Motor Racing / Shav Glick : Sullivan Adds Drama to Weekend at Indy

The second weekend of qualifying for the Indianapolis 500 is usually confined to rear-echelon cars and drivers--old-timers struggling to make one more 500 or youngsters looking for an opportunity to catch some sponsor’s attention.

This year, however, things are different at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The national champion, Danny Sullivan, has not qualified his car, and it’s not sure that he will. The added drama was created when the engine cover flew off his state-of-the-art Penske PC-18 during practice last Thursday, sending Sullivan spinning into the wall in Turn 3.

The crash left him with a mild concussion and a broken right forearm. The headache is gone but the arm is still a problem. Sullivan was fitted with a rigid brace that runs from his hand to his elbow, in hopes it will stabilize the arm enough to permit him to drive.

Sullivan plans to test it today at Indianapolis Raceway Park, a road-race circuit a few miles from the Speedway in Clermont, Ind.

Meanwhile, Geoff Brabham, a former Indy car driver who drives a Nissan GTP car on the International Motor Racing Assn. circuit, is preparing to sit in for Sullivan if the situation warrants a driver change. To assist Brabham, who has not raced an Indy car for two years, the car was shaken down by defending 500 champion Rick Mears, a Penske teammate of Sullivan, at better than 222 m.p.h.

Mears, in his PC-18, set a qualifying record of 223.885 last Sunday in winning his fifth Indy 500 pole position.

Brabham, one of last year’s driver-of-the-year candidates after winning eight races in a row in the Nissan and the IMSA championship, has been hired by team owner Roger Penske for one duty or another. Brabham has driven in seven Indy 500s.

The possibilities:

--Sullivan will feel up to qualifying and will take the PC-18 out Saturday or Sunday and put it in the May 28 race himself.

--Brabham will qualify the car, but Sullivan will start in the 500 at the rear of the field. There is precedent for this. In 1981, Mario Andretti was in Europe for a Formula One race, and Wally Dallenbach qualified Andretti’s car. Andretti started last and finished second, behind Bobby Unser.

--Brabham will qualify the car and race it, with Sullivan remaining on the sidelines.

There is precedent for that, too. The last time Penske had a substitute driver, he won the race. That was two years ago when Al Unser filled in for the injured Danny Ongais and ended up winning his fourth Indy 500.

Brabham worked his way up to 217.443 in practice, the fastest he had ever driven at Indianapolis. He was in a backup car, a year-old PC-17.

Seven positions remain to be filled for the 500, and a number of top-rated drivers, besides Sullivan, remain on the outside.

Three-time champion Johnny Rutherford, driving a Lola-Cosworth, did not try to qualify last Sunday, after struggling to get up to speed, but Tuesday he reached 213.118. If he can maintain that for four laps, he should make his 25th Indy 500.

The slowest qualifier among the 26 so far is Davy Jones at 211.475.

Others looking for spots include Kevin Cogan, the 1986 Indy 500 runner-up; Pancho Carter, the 1985 pole-sitter; Dominic Dobson, the fastest rookie in 500 history before last week; John Paul Jr., who is attempting to come back after serving more than two years in prison on a drug-related charge, and Phil Krueger, the eighth-place finisher last year.

Dobson’s rookie record of 210.096 was exceeded by all four rookie qualifiers this year. Canadian John Jones, in a Lola, is the new record-holder at 214.028.

SPRINT CARS--After being rained out of their last two outings in Texas and Oklahoma, California Racing Assn. drivers return to Ascot Park on Saturday night to resume the Parnelli Jones Firestone series. Jerry Meyer, with a win at Knoxville, Iowa, stretched his series lead over former champions Eddie Wirth and Brad Noffsinger. Meyer has 1,435 points to 1,245 for Wirth and 1,244 for Noffsinger. Defending champion Ron Shuman, forced to drop out at Knoxville after setting a qualifying record, is sixth with 1,195.

