INDIANAPOLIS 500 : Parity Has Replaced Penske Power

Suspense returns to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway today.

Last year, Roger Penske’s unique Mercedes-Benz push-rod engines dominated the month of May, including race day. But this year’s 79th Indianapolis 500 looms as a wide-open affair.

With sunny skies predicted for today’s first day of practice, many of the 42 drivers entered are expected to take practice laps around the 2 1/2-mile rectangular oval to prepare for next Saturday’s pole qualifying day.

The 42, plus the wanna-bes hanging around Gasoline Alley, hoping a car owner will put them in one of the available 103 cars, will be seeking one of the 33 starting positions in the May 28 race and a shot at a possible $2-million winner’s pot.

Al Unser Jr., in one of the three Penske-Mercedes cars, won the pole and the race last year, collecting $1.37 million. Penske cars led 193 of the 200 laps.

A change in regulations has sidelined last year’s Mercedes power plant, forcing Penske to use the same Ilmor-designed engine with a Mercedes name plate that is being used by several other teams, including former winner Bobby Rahal’s.

“We don’t have any tricks up our sleeve,” said Penske, who has had the winning car in 10 Indy 500s since 1972. “We’ll run the same cars we ran at Nazareth (Pa., two weeks ago in the most recent race on the Indy car circuit).”

Penske has also cut his entry from three to two, Unser and two-time winner Emerson Fittipaldi.

Five Indy car races have been run--the most before an Indy 500 since 1922--and there have been five winners in three different engine-chassis combinations. Jacques Villeneuve won in Miami with a Reynard-Ford, as did Robby Gordon at Phoenix. Paul Tracy, Penske’s third driver last season, won in Australia in a Lola-Ford. Teammates Unser and Fittipaldi drove Penske-Mercedeses to the last two victories, at Long Beach and Nazareth.

After five races, the PPG cup leader is yet another driver, Scott Pruett, in Pat Patrick’s Lola-Ford, running on Firestone tires.

Firestone’s return to Indy cars after a 21-year absence not only adds an element of intrigue to the 1995 season, but also raises the possibility of a tire war with firmly entrenched Goodyear. There was one in the ‘60s and ‘70s that had the tire companies fighting over drivers.

“We are approaching this tire competition with the basic philosophy to safely win races,” said Leo Mehl, Goodyear’s manager of worldwide racing, in an apparent attempt to defuse the possibility of a bidding war with the Japanese-owned Bridgestone-Firestone giant.

Still another driver, Mauricio Gugelmin, is the year’s leading money winner with $245,250. Gugelmin, one of seven Brazilians here, drives a Reynard-Ford for Bruce McCaw’s PacWest team.

Ten rookies, only three of them Americans, will be watched closely as they prepare for their first 500. Among them are Christian Fittipaldi, a nephew of two-time winner Emerson Fittipaldi, from Formula One; Jeff Ward of San Juan Capistrano, a multinational motocross champion making not only his first try for the 500 but also his first time in an Indy car race, and Davey Hamilton, a veteran super-modified driver from Boise, Ida., who first came here in 1991.

The others are Gil de Ferran and Andre Ribeiro of Brazil, Franck Freon of France, Carlos Guerrero of Mexico, Eliseo Salazar of Chile, Alessandro Zampedri of Italy and Michael Greenfield of Freeport, N.Y.

Last year, the opening day of practice was rained out for the first time since since 1975, but weather reports are better for today.

The race to be the first car on the track will be one of the highlights after opening ceremonies. Car owner Dick Simon, who has four drivers, including Lyn St. James, the only woman entrant, has a thing about having his cars out first--although it has never paid off at the finish.

In 19 years as a driver and the last seven as strictly an owner, Simon’s cars have never taken the checkered flag.