Indianapolis Motor Speedway Trackside Report, Day 14

16 May 1997

IMS Trackside Report
Day 14, Friday, May 16

Tony Stewart was fastest of the day with a lap at 216.388 in the #2T
Glidden Menards Special. Greg Ray was the fastest of the day among
not-yet-qualified drivers with a lap at 215.069 in the #97 Tobacco
Free Kids entry.

GREG RAY: (thoughts on last Sunday's attempt): "No, Sunday I ran out
of fuel. It didn't bother me at all. I knew we had the (qualifying)
time. I've been out of the car for five days and we ran the same speed
as we did Sunday. The nice thing is, we've been running on full
tanks. The fourth lap we did today was 215. Since I was out of the car
for five days, they wanted to allow me to get comfortable in the
car. We tried a little race setup but the focus is qualifying."

Qualifying Line for Saturday: #97 Ray; #11 Boat (both from being left
in line last Sunday); #16 Schmidt; #50 Roe; #72 Bourbonnais; #33
Velez; #22 Greco; #18 Carlson; #54 Vitolo; #91 Unser; #28 Dismore; #36
Harrington.

Indy Racing League Executive Director Leo Mehl announced today that
the League has finalized technical specifications and manufacturer
participation guidelines for the future and has changed its qualifying
procedure for the 1998 IRL season, including the Indianapolis 500. The
latter announcement eliminated the so-called "25-8" qualifying
incentive. Approved chassis and engine manufacturers will be required
to make their products available to all IRL teams. The price for
engines in 1998 moves to $80,000 and the price for cars moves to
$275,000. LEO MEHL: "It was impossible to finalize specifications
without the cars being on the race track. Now, with this behind us, we
feel these are the proper technical specs. They are written in a
manner to insure the race cars will remain competitive for more than
one season. Before the new model IRL car is approved, the
manufacturers must provide an update kit for the current chassis to
make them as competitive as possible with the new ones." (about
eliminating the qualifying incentive): "This program was necessary to
provide a strong incentive to participate in the IRL and compete in
all the League races. In this regard, it has been very
successful. Everybody understood it was a necessary thing to start off
the League. There had to be some incentive for the teams. I met with
the owners this morning and they understand it's time to move on from
that." (about reaction from CART): "I'm not sure what their reaction
will be. I think they wanted clarification and I think they'll
certainly spend a lot of time discussing it. We want people to enter
the Indianapolis 500, but we want them to enter the whole series
more. So I can't predict their reaction to this, but I guess the only
thing I'll tell you is that whether it's a CART person or an IMSA
person or anybody else who comes here, they'll be treated fairly and
the rules and specifications are clearly defined now."

At 12:36 p.m., Johnny O'Connell had an engine problem in the #1
Conseco AJ Foyt Racing entry going into Turn 1, slid 660 feet with a
three-quarter spin to hit the outside wall at the entrance to the
south short chute, hit the wall again with the left rear 60 feet
further down, came off the wall with a half-spin 750 feet to a stop at
the entrance to Turn 2. The car sustained heavy left side and front
damage. O'Connell was transported in stable condition to Methodist
Hospital by ambulance with a dislocated arch in his left foot
requiring surgery and minor facial cuts.

Claude Bourbonnais passed the final observation phase of his driver's
test at 1:58 p.m. with veterans Joe Gosek, Paul Durant, Johnny
Rutherford and Tero Palmroth serving as observers.

CLAUDE BOURBONNAIS: "I needed the rookie orientation to get back up to
speed but I'm glad to have completed it. I would've done exactly the
same thing if I wouldn't have had rookie orientation because I
would've got up to speed at the same rate."

The engine in the #90 Lifetime TV/Cinergy/Hemelgarn Racing entry
driven by Lyn St. James is the first Infiniti Indy engine to run over
500 miles in the same car on the same track. To date, St. James has
run 207 laps with a fastest circuit of 212.776.

Mary Fendrich Hulman, Chairman Emeritus of the Speedway and the
matriarch of the Hulman-George family, and two-time Indianapolis 500
winner Gordon Johncock will be inducted into the Speedway Hall of Fame
as the 103rd and 104th members at Hall of Fame Membership and
Oldtimers Tribute at 6:30 p.m. at the Adam's Mark Hotel. Past "500"
Rookies of the Year will also be recognized. Mrs. Hulman is the widow
of the late Tony Hulman, who purchased the Speedway in 1945. Since
1978, she has assumed his duty of giving the Race Day command of
"Gentlemen, Start Your Engines" or "Lady and Gentlemen, Start Your
Engines." Johncock started 24 Indianapolis 500s over four decades and
won the race in 1973 and 1982, the latter by .16 of a second over Rick
Mears, then the closest margin of victory in "500" history.

At 8:26 p.m. Thursday in Indianapolis, Scott and Leslie Goodyear
celebrated the arrival of their third child, Hayley Alexandra
Goodyear, who weighed seven pounds, 15 ounces.

21 cars were on the track today, running 762 laps. Cars on track
today: #1 O'Connell; #2T Stewart; #3T Buhl; #4T Brack; #10T M. Groff;
#11 Boat; #12 Calkins; #16 Schmidt; #18 Carlson; #22 Greco; #28
Dismore; #33 Velez; #36 Scott Harrington, Johansson-Immke Motorsports;
#40 Miller; #44 Kinser; #50 Roe; #51T Ward; #54 Vitolo; #72
Bourbonnais; #91T Lazier; #97 Ray.

A total of 47 cars are now at the Speedway, 44 have passed technical
inspection and none are in the process. 38 drivers have been on the
track to date. There were 13 yellows for one hour, 43 minutes. At
11:16 a.m., the temperature was 55 degrees with winds out of the west
at 12 miles an hour, gusting to 18 mph. At 5:29 p.m., the temperature
was 62 degrees with winds southwest at 20 miles an hour, gusting to 23
mph. Track temperatures from Goodyear tire engineers were 104 degrees
at 11 a.m., 116 degrees at 2 p.m. and 95 degrees at 5:30 p.m.

TOP NOT-YET QUALIFIED DRIVERS OF THE DAY
1 97 Greg Ray Tobacco Free Kids D/A/F 215.069
2 28 Mark Dismore Kelley Automotive Group D/A/G 213.848
3 16 Sam Schmidt HOPE Prepaid Fuel Card D/A/F 213.564
4 11 Billy Boat Conseco AJ Foyt Enterprises D/A/G 213.013
5 1 Johnny O'Connell Conseco AJ Foyt Racing G/A/G 212.922
6 18 Tyce Carlson Klipsch Tnemec Overhead Door Pyle V-Line Earl's D/A/G 212.846
7 50 Billy Roe Sega/Progressive Electronics/Eurointernational D/A/F 212.409
8 22 Marco Greco Side Play International Scandia Alta Xcel D/A/G 211.775
9 33 Fermin Velez Old Navy Scandia Alta Xcel D/A/G 209.844
10 72 Claude Bourbonnais Blueprint Racing D/A/F 207.569
11 54 Dennis Vitolo SmithKline Beecham/Kroger/Beck Motorsports D/I/F 206.493
12 36 Scott Harrington Johansson/Immke Motorsports G/A/G 169.351

--IMS--