Guerrero revives career in IRL

By Ron Kantowski (contact)

Monday, Sept. 9, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

USUALLY, the first adjective that comes to mind when Roberto Guerrero's name is mentioned among auto racing enthusiasts is "affable." The second is "unlucky," as in unlucky not to have won three or four Indianapolis 500s by now.

Guerrero will head into this weekend's inaugural Las Vegas 500K at the new Las Vegas Motor Speedway never having won the world's most prestigious auto race. But there have been times when it appeared his likeness was destined to be etched upon the Borg Warner trophy, only to have the racing gods rudely intercede:

* In 1987, while leading by a full lap with just a handful to go, Guerrero's engine stalls during his final pit stop. The culprit: a faulty clutch, broken earlier in the race when a tire from Tony Bettenhausen's car "drops out of the sky" and lands square on the nose of Guerrero's car. By the time Guerrero gets restarted, Al Unser is driving away to a record-tying fourth Indy win.

* In 1992, after becoming the first man to eclipse the 230-mph barrier and shattering the one- and four-lap track records to start from the pole, Guerrero's tires fail to come up to temperature on an unseasonably cold race day morning. He loses control and spins into the fence. The questions regarding the reliability of his car's unproven Buick engine go unanswered, as the accident occurs on the parade lap.

* Then, this past May. Guerrero is comfortably leading the first IRL Indy 500 when he pulls in for his final pit stop. But when a crew member fails to properly engage the fuel nozzle to his car, Guerrero loses valuable time in the pits. Adding injury to insult, he spins on the final turn of the final lap, touching off a spectacular crash in which Alesandro Zampedri suffers devastating foot injuries.

There have been other cruel twists of fate on smaller stages, such as Miami in 1986 when Guerrero led from start to almost finish. He ran out of fuel on the last lap, handing the win -- and the CART series championship -- to Unser.

It's almost as if a black cat has been riding on Guerrero's rear wing. But then there was the tire-testing crash at Indianapolis in 1987 in which Guerrero sustained a life-threatening head injury. He was in a deep coma for 17 days.

Miraculously, he would be racing again by the following spring.

As Guerrero puts it, sometimes luck is just a matter of perception.

"If I didn't have any luck, I wouldn't be here talking to you after my accident in '87," said the personable native of Colombia and nationalized U.S. citizen, who will drive the bright yellow Pennzoil Pagan Racing Reynard-Ford in this weekend's Las Vegas baptismal. "To me, that's better than any of the bad luck that I've had.

"There's obviously some luck involved (in racing) and everybody says I have bad luck. But I don't buy it. A lot of times you make your own luck. This year (at Indianapolis), we put ourselves out with the fuel nozzle. We should have done our homework and we wouldn't have had the problems. To me, that wasn't bad luck at all."

Alas, his fortunes turned again following Indy. Pennzoil, which only had signed on with Pagan as an associate sponsor prior to the 500, stepped up its financial commitment, boding well for Guerrero's future.

At 38, he still has a lot of competitive racing ahead. But barring unforseen circumstances -- such as a phone call from one of the top IndyCar teams, for instance -- it appears he'll be doing most of it in the fledgling IRL, an all-oval series founded by Indianapolis Motor Speedway chief Tony George as a cost-containment alternative to IndyCar.

"One minute at a time," Guerrero said about his future. "My situation is quite similar to when I went from Formula One to Indy cars in '84. I'm enjoying running the IRL and I think the future (of the series) looks really good. But I would be lying if I said if I got a call from Roger Penske tomorrow, and if he offered me a ride I wouldn't take it."

Guerrero never drove for Penske during his dozen IndyCar seasons, but that didn't prevent him from finishing second, third, fourth and second again in his first four Indy 500 starts. He and Michael Andretti were named co-Rookies of the Year at the Brickyard in 1984.

Guerrero's best and worst year was 1987, when he won two races and finished fourth in IndyCar points, despite missing the final three races following the Indy test crash. His last full-time IndyCar ride came with Kenny Bernstein's Budweiser-backed team in 1993.

Guerrero, who began his major-league racing career with the Ensign and Theodore Formula One teams, finished sixth at last month's True Value 200 at New Hampshire International Speedway, a race won by A.J. Foyt's driver, Scott Sharp.

But after setting quick time on the first day of IRL Las Vegas testing in June, he is confident he can challenge for the win on the wide and lightning-fast 1.5-mile LVMS tri-oval.

"The speed will come," Guerrero said, downplaying the effect the desert heat will have on the cars. "There are a lot of places to pass, so that should make it real exciting."