Motor Racing Notes : Format for Indy Trials May Change Next Year

It’s being kept very close to the vest but the complicated qualifying procedure for the Indianapolis 500 may be changed for 1990.

The way it works now, an unlimited number of cars can qualify on each of the four days of time trials, with the slowest qualifiers being bumped out after the 33-car field is filled.

The first day of qualifications last month was rained out, with 26 cars making it into the tentative lineup the second day.

Another five drivers made it in on the third day and there were five qualifiers on the final day, including three bumps.

Reports indicate that officials of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway have not been particularly pleased with attendance at time trials after the opening day, which generally draws about 150,000 people.

The qualifying procedure has changed just four times since the first Indy 500 in 1911.

Originally, the drivers simply had to prove they could drive at least 75 m.p.h. That changed to a full lap at at least 75 m.p.h. in 1912 and a blind draw was used in 1913.

The four-lap, 10-mile qualifying average being used now went into effect in 1915. It has been that way except for the races from 1933 to 1938 when the drivers qualified with the average of 10 laps (25 miles).

Speedway officials aren’t saying for sure, but behind the scenes talk has one possible scenario limiting the number of qualifiers on each of the four days to a specific number in order to ensure a good show each day.

Speaking of rumors, the silly season already has begun.

One report has Rick Galles adding a second car to his team next year.

It’s already well known that Marlboro will be on Danny Sullivan’s car for Penske Racing in 1990, leaving Miller out in the cold.

Now it appears that Miller will join Valvoline at Galles Racing in Albuquerque, N.M., and two-time Indy-car champion Bobby Rahal or Indy 500 winner Emerson Fittipaldi appear the likely drivers to join Al Unser Jr. on the two-car team.

It’s also been learned that Porsche, which has Teo Fabi as its lone driver this year will add a second car next season.

In NASCAR’s Winston Cup series, there’s been all kinds of talk about Rusty Wallace leaving Raymond Beadle’s Blue Max team next season.

Despite denials all around, rumors persist that Wallace, last year’s series runner-up to Bill Elliott, will leave, taking crew chief Barry Dodson and other members of the team with him.

Dick Trickle may feel a little sense of deja vu today when he races in the Budweiser 500 at Dover Downs International Speedway.

Trickle, the winner of more than 1,200 feature events in his racing career, came to Dover on Aug. 3, 1969, for a U.S. Auto Club stock car race as the leading candidate for Rookie of the Year.

This time, the 47-year-old Midwestern short track ace is the leading Rookie of the Year candidate on NASCAR’s Winston Cup circuit.

A.J. Foyt won that race 20 years ago, with Trickle credited with fifth on the one-mile oval.

“I remember that race almost as if it happened yesterday, and there’s a big reason why,” said Trickle, who is filling in this season for injured Mike Alexander. “To this day, I think I really finished fourth.

“The race was scheduled as a 300-mile, 200-lap race, but it started raining after we’d completed 125 laps or so. We ran another 25 or so laps under the caution to make it official by completing over half the laps required.

“During those caution laps, Jack Bowsher, for no apparent reason, passed me on the backstretch. I passed him back. We just kept on going around each other until I settled back and figured the scorers had a handle on the situation. Boy, was I ever wrong. They awarded him the spot after the race was over. What a deal!”

Trickle is obviously hoping for a better ending in today’s 500-lap race.

Money, money, money.

Emerson Fittipaldi’s $1 million payoff for winning the $5.7 million Indy 500 last Sunday is a milestone for auto racing.

The first million dollar purse in racing history came at Indy in 1970, when winner Al Unser took home $271,697.

The Daytona 500 became a $1 million event in 1985. That same year, Bill Elliott became the all-time winningest driver in a single season with earnings of $2.3 million. That included $1 million for winning the Winston Million, paid to a driver who can win three of NASCAR’s Big Four races--the Daytona 500, the Winston 500 at Talladega, the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte and the Southern 500 at Darlington.

It was the first year of the Winston Million and nobody has done it since Elliott.

But Darrell Waltrip has a shot this year after winning Daytona and the 600 with the Southern 500 on Sept. 4 the last remaining link.

Marlboro, Fittipaldi’s sponsor, also has put up $1 million to any Indy-car driver who can sweep the three races it sponsors--the Marlboro 500 at Michigan, the Marlboro Grand Prix at the New Jersey Meadowlands and the Marlboro Challenge at Laguna Seca Raceway.