Rahal Has the Edge in Today’s Showdown With Michael Andretti

Fifty-one drivers have contested for the CART/PPG Indy Car World Series championship this year, and now only two contenders remain: Bobby Rahal, 33, of Dublin, Ohio, and Michael Andretti, 24, of Nazareth, Pa.

Neither has won the championship previously, but when today’s Nissan Indy Challenge--200 miles over a 1.78-mile road course in Tamiami Park--is completed, one will be the 1986 champion.

Rahal, in the red Budweiser-Truesports March, holds a minuscule three-point lead over Andretti, in the blue-and-yellow Kraco March, going into the 17th and final race. All other challengers were eliminated before the Indy car trail reached South Florida.

A sudden cloudburst Saturday that wiped out qualifying for half the field, including Andretti and Rahal, may have improved Rahal’s chances of winning.

Andretti’s car did not run well during Friday’s qualifying session, and he posted a speed of only 111.974 m.p.h., about five miles slower than he anticipated running Saturday. But when the rains came, he had no chance of improving his time.

This left him in the fifth row for the start of today’s race.

Rahal, who also did not make a qualifying attempt Saturday, will start in the second row with his Friday speed of 112.773.

“It’s really tough for us now,” a disconsolate Andretti said after chief steward Wally Dallenbach rejected the idea of an added qualifying session. “It means we’ll be starting 20 seconds behind Rahal. I just hope this doesn’t come back to haunt us . . . like finishing a couple of seconds behind him.”

Rahal, although he said he also could have improved on his time had it not rained, was not unhappy with the unusual situation.

“It’s unfortunate, but that’s racing,” he said. “Today’s behind us. Tomorrow is what really counts.”

Two South Americans--Roberto Guerrero of Colombia and Raul Boesel of Brazil--will start on the front row. Guerrero ran 113.043 and Boesel 113.003. Both are residents of Orange County, Guerrero in San Juan Capistrano and Boesel in Capistrano Beach.

The new champion will collect the $300,000 PPG Cup bonus and the attention that goes with being No. 1. The loser will receive $200,000.

“We’re going out with the idea of winning the race, because if we win the race everything else will take care of itself,” Rahal said. “We want them both. It’s good for me to be finishing at Tamiami because I like the course and did well here last year.

“This track is one of the best in the country, if not the world. It’s wide, fast and challenging, and when you see some other street circuits and how bad they can be, you certainly appreciate a circuit like this one.”

Rahal was the fastest qualifier last year and led 70 of the 112 laps before his tires began to blister, dropping him back to finish second behind Danny Sullivan.

Andretti agreed that Tamiami, one of nine road courses on the CART schedule, is a proper place to decide the championship.

“I love this place,” Andretti said. “It’s a great track for our cars, and (promoter) Ralph Sanchez has done a super job here. I just don’t like having to start so far back.

“I think it’s sad that an act of God could cause this kind of problem.”

Both drivers have won on road courses this year, Andretti in the season opener at Long Beach and Rahal at Toronto, Mid-Ohio and Laguna Seca.

“Our approach here will be the same as it was in Phoenix, to win the race,” Andretti said. “If we win, it means Rahal will be behind us and that’s what we have to do to win. I will drive like I have all year, as hard as I know how, and if it’s going to be, it’s going to be.

“I can’t drive any harder because if I did, I would probably make a mistake. The last race is no place for a mistake.”

Michael, oldest son of four-time Indy car champion Mario Andretti, won at Phoenix, closing the gap to three points when Rahal finished third.

The two have dominated the CART season in all categories.

Rahal has the most wins with six, including the most important of all, the Indianapolis 500; the most money ever won in a single season, $1,132,569, and the most finishes in the top five with nine.

Andretti has led the most laps at 699, has the most completed laps at 2,091 (3,653.68 miles) and has set four track records. He has won three times--at Long Beach, Milwaukee and Phoenix--and has stayed in contention with four second-place finishes.

Both are coming to the finish with a hot hand. Andretti won the last race, and Rahal has won four of the last six, including three straight that earned him a $50,000 bonus from Hong Kong industrialist Teddy Yip.

Yip also donated an equal amount to the American Cancer Society in a tribute to the late Jim Trueman, who died 11 days after watching Rahal, his long-time protege, win at Indianapolis.

Despite the nine-year difference in their age and experience, young Andretti believes he is more prepared for the pressure of a final showdown at Tamiami than Rahal.

“I’ve been through situations like this before,” Andretti said. “When I won the Formula Ford, Super Vee and Formula Mondial (now Formula Atlantic) championships, they all were as important to me at the time as this one is now. Each time it was the most important thing in my life. I think all that helps.”

