Ron Kantowski: IRL scrambles to put a field on the track

Friday, Jan. 17, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

Ready or not (again), here they come.

For the second straight year, the fledgling Indy Racing League finds itself scrambling to put together a show for its season opener at Walt Disney World Speedway in Florida.

Last year, it was forming a new Indy car series from scratch that had the IRL scurrying to find enough driver/car combinations to stage a credible race. This year, it's brand-new cars -- and a paucity of engines to power them -- that has it pressing the Jan. 25 (next Saturday) race day deadline.

For the record, 21 drivers and 32 cars are listed on the tentative entry list. In reality, many of those cars don't exist or are still in crates, waiting to be assembled.

One of those belongs to Davey Hamilton, one of A.J. Foyt's two drivers. Hamilton recently returned from Orlando (where he had hoped to test) to his part-time job in the Las Vegas Motor Speedway marketing department (he closes on his new Las Vegas residence Tuesday), having yet to see his No. 14 A.J. Foyt/Power Team Racing Dallara-Aurora.

"My car wasn't ready," Hamilton said. "Scott (Sharp, Hamilton's teammate) ran a few laps and I was fitted for my car. With no testing, it (racing next week) is going to be a little tough.

"Everybody involved wishes we had a little more time. We're short on cars -- that's something we'll have to live with the first race."

Sources predict only nine teams, comprising roughly 15 cars, will be ready to qualify next Friday. Hamilton suspects well-heeled car owners such as Foyt and John Menard will enter four cars each in an attempt to bolster the field.

The new IRL cars, which feature nonturbocharged, V-8 engines and a simple aerodynamic design, are less costly but slower than the high-tech machines used on the rival CART circuit. Lap speeds at WDW have been roughly two seconds slower than last year.

"The key thing for this first race is survival," said Hamilton, a short track pavement specialist who is headed for Indianapolis this weekend to compete in a midget race at the RCA Dome. "There are going to be some reliability problems with new car blues. The biggest thing you can do is go all day long and try to be there at the checkered flag."

The entry list for next weekend's race is remarkably similar to last year's. The principal newcomer is Galles Racing International, which moves over from CART to field a car for sports car ace Davy Jones. As far as driving talent, 1992 Indy 500 runner-up and two-time Michigan 500 winner Scott Goodyear will join the IRL this season, as a Treadway Racing teammate to 1990 Indy 500 winner Arie Luyendyk.

Backmarkers

The five finalists in the Team Kool Green Academy Indy car driving search -- (Tony Renna, Bryan Selby, Jeff Shafer, Matt Sielsky and B.J. Zacharias) are back in Las Vegas to determine two winners during testing at the Derek Daly Speedcentre at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The winners will participate in a year-long driver development program funded by KOOL Team Green. ... The Team Target Fan Phone (1-800-297-9590) will provide daily reports from the second CART Spring Training Jan. 30-Feb. 1 at Florida's Metro-Dade Homestead Motorsports Complex. ... Indy Racing League driver Eliseo Salazar, who sustained a serious back injury during a practice crash at Walt Disney World Speedway last weekend, is expected to be sidelined at least until May. ... 1996 NASCAR Busch Grand National Series champion Randy Lajoie will visit Las Vegas Motor Speedway Tuesday during a fact-finding mission for the March 16 Busch stop at LVMS. ... CART driver Paul Tracy became the first driver to lap the under-construction California Speedway in Fontana last weekend, running 19 shakedown laps around the 1.3-mile oval. ... What's in a name? On the heels of the CART-IRL settlement in which it was agreed that both would refrain from using the term "Indy car" to describe their respective open wheel series, CART stalwart Al Unser Jr. has taken to calling his Marlboro-Penske a "champ" car. "That's what dad (Al Unser Sr.) called them when I was growing up," said Junior. "They are the best cars in the world." ... Jockey underwear has signed on as co-chief sponsor of Dan Gurney's Castrol CART program. ... Las Vegas' Jimmy Vasser set fast time during CART winter testing at Homestead, Fla., ripping around the 1.5-mile oval in 27.958 sec., 196.622 mph. Vasser's time was .2 off his 1996 qualifying speed in the Target/Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda. ... Dennis Vitolo, the man who once ran over the top of Nigel Mansell in a pit entry mishap at the Indianapolis 500, has a six-race CART deal with Andreas Leberle's Project Indy team. Vitolo will drive the SmithKline Beecham 1997 Lola-Ford in the March 2 CART opener at Homestead, Fla., March 2. ... Let the name-calling begin: Perennial series champion Jeremy McGrath was leading last week's AMA Supercross season opener at the L.A. Coliseum aboard his new Suzuki mount when he tangled with former teammate Steve Lamson, who remained with Honda. ... History may be made at this weekend's NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series opener at Walt Disney World when Felix "The Nighthawk" Giles and Tammy Jo Kirk will attempt to become the first Afro-American and woman, respectively, to qualify for a truck race. Kirk will drive a Geoff Bodine truck sponsored by Lovable, a Georgia-based lingerie manufacturer. ESPN will televise the truck race at 9:15 a.m. Sunday. ... Former Cleveland Cavalier Brad Daughtery is the new co-owner of the Liberty Racing Craftsman Truck driven by 1996 USAC midget champion Kenny Irwin Jr.. ... World of Outlaws champion Mark Kinser will drive the SKB Racing Craftsman Truck during 1997. ... NASCAR Winston West opens its 44th season at Tucson, Ariz., Sunday. ESPN2 televises at noon. ... Comedian Jeff Foxworthy: "You might be a redneck ... if you go to a NASCAR race and don't need a program."