Racing Also Figures to Be Hot, Heavy

Driving 500 miles in hot, humid conditions is tough enough, but three drivers in today’s U.S. 500 will have a 100-mile preliminary race on Michigan Speedway’s high banks.

PPG Cup champion Jimmy Vasser, Alex Zanardi and Al Unser Jr. will compete in the final International Race of Champions this morning, then change uniforms and drive in the CART championship race. Temperatures are expected to be in the high 90s, with heavy humidity.

“I hope it won’t be a problem,” Vasser said. “IROC practice is at 8:30 and the race is at 10:30, so I don’t think it [the heat] will be too bad then. I guess we’ll break a little bit of a sweat, but that’s OK. The important thing for us is to get a little break before the U.S. 500. If we get that, we should be fine.”

Vasser, defending champion in the U.S. 500, qualified his Reynard-Honda fourth Saturday at 232.506 mph, well off the track record of 234.665 he set last year.

Scott Pruett, who won his first Indy car race here in 1995, will start on the pole after running 233.857 mph in qualifying Pat Patrick’s Reynard-Ford Cosworth. His teammate, Raul Boesel, was third at 232.769.

Mauricio Gugelmin, after unofficially bettering the track record in a Reynard-Mercedes with a 236.453 lap during morning practice, could muster only 233.493 when it counted and will start alongside Pruett.

“It was not surprising the speeds were lower in qualifying,” Gugelmin said. “During practice, it is easy to pick up a tow and pick up speed. And [weather] conditions changed too.”

Qualifying was so competitive that the top 15 cars were separated by less than .7 of a second.

In winning his third career pole, Pruett collected the $10,000 Marlboro Award and if he wins today’s race he will collect an additional $30,000 bonus for a win from the pole.

“Ford has made a huge step forward with its engine program, and our switch from Lola to Reynard [chassis] proved to be a boon to our team,” said Pruett, who won in Australia, the season’s second race. “We really just carried our setup from last year and the year before over to the new Reynard. The engineers deserve a lot of credit.”

The first five qualifiers were on Firestone tires, a tribute to Pruett’s testing program in 1994 when he took a year off from racing to help develop compounds for Firestone’s return to Indy car racing after an absence of 20 years.

“It’s terrific to see Scott on the pole,” said Al Speyer, Firestone motor sports director. “He not only did all our testing, but he also gave us our first win [of the modern era] here in 1995.”

The IROC race, usually held on Saturday, was switched to today because three of its 12 drivers--Terry Labonte, Dale Jarrett and Randy LaJoie--were running in a Busch Grand National race Saturday in St. Louis.

Winston Cup regular Mark Martin needs only to finish seventh or better in today’s 100-mile IROC race to win his second consecutive $225,000 championship. The only two with a chance of upsetting him are Unser and Robby Gordon, who missed the last race at California Speedway but got valuable points when substitute driver Bobby Labonte finished second.

“I was at Fontana and really wanted to race, but the doctor said no [because of an accident during Winston Cup practice],” Gordon said. “Bobby did a great job, so I have to thank him. Thanks to his finishing second, I at least have a shot at Mark.”

Martin has won two of the three previous IROC events, at Charlotte and Fontana.

With starting order determined by reverse of point standings, Martin and Gordon will start in the back row, with Zanardi and Winston Cup old-timer Darrell Waltrip on the front row.

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U.S. 500 Facts

* Where: Michigan Speedway, 2-mile high-banked oval, Brooklyn, Mich.

* When: 10 a.m. today.

* TV: Channel 7 (delayed, noon).

* Defending champion: Jimmy Vasser.