Rahal, who started racing in 1973, has a long succession of close series finishes. He was second to Gilles Villeneuve in the 1977 Formula Atlantic, fifth in the 1979 and 1980 Can-Ams, fourth in IMSA GT in 1981 and, since joining the Indy car circuit in 1982, has been second to Rick Mears as a rookie, fifth, fifth and last year third behind the Unsers, father Al and son Al Jr.

Today’s situation is almost identical to last year’s, when Unser won by a point over his son. Big Al started the race with a three-point lead, just as Rahal will today, and he won by finishing fourth, right behind Al Jr.

Big Al won the title four laps from the end, when he made a daring pass of Roberto Moreno into fourth place. Had he finished fifth, Al Jr. would have become the youngest Indy car champion.

Another similarity today to 1985 is that if Michael Andretti wins, he will become the youngest champion. Michael would replace his father, who was 25 when he won in his rookie year of 1965.

No one could be more proud of a son’s accomplishment than Mario, but that doesn’t mean he will make it any easier for his offspring.

“I get almost as much satisfaction in his performance as I get out of my own,” the senior Andretti said. “That’s never going to change. But whenever we’re up against one another on the race track, we’re not giving each other anything.”

A case in point is the Portland 200, where Michael was leading when he ran out of fuel on the final lap and Mario came flying up to take the win by a couple of inches, officially 0.07 of a second--the closest Indy car finish in history dating back to 1909.

Had Michael won in Portland, he would be leading Rahal by one point today.

The loss at Portland isn’t the only bitter memory of an iffy season for Michael. On three other occasions--at the first Phoenix race, at the Meadowlands and in the Michigan 500--he was leading when engine failure knocked him out of the running.

“The worst of all, I think, came at Pocono where I was a solid third with 12 laps to go when the engine blew up,” he said. “It turned out to be nothing but a pin hole in the radiator, but it blew all the water out.”

Third place would have given him 14 points. As it was, he collected only two for finishing 11th.

“It was especially frustrating because I had fought harder that day than I had any of the times I won,” he said. “The track was so rough and the car wasn’t handling but I still had third locked up when it just quit. It was really frustrating.”

After a season marred by engine failures, Andretti had good fortune on his side two weeks ago at Phoenix. Shortly before the end of practice, he hit the wall in the fourth turn and damaged the right rear beyond repair.

Andretti’s hopes of winning the championship at that moment seemed almost nil. Rahal was on the pole, and if Andretti started the race in another car without qualifying he would have to start from the rear.

But almost as quickly as Andretti could climb from the crippled car, crew chief Barry Green had the team’s backup March on the track.

Michael had only four laps to familiarize himself before taking the green flag for his qualifying lap, but he squeezed out 161 m.p.h., qualifying for the second row.

The next day, in the car the crew calls Doris, Michael won his third race in his fourth year on the Indy car circuit.

“We’re going to run Doris here,” Michael said. “It’s the oldest March we have but it ran so well at Phoenix that we’re sticking with it.”

In racing terms today, old means about eight months. Doris was the first of several ’86 Marches delivered to the Kraco team.

Phoenix was Doris’ first win.

This has been a long week for Rahal and Andretti, both of whom came to Miami last Monday to help promote the race.

Rahal relaxed by playing 72 holes of golf in three days but admitted that he lost his concentration on the final 18 Thursday at the Doral Country Club.

“It was hard keeping my mind on hitting the ball,” he said. “I had too many other things I kept thinking about. I was glad when Friday came and I could go back to work.”

Work, or rather a business, is how Rahal approaches racing. A graduate of Denison University with a degree in history, he is not totally engulfed in what he does for a living.

“My biggest concern about being a race driver was that I might get to be 45 and not have enough money, and not know how to do anything else,” he said. “Winning Indy probably took care of the money factor, but as far as my long-range future is concerned, I don’t see it in racing.

“People ask me if this is the greatest year of my life, and I always say it is. But they are relating to winning Indy and I am relating to the day last January when Debi and I adopted Michaela. That was something no win could ever match.”

Michael spent his time lolling around the pool at the Hilton, where all the Andretti clan was holed up. Michael’s younger brother, Jeff, 22, will be in the American Racing Series finale. Jeff is second to Fabrizio Barbazza of Italy in the ARS series, which is designed to develop young drivers for the Indy car campaigns.

“Hanging out around the pool is supposed to be relaxing, but I don’t think I relaxed very much,” Michael Andretti said. “I’m too anxious to get going and get it over with.”

He recently signed a two-year contract to continue driving for Maurice Kraines’ Compton-based team.

“If I don’t get (the championship) Sunday, we’ll get it next year,” Andretti said. “But I want it now, and I expect to get it.”

Rahal, who had been listening to Andretti, had the final word. “I don’t know if we will win the race, but I will win the championship,” he said.