Motor Racing / Shav Glick : After Thousands of Miles, No 500

Geoff Brabham may be the busiest driver at Indianapolis Motor Speedway this week and he isn’t even in Sunday’s 500-mile classic.

Brabham, the International Motor Sports Assn. champion, has been here for more than a week, since team owner Roger Penske called him in to act as a possible stand-in for national champion Danny Sullivan after Sullivan broke his right arm in a crash on May 11.

Brabham arrived in time to test a year-old Penske PC-17 and within a few laps got it up to 217 m.p.h., a speed bettered by only nine drivers during qualifying time trials.

“I was ready for what ever might happen with Danny,” Brabham said. “I got in the (new model) PC-18 for a few laps last Saturday but didn’t fool around trying to go any faster once Roger determined that Danny felt good enough to qualify himself.”

Once Sullivan got into the field with four laps averaging 216.027 m.p.h., Brabham and his wife, Roseina, took off for Lime Rock, Conn., where Brabham practiced earlier this week in the Nissan GTP car he will race Monday in an IMSA 150-lap race Monday.

Today he will be back at Indy for the misnamed Carburetion Day, the only opportunity for cars to get on the Speedway the week preceding the 500. Friday he will return to Connecticut to qualify for Monday’s race, in which he is defending champion, and then he will return here again. “Roger (Penske) wants me to be here for the 500 just in case Sullivan can’t go the distance,” Brabham said. “I don’t see any problem with him, though. Once you get in a race, it doesn’t matter if you have pain or not, you get so caught up in it that you don’t notice it until it’s over.”

Still, Brabham will be here--just in case.

There will be three Andrettis (Mario, son Michael and nephew Jeff) and two Joneses (John and Davy, no relation), in Sunday’s 500, but no Smith.

In fact, in 73 years of the Indianapolis 500, there has never been a driver named Smith in the race.

Ascot Park will hold its annual Salute to Indianapolis sprint car program Saturday night, and among the 33 drivers being saluted will be 10 who have raced at the Agajanian’s dirt track in Gardena.

Rick Mears, the pole-sitter and defending champion from Bakersfield, drove half a season with the California Racing Assn. sprint cars but was better known for winning the sprint buggy championship at Ascot in 1971.

A.J. Foyt and Gary Bettenhausen both won two Turkey Night Midget Grand Prix events there. Mario Andretti won a United States Auto Club sprint car race at Ascot in 1965, only the second win of his career.

Pancho Carter never won a race at Ascot, but he clinched USAC championships there twice with third-place finishes--in a midget in 1972 and a sprint car two years later.

Rich Vogler won five USAC midget championships and drove at Ascot off and on for 11 years before winning for the first time there this year in a USAC western regional race as part of ESPN’s Thursday Thunder series.

Al Unser drove on the CRA circuit in the mid-’60s and returned as a team manager in 1981 with his son, Al Jr., who was so small that he had to be propped up with pillows to see over the hood of his sprint car. Little Al never won at Ascot, but he was the most popular driver of his era.

Bill Vukovich III, the first third-generation driver to compete at Indy--his grandfather, Bill, won in 1953 and 1954 and his father, Bill Jr., finished second in 1975--has driven in a number of midget races at Ascot.

Saturday night’s Salute to Indy will spotlight Jerry Meyer, the CRA’s 1989 surprise. Meyer, driving for Bruce Bromme, won his fourth CRA race of the year, and his first at Ascot, last week to pad his season lead over former two-time champion Brad Noffsinger.

Meyer won with a daring pass of veteran Chuck Gurney on the fourth corner of the final lap of the 30-lap race.

This will be the busiest weekend of the year for the Parnelli Jones Firestone-sponsored CRA. Friday night they will race at Hanford, Saturday night in a 50-lap main event at Ascot, Sunday night at Raven Raceway in Tucson and Monday at Manzanita Speedway in Phoenix.

Other Southern California events:

MIDGETS--With no Thunder Series racing scheduled today at Ascot Park, the USAC Western Regional series for midgets and TQs will be held Saturday night at Ventura Raceway, and Sunday, along with outlaw mini stocks, at Ascot Park.

STOCK CARS--Ascot Park has moved its weekly Sunday night Curb Motorsports Winston Racing Series to Monday night with an expanded program that will include two 20-lap bomber oval races and a demolition derby. . . . NASCAR sportsman will race Saturday night at Saugus Speedway and the Orange Show Speedway in San Bernardino. . . . Street stocks go Friday night at Ventura Raceway.

SPORTS CARS--The Cal Club will hold a three-day national and regional championship this weekend at Willow Springs Raceway. Qualifying and practice Saturday will be followed by a full slate Sports Car Club of America national races Sunday and regionals Monday.

MOTORCYCLES--Speedway bikes will run their weekly schedule: tonight at Ascot’s South Bay Speedway, Friday night at Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa, Sunday at Speedway USA in Victorville and Wednesday night at Glen Helen Park in San Bernardino.