From: kevinc@cbnewsf.cb.att.com (kevin.j.coulter)
Subject: IndyCar / Road America
Organization: AT&T
Distribution: na
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1992 20:05:59 GMT

Well, here's a report from your friendly corner worker on this past
weekend.   We had a FULL schedule. Not only did we have the Indy cars,
but we also had a 30 minute Zerex-Saab race on sunday morning, then
sunday afternoon after the indy car race we had a 3 hour firestone
firehawk race. That didn't end up checkering until 6:25PM. Gack. Then
had to drive home...... ugh.    on Saturday, in addition to practice and
qualifying for sunday's events, we had a 100 mile Tide TransAm Tour
event, along with a 1 hour Escort World Challenge race.

For Friday, I was at turn 14. Saturday and Sunday, I was at 4A/5/5B
(they work as a group). 4A is the straightaway station near the speed
trap just before 5. 5B is EV dispatch in the runoff from 5. 

Friday was nice and quiet for me, although they did have a couple of
maydays elsewhere. A firehawk car rolled at 5 and an escort car rolled
at 12 (canada corner). Both drivers were ok. Emmo had the provisional
pole after qualifying on friday.

Saturday was quiet in the morning, and we mainly got behind schedule 
because we had to keep sweeping gravel off of a couple of areas of the
track. Then during qualifying Saturday afternoon, with about 7 minutes
left in the session, was when Paul did his stunt. I was at 5B, so I was
more worried about getting the pedestrian traffic out of the way so
safety one could get thru. As you saw on the video, he was ok.  As of 
the morning meeting Sunday morning, they still didn't know which car 
they were going to use. They ended up starting the backup car. 

TransAm race was good. Started out with sharp, baldwin, fellows,
pickett, and robinson in the top 5, swapping positions a little. Then
pickett broke and it was only 4. Fellows took command of the race. with
a lap or 2 to go, baldwin and sharp tangled at 13. Fellows won, with
baldwin in second.     Escort race was a runaway by Bill Cooper.
Also, during saturday morning indycar practice, I had the pleasure of
writing up mario for a pass under our stationary yellow, which was
backing up a w/y at 6. All he got was a talking to, and a warning that
if he did it in the race, he'd get a stop and go. big deal.

Sunday morning warmups went ok. The Saab race was won by whoever it was
leading the championship, and he then clinched the $100K at ra. Indy
race had a waveoff first time by because of a jump by emmo. When ross
cheever went straight off at 3 on the first lap, I guess he scared the
daylights out of some photographers. They were taking pictures from
right behind the armco he hit. I told this one photog that they ought to
know better if corner workers aren't even standing there. Anyways, tracy
had his 2 off course excursions, the second being because of his brake
bias being wrong. 

then we had pruett and goodyear make contact at our corner and pruett
left part of his front wing drivers right around the corner. IndyCar
called for double yellows all around, evidently implementing Mario rule
#4, as both andrettis were still on course. We were just waiting for a
BIG hole to send someone across, or let mario ignore the debris flag and
punt it out of the way,  whichever came first. Well, Safety One had full
sight of the hole thing, and you know what happened. Besides, the field
was starting to get strung out and they needed a NASCAR yellow to
tighten things up. 

As far as the michael/rahal incident in the pits goes, I was surprised
Michael didn't get penalized. He really hurt Bobby's chances. As far as
a penalty for knocking over the cone, we were never told if one existed.

Then goodyear went splat around 11 and 11a. This full course yellow was
warranted. The area of the track is blind, the cars have nowhere to go,
and they are flying through there. Not to mention the workers called for
an ambulance (although I think scott ended up riding in with a safety
truck). The length of the full course was 2-3 laps too long. It was
lengthened because of 2 things: Jacques Villinueve pulled off drivers
left past our station partway up the hill to 6. Workers put the car
behind the armco in as safe of a spot as you're gonna get at a race
track. IndyCar safety team decided to tow him out, as he claimed he
could get the car fixed in the pit. He couldn't. Anyways, that ate some
time, and also the PPG Pace Car broke down partway up the hill to 6.
Ever hear a call on the phones "I need a flat tow for the pace car?".
The field was then paced by emmo. Then of course once all this is clear,
they have to give a 1 finger to the field. For road courses, can't they
come up with some kind of signal for the corner workers to give the
field on the back part of the track?   

A few laps from the end was when brayton blew his tire between 4 & 5. he
went off the access road at 5B at a HIGH rate of speed, causing
spectators on the paddock road to scramble to get out of his way. ESPN
totally blew this one. It had to be interesting from the in car camera.

Then with like 2 or 3 laps to go, Christian Danner blew his engine going
thru 5 and parked it DR just around the corner. So for the rest of the
race, we were waving yellow, waving white, and debris (safety one
immediately responded, as there had been a report of a possible fire on
the car before he got to our corner). Even mario didn't try to pass
anyone down there.....  (course thats because I was waving the yellow so
plainly there was no way he couldn't see it! 8-) ).

After the Indy Car race, we had a 3 hour firestone firehawk race that
was marked by 2 maydays for rollovers (one at 7, one at 12), and the
fact that a bunch of workers left, not wanting to stick around for a
6:25PM checker. Course you've got the certified lunatics like myself who
stuck it out......  I ended up getting out of the track around 7...... 

Back to the IndyCar race:
Having been there, the TV coverage was terrible. They missed goodyears
crash, they missed brayton flying off by me, they missed a wheel to
wheel touch between goodyear and I think mario, they didn't mention the
pace car breaking down, they didn't discuss any penalty for michael
knocking down the cone, they missed ross cheever going straight off at
3, etc......  and those are just the things I remember.....

Now, the question is, can you count road america as a track where GTPs
are faster than indy cars? The Indy car and track record was missed by
the GTPs by < 0.9 sec. This years Indy car qual time missed it by about
a sec. Keep in mind, last year the indy cars ran in the cool of late
September, while the GTPs ran in the heat. This year, they were both in
the heat. 

				Kevin

PS Anyone from the net going to Laguna Seca? I'm thinking of making the
trip out there this year....

------
 Kevin Coulter			"If it don't have wheels, it ain't a sport!!!"
 AT&T Network Systems
 Naperville, IL
 {att,lll-crg,attunix}!ihlpy!kevinc  OR  kevinc@ihlpy.att.com