The Indianapolis News from Indianapolis, Indiana • 48

T'T Friday, May 28, 198 Souvenir 6 THE I I A A OUSNEWS Young Drivers Dominate Field program but did not get on the track that year. "When we all race come race day, it's just whatever works out We just want to race." tu Whittington will be sitting in, the eighth row next to another rookie Jim Hickman, the fourth quickest rookie qualifier. Hickman qualified with a four-lap average of 196.217 mph ia his No. 42 Rattlesnake Racing The third quickest rookie qualifier was Danny Sullivan. Sullivan will be starting from the inside of row five, the "rookie row" which also includes Herm Johnson and Hector Rebaque.

Only .608 mph separates Sullivanon the inside, from Rebaque, on the outside. The two drivers are teammates on the Forsythe-Brown Racing t'cTam. Sullivan is a 32-year-old bachelor from Louisville with a road racing background. Rebaque, who hails. from Mexico City, raced in Formula I competition for the Brabham team in.

1980 and 1981, finishing 10th in the World Championship of Drivers last Both drivers are in March Cos-worths, while Johnson will be in one of four Chevy-V8s in the field. "v-v Johnson, a 29-year-old bachelor Goodyear blimp "Enterprise" has lots of help landing. Not A Good Year Without Blimp Call it a blimp, an airship or a dirigible. You'll see it hovering about 500 feet above the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Sunday. Or you'll be watching ABC television's broadcast of the Indianapolis 500 with overhead shots from this air monster, which measures 192 feet in length, 59 feet in height and 50 feet in width.

Call it the Goodyear Blimp. More specifically, it's the airship Enterprise. It may not be as swift or powerful as the Starship Enterprise of Star Trek fame, but the airship Enterprise is probably as famous. To millions of Americans, the word "blimp" is Three years ago only one rookie. Howdy Holmes, qualified for the 500-Mile Race.

But for the third consecutive year the 33-car field is bulging with freshman drivers nine out of an entry list of 29. The total fell one short of counts of 10 from the two previous years, which means there have been 29 new faces in the last three races with many of those former rookies still around. Six of last year's freshman class are back for their second try this year. Half of the 1980 rhinie squad returned for the 1981 race and three from that group are back for the third time. Figure this.

If the last race someone saw was in 1979, he truly would need a program to identify the new faces because more than half of this year's field was not around when Holmes copped the rookie-of-the-year award. The 1980 freshmen who are back are Dennis Firestone and the Whitting-ton brothers, Don and Bill. Returning from last yeat's rookie list are: Tony Bettenhausen Geoff Brabham Mike Chandler Kevin Cogan Josele Garza Pete Halsmer Another of the 1980 freshmen who sought a third race was Gordon Smiley, who was killed in a crash on the first day of qualifying this May. Missing from the 1981 rookie field are Bill Alsup, Scott Brayton, Tom Klauser and Bob Lazier. Klauser, Brayton and Lazier never made a qualifying attempt.

-In fact, Lazier pulled out of contention early when he decided to go back home to Vail, after the death of Smiley. Alsup qualified but was one of two drivers (rookie Chip Mead was the other), bumped from the field last Sunday. If veteran driver Gary Bettenhausen hadn't bumped Mead, this year's rookie field would have again totaled 10. Heading this year's freshman class is Chip Ganassi, who was honored this week by the American Dairy Association of Indiana for being the fastest rookie qualifier. Ganassi, who turned 24 last Monday, qualified for the fourth row, middle spot on the first day of qualifying with a four-lap average of 197.704 miles per hour in the-No.

12 First Commercial Corp. Wildcat-Cosworth. Dale Whittington, the youngest of the three Whittingtons in the race, was the second quickest qualifier with a speed of 197 694 in the No. 95 March-Cosworth. "I received quite a bit of help from Don and Bill," admitted Dale, who ran 69 practice laps at the Speedway in 1981 during USAC's rookie orientation synonymous with Goodyear.

The Akron based tire and rubber company owns four such aircraft the Enterprise, which has been touring Indianapolis the last week, the America, the Columbia and the Europa. "We call them our 'Aerial Ambassadors, said Jerry Jenkins, a public relations representative for Goodyear. Goodyear's four blimps, all named after former winners of the America's Cup yacht races, travel the nation following many major sporting events. Television shots, though, are only part of their function. Charity and promotion make up a big part of from Eau Claire, passed his driver's test here in 1980, but made' no attempt to qualify.

He qualified last year but was bumped from the, fjeld by the final qualifier and was the race's first alternate. His car caught fire during a pit stop at the Michigan 500 last year and the fire was so severe that the race had to be stopped and was later restarted. Starting behind Johnson in row six will be Bobby Rahal in the No. 19 Red Roof Inn March-Cosworth. Rahat won last year's Daytona 24-hour endurance race.

Roger Mears, who was bumped from the field last year, was onthe bubble again this time around but survived. The older brother of pole-sitter Rick Mears, Roger is the slowest qualifer of the rookie class with, a speed of 194.154 mph in the No 31 Machinists Union entry and from the inside of the seventh rowj.j Filling out the freshman class is Chet Fillip, who will start the farthest back in the middle of row Fillip used up all three of his qualifying attempts to make the race. Zach Dunkin. Endurance Record Ted Horn accomplished an amazing feat of endurance in the, nine Indianapolis 500-mile races from. 1936 to 1948 (there were no races during the World War II years of 1942-45).

