. . . and Upstarts Jimmied at Start

Once they got it started Sunday, the drivers representing Championship Auto Racing Teams put on just about the kind of show everyone here was hoping for in the U.S. 500, the anti-Indianapolis 500.

In a race of sweeping passes, frequent lead changes and multicar position competition, winner Jimmy Vasser had the kind of day that usually shows up only in bad fiction.

As the pole-sitter, he played a key role in a 12-car crash before the start, jumped into his backup car, hung with the leaders all through the race, nearly lost his chance with a necessary--but ill-timed--pit stop, then, in mid-battle with Brazilian Andre Ribeiro for the victory, got it when Ribeiro had to stop for gas with 10 laps left.

For his trouble, before an announced 110,879, Vasser won at least $1,145,000--the guaranteed million-dollar winner’s purse, $100,000 for winning the pole and a $45,000 bonus for winning from the pole.

And he did have trouble, beginning with the first-row crash, precisely the embarrassing sort of thing that many here had been predicting for the rookie-dominated field at Indianapolis. As the 27-car field came off the fourth turn to take the green flag, Vasser’s car made contact with Adrian Fernandez’s, immediately turned right and shot up the bank, clipping Fernandez, taking Bryan Herta’s car into the wall and touching off a melee.

“I don’t know,” Vasser said about the early trouble. “The car just turned violently right. I wasn’t even on [the throttle] yet. It felt like I got hit in the back or something broke.”

Said Fernandez: “I was concentrating on Vasser . . . and was ready to start accelerating when Jimmy started accelerating. He was very close to me and [Herta] was very close to me. I was just holding my line. I could see Jimmy moving to the right just a little bit, but it was enough because there wasn’t much room and we touched. . . . Being in the middle, I had no place to go.”

Mauricio Gugelmin, who started from the middle of the fifth row and finished second, nearly 11 seconds behind Vasser, said the pace was wrong for a start.

“They brought the field too close together and too slow,” the Brazilian said.

Vasser disagreed, saying, “Maybe it was a little slow, but that’s my prerogative as the pole sitter. The field is supposed to adjust. I was holding my line and somebody hit me in my right rear.”

With cars going every which way, the red flag was shown immediately, stopping the race that hadn’t begun. An hour later, with many drivers in backup equipment, as allowed by CART rules in such a situation, and some of the others in patched cars, the race finally got off to a flying start, all but Fernandez there for it. His car was rolled out to the pits just as the field was re-starting engines, but never was started and eventually was rolled back behind the pit wall.

Asked about the accident, CART President Andrew Craig said, “I wouldn’t say it was embarrassing, I’d say it was disappointing. But we quickly got our act together and got the show back on the road.”

And once they did, there was plenty to see.

Although neither was a factor for long, Al Unser Jr. and Michael Andretti staged an early duel reminiscent of their younger days.

Young Canadian Greg Moore spun out of Turn 2, looped his car several times in the infield and then rejoined the fray, not so much as killing his engine.

And Italian Alex Zanardi, Vasser’s teammate and the runaway leader for 134 of the 250 laps over the two-mile Michigan International Speeday, bowed out of the running in a billowing cloud of white smoke when the engine in his Reynard-Honda blew after 175 laps.

There was a spirited duel for first between Vasser and Parker Johnstone, which ended incongruously when Vasser had to pit and Johnstone, on the advice of his crew, stayed out too long and ran out of fuel.

In the end, though, it came down to Ribeiro, a one-time winner this season in a Lola-Honda; and Vasser, winner of three of the five previous CART events this season in Chip Ganassi’s Reynard-Honda.

Vasser lost nearly a lap, pitting on a green flag just before Johnstone’s slowing car brought out the caution flag. After he and others had pitted, Ribeiro was running first and Vasser was fourth, barely on the lead lap.

Then the engine in Moore’s third-running car let go, bringing out another yellow and allowing Vasser to go around and close up the gap.

When the green flew again, with 21 laps left, Ribeiro was first, Gugelmin second and Vasser third, although a lapped Paul Tracy was between Gugelmin and Vasser.

