It Proved to Be Costly at Indy : Auto racing: Besides a heavy human toll, crashes involving 27 cars during May amounted to damages of nearly $6 million.

The crashes involving 27 Indy cars last month, leading to and during the Indianapolis 500, took a terrible toll of human flesh and bones. And financially, it may been the costliest race ever.

Close to $6 million went up in dust and smoke as one car after another lost control and slid into the concrete barriers that surround the 2 1/2-mile rectangular oval at speeds sometimes approaching 230 m.p.h. Ten wrecks involving 13 cars occurred during the race, which was won by Al Unser Jr., after 14 cars had hit the walls during two weeks of practice and qualifying.

The human toll included one fatality, Jovy Marcelo of the Philippines, and 14 others hospitalized with broken limbs. Three, Nelson Piquet, Jeff Andretti and Hiro Matsushita, face lengthy rehabilitation for leg and feet injuries.

Twelve of the cars were “totaled,” which translates to a loss of between $300,000 and $400,000 each. Eight others sustained “substantial” damage, which means they can be repaired, but those repair bills can range from $25,000 to $200,000.

Adding to the expense sheet are blown engines. Seven of them, at about $100,000 each, blew during the race. Many more expired during practice. Some of the engines were repairable, but rebuilding costs $15,000-$50,000 each.

When engines blow during practice, it’s not as visible as a crash, but there were reports at Indy that Unser’s winning team lost eight engines before finding the right one to go 500 miles on race day.

Roger Penske, whose cars had won seven of the previous 12 Indy 500s, was the hardest hit owner. Counting an accident on their final day of testing at Nazareth, Pa., before heading for Indianapolis, Penske lost four out-of-the-box 1992 model Penske chassis and one 1991 model, the car that Rick Mears had driven to victory in the 1991 race.

Because Penske designs and builds his own cars in Poole, England, there is no price tag available, but a Lola, the only store-bought Indy car available, lists at $360,000 for a rolling chassis without an engine.

“It is difficult to put a finger on a precise (cost) figure,” said Nigel Bennett, designer of the Penske cars. “If we only built one, it might be a million dollars. For each one we make, obviously it reduces the per-item cost drastically, but it’s (still) very expensive.

“Before the first car was delivered, we had made more than 2,500 drawings and spent about 110 days in wind-tunnel testing. We have 70 people in England, with nine of those on the design team. Our wind-tunnel department has five full-time modelers and works with 40% scale models in the wind tunnel at Southhampton University.”

The first two crashed Penske cars, each driven by rookie Paul Tracy of Canada, were returned to the factory, where they underwent extensive rebuilding. Both will return to action Sunday at the Detroit Grand Prix in the hands of Tracy and Emerson Fittipaldi.

Although there was a big jump in speeds this year, accidents can happen at the most unlikely moment. Tracy was going no more than 130 m.p.h. when he dropped a wheel off the pavement coming out of the pits during the first week of practice and found himself sliding into the wall.

Mears, still hurting from two crashes at Indy, will skip the tight Detroit road course on Belle Isle in the Detroit River and let Tracy drive his car. Mears expects to return in time for the Portland, Ore., race, June 21.

“Rick took a couple of good hits at Indy, and the important thing now is that he takes some additional time to fully recover so he will be in top form for Portland,” Penske said. “Both Rick and Dr. Terry Trammell (the Indianapolis orthopedic surgeon who specializes in injured Indy car drivers) decided that it would be best for Rick to take some extra time to let his Indy injuries heal more completely.”

The spectacular accident that ended up with Mears’ car sliding along the asphalt on its side--Mears’ helmet wedged between the track and his roll bar--totally wrecked the 1991 car that won Indy. Mears was shaking down the car while the Penske crew was changing an engine on his 1992 car.

The wrecked car, after undergoing restoration in England, will be returned to sit in the museum basement of Penske’s Longo Toyota dealership in El Monte. Seven of Penske’s winning cars, plus pace cars from their winning years, are on display there.

During the race, Mears and Fittipaldi were separately involved in the same accident, coming out of the fourth turn on lap 75. Mears was hit by a sliding Jim Crawford at about the same time Fittipaldi was spinning into the wall.

