LONG BEACH GRAND PRIX : Andretti Takes Long Way to Finish in Fourth Place

It was a Long Beach Grand Prix that Michael Andretti had every reasonable expectation of winning. And when misfortune struck in the first turn, leaving him at a standstill, it seemed that he had every reason to give up.

But he didn’t.

Andretti spent about an hour and 52 minutes trying to catch up from last place Sunday. He passed car after car, but he couldn’t overtake Al Unser Jr. or Emerson Fittipaldi, who had been one-two most of the race.

And he couldn’t catch Danny Sullivan, though Andretti was on his neck at the end before finishing in fourth place.

“I drove my heart out,” the 27-year-old Andretti said. “I knew I had a fighting chance, but I was too far behind.”

The first turn at Long Beach, off the Shoreline Drive straightaway, is always precarious. A driver must reduce his speed from about 175 m.p.h. to 50, and then go through the 90-degree turn at a virtual snail’s pace.

Fittipaldi was on the outside on Shoreline when the turn came up on the second lap. Sullivan was down low. There was no place for Sullivan to go.

“I rolled in and didn’t anticipate (Fittipaldi) braking,” Sullivan said. “I jumped on the brakes.”

What resulted was a collision between teammates.

“I tapped his rear end,” said Sullivan, who, like Fittipaldi, drives for Roger Penske.

Unluckily for Andretti, who drives for Newman-Haas, he was right behind them.

“Danny spun and I had no place to go,” said Andretti. “I locked up (the brakes) and stalled. He didn’t do it on purpose.”

By the time corner workers gave him a push to get restarted, Andretti was last.

“I was the only one to get hurt (by the incident),” he said. “Danny kept going. I was an innocent bystander. It’s such a funnel in that turn. You’re going so fast and then so slow. I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. But that’s racing.”

It became quickly apparent, though, that Andretti could not be written off.

“I was going to go for it,” he said. “I knew it was a long race and that I just had to hang in there. I’ve been in that position before here. It seems I always have trouble here (although he won his first Indy car race at Long Beach in 1986.).”

From 25th place he quickly rose to 12th, to 11th, to eighth. He passed two more cars on the 21st lap and was sixth. Then he was fifth, less than 50 seconds behind Unser.

He was driving hell-bent, as if he was qualifying.

“I was hanging it out all the time,” Andretti said. “It was either do that or be content with finishing in the top 10. I still wanted to win the race. We have a good car (a Lola T9000, Chevy V-8).”

As the race wore on, Andretti said he prayed for a yellow flag.

He got it on the 68th lap and whittled away some more.

Now he was only 10.85 seconds behind Unser.

Ahead, though, was Michael’s father, Mario Andretti, who wasn’t so easy to pass.

“He was just driving hard,” the younger Andretti said.

But on Lap 79, Turn 1 at last smiled on Andretti and son got by father.

Now Michael was fourth. There were reports that he had a tire problem and that spray was coming from his car but he pushed on. Unser and Fittipaldi were too far ahead, but Sullivan was in sight.

Andretti and Sullivan dueled for third the last 15 laps.

“I was on his wing, I just ran out of time,” Andretti said.

But he had run a good race. And he won $62,804.