Mears Vaults to Pole With Record Runs

Rick Mears became the greatest qualifier in the Indianapolis 500 with record qualifying runs of 224.254 m.p.h. for one lap and a 223.885 average for four laps in a Chevrolet-powered Penske PC-18 Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

It was the fifth time the former off-road racer from Bakersfield won the pole for the 500, breaking him out of a tie with A.J. Foyt and the late Rex Mays for the most poles in the world’s most famous race.

Mears needed the record to edge his Penske teammate, Al Unser, for the No. 1 spot in the May 28 race.

Unser, the first driver to make a qualifying attempt after a day’s rain delay, gave the huge field something to shoot at when he ran 223.471 for 10 miles to break Mears’ year-old record.

For more than two hours, such well-known drivers as Michael and Mario Andretti, Bobby Rahal, Teo Fabi and Scott Brayton took aim at Unser’s speed and fell short.

At 2:15 p.m., with the track much warmer and more slippery than during Unser’s run, Mears pulled away in the bright yellow Pennzoil Z-7. When his first lap was only 223.187, it appeared as if Unser, who will turn 50 the day after the 500, would win his second pole, and his first since 1970.

But Mears increased his speed on the second lap with a one-lap record 223.987 and followed that with an even faster 224.254. His final lap of 224.204 gave him an official average of 223.885, which bettered the mark of 219.198 Mears set last year before going on to win his third Indy 500.

Although the four m.p.h. increase is impressive, it is no where near the record for improvement. In 1972, Bobby Unser won the pole at 195.940, an increase of 17.244 m.p.h. over the record the late Peter Revson set in 1971.

“We had to work a little harder this year than last,” Mears said. “This time I had to fight my line and adjust and play with the sway bars. There was understeer (causing the car to drift toward the outside) and I had to work with it.

“The bump on turn three knocked my foot off the accelerator. It was just enough to slap it and move the throttle. It’s not that the bump is new--it’s been there. It’s just that it’s the only one on the track now.”

Mears, 37, collected $100,000 for the PPG Pole Award, plus a $30,000 converted van.

It will be the ninth time Mears has started on the front row, equaling the record established by Bobby Unser. Since coming to Indy for the first time in 1978, he has been on the pole five times, in the middle of the front row once and on the outside four times.

It was also the eighth pole for a Penske team car.

Foyt, 54, also set a record by qualifying for his 32nd consecutive Indy 500. Next are Mario Andretti and Unser, who qualified for their 24th races Sunday, and Johnny Rutherford, who has 24 and hopes to make it 25 this year.

Foyt, like Unser a four-time winner, is on the inside of the fourth row at 217.136.

“If a guy had told me when I started in 1958 that a guy could run the Indianapolis 500 at 220 miles and hour and never lift the throttle, I would have called an ambulance and had the guy committed,” Foyt said.

“This is the smoothest race track in the world that I’ve ever raced. Some tracks have so many bumps that it could knock the fillings right out of your mouth. To me, this is like a soft mattress.”

Alongside Mears and Unser on the front row will be Emerson Fittipaldi, the former two-time world Formula One champion from Brazil. Fittipaldi, driving for long-time car owner Pat Patrick, ran 222.329 for his first time on the front row in five years of driving Indy cars.

Last year the front row was all Penske teammates with Mears, Danny Sullivan and Unser.

The possibility of a repeat front row ended last Thursday when Sullivan crashed into the third turn wall after the engine cover flew off his car. Sullivan, the defending PPG Indy car champion, was released Sunday from Methodist Hospital after having surgery for a broken right forearm and observation for a mild concussion.

Sullivan is expected to make a qualifying attempt when time trials resume Saturday.

In a way, however, the situation is unchanged as there will be three Penske PC-18s on the front row. Although Fittipaldi is not a Penske team driver, he is driving an identical car.

Jim Crawford, the surprise of last year’s race when he kept his Buick near the front of the race most of the day, surprised again with four laps at 221.450 to win honors for non-Penske cars. Crawford was driving a turbocharged stock block Buick-Lola prepared by funny car drag racer Kenny Bernstein’s King Racing team.

“It’s a great honor to be up there with the Penske cars,” Crawford said. “When you’ve got them watching you , then you must be doing something right. Kenny’s crew did a fantastic job getting me out there after having to change an engine this morning.”

Crawford’s speed was a record for stock-block engines. He also set a one-lap mark of 222.069, but it was later bettered by Tom Sneva in one of Vince Granatelli’s Buicks. Sneva, who in 1977 became the first driver to run faster than 200 m.p.h. at Indy, posted a 223.176, but lost his engine on the second lap.

