We made it! It’s May 1995! There is one central fact of May 1995 and that is the 1995 Indy 500. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway doesn’t need much introduction: it’s a 2.5-mile rectangle on the outskirts of Indianapolis, or perhaps the inskirts of Indiana, consisting of four similar 90 degree corners, two long straights and two short connecting chutes, presumably so-called because if you go through one in less time than it takes to say “straight” it can’t really be a straight. The layout is simple enough but at the limits of adhesion and 220+ mph average speeds, subtle changes in track conditions or car handling can be the difference between a charge to the front or dropping through the pack. Or worse. But the main thing is that approx 350,000 people have turned up to watch, 33 very fast cars will take the start and it’s the biggest race in the world.
But anyway. It’s race weekend and a lot of things have happened. Most of all of which is that neither of the Penskes, expensive, expertly-prepared victory lane hoggers that they are, have qualified for the big event. Despite turning up and dominating the 1994 edition with a Brixworth-built 3.4 litre near-1000hp pushrod-actuated monstrosity, and being about 30 seconds at Phoenix away from winning three 1995 rounds on the spin, the team never got its conventionally-motored PC-24s up to speed despite two full weeks of practice, two double Indy winners and generally the best of everything except luck and fate. Roger Penske tried everything – dusting off the 1994 chassis, borrowing a Reynard from Pagan Racing and a Lola from Rahal-Hogan – except buying out any of the 33 qualifiers. Al Unser, Jr never really got close to qualifying speed, but Fittipaldi felt he had the speed to make the race but in the chaos and confusion of the final practice weekend, he never put the four required laps together. I’ve got some Youtube here, if you want to spend some of your weekend perusing Ignominy Youtube.
But so much for Team Penske! All month, the practice timesheets were topped once again by those trick large-bore highly-blown pushrod V6s that USAC let race at Indy once a year as a final vestige of the old rule book that used to balance racing engines with stock blocks with diesels with turbines with etc. The loophole Penske used to sneak a purebred racing engine in under rules intended for Detroit iron was closed, but at least in qualifying trim Detroit iron was still good enough for Team Menard, whose drivers Scott Brayton and Arie Luyendyk traded record practice laps and generally left the CART regulars wheezing in their methanolic wake. The inevitable practice shunts and wrecks claimed Bryan Herta, who got a concussion but started the race, and Davey Hamilton, who broke an ankle and didn’t. Two highlights videos below. Watch them, or don’t, ahead of Sunday’s race!
Your full qualifying line-up below. It’s a fascinating mix of the very strong CART regulars, returning part-schedulers plus whatever Hideshi Matsuda is.
Row 1: Veterans
Menard drivers Scott Brayton and Arie Luyendyk secured the first two grid slots for their Goodyear-shod Lola-Buicks. Only 36, it’s nonetheless Brayton’s fourteenth Indy 500 start, with best finishes being a pair of sixths in 1989 and 1993. Back when CART could be essentially divided into drivers with an Ilmor-Chevy motor and everyone else, Brayton was one of the quickest representatives of Everyone Else. Teammate Luyendyk won the Indy 500 in 1990 and came close to adding a second two years ago in 1993. The wily Dutchman, who early in his career raced F5000s with the likes of Peter Gethin and Teddy Pilette, is blessed with formidable oval skills and great hair and eyebrows. The Buicks don’t have a great record of being fast and functional for the whole 500 miles but there’s something about these two that seems essential to the whole Indy 500 concept. 1992 runner-up and Canadian Scott Goodyear rounds out the front row with an extra Tasman Motorsports entry. He’ll be driving the same Reynard-Honda-Firestone combo that Andre Ribeiro does with moderate distinction in the main series. How the Honda will perform over 500 miles is a big question mark but a 230mph average is a big improvement over last year when the Rahal-Hogan team dumped the motors mid-May after they failed to get up to speed.
Row 2: Favourites
Normal service is resumed on the second row, swept as it is by three of the fastest drivers on the CART circuit this year (once you discard the Penskes, at least). Michael Andretti, who has to date conspicuously failed to win the Indy 500 so far, lines up in fourth spot. 1994 runner-up Jacques Villeneuve sits in the middle of the second row and Andretti’s former teammate, Mo Gugelmin, now of PacWest, qualified sixth. All three have shown enormous speed in 1995, and could use a result to keep surprise points leader Scott Pruett in sight. Of which more in Row 3.
