PASADENA PLUGGER : For Moran, a Decent Indy Finish Will Do

It’s tough enough to make it in big-time auto racing without everybody thinking you’re a fighter.

Rocky Moran? Oh, sure, he’s that pug from Poughkeepsie, isn’t he?

Well, no. In fact, he’s a plugger from Pasadena.

In a widely diversified--and largely unspectacular--career, he has been driving for 20 years, trying for that one ride, that one race that will give him instant recognition, at least in the racing community.

Now, at 38, he might finally have plugged into it.

Moran will be driving one of A.J. Foyt’s three cars here Sunday in the Indianapolis 500. He will be starting far to the rear, in the 10th row, and isn’t planning on winning the race. But he figures the car is good and he can give it a steady ride.

Cars given steady rides tend to be running at the end of the 500. And if you’re running at the end, you’re almost sure of a decent finish, a decent payday and, maybe, some recognition.

The highest finishing rookie, for example, usually winds up as rookie of the year. And Moran is a rookie, although even in that he is overshadowed by others with greater name recognition and more glamorous backgrounds.

Still, he is in the race and that alone is a major step in his career. At his age, it may, in fact, be his first and last big chance.

“I’m almost afraid to think of that,” he said. “It’s certainly one of the best opportunities I’ve had. But I’ve been trying for so long, and it’s such a tough business. I don’t make long-range plans anymore. I just take a day at a time and hope things work out for the best.

“I’ve been in and out of it but my desire to race has not changed since I was 15. It’s still the biggest objective in my life. I’ve gone years at a time without racing but only because I had to. It’s the nature of the business, unless you’re well established or you’ve got endless pockets.”

Moran wonders, sometimes, what it takes to get well established. Lord knows, he’s tried.

He started in go-karts when he was 17 and in three seasons won the national championship event and finished second in the national standings.

He has successfully driven Formula 5000s and unlimited Can-Am sports cars. His NASCAR debut was memorable, but for the wrong reason. He was caught in an eight-car crash and broke a leg and six ribs. He led more than half of his first Indy car race, in one of Dan Gurney’s cars in 1981 at Watkins Glen, N.Y., and was on his way to winning it when the car ran out of fuel with just three laps to go. Moran had to settle for sixth.

Two years ago, it seemed Moran’s career had finally taken off. Driving for the Gohr team of Buffalo, N.Y., he drove 8 of the 15 Indy car races on the schedule, finishing second in Championship Auto Racing Teams’ voting for rookie of the year.

Then last year, it fell apart again. After finishing 13th in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, he lost his ride with Gohr and tried to go it alone here. He put together a team and was the fastest of eight rookies in testing. But the car’s engine was old and got older real fast. He qualified 31st but was bumped from the field and went home wondering whether he ever would race again.

“When I left here last year, I had zero prospects,” he said. “I had no ride lined up and had missed the race. That’s a tough stigma for a driver, even though I knew it was the car and not me. It’s still hard to take because every driver who misses the race thinks it’s the car.

“I was discouraged. I lived those last moments of qualifying over and over again, trying to think what I could have done better.

“Dan Gurney got me going again. He gave me a ride on his Toyota Turbo team late in the season, and then I drove for him again with Willy T. Ribbs and Juan Fangio (the nephew of Juan Manuel Fangio) in the 24 Hours of Daytona in February. We led it for 19 hours, in class, and then the engine blew.

“Then later in February, I got a call from Gohr to run Long Beach. I ran competitively and finished sixth. So the momentum was swinging positively again. I’m going to drive the rest of the (CART) road races for Galen Fox of Gohr and obviously, here, I took a big step forward.”

In fact, with Foyt, Moran finally is getting a real close look at how racing’s other half lives.

“A.J. really gets involved,” he said. “He’s given me advice on everything from reading a tree in a corner to see how hard the wind is blowing to the proper line of the track. When they set up the car for me, he had the boys do it, but he supervised and took all the readings himself. We’ve only had to make two minor changes since then.”

That he is driving for Foyt at all still is slightly amazing to Moran.

“I came here the day the track opened and started beating on doors, hoping that something would open up,” he said. “By Monday of the second week, I had bruised my knuckles and worn out a pair of tennis shoes.

“I finally got brave and stuck my head in A.J.’s garage. I’d only met him once before and I didn’t know if he’d remember me but it was real easy. We had a chat and he told me to come back Tuesday. When I came back, he said, ‘Let’s do it.’

“I had a sponsor to bring along, and that probably helped, but he was real nice.

“I ran a couple of laps Wednesday to try out the car, but the windscreen was wrong for me and I was getting my head blown off. But we adjusted that, and the next day I ran fast right away. I had a hot lap of 208. It’s amazing what you can do here in a good car.

“On qualifying day, Saturday, I ran a 211 in practice, when it was cool. Then I lost a lot of that speed when I qualified in the heat of the day (207.181).

“It’s a great feeling, though, to know I’m going to start the race. The last few days have been a real pleasure. I even played in the celebrity golf tournament the other day. I’d never played golf in my life. I was spraying the ball all over the course.

“I don’t know how long it’ll last but I’m going to enjoy it while it does.”

And, uh, Rocky, about that nickname?

“My name really is William, which is the same as my dad’s. Before I was born, he was running some mines out in the desert and had a name of Hardrock. He just decided to call me Rocky, I guess because he didn’t want two Bills in the house.

“It used to be unusual but since the movie, it’s become a little more popular.”

Moran has his dad to thank for more than his nickname, though. Their relationship has allowed him to earn a living while staying in racing.

“We’re together in a development company in Covina,” he said. “He covers for me when I go racing, and I do it for him when he wants to take his boat and go over to Lake Mead for a few days.”

Moran would like to get some kind of an ongoing deal with Foyt, but there are no promises. “Nothing’s been discussed but I’ve got my fingers crossed,” he said.

And that has been the only real long-term proposition for the plugger from Pasadena.