MIDGETS--Robby Flock, former United States Auto Club Western Regional champion, continues to lead the Jolly Rancher standings despite not having won a race this season. Flock has 425 points to 370 for perennial champion Sleepy Tripp going into this afternoon’s main event of the ESPN-TV Thunder Series at Ascot Park. Flock, the 1986 champion, has three seconds and a fourth in his last four outings. TQs will also compete and for the first time their 20-lap main event will be on TV. . . . Modified midgets and mini-sprints will race Saturday night at Ventura Raceway.

J. C. Agajanian, Earl Gilmore, Bob Stroud and Duane Carter were inducted into the USAC Midget Hall of Fame in ceremonies last Friday at Indianapolis. Gilmore conducted racing at his stadium in Hollywood from 1934 to 1950, Agajanian revived the famous Turkey Night Grand Prix on Thanksgiving and promoted races at Ascot Park, Stroud was a racing administrator and Carter drove during the midget heyday in the ‘40s and ‘50s.

RALLY--Rod Millen, defending national PRO Rally champion, driving a four-wheel-drive Mazda, will head a field of 50 of the country’s finest drivers Saturday in the Rim of the World Rally through the Angeles National Forest, west of Lancaster.

The first stage will be held at noon at Willow Springs Raceway to give spectators an opportunity to watch the drivers in daylight conditions. From there the rally will move to the Angeles Forest for 12 hours of racing on what former champion John Buffum called “the most challenging rally roads in the world.”

Among Millen’s challengers will be Lon Peterson of Victorville and Jim Love of Upland, the California Rally Series champions.

MOTORCYCLES--The fifth round of the American Road Racing Assn.’s Miller Formula One Grand Prix series will be held Sunday at Willow Springs Raceway.

Dirt track specialists Scott Parker and Chris Carr, who failed to finish in last week’s American Motorcyclist Assn. Camel Pro race at Ascot Park, will now turn their attention to the San Jose Mile, scheduled Sunday at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds. Doug Chandler, who won at Ascot after Parker’s bike broke and Carr fell, will also be in the San Jose race.

The White Brothers world four-stroke motocross and TT scrambles championship will be held Sunday at Perris Raceway. Goat Brecker, the 1988 four-stroke champion, now manager of the Perris facility, will defend his title. . . . Motocross action is set for Friday night at Ascot Park and Sunday at Glen Helen Park in San Bernardino.

STOCK CARS--All five divisions of the Curb Motorsports Winston Racing Series will compete Sunday night at Ascot Park. Featured will be the Meyer family, which dominated action last week when Ron won the pro stock class and his brother, Bill Jr., and father, Bill, finished 1-2 in the bombers.

NASCAR sportsman and street stocks will run Saturday night at Saugus Speedway, where there will also be an ego challenge. . . . Cajon Speedway has added a destruction derby to its Saturday night sportsman show. . . . The eighth race of the Coors Silver Bullet series will be held Friday night at Ventura Raceway. . . . No racing Saturday night at Orange Show Speedway.

The Hoosier Tire Co., a small family-owned and operated business in Lakeville, Ind., which competed with Goodyear on the Winston Cup series the last two seasons, has withdrawn as a tire supplier for NASCAR’s premier division. Darrell Waltrip won the Daytona 500 on Hoosiers, but development of a radial racing tire by Goodyear prompted Hoosier to drop out.

OFF-ROAD--The start and finish of the Presidente SCORE Internacional Baja 500 race June 3 has been moved from Ensenada to San Felipe, on the east side of Baja California, to appease ranchers in the Ensenada area. The ranchers had threatened to sabotage the race course because they claimed the cars endangered their livestock.

Sal Fish, president of SCORE, also eliminated motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles from the race, which will consist of three loops of a 140-mile course about 140 miles south of the United States border.

The second of a five-race Miller Off-Road Challenge series will be held Sunday at Glen Helen Park. Featured will be the trucks of Walker Evans, Rob MacCachren and David Ashley.