The Indianapolis Star from Indianapolis, Indiana • Page 5

THE INDIANAPOLIS STAR PAGESS MONDAY, MAY 1SS1 I 1 i WMi naliMr -r I'MlriiA Mea: an proves me a winner ag Sports Over Lightly By BOB COLLINS intersection without trying their clutch. Stilt they started again after Mears backed off in turn one on the final lap during his torrid duel with Johncock. Never mind that if he hadnX Mean and Johncock would have been history. Whoever was running third at the time would have taken the checkered flag. You dont have to be stupid to be great smart race drivers, the ones who prefer to race another day, also win.

And Mears wins: he has two firsts, a second and a third to show for seven starts here. This was his 19th Indy-car victory since 1978. Nobody currently putting the the pedal to the metal in open cockpit racing is in the ballpark with that record. As often happens when they run the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race, the show never quite came up to anticipation. It was the fastest field in history.

But when everybody on the track is running close to 200 mph. pOR A BRIEF, not so shining moment. Rick Mears must have been thinking about a time that definitely was not Camelot They were three quarters of their way to 500 miles. Rick was in front But Tom Sneva was working his way into position for a final charge. Mears had been there before.

In 1982, he tracked Gordon Johncock through frozen tundra and oily asphalt, only to miss by less than the length of a race car. THE CROWD at least the members of the multitude who still were cognizant girded for another shootout at 200 mph. Sneva kept cutting into Mears' lead. Fate, which defines the dramatic, then dealt a yellow light. That meant the field would bunch and Sneva.

the defending champion and a man who can chase the rabbit with the best, would be within sniffing distance of the leader. What was going through Mears' mind as he was wrestling the critter around at 200 mph? "He and I were kind of playing cat and mouse. He was running a smart race, and I felt like we were, too. "1 knew he was going to be tough. I just wanted to keep the lead going into the final laps." In 1982.

Johncock had the lead and Rick made a banzai charge to get on Gordie's pipes. All he got out of it, however, was second. IT IS ONE thing to catch a car on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway track; quite another to pass. So Mears was preparing to use a lot of track to contain Sneva. But just as the light went green, Sneva pitted and stepped out of his machine.

It was all over. Mears, now a lap in front, coasted home. So we were off on the road to anticlimax. Somewhere along the line Mears has gained an undeserved reputation as some- There were, however, some noteworthy moments. Like, when Al Unser Jr.

and Michael Andretti were running with the leaders and in front of their fathers, Al Sr. and Mario. If Al and Mario have any thoughts about passing on the family business, they never will be accused of rampant nepotism. Both of the young lads can handle themselves in a race car. Roberto Guerrero from Colombia, undoubtedly had the most interesting race.

The rookie from the land where they are' said to export products that make people see strange things, must have felt like the ball in a bumper pool game. He was involved in a crash, spun with no help from anybody and, once, missed his pit and had to go around again. Guerrero was awarded second place And he will have to wait that out, since the Penske people think that position belongs to" Al Sr. The result will be official this morn-, ing. one just above a coaster and collector.

They say he wont hang his neck all the way out to get the checkered flag. At the same time, they sidestep the fact that he wins more than anybody. At first, it was behind the hand talk. And it should have ended in 1981 when he came back from bad burns here to beat Mario Andretti who certainly never has been accused of timidity with gutsy finishes at Atlanta and Michigan International. GRANTED, MOST of the people offering opinions are in the pits on somebody else's pass and couldn't get through an there isni much room or time lor passing.

The field sorted itself out early and there Unser Sr. survives 'one of those days' Guerrero finishes second, the hard way By DAVID BENNER Pauline may have had her per- fX i 4ls. but they may have been nothing W4. -m "i rookie start in 1965. "He's a talented young driver." Unser was also impressed by the overall quality of this year's field, which included sizeable contingent of foreign drivers.

"I think we had a very, very good group of drivers this year," he said. "I like (the foreign drivers) being here. I think it makes for better racing for the competitors and better competition for the fans." IT DIDNT TAKE Unser long to figure out that he wasn't going to be competing for his fourth Indy win. "I knew we weren't in the hunt," he said. "Within the first five laps I knew that we were going to have a rough day." Despite the handling problems, Unser didn't have his crew make any adjustments in the pits.

"We left it alone," he said. "That's how you get into trouble, when you start jacking around with the car." Unser started from the inside of the fourth row. He was running eighth through the first 10 laps and finished 250 miles in ninth place. For much of the first half of the race he found himself dueling with his son. Al before the younger Unser retired with a broken water pump on lap 132.

The second half of the race found Unser steadily picking up places as drivers in front of him were knocked out or fell off the pace. His rise in the standings was aided by his ability to stay out of the way of accidents. "WE MISSED 'EM all," he said. "Thank good ness." With 60 laps to go. he had moved into fourth place, behind Danny Ongais, Tom Sneva and Rick Mears.

