A self-proclaimed ”coward” leads a field of 33 drivers under the green flag in Sunday`s 70th running of the Indy 500.
”I`m a coward,” said Rick Mears, pole sitter and two-time winner. ”I try to play the calculated risk, the odds, as much as possible. I do things in the final laps of a race I would never do in practice or in the early laps.” Mears ran a limited schedule last year after a devastating crash in practice at Montreal in 1984. He severely injured both feet and decided during his lengthy, painful rehabilitation never to take chances when it doesn`t count.
”The deal up at Montreal was a stupidity deal,” he said. ”I pulled up and tried to close (between Bobby Rahal and rookie Corrado Fabi in tight quarters) when it wasn`t necessary.
”I`ve definitely stopped that kind of thing when the situation doesn`t warrant it. I don`t like getting hurt. I`m not worried about the equipment. I`m worried about myself.
”Of course, if we`re in a race-type situation in the final laps, I would do the same thing all over again, and just take a chance on my driving skills.”
Mears wasn`t very conservative when he won the pole two weeks ago for Sunday`s race, which begins at 11 a.m. (EST and Chicago time) and, for the first time, will be televised live by ABC-TV. He blistered the Speedway track with record one- and four-lap speeds of 217.581 and 216.828 miles per hour.
”I could have done 218 if the track had stayed cool like it was earlier in the morning,” Mears said.
Mears is joined in the front row by his Penske team buddy, Danny Sullivan, who won the 1985 Indy 500 after a miraculous recovery from a 360-degree spin, and Michael Andretti, son of another illustrious Andretti, who has been relegated to the back of the pack. Mario must drive his backup machine after an accident in practice left his regular car, which he qualified fifth, irreparable.
A third Penske team member, Al Unser, is in the second row driving a Chevrolet-powered PC-15 which will be the racing car of the future if owner Roger Penske has his way.
But Penske is enough of a realist so that he didn`t give his two top drivers, Mears and Sullivan, PC-15s. They`ll drive today`s state-of-the-art March Cosworths. Penske would rather smile in victory circle in somebody`s else`s automotive creation than sulk in the garage in one of his own.
The world`s largest annual one-day sports crowd will assemble at the old Brickyard. The Speedway never releases attendance figures, and neither does the sanctioning United States Auto Club, so you can guess anywhere between 450,000 and 500,000 and be close. Subtract at least 100,000 from the total estimate to cover those who frolic in the infield and never see the race.
On Thursday, known as Carburetion Day, Dennis Firestone, Roberto Moreno, George Snider and Josele Garza miraculously escaped major injury in a chain reaction crash that stretched from the fourth turn into the north end of the pits.
It was a miracle that no one was killed or seriously injured. Crew members and fans had to dive for cover, hop walls and fences. One crewman dodged a flying tire.
The wreck trashed three cars and caused the lineup to be juggled. Rookie Roberto Moreno, one of the drivers who lost his car, was moved from the fifth row to the 32d spot in the starting grid.
The accident also gave new life to Dick Simon, who was restored to the lineup in 33d place as an alternate after being bumped by Gary Bettenhausen on the final qualifying day last Sunday. Simon cut a deal with Pat Kehoe, owner of Dennis Firestone`s car, who agreed to withdraw Firestone`s wrecked racer and let Simon into the field.
Seven former champions will seek another Indy 500 title, including the indomitable A. J. Foyt, who will shoot for an unprecedented fifth Indy 500 title. Foyt says he plans to shuck the conservatism he has shown lately and go back on the attack at age 51.
”You can`t copy people and beat `em,” said the only four-time winner of the race. ”That`s not the way we won all our races so we changed the whole concept and we`re going to do our own thing and try to beat `em like we used to.”
Three-time winner Johnny Rutherford, 48, also feels he has a solid chance: ”It never gets less sweet. When I won number three, I had to hold my breath for fear somebody was going to come along and take it away from me.”
That was in 1980 in the Pennzoil Chaparral, which became famous as The Yellow Submarine. Rutherford now has a different car and a new team but the same upbeat outlook.
”Why,” he joked after qualifying at over 210 miles per hour, ”is there an unwritten rule that the older you get, the harder it is to get into this race?
”The first time I won here (1974), I didn`t know what to expect. Winning the Indy 500 changes you. You still have the same desires but your priorities are different because of the demands that are made upon your time. Winning a second time (1976) was paradise revisited, because there is no other race like this one. And winning it the third time showed me the thrill never leaves you.”
Mario Andretti, the 1969 winner, refuses to sulk at his lowly position in the starting chart.
”If I can`t win it starting from where I start,” Andretti said, ”I don`t think I could win it from the front row.”
Nine drivers in the field needed a passport to get here. That`s the most foreign drivers at Indy since 10 raced roadsters around the old Brickyard in 1923.
”The feeling of the speed here at Indy is fantastic,” said Emerson Fittipaldi of Brazil. Other foreign-born drivers are Raul Boesel and Moreno, Brazil; Roberto Guerrero, Colombia; Jacques Villeneuve, Canada; Josele Garza, Mexico; Arie Luyendyk, Holland; Geoff Brabham, Australia; and Jim Crawford, Scotland.
Although the British-made Cosworth engines continue to dominate the Indy starting field, Scott Brayton is confident ”a happier” Buick V-6 engine will carry him considerably farther in Sunday`s race than he went a year ago.
Brayton, who set a one-lap qualifying record of 214.199 miles per hour and started second a year ago, confessed he was ”depressed” when first Sullivan, then Mears shattered his record in this year`s qualifying. By now, Brayton has recovered his confidence.
”I feel like we have a reliable engine and a reliable car,” said Brayton, who completed only 19 laps last year because of piston trouble. He qualified this year at 208.079 m.p.h.
”You can count on me being a contender,” Brayton said, ”if we get in and out of the pits well and have a couple of breaks. You can`t say any engine –Buick, Chevrolet or Cosworth–or chassis–Lola, March or Penske
–definitely will go 500 miles.”
Twenty-two former Indy 500 winners have started either first or second, but Mears refuses to claim the trophy in advance, even though George Snider, making his 21st start here in an A. J. Foyt car, declared, ”Rick Mears is a shoo-in because of all the Penske testing.”
Mears had a flight plan, not a game plan, when he soared to his qualifying record of 216.828 m.p.h. two weeks ago on a race track originally built for cars with wooden wheels and speeds of 60 m.p.h.
Normally affable, Mears comes close to losing his composure when he is questioned about the wreck at the beginning of the 1982 Indy 500 which caused the race to be red-flagged and restarted. Mears was criticized at the time by some observers for taking the field toward the green flag at too slow a pace and creating a potential for an accident.
”That`s absolute bull,” Mears said. ”Whatever happened there had not one damned thing to do with the pace I set. If something broke (on Kevin Cogan`s car), it would have broken anyway. If somebody made a mistake, they would have made it anyway regardless of my pace speed.
”The pole sitter has the prerogative of taking the field in at any speed he wants to, and I will make up my own mind how fast I want it to be this year depending upon track and weather conditions.”
Gordon Johncock beat Mears by .16 of a second to win the closest race in Indy 500 history.
Still, Mears normally does such a remarkable driving job at Indy that he appears to have the Speedway in his pocket.
”There are no secrets,” he said. ”There is so much attention paid to this race. We probably have races where there is more attrition. I try to get to the end. It`s a 500-mile race and getting harder and harder to finish.”
