ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, May 27, 1996 TAG: 9605280142
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: HOLIDAY
DATELINE: BROOKLYN, MICH.
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
IT ISN'T INDY, but it's a big victory for Jimmy Vasser at the rival Indy-car race.
Jimmy Vasser won the backup race in a backup car.
After his primary car was destroyed in a crash before the green flag even dropped, Vasser jumped in his reserve machine Sunday and drove to victory in the inaugural U.S. 500.
Vasser didn't seem the least bit disappointed that the biggest victory of his career - and one that gave him an instant place in racing history - came at Michigan International Speedway instead of Indianapolis.
``It's great! Who needs milk?'' Vasser said, referring to the traditional drink served in Victory Lane at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
If judged on the prominence of the drivers, the Indy 500 was the secondary race. All of the top stars boycotted the biggest event in motorsports after speedway president Tony George decreed that 25 of the 33 spots would be reserved for regulars of his fledgling Indy Racing League.
Nevertheless, the start of the Michigan race was marred by a 12-car crash - just the kind of trouble that everyone expected from the rookie-dominated field at Indianapolis.
At the end of the final pace lap, Vasser and No.2 qualifier Adrian Fernandez collided in turn 4 as they began to accelerate, anticipating the green flag. Vasser and Fernandez swerved into the other car on the front row, Bryan Herta, igniting a melee of flying wheels and metal as they took out nine of the cars behind them.
Since the race had not officially started, the drivers involved in the crash were able to use a backup car or have their crew try to repair the damage. Vasser was one the eight drivers who ran back to the garage and his crew already had his reserve car waiting for him.
``It's amazing that we could run the spare car like this,'' said Vasser, whose knees were still aching from the crash. ``It's not as quick as the primary car and we struggled with it all day. The team won this, that's for sure.''
The 30-year-old driver won the biggest prize of his career, $1.145 million, and earned his fourth victory in six Indy-car races this year, establishing him as a full-fledged star in a sport dominated for years by men with names like Unser, Fittipaldi and Andretti.
``This is a great team,'' an ecstatic team owner Chip Ganassi said. ``We went out there in our backup car and won the race.''
Vasser was dueling with Andre Ribiero when the Brazilian driver had to duck into the pits for gas with just 10 laps to go. Vasser then cruised to an 11-second victory over another Brazilian, Mauricio Gugelmin, at an average speed of 156.403 mph in the 250-lap race.
Vasser and Gugelmin were the only two drivers on the lead lap. Roberto Moreno finished third, followed by Ribiero, Mark Blundell and Eddie Lawson, all one lap down.
Vasser, who led 35 laps, had limited experience in his backup vehicle. He said most of the practice sessions were conducted with his No.1 car.
``We spent 80 percent of our time in that other car,'' said Vasser. ``It was dialed in, a real quick car. We took it out yesterday and it did great. I don't know what happened on that start. It was a real bummer, no doubt.''
The race finally started an hour late, with 26 of the 27 drivers able to make the restart. Fernandez pulled his car on pit road, but wasn't able to get it running.
The race was slowed by 12 caution flags and blown engines took out two major contenders, Greg Moore and Vasser's teammate, Alex Zanardi. Another front-runner, Parker Johnstone, doomed his chances by running out of gas.
Once the race got started, Vasser and Zanardi quickly established their Honda-powered Reynards as the strongest cars on the track. Zanardi, who avoided trouble in the opening crash, moved to the lead on lap 37 and built as much as a 10-second lead with lap speeds of 232 mph.
The Italian rookie had led 134 laps when he was supplanted by Johnstone after a yellow flag-induced pit stop. Zanardi was moving back toward the top spot when his engine blew on lap 175 in a haze of smoke on the front stretch. That put the race up for grabs.
``I was sure today was my day,'' Zanardi said, ``but apparently it wasn't.''
Johnstone led 35 laps but a miscalculation cost him a chance at victory on lap 207. After Vasser went into the pits, Johnstone tried to stretch another lap out of his car but ran out of gas on the backstretch and had to be towed pack to pit road.
Ribiero, who had won at Brazil this year, moved to the front but he had trouble all day with fuel flow. He had to come in after lap 240 to get a splash of gas, but it was long enough to cost him the victory.
The crowd of 110,879 was one of the largest to watch an Indy-car race at the 2-mile track in rural Michigan. But there were some empty seats, just as there were at Indianapolis Motor Speedway when Buddy Lazier won the world's most famous race a few hours earlier.
``Congratulations to Buddy,'' Vasser said. ``He's a good driver.
``I think he was in one of our old cars,'' he added, a dig at the year-old machines used in Indy.
Amid the changing times, some fans longed for the days when the best Indy-car racers competed on the track that gave the sport its name.
``The fanfare is not here,'' said Don Ley, who drove 650 miles from Minneapolis. ``We sat around the campfire and talked about old Indys.''
LENGTH: Long : 104 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP Jeff Krosnoff's car (center) slides sideways throughby CNBthe fourth turn after a collision involving a dozen cars on the pace
lap of the inaugural U.S. 500 at Michigan International Speedway in
Brooklyn, Mich. KEYWORDS: AUTO RACING