Horn drove 1,799 of a possible 1,800 laps during that span, finishing either; second, third or fourth each year." The only lap he missed was in 1940, when he was flagged after 199 laps because of rain. each working day for the Enterprise staff, which includes 16 ground crewmen, five pilots and Jenkins. The large crew is needed so workers can keep something resembling a 40-hour week while the ship travels from May through October. For example, the Enterprise arrived here after appearing over Knoxville, at the World's Fair. From Indianapolis, the Enterprise moves on to Michigan for the Detroit Grand Prix.

In the days before the 500, the Enterprise has been used for pj-omotions with pole-sitter Rick Mears, the ESPN cable network and a number of television and newspaper cameramen. On race day, an ABC cameraman and a techni cian will go up in the bump and use equipment permanently installed in the Enterprise. They will try to capture key developments in the competition as well as what Jenkins calls "beauty shots" of the surrounding city. The blimp's sausage shape is maintained by 202,700 cubic feet of helium inside a rubber-coated polyester fabric envelope. The NEWS Photo, Jim Young Speedway's first turn from high above.

SPECIAL LIMITED TIME OFFERS FROM TEXACO Computerized Scoring To Be Used 1st Time -1 So u-rt By KENT McDILL UPI Sports Writer A new computerized scoring system will be used for the first time at the Speedway Sunday when the 66th Indianapolis 500 is run, but not because of problems scoring last year's race. "There is no relationship at all," said Art Graham, director of scoring and timing for the 500. "We've been investigating the system for a couple of years." Graham also said the new system is used only at the start-finish line; the problems which initially took the win from Bobby Unser concerned the first and second turns. Still, the new system, provided by Dataspeed of San Francisco, will make Graham's life much easier and take less time should the need arise again to check the results. The system can provide almost instantaneous information about each of the 33 cars in the field, including the number of laps completed, the order of the cars remaining in the field, the time for each lap of each car and the fastest lap of the day.

The system will not replace human scorers but may eventually push some people into reserve roles. "The technology is such that I wouldn't be comfortable without scorers getting the same info," Graham said. "We will keep in place the 33 car scorers and the 'BARRIER' BREAKERS serial scoring team at the starting line. We want to see if the equipment will function properly and serve as the hasis for our primary system next year." With the new system, each of the scorers uses a clipboard connected to a central scoring module. The clipboard has two digital displays, showing total running time of the race and time for the lap.

When the race begins, all 33 clipboard timers are automatically started. When a car passes the start-finish line, the scorer assigned to that particular car presses a button on the clipboard. The displays show the total elapsed time for the lap plus the time since the last lap was finished, and the scorer records the information. The central scoring module also records that information, and since it is hooked up to al 33 clipboards, it is able to print lap-by-lap results and relay to television monitors for officials and press. The system can show human error, such as a button not pushed or pushed twice, indicate when the mistake was made and be corrected by another human watching the control set.

"There will be three people involved in running the central unit," Graham said. "One sitting in front of it watching the printout, another watching the racetrack and the printout to catch human errors and a third around to check for possible mistakes." The central module also has a button which will be pushed when the track is under a caution yellow light and no passing should occur. The printout will indicate when the yellow period started and when it ended, so officials can check for rule infractions by checking lap-by-lap orders. Graham says the new system will, save three to four hours in the auditing of the race. The process usually lasts until the early morning hours and must be complete before the official posting.

"Almost every year there is some change from the end of the race to the official posting," Graham said. "Our ultimate objective is not to change the posting from the one posted directly at race end." Qpr! Souvenir Toy Race It; 1. 2. 3. 4.

5. 100 MPH Rene Thomas (104.785), 1919 11 MPH Earl Cooper (110.728), 1925 120 MPH Frank Lockhart (120.918), 1927 130 MPH Jimmy Snyder (130.492), 1937 140 MPH Jack McGrath 141 3ft9 19S1 'OH CJUf Toy car dimensions- 6. 150 MPH Parnelli Jones (150.72, 1962 7. 160 MPH Jimmy Clark (160.973), 1965 8. 170 MPH Graham Hill (171.887), 1968 9.

180 MPH Billy Vukovich (185.797), 1972 10. 190 MPH Bobby Unser (196.678), 1972 11. 200 MPH Tom Sneva (200.535), 1977 TOTAL PRIZE MONEY DURING THE HULMAN ERA 18" long; 8" wide. Durable clastic reDrodi irtinn of a 1982 INDY 500 race car. Features colorful Texaco Star rnrfi rnr rim WELCOME RACE FANS Check Our Cover Charge Pf it The type of car Texaco's Tom Sneva, one of iiNUT i lup Hiuntsy-winnyib, win Dt? driving.

Stop by today at your participating $115,450 137,425 171,075 179,050 201,135 207,650 230,100 246,300 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1964 506,575 1965 628,399 1966 691,808 1967 734,834 1968 712,269 1969 805,127 1970 1,000,002 1971 1,009,604 1972 1,011,845 1973 1,006,105 BEAUTIFUL GIRIS EVERYWHERE FEATURING PRIVATE TABLE DANCING With Uttiers! GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS THE FINEST GO GO BAR IN THE MIDWEST independent Texaco Retailer for details. Free! Full-color INDY 500 racing poster (30" A with any Texaco gasoline purchase! 269,375 1974 1,015,686 1955 270,400 1956 282,052 1957 300,252 1958 305,217 1959 338,100 1960 369,150 1961 400,000 1962 426,152 1,001,321 1,037,776 1,116,807 1,145,225 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 (texac 6925 E. 38th (AT 38th SHADELAND AVE.) pPiN 6 DAYS A WEEK DAIL 17 NOONS A.M. CLOSED SUNDA YS 1,271,954 1 1 1980 1,503,225 .11981 1,605,375 Hurry! Offers good while supplies last. 1963 494,030 a.