“It’s difficult to know yet what the fate of the two cars will be,” said Dan Luginbuhl, a Penske spokesman. “The factory has been so busy getting the first two cars repaired in time for Detroit that we haven’t had a chance to know the extent of the damages to the other two. If they are not repairable, they will become show cars for Marlboro and Mobil One. If they are repairable, they will be back on the Indy car circuit.”

The cost of air-freighting a car to England, round trip, is $5,000. If you want a hurry-up trip, back and forth in less than 48 hours, it’s closer to $10,000.

“The cars are pretty well stripped down to the tub before we ship them,” Luginbuhl said. “The factory puts them back in racing condition, and then we put an engine in and do the plumbing and that sort of thing here in Reading (Pa.).”

Arie Luyendyk’s car, one of two Lolas entered by Chip Ganassi, was shipped to the factory in Huntindon, England, after Luyendyk crashed during the race. The right side of the car was wiped out, but a team spokesman said it should be ready for the Milwaukee 200 on June 28. Luyendyk was not scheduled to drive at either Detroit or Portland, both road course races. Robby Gordon, a rookie from Orange, will drive the road races for the Ganassi team.

Car owner John Menard, who limits his racing to the Indianapolis 500, also had an expensive month. Two of his cars, driven by Tom Sneva and Piquet, were total wipeouts; and two others, both driven by Gary Bettenhausen, were damaged but can be repaired.

Piquet was released from Methodist Hospital last Monday but will remain at Indianapolis to undergo therapy for several months. A three-time Formula One champion, Piquet announced his retirement when he left the hospital.

“Tom’s car, a ’91 Lola, was beyond redemption,” Menard said from his shop in Eau Claire, Wis. “It went to the great race car heaven in the sky. Piquet’s was a write-off, too. There were a few items salvageable, but it would have cost more to repair it than it would be worth.

“The first car Gary (Bettenhausen) crashed during practice is the one we repaired and had Al Unser drive in the race. The one Gary crashed in the race is repairable. That’s the one where a tire (from Jeff Andretti’s car) came down from the sky and hit Gary’s car. It might have killed him if it had hit him in the head. It barely missed him, in fact.”

Jeff Andretti’s car, which careened head-on into the fourth turn wall after losing a wheel, was one of the worst damaged. Even losing wheels is expensive. A wheel costs $1,250-$1,850 and teams carry a dozen sets.

A.J. Foyt, who owns the car Andretti drove, said that what remained was little more than a heap of junk. Crewmen said the car appeared to be damaged worse than the one Foyt crashed two years ago at Elkhart Lake, Wis., when he hit a dirt berm head-on and seriously injured his feet and legs.

“I’m going to put what’s left of it in my fire sale at Indy,” Foyt said.

He had announced last month that he will hold an auction of his racing memorabilia Aug. 13-15 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Jeff, Mario Andretti’s youngest son, is still undergoing surgery and skin grafts on both feet and ankles at Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis. Jeff lost the Achilles tendon on his right foot and needed major surgery to the toes on his left foot.

“We’re still iffy on how that’s going to turn out, but it appears to be OK,” Trammell said. “Jeff and Piquet will both walk again, but they won’t walk normally.”

Mario Andretti also crashed during the 500. He suffered several broken toes on both feet.

The car’s front end was destroyed, including the suspension, bulkheads and foot box, but was sent to the Lola factory for repairs. The financial loss may be minimized because car owner Carl Haas is also the North American distributor for Lola cars.

Teo Fabi will sit in for Mario at Detroit and perhaps the following race at Portland. The car isn’t expected to return until July 5, in time for the oval-track race at New Hampshire Speedway in Loudon, N.H.

Dick Simon, who masterminded Lyn St. James’ campaign to rookie-of-the-year honors as the second woman driver in Indy history, lost two cars and another was damaged.

Matsushita, grandson of the founder of the Panasonic electronics empire, totaled one of Simon’s Lolas during the first week of practice. Six weeks earlier, in a race at Surfers Paradise, Australia, Matsushita had totaled another Lola.

“Both of them were unrepairable,” Simon said. “In the crash at Indy, the tub broke in three places. I’d say, counting all the parts damaged, it ended up about a $400,000 crash. We’ll try and piece together one car from parts of the two Hiro crashed and maybe end up with a $150,000 car that we can sell.”

Simon expects Matsushita, who suffered a broken right leg at Indianapolis, to return in time for the Michigan 500 on Aug. 2. Until then, Brazilian Raul Boesel will sit in for Matsushita.