Michael Andretti would have been next to Crawford in the middle of the second row had his 220.940 run not been disqualified when his Lola was found to be 4 1/2 pounds too light.

“I don’t understand how the car could lose weight since we added weight before we went out,” Michael said. “The thing I really don’t understand is that they (United States Auto Club) would not let us reweigh the car.

“It really makes me mad, because this was the first time I had ever been disqualified in my racing career, clear back to Formula Fords, and I don’t like it.”

Andretti went out later and qualified at 218.774, but it got him only in the seventh row as all drivers received only one qualifying attempt for the pole. Once the entire field had its chance, later attempts were called “second day” qualifying and had to line up in back of earlier qualifiers.

“I don’t know what less than five pounds can do when you’re talking about a 1,150 pound-race car,” Andretti said. He did receive a certain amount of consolation, however, with a $20,000 prize as the second day’s fast qualifier.

Michael’s father, Mario, benefited from his son’s ill fortune by moving up to the middle of the second row with a 220.486 average.

“I feel sorry for Michael because it’s not his fault,” Mario said. “The crew must have misjudged something.”

A third Andretti made the field when John--Mario’s nephew and Michael’s cousin--qualified one of the Buicks into the fourth row with a 215.611 run.

“According to the qualifying draw, my teammate (Sneva) was to go out first, and he would have been able to help me in sorting out track conditions and what it took to get around here quickly,” John Andretti said. “Then they pulled Tom’s car out of line, so I may not have had as good a read of the track as I could have had.”

Sneva was pulled out of the qualifying line because the sidepod on his Lola-Buick was found to be 30/1000th of an inch too low.

Like Michael Andretti, Sneva came back later in the afternoon to put his car in the race with a 218.396 run.

Twenty-six cars qualified on a muggy, overcast day. Four of the 26 are rookies--Scott Pruett, Didier Theys, Bernard Jourdain and John Jones, who was fastest at 214.028.

The remaining eight berths in the 33-car starting field will be determined Saturday and Sunday when time trials resume.

PARTIAL INDIANAPOLIS 500 LINEUP FIRST ROW No. Driver (Hometown), Car-Eng. Speed 4.Rick Mears (Bakersfield), Penske-Chevy: 223.885 25.Al Unser (Albuquerque, N.M.), Penske-Chevy: 223.471 20.Emerson Fittipaldi (Brazil), Penske-Chevy: 222.329 SECOND ROW 15.Jim Crawford (Scotland), Lola-Buick: 221.450 5.Mario Andretti (Nazareth, Pa.), Lola-Chevy: 220.486 22.Scott Brayton (Coldwater, Mich.), Lola-Buick: 220.459 THIRD ROW 18.Bobby Rahal (Dublin, Ohio), Lola-Cosworth: 219.530 2.Al Unser Jr. (Albuquerque, N.M.), Lola-Chevy: 218.642 30.Raul Boesel (Brazil), Lola-Judd: 218.228 FOURTH ROW 14.A.J. Foyt (Houston), Lola-Cosworth: 217.136 28.Randy Lewis (Hillsborough, Calif.), Lola-Cosw.: 216.494 70.John Andretti (Indianapolis), Lola-Buick: 215.611 FIFTH ROW 8.Teo Fabi (Italy), March-Porsche: 215.564 99.Gary Bettenhausen (Mnrvia, Ind.), Lola-Buick: 215.230 9.Arie Luyendyk (Netherlands), Lola-Cosworth: 214.883 SIXTH ROW 56.Tero Palmroth (Finland), Lola-Cosworth: 214.203 3.*Scott Pruett (Roseville, Calif.), Lola-Judd 213.955 71.Ludwig Heimrath Jr. (Canada), Lola-Judd 213.878 SEVENTH ROW 12.*Didier Theys (Belgium), Penske-Cosworth: 213.120 69.*Bernard Jourdain (Mexico), Lola-Cosworth: 213.105 6.Michael Andretti (Nazareth, Pa.), Lola-Chevy: 218.774 EIGHTH ROW 7.Tom Sneva (Paradise Valley, Ariz.), Lola-Buick: 218.396 91.Gordon Johncock (Hstngs, Mich.), Lola-Buick: 215.072 10.Derek Daly (Ireland), Lola-Judd: 214.237 NINTH ROW 65.*John Jones (Canada), Lola-Cosworth: 214.028 50.Davy Jones (McGraw, N.Y.), Lola-Cosworth: 211.475 *--Rookie. Average speed of field--217.011