When Sneva went out and Ongais developed a faulty waste gate, Unser grabbed second until Guerrero came charging into the picture. Unser was two laps off Mears' pace when the checkered flag came down. It was his second third-place finish in the 500 to go along with two second place spots and his three titles. All in all, not a bad way to survive at Indy. By JERRY GARAU At Unser Sr.

was disappointed. "It wasn't handling good all day," he said. "1 just wasn't handling as good as Rick (Mears) was. "It's one of those days where it's just survival." Survival for the three-time Indianapolis 500 winner meant an unofficial third place finish in the 68th running of the race Sunday. OBVIOUSLY, SOME drivers survive better than others.

Unscr's performance was by far his best of the young Indy-car season. He finished well back in the pack at the first two CART shows at Phoenix and Long Beach, driving a chassis designed by team owner Roger Penske and powered by a Cosworth engine. For Indianapolis, Penske swallowed his pride and put Unser in a March chassis. "When we went with the March cars, I think that turned things around," Unser said. "The March is a very good race car.

"I think it's a safer car," he continued, noting the relatively minor injuries (broken jaw. concussion) suffered by Patrick Bedard in a horrendous crash on lap 56. "You can't go crash checking, it's not a passenger car. But I think it's safer." He refused to draw any further comparisons between the March and his former car, the Penske. "YOU CAN'T COMPARE the two," he said.

"It's just not fair to compare them." You don't get rides for 19 Indy starts by insulting the boss. There was some confusion regarding Unser's final standing because of a failure in the Speedway's dataspeed system. "My crew was showing me second, then all of a sudden they had me third," Unser said. Rookie Roberto Guerrero was awarded the unofficial runner up spot, an accomplishment Unser was quick to applaud. "Heck, that's an achievement he should be really proud of," said Unser, who finished ninth in his S-- Stir Phctt Miry StnwniM Roberto Guerrero pensive after runner-up finish compared with the rigors of Roberto.

Whether Roberto Guerrero finished second in Sunday's Indianapolis 500 is beside the point. Let us focus on the fact he finished the darn thing. As the guy in the Xerox commercial would say, "It's a miracle." Guerrero, a resident of Medellin, Colombia, should have put a lock on the Rookie of the Year honors with his performance at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. However, the way he did it in his No. 9 Master Mechanic Tools machine was anything but a cinch.

For example: DANNY SULLIVAN nearly became a backseat passenger in a non existent backseat shortly after Patrick Bedard's spectacular crash. More on that later. Guerrero, who earlier had made his first stop ever in an Indy car, overshot his pit area one time and had to exit the area for another lap. On Lap 154. he spun coming out of Turn Two but never touched the wall and continued around to the pits where his crew was able to replace a shredded right front tire and get back on the track before his own yellow light had expired.

More on that one later, too. His '84 MarchCosworth had some understeering problems part of the day. Yeah, like the guy on the Xerox commercial said, "It's a miracle." "I feel very lucky," Guerrero said shortly after his first 198 lap adventure around the Speedway. "Maybe I did better than I deserved." Or maybe he got just what he deserved. For most of the day, Guerrero was running strong, real strong.

Chief mechanic George Bignotti, no stranger to success at IMS, said he "was the fastest car on the had a couple of laps at 204 and some at 203." Which certainly helped Roberto overcome those little, old problems had. I The first was probably his big 4 'v 5. "Mfc afflict ing trouble, but another pit stop corrected that. And. finally, Guerrero was home free to finish the race as a surprising second.

Of course, that depends on the posting of the official results today since there were some scoring difficulties Sunday. "I HAD TO ask where I finished when I came in," said Guerrero, who started the race on the inside of the third row. "I was pretty surprised because I didn't even know I was second. I had watched the (pit) board most of the race and I knew I was up there, I just wasn't sure where." So, despite all the trials and tribulations, Guerrero had come to Indianapolis and nearly conquered the place in his first try. "If I hadn't made a couple of-mistakes, we might have done better," said Roberto, who afterward was greeted by his teary-eyed father, Roberto, Sr.

"The car was running really good. We were running 203s, 204s early and late in the race and I ran with the leaders some of the race. "With the exception of my mistakes, the crew and car were terrific. It was quite a race and I really enjoyed it." Even if he had to enjoy it the hard way. But, remember, he was only following orders.

Before the race had started, Bignotti had told his young driver to try and keep the car running. "That's what I did," said Guerrero, offering a sly grin. to his right and slammed on the brakes, so I had to as well," Guerrero said. "Obviously, Danny didn't have time to break. He hit my left rear and I saw him flying here (looking over his left shoulder) on my side.

He was really up there and he hit me pretty hard. "I felt it and I thought for sure my car was damaged. I thought that was the end of my race. We were very lucky." And still in the show. Shortly past the halfway mark, Guerrero encountered his second problem.

