MOTOR RACING : Andretti Makes It Easy to Add to Family Lore

Selecting a driver of the year can be an excruciating experience when champions in different types of racing dominate their series but rarely, if ever, face one another. Last year, when Al Unser Jr., in Indy cars, and Dale Earnhardt, in stock cars, had dominating seasons, was an example. It would have been a lot simpler to declare them co-drivers of the year than to have Unser selected by a narrow, split vote.

Michael Andretti left selectors with no such problem this year.

Mario’s eldest son won a record eight Indy car races in the CART/PPG Cup championship series. He also won eight pole positions. Even more impressive, he led 965 of the season’s 2,107 laps in 17 races. The next closest was Unser with 277 leading laps.

Financially, Andretti earned an Indy car record $2,461,234 in winning the championship after being runner-up in 1986 and ’87 to Bobby Rahal and in 1990 to Unser.

“The season was a dream come true,” said Andretti, 29, when notified of his driver-of-the-year selection. “I’ve never wanted anything more in my life (than winning the Indy car championship), and I’ve never been happier.

“It’s special for me to be driver of the year this year because it is the 25th anniversary of the award, and my dad was the first to win it. It’s another special moment for our family.”

Michael Andretti’s victories came on a mile oval at Milwaukee, road courses at Portland, Mid-Ohio, Road America and Laguna Seca and temporary road courses at Cleveland, Toronto and Vancouver. He also won the non-points Marlboro Challenge at Laguna Seca.

Still, Andretti says his season turned on a third-place finish in his Chevrolet-powered Lola on the streets of Denver.

“In the first place, that’s when we announced that I had signed again with Newman/Haas for 1992,” Andretti said. “I think it was good for the team to know that everything was settled.” Speculation earlier in the year had him leaving CART next year to drive in Formula One.

“Then, in the race, Bobby (Rahal) and I got (into an accident), and it looked like I’d get no points. Then he fell out, and I was able to climb back from a lap down to finish third. That cut Bobby’s points lead from 24 to nine. You’d think the turning point would have been a win, but it was a third.”

Mario Andretti, who was selected as driver of the year in 1967, ’78 and ‘84, will make the presentation to his son along with Ki Cuyler, the award sponsor, during a ceremony Friday at the 21 Club in New York.

“I want to share this honor not only with my dad, who was my teammate, but also with my entire team, especially my owners, Paul Newman and Carl Haas,” Michael Andretti said. “It would have been impossible for me to have enjoyed this dream season without all of them.

“When we were 34 points behind Rahal after Phoenix and 31 behind after the Meadowlands, they never gave up. If anything, they worked harder. This is really a team championship.”

Andretti’s unanimous selection also helps put to rest the inevitable comparisons with his father, a four-time national champion and 1978 world Formula One champion.

“I think the pressure to live up to my last name was there when I first started racing (in 1980) and when I was working my way up through the ranks,” Michael said. “Once I made it to the so-called big-time racing, though, people knew I was there because I could do the job. At that point, you have made your own name, and the comparisons stop.”

It was the second major award for an Andretti this year. Michael’s younger brother, Jeff, was named Indy car rookie of the year.

The selection of Michael Andretti was made easier when other major champions, Earnhardt in Winston Cup stock cars, Geoff Brabham in International Motor Sports Assn. sports cars and Joe Amato in National Hot Rod Assn. dragsters, had less than distinguished years.

Earnhardt, although winning his fifth championship, won only four of 29 races in his Goodwrench Chevrolet and was overshadowed late in the season by Harry Gant, who won four Winston Cup races in a row, plus two Grand Nationals, for a remarkable six-race winning streak. Gant, 51, was the oldest driver to win a Winston Cup race each time his Oldsmobile took the checkered flag.

Davey Allison was also a stock car contender, winning five Winston Cup races, including the prestigious Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte. Bobby Allison’s son also won NASCAR’s all-star race.

Brabham, who came back from serious injuries to take the Camel GT championship in a Nissan with a third-place finish in the final race at Del Mar, won only one race, which he had to share with his brother, Gary, and Derek Daly at Sebring, Fla. Davy Jones had four victories, and Juan Manuel Fangio II won three of the final five, but Brabham’s consistency paid off. He finished second five times and third four times.

Amato became the first driver to win four NHRA top-fuel championships, but he won only four final eliminations to six for Kenny Bernstein, who also won the non-points Budweiser Cup shootout at Pomona. Other impressive drag racing performances included Darrell Alderman’s 11 victories in pro stock; Pat Austin’s 10 victories in top alcohol funny car, plus his first-of-a-kind double in alcohol funny car and top-fuel dragster on the same day; and Jim White’s assault on the funny-car record, which ended with a 289.94-m.p.h. run at the Keystone Nationals.

Other noteworthy winners were Rick Mears, with his fourth Indianapolis 500; Ernie Irvan, in the Daytona 500; Scott Sharp and his Camaro, in the Trans-Am series; Pete Halsmer and his Mazda RX7, with the IMSA GTO title, and Steve Kinser, who won half of the 70 World of Outlaws sprint car races en route to his 11th championship.

FORMULA ONE--Al Unser Jr., in his first test for the Williams-Renault team in Estoril, Portugal, ran the same F1 car a little under a half-second quicker a lap than regular Williams driver Riccardo Patrese. “I could definitely win races with that car and team,” Unser said after the test. “I have no doubts in that.” Unser has two more years remaining on his Indy car contract with the Galles-Kraco team, however.

VINTAGE CARS--Vintage motorcycles as well as cars will race at Willow Springs Raceway this weekend in the Vintage Auto Racing Assn.’s final program of the year.

MISCELLANY--Ventura Raceway will close its season Saturday night with a combined motocross and dune buggy program. . . . The Desert Valleys Racing Assn. stock car race Sunday at Imperial Raceway, near El Centro, will be a benefit for Kenny Brock of Chula Vista, the 1987 track sportsman champion, who was left paralyzed from the waist down after a water-skiing accident last summer.

Drag racing champion Kenny Bernstein will be on the sideline Sunday at Anaheim Stadium for the Ram-Atlanta football game as the guest of Falcon Coach Jerry Glanville, a racing enthusiast who recently drove a Winston Cup car.