Nigel’s Nirvana : Mansell Expects Even Better 1994 After Amazing First Year on Indy Car Circuit

Englishman Nigel Mansell, who learned about Indy car racing quickly enough in one season to be voted 1993 driver of the year, has a warning for his competitors: He expects to be even better next year.

“I’m looking forward to 1994 like it was a breath of fresh air,” Mansell said. “I will be in a comfort zone. Everything--the people, the circuits, hotels, logistics, drivers, the crew--will be familiar. Last year it seemed every day was a new experience. Next year will be more comfortable.”

Mansell displayed a striking aptitude for oval track racing, considering he had never seen it when he left the European road racing circuit as Formula One champion to drive a Lola-Ford for Paul Newman and Carl Haas. On the oval, street and road courses used for Indy cars, he won five races and seven poles in the 16-race season, becoming the first rookie driver to win the American open-wheel championship.

“Paul Newman promised me every week, every race would be a new adventure, and he wasn’t wrong,” Mansell said when told he had beaten out Winston Cup stock car drivers Rusty Wallace and Dale Earnhardt as driver of the year.

Mansell will receive his award at a luncheon today in New York.

Remarkably, Mansell recorded four of the five triumphs on ovals and almost won the Indianapolis 500 in his first try, finishing third behind Emerson Fittipaldi and Arie Luyendyk.

And Mansell didn’t even get to Indianapolis until a week late. He was recuperating from a crash a month earlier during practice at Phoenix, where he’d had his first experience with the concrete walls of Indy car ovals. He missed the Phoenix race because of back injuries that required surgery.

“I have heard a lot about how surprising it was for me to do well so quickly at Indy, but I must give credit to the team, the crew and Paul and Carl for taking such good care of me,” he said. “It took a great deal of dedication on the team’s part to come back from the accident at Phoenix.

“And people forget, too, that I got a late start at the beginning because I had foot surgery in December and it took two months before I could get back to walking properly.”

Even so, he won the season opener on a street course in Surfers Paradise, Australia, in March. And after Indianapolis, Mansell went on to win on oval tracks at Milwaukee, Michigan, New Hampshire and Nazareth, Pa.

“To quote Emerson (Fittipaldi), he said I was born again in my last life and I was a natural oval racer,” Mansell said.

Mansell’s legion of Formula One followers might consider it heresy, but he says ovals are both more fun and more challenging than road circuits.

“Indy cars are like thoroughbreds in racing,” he said. “I am continually reminded that Indy cars of today are exactly like Formula One in 1985, ’86 and ’87. Then it changed. Racing became more technical, too computerized. The way I look at it, I am back racing the way I was in the ‘80s, when racing was a hell of a lot of fun.

“Winning in Indy cars was much more satisfying than winning (the world title) in 1992. In ‘92, I went into the season with a good team, much superior equipment and the team was ready to win right off the bat. The team was second to none in racing.

“This year it was all different. Much more refreshing, though. Nothing in road racing can compare to driving an Indy car in traffic where you are continually passing cars. You know, there is very little passing in Formula One. At Indy, I might have passed more cars in one race than I did in an entire Grand Prix season.

“I never knew anything like Nazareth (the mile oval in Pennsylvania where he clinched the Indy car crown). I had experienced dirty air at Indianapolis following three cars, but when you follow eight cars down that back straight at Nazareth, you wonder if you’re all going to get around the corner. Actually, it was damn exciting.”

Mansell will start testing a new 1994 Lola next month at Phoenix, on the road course at Firebird and the mile oval where he crashed last April.

“I’m very optimistic going into the coming season,” he said. “Last year was full of unknowns at this time and it’s no secret that our car was aerodynamically inferior. Next year’s design will be different, much more air-effective. I expect to do more testing, much more, than I did last year.”

An accident during a touring car race last month at Donington, England, prevented Mansell from taking part in recent team tests at Indianapolis and in Florida at Sebring and Naples.

Mansell suffered head and hip injuries when his car was struck from behind and crashed into the parapet of a bridge.

“It could have been a lot worse,” he said. “I had a lucky escape. I remember coming around the old hairpin and getting a little bit sideways. I was hoping to exit a bit slower, but then I got a push from behind and my car just shot off at 60 degrees to the track and went straight into a concrete wall.”

Mansell flew back to the United States the next day to recuperate at his home in Clearwater, Fla.

“It’s really quite proper that I am racing on the American circuit because (wife) Rosanne and I decided nearly three years ago we wanted to live in Florida. We bought a place where we felt we could raise our children and enjoy the benefits of my career.”

If British fans want to see Mansell these days, they can catch him at Madame Toussaud’s wax museum, where his likeness is dressed in the blue uniform of the Williams team for which he won the 1992 world championship.

He is the fifth straight Indy car driver to be named driver of the year by a 12-member panel of writers and broadcasters. He follows Bobby Rahal, Michael Andretti, Al Unser Jr. and Fittipaldi. The last NASCAR driver selected was Bill Elliott in 1988.