Coming into the pits he "misjudged where 1 was coming in and overshot the pit. So I had to go around again." No problem, the yellow was on and he was still running up high. Then came Lap 154 and a dizzy exit out of Turn Two while running third. "I was going in behind (Bobby) Rahal and I was trying to pass him," Guerrero said. "Together we tried to lap a slower car, I got on the apron and all of a sudden the car lost all of its grip." So round, and round, and round, and round, went Roberto.

But he didn't hit anything, righted the car and continued around to the pit area where his crew replaced the shredded rubber. "I didn't think I would make it to the pits," he said. "You never give up until you hit the wall and I was lucky I didn't. I wouldn't say it was any great driving maneuver, just a stupid mistake on my part." That spin set up the understeer '4': tvVArffA j'1'" i r--- 553s gest. Shortly after Bedard crashed on Lap 59, a line of Teo Fabi, Guerrero and Sullivan entered the crash scene in Turn Three.

The car in front of Fabi "I think it was (Scott) Brayton," said Teo suddenly braked. That forced Fabi, Guerrero and Sullivan to all follow suit, immediately. "ALL OF A sudden, Fabi veered Stir phct by Otn Gn4H Al Unser Sr. (2) and Al Unser Jr. (7) jockey for position during race Sneva disappointed, but thankful ion But when he accelerated the No.

1 car, he realized that more than a tire had deflated. Any deflation was to the popular Indy winner's hopes of repeating. "Every time I'd accelerate, the car would go sideways," he said. Otherwise, it had been "a pretty comfortable race" for Sneva until the part failure. "I knew going in that we had reliability and speed.

The reliability failed us," he said. "We were coming on strong at the end. STILL, HE PRAISED the winner, who was receiving accolades within earshot. "They did a good job and ran hard all day," he said. That didn't mean Sneva thought a victory was out of sight until his mechanical ouster.

In fact, one of the strategic concerns as the race neared the finish focused on the overcast skies at 16th and Georgetown. had been cut to four seconds since Sneva's last pit stop. "We had some tires during the day which weren't just right. After that last pit stop, we had good tires and we finally got the wings where we wanted them. "It was unfortunate that we had a shot to win the race and didn't," he said, sporting the Texaco tarn o'shanter which has become his trademark this month.

Sneva was trailing Mears under a yellow light caused by a tow-in for Scott Brayton's car. That light came on at Lap 163, but it took only four laps for the green light to return. Then, as the field headed into its final lap under the yellow, Sneva was alerted to his problems by a fellow driver. AL HOLBERT FIRST pulled to the inside of Sneva and pointed to sparks coming from the left rear of Sneva's car. Sneva was undeterred until Holbert pulled around him this time on the outside to point again at the rear of the car.

"He turned to look at the car then," Holbert recalled. Sneva took the car straight to the pits. "It would have been awful for him to stand on it," Holbert said. Sneva noticed the problem in the first turn. "I was hoping it was a tire that had gone down," he said.

In retrospect, that might have been better news. At least then, a tire change could have permitted him to rejoin the field. By CRAIG McKEE While Rick Mears was pulling into Victory Lane shortly after 2 o'clock Sunday, Tom Sneva was in his garage, dressed in street clothes and explaining his bad fortune. His Indy title defense had been abandoned at Lap 168, a necessity when a broken hub carrier forced him out of the race. WHILE DISAPPOINTED by the premature exit, Sneva had reasons to be thankful.

"I just sensed something that didn't feel right," Sneva said. That awkward feeling came during a yellow light, shortly before the green flag would drop to send the racers to the finish. The left-rear hub carrier on the Texaco Star failed, destroying Sneva's ability to steer the car and, in effect, his bid for a second straight Indy title. "We were just lucky it happened on the yellow. If that had broken while we were running fast, it could have been very serious," said Sneva, who unofficially finished 16th.

Until that moment, Sneva was enjoying a good day. He had led 38 laps and was clearly in the hunt. Fortunately, his car was only traveling about 80 miles per hour while on the yellow. "At speed, we could have crashed bad," he said. DESPITE THE GOOD timing of bad luck, Sneva was understandably disappointed.

An eight-second deficit to race leader Rick Mears "We were watching. We'd heard rain was 15 minutes away or so. We were gaining on the green and closing up under the yellow," Sneva said. The gains came from a change in the wing angle on his car and a cooperative set of tires. The car was in the flow despite a greasy track.

Unfortunately for the driver and his team Star ptwtt by CkH RkkowM the faulty hub carrier was straining after 410. miles. "It's a part that doesn't go wrong that often." he added. "It snapped or broke I s. it must have fatigued as the race went or Chagrinned Tom Sneva watches action Broken hub resulted in early exit for defending champ.