Frenchman Phillipe Gache crashed another of Simon’s cars during the race, and it wound up on the junk pile.

“Gache’s car was a ‘91, and losing a ’91 is a lot cheaper than losing a ‘92,” Simon said. “It’s not more than a $100,000 loss. The car was worth about $150,000, and we may salvage $50,000 of pieces off of it.”

Kenny Bernstein, who sandwiches running Indy car and NASCAR Winston Cup stock car teams between winning top-fuel drag races, had the most shocking loss.

Roberto Guerrero, after setting a qualifying record of 232.482 m.p.h. in one of Bernstein’s two Buick-Lolas, crashed during the second parade lap when he tried to heat up his tires on a cold track and spun into the infield wall.

“You wouldn’t think a slow-speed crash like that could cause as much damage as it did,” Bernstein said. “It damaged the undercarriage, the right rear and left front suspension, knocked off the nose cone, bent the front wing and crumpled the carbon fiber floor.”

Bernstein, like Menard an Indy-only owner, shipped Guerrero’s car, along with Crawford’s, back to the Lola factory for repairs.

“They’re both repairable, but since we’re in no hurry we sent them on a slow boat to England,” Bernstein said. “I don’t know the figures yet, but I’d imagine both of them might run about $100,000 in damages.

“Right now, I’m looking ahead to 1993 and hope to run the full Indy car season with either a Chevy or a Ford Cosworth engine. I don’t know who my driver will be. I’m going to look at all the options. Roberto (Guerrero) is definitely one to be considered, but he might find something else first.”

Jim Vasser, the fastest rookie driver in Indy history, suffered a broken leg when he wrecked his car, but he hopes to be mended in time for the Portland race in two weeks. The Lola he crashed, however, is history.

“The car is going to be a show car for one of our sponsors, Vital Care Hair Products, and if you want to see it you’ll have to visit a Pay Less store or a Price Club,” said Rick Cole, co-owner of Vasser’s car. “It was our secondary car, so when Jimmy is ready to drive again the primary car will be ready for him.”

Another rookie, Brian Bonner, destroyed “about 85%” of one of Dale Coyne’s year-old Lola-Buicks when he crashed in the race.

“The only things that survived intact were the gear box and the (transmission) bell housing, but on a Buick that’s a substantial cost item,” Coyne said. “If someone backs into the wall with a Buick later this season, we may buy it and take two (cars) to make one.”

Bonner, who finished 97 laps before crashing, apparently impressed Foyt because A.J. tabbed the rookie from Boston to drive for him at Detroit.

Some teams got off easier. Three of Frank Arciero’s cars crashed during practice--two driven by Fabrizio Barbazza and one by Jeff Wood--but all were repaired by team manager Dennis McCormack and his crew in the garage at Indianapolis. Neither made the race, however.

Two veterans, Tony Bettenhausen and Pancho Carter, and a rookie, Kenji Momota, totaled cars in practice during unsuccessful attempts to get up to qualifying speed. Bettenhausen’s car was his own. Carter’s was a spare ’91 Lola-Buick owned by Ron Hemelgarn, who also lost a car when Stan Fox could not avoid Gache’s spinning car and slammed into it during the race.

Drivers carry massive insurance policies against injury, but there is no such thing as insurance on the cars.

“That’s why maintaining a solid sponsorship program is so important,” Simon said. “Without sponsors, there is no way we could field a car, the way expenses have escalated. Purse money wouldn’t begin to cover the losses.”

The purse at Indianapolis totaled $7,527,3450, of which Unser and the Galles-Kraco winning team collected $1,244,184.

Medical expenses for the injured drivers are paid by a complex pattern of policies purchased by the sanctioning bodies--the United States Auto Club for Indy and Championship Auto Racing Teams, Inc., for other Indy car races--the race promoters and the tracks where races are held, the Championship Drivers Assn. of Indianapolis, the individual teams and even the drivers themselves.

“Most of the hospital cases were no more than an overnight stay and the costs didn’t mount up too high, but for ones like Nelson Piquet and Jeff Andretti, the CDA has a catastrophic policy that kicks in,” said John Potter, founder and president of the CDA. “All of the drivers are dues-paying members, and we raise additional money through things like our CDA charity golf tournament and other functions.

“None of the drivers will get hurt out of pocket. It’s one of our benefits to members, but 10 years ago that wouldn’t have been the case.”