MOTOR RACING / SHAV GLICK : Indy Rookies Have an International Look

A three-time Formula One champion, a veteran female driver and one of motor racing’s most highly touted young drivers are among 10 expected to appear at Indianapolis Motor Speedway next week for the United States Auto Club’s annual rookie orientation program for the Indianapolis 500.

Nelson Piquet of Brazil, hoping to emulate the success in Indy cars of his countryman Emerson Fittipaldi, left Formula One this year to drive in the 500 for John Menard, a lumber magnate from Eau Claire, Wis., who has been entering cars at Indy since 1980. Piquet, 39, won the Formula One championship in 1981, 1983 and 1987.

Fittipaldi, a Formula One champion in 1972 and 1974 who switched to Indy cars in 1984, won the 500 in 1989.

Piquet recently tested at Indianapolis at 223 m.p.h. in a year-old Lola-Buick. He will have a 1992 model for the race.

“For the first few laps, I was scared to death,” he said. “But then, when I got used to running close to the wall, I stopped thinking about it. I found (the car) easy to drive. I’m looking forward to driving the new car, but the most important thing before the race will be to run with other cars on the track.”

Lyn St. James, 45, will drive a Cosworth-powered Lola for team owner Dick Simon in hopes of becoming only the second woman in the Indy 500. Simon also directed the effort of Janet Guthrie when she made the field in 1977; 1978, when she finished ninth; and 1979. Since then, only one woman, Desire Wilson of South Africa, has made an attempt at Indy. She ran 191.042 m.p.h. in 1982, the fastest official lap by a woman at the speedway, but she did not complete her four-lap qualifying run.

St. James, whose last full-time season was 1990 in the Trans-Am series, set the woman’s closed-circuit record of 232 m.p.h. in a Ford Thunderbird that same year at Talladega, Ala., Speedway.

“I’m going to be a big sponge (at rookie orientation), soaking up everything I can,” St. James said. “I have a lot to learn. I just want to make a good, creditable showing.”

If it were not for Piquet, the odds-on favorite for rookie-of-the-year honors would be Paul Tracy, a 23-year-old Canadian who won nine of 14 American Racing Series events in 1990 and so impressed Roger Penske that he signed Tracy as a test driver.

Penske, whose cars have won five of the last eight Indy 500s, has entered Tracy as a teammate of Fittipaldi and defending champion Rick Mears.

Surprisingly, seven of the rookie candidates are foreigners. In addition to Piquet and Tracy, they include Eric Bachelart of Belgium, Jovy Marcelo of the Philippines, Kenji Momota of Japan, Philippe Gache of France and Gregor Foitek of Switzerland.

The Americans are two Californians, Ted Prappas of Los Angeles and Jimmy Vasser of Discovery Bay, and St. James.

Eight former winners were listed among potential drivers for 95 cars entered in the Indianapolis 500, but Al Unser was not among them.

The oversight puzzles his son, Al Jr.

“At that particular race track, he is the best,” Unser Jr. said. “My dad could win it for the next 10 years. He should definitely get a ride, and he could definitely win the race. But as far as I know, he doesn’t have anything going for this year’s race.”

He wasn’t entered and didn’t have anything going in 1987 either, when he won his fourth 500 after being called to replace the injured Danny Ongais in one of Penske’s cars.

SPEEDWAY BIKES--Junior Speedway, for riders aged 10 to 16, will return to the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa as part of the Friday night program on an every other week basis. They have been absent for several years because of liability insurance, but promoter Harry Oxley has reached an agreement with insurance carriers for them to resume competition.

Rick Miller won $35,000 in a race given in his honor at the Coventry track in England last Sunday. The big attraction was a two-out-of-three match series between former world champions Ole Olsen and Bruce Penhall, won by Olsen.

STOCK CARS--Rick Carelli of Denver will be in the favorite’s role Saturday night at Las Vegas Speedway where race No. 4 is scheduled in the NASCAR Southwest Tour for late model cars. Carelli, driving a V8-powered Chevrolet, won both races last year on the three-eighths of a mile paved oval, and he has won the last two races at Cajon Speedway and Mesa Marin. Next week the series will be at Saugus Speedway.

Winston Racing Series programs are scheduled Saturday night at Saugus, Cajon and Orange Show Speedways. . . . Two-time Cajon Speedway champion John Borneman, who had been sidelined since last October because of a broken leg, made a successful return to competition last week. It was Borneman’s 40th sportsman victory at Cajon. . . . Santa Maria Speedway will open its season Saturday night with the Bud Stanfield Memorial races. . . . Imperial Raceway in El Centro will begin a series of open competition events Saturday night with a street and factory Grand Prix.

MIDGETS--The ESPN Saturday Night Thunder series, part of the United States Auto Club’s Western States schedule, will continue this week at Ventura Raceway. Competition among the nation’s leading midget racers is so tough that former USAC champion Russ Gamester failed to qualify for the 30-lap main event last week after winning the week before. Jimmy Sills came from 13th to win. Three-quarter midgets also will compete in a 20-lap main event.

MOTORCYCLES--The Camel Pro Series for dirt track racers comes to California this weekend for the Sacramento Mile, with Chris Carr hoping to repeat his victory of last year. Carr also won the opening race of the 16-event series at Daytona Beach, Fla. The series will be at the Pomona Fairgrounds on May 8. . . . The Miller Hi-Life series for unlimited Formula One bikes will resume Saturday and Sunday at Willow Springs Raceway.