INDIANAPOLIS 500 / UPDATE : This Time, He Will Rely on Horsepower

Martin Buser, winner of the 1992 Iditarod dog-sled race in Alaska, will be on the crew of one of Ron Hemelgarn’s cars for the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday. It is a reciprocal deal; Hemelgarn, owner of Lola-Buicks to be driven by Stan Fox and Didier Theys, was on Buser’s crew as a dog handler last March.

“There are a lot of parallels between Indy and the Iditarod,” Buser said Friday. “We have a number of dog-sled races during the year, the way they have Indy car races, but in the public’s eye, and the driver’s eye, it all comes down to the Indy 500 and the Iditarod.

“There’s really no difference between 12,000 r.p.m. or 12 m.p.h. as long as the competition is on the same wave length. Speeds are relative. The two events stand alone with the Kentucky Derby as the greatest races in the world.”

The cars go only half as far, however. The dogs run more than 1,000 miles from Anchorage to Nome.

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Al Unser, who is starting from the eighth row Sunday, is the only driver to have completed the 500-mile distance six times with a 150 m.p.h. or better average speed. Only 22 drivers have accomplished that at least once.

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Bobby Rahal’s team has suspended development of its own chassis after failing to make the field this year. Rahal says the decision doesn’t affect the Honda engine test program his team began this year.

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Troy Ruttman, the 1952 winner, has been a visitor in the garages, but a lot of old friends haven’t recognized him. Troy has lost 65 pounds in training for the Fast Masters, a series of races next month for 50-and-older drivers at Indianapolis Raceway Park.

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Ruttman’s record as the youngest 500 winner will remain intact. He was 22 when he won in the late J. C. Agajanian’s car. The youngest driver this year is Stephan Gregoire, a rookie from Vittel, France, who turned 24 on May 14.

The oldest is Al Unser, who will turn 54 today.

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Paul Tracy, Roger Penske’s new driver from Canada, is facing a dilemma.

“People in Canada want me to be the new Gilles Villeneuve,” he said. “People in the United States expect me to be the new Rick Mears. I don’t want people to remember me as like Villeneuve or Mears. I want people to remember me as Paul Tracy.”