Come all ye! Chaos and Old Night may still rule the outdoors, but here in Indycar fantasy land (Youtube) it’s always (for now) 1995. Long Beach two (fantasy) weeks ago saw one of those messy races where Al Unser, Jr glided to victory after every challenger broke down, got assessed a penalty or crashed. Twice, if you’re Michael Andretti. But while the big silhouette of the Indy 500 looms above the horizon and frames the whole Indyscape, let us first take a brief lay-over for the last race of April at Indycar’s other spiritual home amidst the steel mills and former steel mills of Pennsylvania. Just down the road are the Andretti Family, and somewhere close by in a different direction is Team Penske. The modern track was paved over the remnants of a dirt track where in the 1960s USAC Nationals were won by Mario Andretti and Al Unser. There are four-to-five turns and none of them are the same, or wide enough. The track is (of course) the Interesting 19/20-mile-officially-a-mile Oval of Nazareth, the race length is somewhat less than 200 miles, the points table is taking shape, and we have 27 cars taking the green flag.
Here’s Michael Andretti driving around (and around) in 1999, albeit with a bit less throttle due to the minimal downforce they were running by then. In 1995 this wasn’t such an urgent concern so expect to hear the sound of many feet not lifting.
What else is there to know? Overtaking is relatively difficult, so unless there’s a lot of yellow it’ll be a long slog in and out of traffic. There’s this snazzy warm-up lane for people coming out of the pits that extends almost the whole way around the lap. Nigel Mansell clinched the championship with a win here in 1993. Owing to the short race length (the 200 laps actually add up to 190 miles rather than the advertised 200) a one-stop strategy is often viable, with Arie Luyendyk winning for Doug Shierson with such tactics in 1991. It’s one of the few race tracks I’ve identified from out of a plane window.
Qualifying?
Robby Gordon and Jimmy Vasser bestride the front row for an all Young American, and for that matter an all Reynard-Ford front row. Michael Andretti starts away from the front row for a change, which means he’ll definitely win this one. Pay attention as well to Andre Ribeiro breaking into the top six on behalf of Honda, Firestone and fluorescent yellow, and a first trip inside the top 10 for 1983 Mexican Formula Vee champion Adrian Fernandez amidst the reduced circumstances of Rick Galles Racing.
1. Robby Gordon 19.206, Walker R/F/G
2. Jimmy Vasser +0.150, Ganassi R/F/G
3. Jacques Villeneuve +0.158, Team Green R/F/G
4. Emerson Fittipaldi +0.162, Team Penske P/M/G
5. Michael Andretti +0.220, Newman-Haas L/F/G
6. Andre Ribeiro ® +0.241, Tasman R/H/F
7. Bobby Rahal +0.342, Rahal-Hogan L/M/G
8. Raul Boesel +0.374, Rahal-Hogan L/M/G
9. Adrian Fernandez +0.389, Galles L/M/G
10. Scott Pruett +0.427, Patrick L/F/F
11. Bryan Herta +0.457, Ganassi R/F/G
12. Mo Gugelmin +0.472, PacWest R/F/G
Protagonists-so-far Paul Tracy, Teo Fabi, Christian Fittipaldi, Gil de Ferran and Al Unser, Jr line up way back in positions 15-19. Buddy Lazier is back, this time driving Eric Bachelart’s #19 Lola for Dale Coyne and Walter Payton. He’s starting alongside Little Al on Row 10.
We’ll get this underway at the usual time of 6pm BST on Sunday, April 12. Video below. Happy Easter!