Vasser got Tracy and Gugelmin four laps later, on the same pass, then took off after Ribeiro. Vasser tried twice to pass him low, missing both times, then went high, just as Ribeiro went low to get to the pit road. A problem with his fuel pickup system wouldn’t let his car use all of the fuel in his tank, and if Ribeiro wanted to finish, he had no choice but to pit.

And Vasser, in an ever-improving car, had no more opposition.

“All the credit for that backup car really has to go to my team,” Vasser said. “It wasn’t as good as my primary car, and every pit stop, we were thrashing around. There was one point when I couldn’t run faster than 225 [mph]. But the crew kept working on it and kept telling me to hang in there. Finally, at the end of the race, it was running pretty good.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

U.S. 500 Results

Results of Sunday’s U.S. 500 Indy car race at Michigan International Speedway at Brooklyn, Mich., with starting positions in parentheses, residence, make of car, laps completed, reason out (if any), money won and winner’s average speed in mph:

1. (1) Jimmy Vasser, San Francisco, Reynard-Honda, 250, $1,145,000, 156.403.

2. (14) Mauricio Gugelmin, Brazil, Reynard-Ford Cosworth, 250, $250,000.

3. (20) Roberto Moreno, Brazil, Lola-Ford Cosworth, 249, $100,000.

4. (6) Andre Ribeiro, Brazil, Lola-Honda, 249.

5. (19) Mark Blundell, England, Reynard-Ford Cosworth, 249.

6. (18) Eddie Lawson, Lake Havasu City, Ariz., Lola-Mercedes, 249.

7. (7) Paul Tracy, Canada, Penske-Mercedes, 248.

8. (5) Al Unser Jr., Albuquerque, N.M., Penske-Mercedes, 246.

9. (13) Gil de Ferran, Brazil, Reynard-Honda, 245.

10. (8) Emerson Fittipaldi, Brazil, Penske-Mercedes, 241.

11. (16) Parker Johnstone, Redmond, Ore., Reynard-Honda, 236, gearbox.

12. (12) Christian Fittipaldi, Brazil, Lola-Ford Cosworth, 232, engine.

13. (17) Greg Moore, Canada, Reynard-Mercedes, 225, engine.

14. (25) Hiro Matsushita, Japan, Lola-Ford Cosworth, 217.

15. (3) Bryan Herta, Dublin, Ohio, Reynard-Mercedes, 216, engine.

16. (22) Stefan Johansson, Sweden, Reynard-Mercedes, 195, engine.

17. (4) Alex Zanardi, Italy, Reynard-Honda, 175, engine.

18. (24) Jeff Krosnoff, La Canada, Reynard-Toyota, 143, engine.

19. (15) Bobby Rahal, New Albany, Ohio, Reynard-Mercedes, 130, accident.

20. (21) Robby Gordon, Orange, Reynard-Ford Cosworth, 94, engine.

21. (27) Gary Bettenhausen, Martinsville, Ind., Penske-Mercedes, 79, accident.

22. (26) Juan Manuel Fangio II, Argentina, Eagle-Toyota, 69, engine.

23. (11) Michael Andretti, Nazareth, Pa., Lola-Ford Cosworth, 67, C.V. joint.

24. (10) Raul Boesel, Brazil, Reynard-Ford Cosworth, 54, electrical.

25. (23) Fredrik Ekblom, Sweden, Reynard-Ford Cosworth, 11, engine.

26. (9) Scott Pruett, Crystal Bay, Nev., Lola-Ford Cosworth, 3, engine.

27. (2) Adrian Fernandez, Mexico, Lola-Honda, 0, accident.

RACE STATISTICS

* Time of Race: 3:11:48.712.

* Margin of victory: 10.995 seconds.

* Caution flags: 12 for 78 laps.

* Lead changes: 11 among 7 drivers.

* Lap leaders: Vasser 1-18; Zanardi 19-25; Gugelmin 26-28; Moreno 29-30; Gugelmin 31-36; Zanardi 37-163; Moore 164-165; Johnstone 166-199; Vasser 200-206; Johnstone 207; Ribeiro 208-240; Vasser 241-250.