INDIANAPOLIS 500 / UPDATE : The Parade Passed Him By in ’92 Race

On Indianapolis 500 pole day, it’s difficult not to think of Roberto Guerrero, the quiet Colombian who set a qualifying record last year and then failed to start the race because he crashed on the parade lap.

“It was devastating at the time, but I have put it out of my mind now,” he said. “Only when someone brings it up do I think about it.”

Does he find it embarrassing when it is mentioned?

“Not at all. I still know I was doing what I should have been doing. It was critical to get heat in the tires. It just happened that it was very cold when I hit the throttle, it was like ice (on the track), and the car went straight left.

“The right tire had warmed up more than the left, and that changed the balance and caused the car to turn sideways. I sat there hoping I would wake up from my nightmare.

“Afterward, the more I listened to the race, and heard about all the other cold-weather crashes, the better I felt. I thought, ‘I can be playing tennis tomorrow instead of sitting in Methodist Hospital with all the other drivers.’ ”

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Rookie Ross Bentley of Canada suffered first- and second-degree burns on his face, neck and hands Friday when the fuel pressure regulator split in his Lola-Buick and fire erupted in the cockpit. Bentley crawled out and lay on the track, beating the fire with his hands until emergency crews arrived.

“That’s a high-pressure regulator and it threw fuel on top of the fuel cell,” said Mike Devin, technical director for the sanctioning U.S. Auto Club. “From there, it spread in all directions--rearward to the engine and forward into the cockpit. Then the whole thing lit.”

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Raul Boesel had the fastest lap for the second time this week, hitting 225.592 m.p.h. in a Lola-Ford Cosworth, but Arie Luyendyk’s 226.182 run on Thursday remained fastest of the month.

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When Eric Bachelart drove Dale Coyne’s Lola-Buick, it was the first time in 82 years that a Marmon Wasp had been on the track. Bachelart’s car is sponsored by the Marmon Group of Plainfield, Ill., the lineal descendant of the company that built the first winner of the 500, driven by Ray Harroun, in 1911.

Bachelart’s car has the same gold and black coloring as Harroun’s.

The Marmon Group no longer has any automotive affiliation. It is now an international association of more than 60 independent companies involved in industrial materials, metal products and agricultural and mining equipment.

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Strange company: Scott Pruett, in a car sponsored by Tobacco Free America, was rolling down the front straightaway during practice flanked by the Marlboro car of Emerson Fittipaldi and the Copenhagen car of Robby Gordon.