Car Racer Drives Anti-Drug Point Home

Michael Andretti wasn’t out to break any speed records when he drove over to Glenn H. Dysinger Sr. Elementary School in Buena Park on Thursday. The Indy car champion’s mission was to reinforce the point that drugs do not help anyone win 180-mph car races or succeed in life.

Andretti’s visit was part of a program called Race Against Drugs, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Justice, the National Child Safety Council and Kmart Corp.

The partnership had cited nine Dysinger students for their essays and posters discouraging drug abuse and has arranged for all nine to attend today’s Toyota Grand Prix events in Long Beach.

Andretti’s visit drew a barrage of questions from an audience of enthusiastic fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders.

“Michael, why don’t the cars have air bags?” one student asked. “How good is your gas mileage?” another wanted to know. And how does it feel to go from driving on the track to driving down the freeway?

Standing beside a sleek black race car similar to the one he will drive this weekend in Long Beach, Andretti, 33, answered the students’ questions by teaching an impromptu science lesson.

The technology of air bags has not caught up with the speed of race cars, Andretti said, explaining that an air bag has time to open in a car that crashes into a wall while traveling 35 mph. Not so in a car going much faster.

“The technology is not quite there yet,” he said.

As for mileage, his cars don’t use gas, they use methanol, he explained, and the mileage is a mere 1.8 miles per gallon. As for the pace of regular driving, “it does feel slow sometimes,” he said with a smile, “especially right after a race.”

Parents who dropped by the school for Andretti’s presentation were enthusiastic about the visit and the Race Against Drugs program. “He’s a great role model because he is so positive,” said Julie Ayala, who has two children enrolled at the school.

And the students definitely got the message. Said 10-year-old Brittany Davis of Buena Park: “He’s a big ol’ race car driver, and he doesn’t do drugs.”