Row 3: Young Americans
Positions 7-9 are not a bad place to start the Indy 500. You often find drivers here who remained aloof from the pursuit of ultimate qualifying pace, and worked instead for speed over all 500 miles. Of course it would’ve been nicer to start further up but you pick your battles. Hoping to emerge from midpack by half distance are three Americans (and teams, really) with points to prove: Derrick Walker’s Robby Gordon, Pat Patrick’s Scott Pruett and Chip Ganassi’s Jimmy Vasser. None of these drivers has ever come close to winning a 500 (in fact they have one Indycar win between them) but their teams have all put cars at the sharp end of the race before. Pat Patrick’s even won a few, in another lifetime.
Row 4: ???
Now we get into the glorious quirkiness of the Indy 500 middle order. P10-12 are held by the probably-never-said-in-the-same-sentence-before trio of Panasonic scion Hiro Matsushita,
short track expert Stan Fox and Brazilian rookie and 1995’s sole Honda full-schedule guy Andre Ribeiro. Fox is the sole qualifier from Hemelgarn’s three-car effort and is driving their only 1995 chassis. Ribeiro is probably looking at his teammate on the front row and plotting furiously.
Row 5: Veterans part 2
Three names from the eighties on row 5: 1987 near-miss Roberto Guerrero, former Osella, Talbot-Ligier and Renault driver Eddie Cheever and 1983 polesitter Teo Fabi. Fabi’s car owner Gerry Forsythe had a part-share in Jacques Villeneuve’s entry in 1994, which yielded a second place. Guerrero is racing a year-old Reynard for Pagan, and Cheever, who messed up his fuel calculations and lost a win at Nazareth last time out, is racing for the indomitable, not to say inimitable, AJ Foyt.
Row 6: Dark horses
Row 6 contains a promising rookie and two drivers who ought to be in with a shot of winning. P16 is Paul Tracy, who got above 230mph early on in the month and whose Newman-Haas teammate qualified fourth. PT has never run well at Indy, with a best finish of 20th from three starts with Team Penske. In the middle of the sixth row is Bresciano rookie Alessandro Zampedri, the ex-F3000 driver having a bright paint job but no notable results in 1995 so far. Danny Sullivan starts in the eighteenth spot and has the equipment, if not the qualifying pace. Still, the former Tyrrell driver and 1985 winner knows how to keep his wheels pointing in the right direction.
Row 7: Dark horses part 2
Down in row 7 is the last of our former winners. But first, exciting but near-pointless rookie Gil de Ferran has put his car in many good positions without converting them into results this year, but 19th on the grid isn’t one of them. The experienced but fairly nondescript Hideshi Matsuda is in the middle of the row with new team Beck Motorsports, and 1986 winner Bobby Rahal lines up 21st. He’s emerged near the front from bad starting positions before, and at any rate has avoided a third Indy qualifying debacle in a row. Go Bobby!
Row 8: Tail-enders part 1
And now… the rest! The eighth row contains Bobby Rahal’s equally experienced teammate Raul Boesel, original American Indycar Series champion (look it up! Or if you’re still reading, maybe not) Buddy Lazier and Chilean anger sponge Eliseo Salazar.
Row 9: Tail-enders part 2
P25-27 are occupied by popular Tecate beer man Adrian Fernandez for how-the-mighty-have-fallen Galles Racing, Belgian icon and Dale Coyne crony Eric Bachelart in a year-old Lola, and Walker Racing’s second Reynard-Ford, piloted by F1 refugee now CART-rookie Christian Fittipaldi. Fittipaldi was bloody fast in Miami but hasn’t been seen much since. His car is kitted out like a Brazilian flag so it’ll be easy to track his progress.
Row 10: Tail-enders part 3
The penultimate row (that’s the graveyard shift of P28-30) holds sports car racer and Indy regular Lyn St. James, the field’s second Guerrero and fourth Dick Simon entry Carlos Guerrero and Scott Sharp in a second Foyt car.
Row 11: Penske-bane
There’s a perverse interest in the drivers who scraped into the race on the final row. Bryan Herta doesn’t belong here on pace, but (like Al Unser, Jr in 1992) starts from 33rd after he wrecked the car he qualified with. However, Bettenhausen’s Stefan Johansson (driving the field’s only Penske) and Dick Simon’s Davy Jones very much do. But they were quicker than Al Jr and Emerson Fittipaldi, so there is that.
Race video below. This is a long one so let’s get the video underway on Sunday at the traditionalish Indy 500 time of 4.30pm BST. There’s plenty of build-up but they’ll be starting engines at 38:29, or just after 5. I should say without fear of spoilers that Stan Fox had an awful, but not fatal, crash in the opening laps so if you want to join at the first restart that’s absolutely fine. That’ll be at about 56:00, or just before half 5.
