From: jsnow@moons.sim.es.com (John Snow)
Subject: What would you have asked Tom Sneva?
Keywords: sneva cart indy
Organization: Evans & Sutherland Computer Corporation
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1992 17:40:46 GMT

Tom Sneva was playing in a local charity golf tournament. After his
round, I was hanging around talking with him when one of the
tournament workers asked him if he had a ride back to his hotel. He
said he didn't and I volunteered to give him a lift which he agreed
to. It was a half hour ride and I found Sneva to be a very friendly
talkative guy. So what would you have asked him if you had him all to
yourself for half an hour? Here are a few of the comments he made to
me:

I asked him if the cold weather was to blame for all the accidents at
Indy this year. He said that blaming the weather was too easy of a cop
out. He said that the reason that they hinge the accelerator pedal and
put a brake pedal in the car is so that the drivers can drive in those
kinds of situations. So, for the most part, he blamed the drivers.

On his own accident at this year's Indy, he said that this was the
only accident in his career that he didn't have a clue as to why it
happened even after watching the tape. He said that at the time of his
accident, his tires should have had plenty of heat in them to make
them stick. His car gave him absolutely no indication that it was
going to do something wrong and all of the sudden he found himself
going backwards.

I asked him about Scott Goodyear's great drive from last to 2nd. He
said, "He did a great job. Only one other person has been able to do
that." That person being Sneva. He also said that before his crash, he
and Goodyear had been battling. He said that Goodyear had passed him
and then a few laps later, Sneva had gotten back around Goodyear only,
to crash shortly thereafter. He said that after he got out of the
hospital and saw that Goodyear was challenging for the lead, it really
made him sick to think what might have been.

I asked him how he got his ride with Menard this year. He said that
"the guy" (he didn't say who) who had given Menard a $50,000 check
for the ride wouldn't fit in the car, so Sneva got the ride.

I asked him if he thought that the new board of directors or whatever
they call themselves would make any difference in standardizing the
rules between Indy and the rest of the series to help make his Buick
more competitive. He had heard of the announcement but not the details.
I told him who was on the board and that Tony George was a non-voting
member. His response was: "That's BS. They haven't changed a thing. As
long as the owners have all the votes, it won't change anything."

I asked about how to improve the safety of the Indy cars. He said,
"Move the driver back. This will allow them to build a U shaped fuel
cell around the driver to help protect him and will keep the driver's
feet out of the way in a frontal crash."  I asked why they haven't
done it. Much head shaking a mumbling about the technical directors.

I asked what he thought about Michael Andretti or Little Al going to
F1. He thought that it would be great for F1, that F1 really needed a
top American driver to help spark interest in the US.

We talked about a lot of other things, but I won't bore you with any
more details. He was wearing his Indy 500 championship ring - very
impressive. It was great fun playing groupie for a day.

--John
--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
John F. Snow                         INET:           jsnow@moons.sim.es.com
Evans & Sutherland Computer Corp.    
Salt Lake City, Utah                 America Online: JohnSnow  GEnie: J.SNOW2
Newsgroups: rec.autos.sport