MOTOR RACING / SHAV GLICK : New Rules’ Goal: Taking Tragedy Out of Crashes

The future of Indy car racing, and specifically the Indianapolis 500, has taken a turn for the better--both on and off the track.

On the track, rules makers of the United States Auto Club, which governs the 500; Championship Auto Racing Teams, which governs the 15 other Indy car races; and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway have formulated new three-year rules aimed at protecting drivers from the rash of foot and leg injuries at the last Indianapolis 500.

Jeff Andretti and former world Formula One champion Nelson Piquet are still in Indianapolis, undergoing rehabilitation for their injuries. Andretti has had three major operations to mend his shattered ankles and feet injured during the 500. Piquet suffered his injuries in a crash during practice.

Twelve other drivers were hospitalized and one, Jovy Marcelo, was killed in the epidemic of crashes.

Under the new rules, the length of the cars will be increased at least five inches, and that extension will be in front of the chassis. The cockpit will be enlarged so that drivers will have sufficient room to pull back their feet, legs and knees when an impact is imminent.

The new rules closely followed recommendations made by Terry Trammel, the orthopedic surgeon who treated injured Indy car drivers at Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis.

“The cars must be longer,” he said after the race. “There has to be more space between the tub and the driver’s seat.”

Jeff Andretti’s father, Mario, who also suffered leg injuries during the 500, said he approved of the new foot box regulations, but warned, “We don’t want the body ending up absorbing all the impact.” Engineers now design cars to break apart at impact, thus absorbing much of the energy before it gets to the driver.

“I’m especially concerned with super-speedways (Indianapolis and Michigan),” Mario said. “That’s the dark side of our sport. But (safety) is the best it’s ever been.”

Michael Andretti, Mario’s oldest son and defending CART series champion, suggests that the super-speedway tracks install energy-absorbing walls as a method of reducing crippling injuries.

“The timing is perfect because they are rebuilding the walls at Indianapolis,” Michael said. “Perhaps they could sandwich various materials and structures, such as a compressible wall, in front of metal Armco barriers on energy-absorbing sleds.”

Mario added: “It could be the biggest breakthrough in Indy racing safety ever.”

He pointed out that such measures would be needed only through the radius of the turns.

Other rules will restrict the aerodynamics of the cars in 1993. Those changes are aimed at slowing the cars, which reached speeds of more than 232 m.p.h. at Indianapolis and are expected to be faster than that next week at Michigan International Speedway, when drivers begin practice for the Marlboro 500 on Aug. 2.

The new rules will stabilize the size and structure of the rear wing, eliminate air-channeling dividers on the underbody, which alter the air flow, regulate the size of the engine cover and do away with flush-faced aerodynamic wheels.

Off the track, changes were made in the CART board of directors that should result in better rapport between the Speedway and the Indy car owners and teams. The new board--reduced from 17 members to seven--includes William Stokkan, chairman and chief executive officer of CART, and Tony George, president of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, as non-voting members.

The five others are car owners: Roger Penske and Carl Haas, representing two high-financed teams involved in long-range chassis and engine development; Jim Hall, a middle-of-the-road owner; and Derrick Walker and Dale Coyne, representing the lesser-financed teams.

The inclusion of George on the board is the culmination of two years of sometimes acrimonious negotiations between him and the CART owners.

“Tony broke the deadlock,” Stokkan said after the former board voted unanimously for the change. “It’s been a tedious process the past eight months, and somebody had to make the first move. We can now deal with five individuals rather than 17 individuals, and obviously that’s something I welcome.

“The biggest frustration for Tony, as well as others, was that when he wanted an answer, there hasn’t really been a voice of the Indy car series.”

Briefly

INDY CARS--Leader Card Racing, the oldest active team in Indy cars, has been shut down by owner Ralph Wilke of Milwaukee. The team was founded 36 years ago by Ralph’s father, Bob, and won two United States Auto Club championships and two Indianapolis 500s with Rodger Ward driving. A.J. Watson was chief mechanic and builder of the classic roadsters that dominated racing in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s. Buddy Lazier drove the team’s 2-year-old Lola-Buick in this year’s first seven races. . . . Arie Luyendyk, the 1990 Indy 500 winner, will start only his second Indy car race of the season in the Marlboro 500. As he did in the Indy 500, Luyendyk will drive for Chip Ganassi. He also will drive Sunday in Portland, Ore., in the first of three IMSA races for Tom Walkinshaw as a Jaguar teammate of Davy Jones.

STOCK CARS--Sportsman and Grand American modified cars of the Winston Racing Series will headline Saturday night’s program at Saugus Speedway, which will be followed by a destruction derby. . . . Jody Lockmann, in street stocks, and Carol Timm, in bombers, are mixing it up Saturday nights at Cajon Speedway with the men. Lockmann won three consecutive races to open the season. Timm, 39, a mother of four, is looking for her first victory after a recent third-place finish. . . . Sportsman and stock pony cars will run Saturday night at Orange Show Speedway in San Bernardino. . . . Late models and dirt cars share the Saturday night billing at Santa Maria Speedway.

Bobby Hillin has been named as relief driver for the injured Davey Allison in Sunday’s Diehard 500 at Talladega Raceway in Talladega, Ala. Hillin will qualify the No. 28 Ford on Friday and take over after Allison runs the first lap Sunday so that Allison will gain Winston Cup points for the car’s finishing position.

SPRINT CARS--With four-time defending champion Ron Shuman back, the California Racing Assn. heads for Oildale and a Saturday night main event at Bakersfield Speedway. The last time the CRA raced there, Bobby Mishnowicz won his first main event. Lealand McSpadden continues to lead the series with 1,255 points to 1,073 for Brad Noffsinger and 1,004 for Vern Sweeney. Shuman, who missed several early-season races, is seventh with 821.

SPORTS CARS--The California Sports Car Club will conduct a regional road racing program this weekend at Willow Springs Raceway.

DRAG RACING--The Nostalgia Drag Racing Assn. is having a Santa Ana Reunion this weekend at L.A. County Raceway in Palmdale. Many cars and drivers from the original Santa Ana dragstrip are expected.

POWERBOATS--Owner-driver Tom Pappas of Santa Barbara and throttle man Carson Brummett of Pasadena, who were hospitalized last Sunday after their boat, Imperial Palace, capsized in the ocean off Long Beach, have been released.

OFF-ROAD--Truck owner Glenn Harris says that pit notes from last Saturday’s Mickey Thompson Gran Prix were erroneous when they pinpointed the driver of his Mazda truck, Ikuo Hanawa of Japan, as the one who flipped and caused a six-truck pileup in the peristyle arches. “Hanawa started last and was at the tail end,” Harris said. “When he saw the mess in the arches, he stopped and waited until it got cleared up.”