Gordon Beats Andretti, Fittipaldi for First Win

What could turn out to be the last Indy car race as it has been known at Phoenix International Raceway might have been the best ever.

Robby Gordon, who came out of Orange a few years ago as a teen-age desert-racing phenom, scored the first Indy car victory of his four-year career in dramatic fashion Sunday over Michael Andretti and Emerson Fittipaldi in the Slick 50 200.

Gordon, 26, was running second, six laps from the finish of the 200-lap race, when Fittipaldi, the leader and defending champion, suddenly pitted for a splash of fuel with a 16-second lead. Before the Brazilian veteran could get up to speed coming out of pit lane, Gordon flashed past and so did the fast-closing Andretti, dropping Fittipaldi to third.

“I was surprised that I had to come in, but they (the crew) were worried we would run dry,” Fittipaldi said.

Driving a Ford Cosworth-powered Reynard for Walker Racing, Gordon averaged 133.980 m.p.h., the third-fastest race of the 51 held at the track since 1964. There were 11 lead changes among five drivers--most made in heavy, high-speed traffic--but the most important pass may have been for second place when Gordon caught Andretti in second-turn traffic on lap 192.

“I didn’t know Robby was breathing down my neck for position,” Andretti said. “I thought he was a lap down because we had lapped him earlier. I got up in the marbles behind a couple of slow cars and he got by me.”

The pass took on major significance a few laps later when Fittipaldi made his unexpected stop.

Earlier in the race, Gordon lost radio contact with crew chief Derrick Walker and the team had to rely on hand signals and an old-fashioned pit board. Gordon got a lap down when he was caught behind the pace car during a yellow caution flag and had to get the lap back by catching and passing Paul Tracy, then the leader.

“I knew I had a good race car when I went from tenth to fourth in the first 10 laps, but it got kind of loose and I had to make some funny signals to Derrick to let him know what I wanted when we pitted,” Gordon said. “It must have looked pretty weird to the spectators.

“We struggled in the first two races, but this win will carry some momentum into Long Beach (next Sunday). We tested 580 miles here over the winter and it paid off. Now we want to test some more to get ready for Long Beach. We’ll be at Firebird (Raceway) on Monday and Tuesday.

“This place is crazy, one of the wildest tracks we run on. It would be a shame if we didn’t come back next year.”

Indy Racing League officials announced after the race that Phoenix would be a part of their schedule in 1996, along with the Indianapolis 500 and races at yet-to-be-built ovals in Las Vegas and Orlando, Fla.

Drivers for the major teams, such as Fittipaldi and Al Unser Jr. for Penske, Andretti and Tracy for Newman-Haas and Gordon for Walker, have said they do not expect any cross-over competition and will remain loyal to Championship Auto Racing League, the current Indy car sanctioning body.

Bryan Herta, the surprising pole-sitter from Valencia in another Reynard, led for 30 of the first 31 laps before receiving a stop-and-go penalty for running over Fittipaldi’s fuel hose coming out of the pits. Later, a broken shock sidelined him.

The crowd, announced as 52,000, was down from past years, due in part to a flooded road that forced fans to take a 15-mile detour down a two-lane road to the track.