Tracy Joining Michael Andretti in Pursuit of Old Penske Team

Canadian Paul Tracy, who helped make Roger Penske’s team the most dominant in Indy car racing this season, will join forces with Michael Andretti next year in an attempt to short-circuit his former team.

The announcement that Tracy and Andretti would become teammates on the Paul Newman-Carl Haas team--replacing Nigel Mansell and Michael’s father, Mario--ended weeks of speculation about Tracy’s future.

Would Penske hold him to his contract for another year? Would he accept an offer from Benetton’s Formula One team? Would he go to Newman-Haas?

Haas had scheduled a news conference Oct. 8 at Laguna Seca Raceway, the day before the season-ending race, to make his announcement, only to have Penske block it.

“What if something happened to one of our other drivers (Al Unser Jr. and Emerson Fittipaldi) in the race?” a Penske aide said. “If it did, we would exercise our option for Paul’s services next year. It was rather presumptuous of them to plan such an announcement when he is still under contract to us.”

Nothing happened to either Unser or Fittipaldi, so Penske gave Tracy his release. Unser, Fittipaldi and Tracy, who won the Laguna Seca race, finished 1-2-3 in the PPG Cup championship season.

“Obviously, things got pretty frustrating the last couple of months,” Tracy said. “There was a lot of poker playing going on. Roger really wanted to run a third car again, but it wasn’t feasible from a business standpoint.

“I had to play a waiting game, but I think I have a better situation here with Carl and Paul. Running three cars is a tremendous strain on a team. It looked great from the outside, but from within it was a struggle. Two cars is much more practical.”

Tracy and Andretti will have new Lolas, powered by the latest Ford Cosworth engine, for the 1995 season. It will be a change for both. Tracy drove a Penske the last three seasons, while Andretti drove a Reynard for Chip Ganassi after returning from Formula One.

“I have Chip to thank for giving me an opportunity to get back in an Indy car after my year in Europe, but the move to Newman-Haas is like going home again,” Tracy said. “We had great success together and I am looking forward to working with my old engineer, Peter Gibbons. We were together when I drove for Kraco (in 1988) and we won a lot of races together.”

Michael Andretti drove for Newman-Haas from 1989 to 1992 with his father as a teammate and won the PPG Cup championship in 1991. In 1993, he tried Formula One with McLaren, with disappointing results that led to his returning to Indy cars this past season.

“It will feel funny to be at the races without Dad,” Michael said. “He has been to all the Indy races I’ve been in except one. I’m going to miss him.”

Mario Andretti retired after the Laguna Seca race, and Mansell is leaving Indy cars to return to Formula One, where he won the championship in 1992. For the first time since Newman-Haas entered Indy car racing in 1983, the team failed to win a race this season.

Meanwhile, Tracy won three for Penske and Michael Andretti won two for Ganassi--two of the four not won by the Penske trio.

“They’re both hard chargers, aggressive and competitive, and we expect to have them around for a long time,” Haas said. “There will be no No. 1 and No. 2, they’re both No. 1.”

The new teammates represent a generation change for Newman-Haas. Tracy is 25 and Michael 32, replacing Mansell, 41, and Mario, 54.

Motor Racing Notes

STOCK CARS--The final round of the Toyota Sportsman Challenge will be Sunday at Willow Springs Raceway. Steve Anderson, who has won the pole for every race in his Pontiac, is expected to win the championship. All the Las Vegas driver needs is to finish in the top five to hold off Steve Rzesnowiecky’s Buick for the title. . . . The second race of the Telles Industries series for pro stocks is Saturday night at Bakersfield’s Mesa Marin Raceway. Mesa Marin will become part of the NASCAR Winston Racing Series next season. . . . Street stocks run Saturday night at Sunrise Valley Raceway in Adelanto. . . . Two destruction derbys have been scheduled for the Farmers Fair on Sunday at Lake Perris.

MIDGETS--In addition to local favorites Johnny Cofer and Billy Boat, Saturday night’s U.S. Auto Club race at Ventura Raceway has attracted Indianapolis drivers Kenny Irwin Jr. and Tony Stewart, who finished 1-2 in last week’s Silver Crown dirt-track race in Bakersfield. Jimmy Sills of Placerville won his second USAC Silver Crown championship with a fifth-place finish. Western States TQ midgets will also race at Ventura, with Western Racing Assn. vintage cars taking exhibition laps.

DRAG RACING--Former world top fuel champion Shirley Muldowney will face Mike Ranney in a match race Saturday night during the World Series of Drag Racing at Firebird Raceway, near Phoenix. She won her last national event on the same strip in 1989. . . . The NHRA Chief Nationals, rained out last week in Dallas, have been rescheduled for Friday and Saturday at Texas Motorplex, with the Winston Select Finals starting next Thursday at the Pomona Fairplex.

SPORTS CARS--Southern Pacific Division drivers returned with only two second-place trophies from the Sports Car Club of America’s Valvoline Runoffs at Mid-Ohio last week. Bill Gilcrease of Costa Mesa, in a Minicomp Mini in GT-5, and Steve Kelso of Sherman Oaks, in a Camaro in Showroom Stock GT, had the seconds. . . . The Cal Club will hold its sixth and final regional championship of the year Saturday and Sunday at Willow Springs.

SPRINT CARS--Ron Shuman, four-time champion of the defunct California Racing Assn., is closing in on the inaugural Sprint Car Racing Assn. championship. The Arizona veteran will be favored Saturday night when the SCRA races at Manzanita Speedway in Phoenix, Shuman’s home track.

MOTOCROSS--Roger DeCoster, who won five world 500cc championships for Suzuki in the 1970s, is returning to Suzuki as manager of its motocross racing team next season.

MOTORCYCLES--Scott Parker’s wire-to-wire victory in last Sunday’s Del Mar Mile, coupled with Chris Carr’s fifth-place finish, enabled Parker to win a record fifth American Motorcyclist Assn. dirt track championship. He edged Carr by three points, 292-289.

POWERBOATS--Tom Gentry and Richie Powers set a world offshore record of 157.428 m.p.h. in Gentry’s 40-foot Skater Catamaran last Tuesday on a five-eighths-mile straightaway on San Diego Bay. Using two 1,100-horsepower Gentry turbocharged engines, they broke the record of 145.16 m.p.h. set last December by Andres Ugland of Norway and Fabio Buzzi of Italy. . . . After winning their class in the Powerboat Magazine Ventura Offshore Challenge last Sunday, former speedway motorcycle champions Bruce Penhall and Dennis Sigalos are installing new engines in Ocean Spray, their 37-foot Scarab, for the world offshore championships, Nov. 9 and Nov. 13, off Key West, Fla. Ocean Spray won D class and finished second overall to Karl Koster’s Kal Kustom, which ran in the modified class.