Even before seats began filling in the grandstand Sunday for the inaugural Target Grand Prix, the Chicago Motor Speedway’s infield was abuzz with spectators.
For this part of the crowd, pit-and-paddock tickets offered an intimate look at the race cars and the teams manning them. And a lot more.
Being inside the 1-mile oval was like being in the glitziest trailer park imaginable.
The bright contrasting reds, whites, blues, greens, golds and blacks designated the various racing teams’ bases. Mammoth buses and semi-trailers were expanded into outdoor dining rooms, with dozens of tables spread under tents, canopies and umbrellas.
Concession stands offered beer, pop, pizza, tacos, rib sandwiches, bratwurst . . . and citrus ice and cigars.
Strolling the pavement lanes took visitors not only around cars and crew members but also past a juggler on stilts, bikini-clad women taking on outclassed men in volleyball and a mariachi band in cream-colored suits.
In addition to watching traffic on the oval–first the Indy Lights preliminary race, then a chase among sports cars and a small truck, sputtering like actual city traffic rather than like the million-bees buzz of race cars–strollers in the infield had to dodge traffic in the form of golf carts.
With their frequent honking for right-of-way, the carts were the sole serious annoyance for the sun-splashed quilt of humanity.
But when the main event began amid a cacophony of fireworks and roaring engines, the infield city looked as if it had been hit by a flood: Almost everybody went for higher ground, often the tops of trailers, to get a better vantage point.
Sweet parting: Countless athletes are dragged off into retirement kicking and screaming. But that wasn’t the case with 46-year-old Team Rahal owner Bobby Rahal, who was smart enough to end his driving career voluntarily at the end of last season.
“I retired at the perfect time,” he said. “For me the energy level needed to win at this level, it was becoming more and more difficult to summon that energy.
“I never raced just to participate. I raced to win. I would be miserable if I was running around out there at the end of the field. When I’m miserable you make everyone around you miserable and you start hating the sport. Fortunately I didn’t have any of that. I left on great terms with the sport. Not once, at the start of a race, have I said, `Gee, I wish I was out there.’ “
Amicable parting: Two weeks ago Roger Penske announced that Al Unser Jr. would not return to Marlboro Team Penske next season. Penske’s drivers will be Greg Moore and Gil de Ferran. Unser, on a 66-race winless streak after Sunday’s 25th-place finish, was reluctant to discuss his future.
“It’s not that I don’t have anything, I’m just not saying what it is I’ve got,” he said. “My main focus is giving Roger his 100th (CART) win.”
Unser didn’t discount speculation about a jump to the rival Indy Racing League, which would return him to the Indianapolis 500.
“They’re (the different series) all open,” he said. “We’re going to see what the best deal is and go from there. See what is best for Al Jr. for the next three to five years.”
Family ambition: Michael Andretti is 36, which makes him the second-oldest regular driver (behind Unser by six months) on the CART circuit. He is in his 16th CART season, which makes him the second-most experienced driver in that series. He has one series championship and a CART-record 38 career wins, so why does he want to compete for at least another three years?
“I guess one of my goals, I’d love to catch Dad in the wins category before I retire,” he said of his father Mario, who ended his career with 52 wins, 19 of them in CART, which debuted in 1979. “If I could get a good year or two together, I could get close. But in any case, I’m just not ready (to retire) yet.”
Rumor mill: Chip Ganassi, who got the Speedway built and is the owner of the Target/Chip Ganassi Racing team, was plenty busy over the weekend. Now there is speculation he’s looking to load up his plate even more with a Winston Cup team.
“I have some friends down there,” he acknowledged, “but don’t equate looking into NASCAR and expect to see a Target/Chip Ganassi full-blown program. That’s not going to happen. Am I looking at some sort of involvement? Yes. But don’t equate that with doing a cookie-cutter of this (CART team) down there.”
