Motorola 300: CART drivers still year for Indianapolis

Friday, May 22, 1998 | 11:11 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand

For the third consecutive year, the premier auto race on the planet will be run without the most recognizable drivers in open-wheel racing.

The storied Indianapolis 500, which has spawned such racing legends as A.J. Foyt, Johnny Rutherford, Bobby and Al Unser, Rick Mears and Mario Andretti, will take the green flag Sunday headed by a front row comprised of Billy Boat, Greg Ray and Kenny Brack.

The Who's Who of auto racing has become a "Who's That?" following Indianapolis Motor Speedway president Tony George's decision to split from Championship Auto Racing Teams and form the rival Indy Racing League in 1996.

The more recognizable drivers of CART such as Michael Andretti, Al Unser Jr., Bobby Rahal and Las Vegan Jimmy Vasser have been precluded from running in the Indy 500 since 1995, first because of rules changes that favored IRL drivers and now because the IRL cars conform to different specifications.

The day before the 82nd running of the Indy 500, CART will be in Madison, Ill., for the second running of the Motorola 300 at Gateway International Speedway. And there is not one CART driver who wouldn't rather be 230 miles to the east gearing up for The Brickyard -- not even defending Motorola 300 champion and Las Vegas resident Paul Tracy.

"I would love to go back to Indy -- I think every driver would -- but it's out of the drivers' hands. It's up to the owners of CART and it's up to Tony George to work it out," Tracy said.

"Everybody's hoping that will happen in time but right now the way it looks, the series are quite far apart in terms of rules and car specifications so a merger would have to be a lot of compromise on both sides."

Vasser, the 1996 CART champion and one of three Las Vegas residents competing in the series, agreed.

"Of course we miss Indy," Vasser told the Indianapolis Star & News. "As good as our series is, we don't have a marquee event and (the Indy 500) was the one race the general public identified with.

"Indy has suffered without us and we've suffered without Indy."

Henderson's Richie Hearn, in his second season as a CART driver after spending 1996 in the IRL, said the Indy 500 is special to any race driver.

"I feel fortunate enough to have competed in it and finished third (in 1996)," Hearn said.

"But I don't feel any regret changing from the IRL to CART because this is where I want to be. I am sure I feel just as much regret as any driver about the split. But I'm 100 percent where I am and competing against the people that I am."

Like Tracy, veteran Mauricio Gugelmin isn't optimistic that a reconciliation between the IRL and CART will take place in the immediate future.

"It's so depressing because we seem to be getting further apart," Gugelmin said. "We need to be (at the Indy 500) and they need us because it looks like that race is getting smaller in stature.

"There are no winners in this situation."

Vasser was more succinct in his appraisal of the status of the Indy 500.

"It's like watching a loved one die of cancer," Vasser said. "It's a slow death, you go and visit once in a while but there is nothing you can do.

"And the patient is in denial."