INDIANAPOLIS 500 / UPDATE : Tires, Motor Oil Will Be Recycled

What happens to all the waste motor oil and used tires from the Indianapolis 500?

They will be collected from the race cars and sent to Montebello, where they will be recycled in Texaco’s pilot Liquefaction/Gasification facility. It is estimated there will be about 3,000 race tires and 4,000 gallons of used oil.

Texaco will gather all the used oil during practice, time trials and the May 30 race. Goodyear, the sole supplier of tires for the 500, will collect the tires.

Using liquefaction technology, shredded tires will be broken down in the heated used oil to produce “tire oil,” which will then be converted to clean-burning gas.

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No driver has won the 500 starting from the middle of the front row since Mario Andretti in 1969. Next Sunday, that is where Andretti will be starting again.

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Since World War II, 38 of the 48 Indy 500s have had at least one member of the Tony Bettenhausen family in the race. This year two of Tony’s sons, Gary and Tony Lee, are in the starting field.

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Nelson Piquet, a rookie at Indy despite having won three world Formula One championships, has been preparing for the 500 in an unusual way in his native Brazil.

“There aren’t many police outside the cities,” Piquet said. “I found myself able to run 140 m.p.h. down the backroads.”

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Olivier Grouillard, the French Formula One driver who qualified for the 500 Saturday morning and then found himself bumped out by Willy T. Ribbs later in the day, had nothing but praise for the 500.

“It’s the best race in the world,” he said. “It’s like having a newborn baby. I’ve driven 10 or 12 years in Formula One and others, but here is very special.”