave a faster car some room to pass and gave him too much.”

For the next 35 minutes, Fangio just cruised around at slow speed as workers continued repairing the track.

When it looked as if they were getting close to a restart, Murray called in his driver to top off on fuel. A fast stop and he was on his way again.

After a 70-minute delay, the green flag finally came out.

As the race neared the halfway mark, Fangio was back up to third but still a lap behind the class leaders.

Murray called to Aase to relieve Fangio, and Dennis started to put on his helmet when the announcement came over the PA that “car 98 has lost power in turn six.”

Hoping it was a mistake, Aase continued to put on his gloves and goggles as the rest of the crew watched, hoping against hope that Fangio would come around.

Fangio finally ended the suspense by reporting by radio that the transmission had failed and the car wouldn’t move.

After a few curses, reality set in that the day was over and all that was left for the crew to do was to haul the equipment back to the truck.

A dejected Murray walked back from the pit wall and said: “We’re down now, but we’ll be back.”

There was no doubt they were down, but they were not alone. The same scenario was enacted in the pit of most of the 26 other cars that failed to finish, proving once again that sometimes life in the pits can really be the pits.