AUTO RACING : Entry List for Indy 500 Is Interesting Potpouri

This year’s entry list for the May 30 Indianapolis 500 is an interesting potpouri.

Among the 45 drivers nominated so far to vie for the 33-starting positions at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway are seven former winners, including defending champion Al Unser Jr., four-time winner Al Unser, and one-time winners Mario Andretti, Danny Sullivan, Bobby Rahal, Emerson Fittipaldi and Arie Luyendyk.

Conspicuous by their absence are retired Rick Mears, a four-time winner; A.J. Foyt, also a four-time winner, who has yet to decide if he is retired; three-time winner Johnny Rutherford and former winners Tom Sneva and Gordon Johncock, all of whom are still looking for rides.

The rookie crop is a good one, including former Formula One champions Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet, as well as former off-road and sports car champion Robby Gordon, Indy Lights champion Robbie Buhl, supermodified ace Davey Hamilton, Formula One veterans Stefan Johansson and Olivier Grouillard and road racers John Morton, Mark Smith, Ross Bentley, Marco Greco and Stephan Gregoire.

All of the first-year Indy entries must participate in a three-day Rookie Orientation Program at the speedway later this month.

Piquet, a three-time Formula One champion from Brazil, leads a group of drivers who are coming back from injuries sustained in crashes at Indianapolis last May or the previous year.

The Brazilian’s feet and legs were badly injured in a crash during practice, while Kevin Cogan is returning from an arm injury sustained in the 1991 race, Jeff Andretti and Jimmy Vasser from leg injuries in the 1992 Indy 500 and Hiro Matsushita from a leg injury during practice for the 500.

Piquet and Mansell, the 1992 Formula one champion from England, will be attempting to become the eighth and ninth European champions to compete at Indy. The others have been Mario Andretti, Fittipaldi, Jackie Stewart, Denny Hulme, Jack Brabham, Jimmy Clark and Graham Hill.

FORMULA ONE always has had the reputation of being a truly international series, drawing drivers from all over the world, while the Indy-car series was generally as American as apple pie, with only an occasional foreign accent heard on pit road.

Well, times have really changed.

Last Sunday’s 24 starters in the Formula One race in England came from nine countries, while the 25 starters at the Indy-car race two weeks ago in Phoenix represented seven countries--and it would have been eight had not Nigel Mansell of England missed the event because of a concussion from an accident during practice.

AYRTON SENNA’s second Formula One victory of the season--last Sunday in England--gave him 38 wins in just 145 starts. He remains second on the all-time Formula One victory list, trailing only Alain Prost, who came back from a year off to win the 1993 opener in South Africa and now has 45 triumphs.

Senna, from Brazil, is just 33 years old, while Prost, from France, is 38. Both are three-time Formula One champions and, right now, are the only former series champions running in the International series.

THE DEATH ON April 1 of defending NASCAR Winston Cup champion Alan Kulwicki made him the third driving champion to perish in a private plane crash.

The other two were former Formula One champion Graham Hill of England and former IMSA sports car champion Al Holbert.

Other famous former drivers who have died in private plane crashes include three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Wilbur Shaw and NASCAR Winston Cup Hall of Famer Curtis Turner.

Considering the number of air hours logged in private planes by race drivers and officials every year, the number of deaths is small. But the tragedy is immense in each individual case.

The same week that Kulwicki died on a Tennessee hillside, new Indy-car star Nigel Mansell had a close call in a private plane. Mansell was on his way from his home in Clearwater, Fla., Phoenix.

The plane was scheduled to refuel at Midland, Texas, but the landing gear indicator lights failed to come on and nobody knew for certain if the wheels were down and locked.

The tower order the pilot to circle the field for visual confirmation. Fortunately, it was the light that failed, not the landing gear.

COMING UP Sunday at North Wilkesboro, N.C., is what has become one of the most competitive events on the Winston Cup schedule--the First Union 400.

Different drivers have won the 400-lap, 250-mile event each of the last five years, with at least the top five finishers running the entire race.

THE POWERFUL Toyota Eagles, fielded by Dan Gurney’s All American Racers’ team and driven by Juan Fangio II and P.J. Jones, will attempt Sunday to extend their current IMSA Camel GTP record winning string to 11 races.

Fangio, the defending series champion from Argentina, goes into the race at Atlanta Motor Speedway tied with the late Peter Gregg for the most solo driver victories in IMSA history with 14.

However, it is Jones, the 23-year-old son of former Indy winner Parnelli Jones, who leads the season points after co-driving to a victory in the Daytona 24 Hours and finishing second and third in the other two events so far this season. Jones has won three of the last six GTP events.

“Juan and I have the easiest jobs on the team--we just drive the cars,” Jones said. “It seems like every week the crew comes up with something to make our Toyotas go faster. Now, we just have to find something to make me finish in front of Juan every race.”

A FAMILIAR NAME will be in the lineup this year for the Russell-USAC Championship Racing Series at Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey, Calif.

Both Clint Mears, the oldest son of longtime Indy-car star Rick Mears, and Casey Mears, the youngest son of Rick’s older brother Roger, a former Indy-car driver and off-road star, are scheduled to run the entire series.

Both fathers are expected to be on hand for as many of the races as possible--and both have agreed to help promote the fledgling series with endorsements.