Several New Twists and Turns on Indy Car Circuit This Season

Never in the storied history of Indy cars, dating to 1909 when Santa Monica was a key stop on the first championship circuit, has there been such an air of anticipation as surrounds this year’s PPG Indy Car World Series.

A winter of major changes has stirred the Indy car program since the 1992 season ended last October in Monterey with Bobby Rahal edging Michael Andretti to win his third championship, but his first as an owner-driver.

Most intriguing was the switch of Nigel Mansell, the world Formula One champion from Britain, and Andretti, Indy car racing’s most dominant driver in recent years, on the Carl Haas-Paul Newman team.

Mansell becomes the first Grand Prix champion to defect to the American form of open-wheel racing while still the world title-holder. How he fares--on ovals such as Phoenix, Indianapolis and Michigan as well as the road course circuits with which he is more familiar--will go a long way toward answering the question of superiority between Indy car and Formula One drivers.

One major change for Mansell, along with having to learn to shift gears again, will be adapting to a rolling start. Formula One races use a standing start.

“In a single-seater, I’ve never done a rolling start,” Mansell said. “I literally have to turn the clock back 28 years, back when I was racing karts.”

Andretti, the 1991 Indy car champion, went in the opposite direction to join the British McLaren team in Formula One. His debut last Sunday in the South Africa Grand Prix was disappointing as he lasted only five laps before losing a wheel in an accident.

Mansell’s teammate will be Michael’s father, Mario, himself a former Formula One champion, while Michael’s teammate at South Africa was Ayrton Senna, a three-time world champion from Brazil.

“I’m going to miss (Michael) terribly,” Mario said. “It will never be the same, and I think everyone understands that. However, life goes on. I feel good for Michael that he is going to have the chance he wanted in Formula One. That’s the positive. But I’ve got to go on with my own business.”

Missing, along with the younger Andretti, will be Rick Mears, the winningest driver of the 1980s with four Indianapolis 500 victories and three national championships. Mears sent a shock wave through Indy car circles when he announced his retirement last December.

Mears, who drove 15 years for Roger Penske, will remain as a consultant/adviser to Penske drivers Emerson Fittipaldi and Paul Tracy. Fittipaldi won last year at Surfers Paradise, Australia, when he charged from fifth to first in the final eight laps during a late-race rain.

Rahal, who astounded racing followers by organizing his own team with Chicago trucking magnate Carl Hogan before the 1992 season and then winning the championship, has undertaken a new challenge. He parked his championship Lola, with its year-old Chevrolet engine, to drive an RH-001--a new designation for the old Truesports chassis--with a third-generation Chevrolet “C” powerplant.

Back, too, are former champions Al Unser Jr. and Danny Sullivan, teammates on the Rick Galles team. Three other veteran drivers, Teo Fabi of Italy, Roberto Guerrero of Colombia and Arie Luyendyk of the Netherlands, will return to the series on a full-time basis.

Fabi replaces John Andretti on John Hall’s team; Guerrero is Kenny Bernstein’s driver with a new Lola-Chevy, and Luyendyk replaces Eddie Cheever on Chip Ganassi’s team.

Stephan Johansson of Sweden, last year’s rookie of the year although driving in only nine races, will run the full schedule for former driver Tony Bettenhausen.

Robby Gordon of Orange will drive A.J. Foyt’s Lola-Ford Cosworth for the full season. Last year, Foyt employed eight drivers--including himself at Indy--before signing the off-road racing Gordon.

Foyt has said if he races anywhere this season, it will be at Indy.

The 16-race season begins Sunday, halfway around the world, in Surfers Paradise, with the Australia FAI Grand Prix--65 laps around a 2.793-mile seaside course on the Gold Coast. Channel 7 will televise the race on a delayed basis at 1 p.m. Sunday.

One driver to watch will be Gary Brabham, youngest son of former world champion Jack Brabham and brother of four-time IMSA Camel GT champion Geoff. Brabham, the first Australian to drive in the race, will be in a Paragon Motorsports Lola-Chevy.

Following what has become a trend in recent years, 14 of the 26 entries this week are foreign drivers.

A number of others, including Mike Groff of Studio City, Adrian Fernandez of Mexico, David Kudrave of La Canada, and Lyn St. James, last year’s Indy 500 rookie of the year from Daytona Beach, Fla., will skip the Surfers Paradise race but are expected to join the Indy car circuit in two weeks for the Valvoline 200 at Phoenix.

Briefly

STOCK CARS--Saugus Speedway drivers will have a new surface when they show up for the season opener March 27. The one-third mile oval recently underwent a $50,000 repaving program. . . . Racing on Saturday night at Bakersfield Speedway in Oildale will be late models and IMCA modifieds; at Imperial Raceway, four miles north of El Centro, will be modifieds and street stocks. . . . The Winston West series will open Sunday at College Station, Tex., with the NASCAR/ARCA Texas Shootout. Defending series champion Bill Sedgwick will get added competition from Winston Cup veterans Dale Earnhardt, Ken Schrader and Bobby Hillin.

MOTORCYCLES--The Willow Springs Motorcycle Club will hold Grand Prix road racing Saturday and Sunday on their home track. . . . CRC motocrossers will ride Sunday at Starwest Supercross Park in the Lake Perris Fairgrounds.

SPRINT CARS--The wingless cars of the California Racing Assn. will return to competition Saturday night at Manzanita Speedway in Phoenix. Defending champion Lealand McSpadden will be back after a short vacation to Australia in which he drove in three winged sprint car races.

DRAG BOATS--The International Hot Boat Assn. will open its season this weekend at Firebird Lake, south of Phoenix. Veteran top fuel drivers Clinton Anderson and Ron Braaksma will continue their quest of the illusive 230 m.p.h. record.

DRAG RACING--The National Hot Rod Assn. canceled its Le Grandnationals in Montreal because of a new Canadian law forbidding use of leaded fuel. The Winston series event will be replaced by one June 24-27 at Heartland Park in Topeka, Kan.