1991: Rick Mears wins fourth Indy 500

The 75th 500 was a fierce race with all six of the favourites featuring strongly. In the end, the duel was between Rick Mears and Michael Andretti highlighted by a pair of spectacular outside passes on successive laps in Turn 1 before Mears powered away to a 3.1s victory.

It rained off and on, sometimes steadily, in Indianapolis at the end of last week. Sunday morning brought more low, dark clouds and incessant drizzle. For a while, it looked like we were in for a long wait until Monday or even the following week.

Then, praise be, the rain stopped, the wind picked-up and by mid-morning the track was fast on the way to being dry. The race got going about three-quarters of an hour late amid typical midwestern spring humidity with a stiff breeze from the west.

In trouble right away was Danny Sullivan. A fuel pump drive cable had to be replaced during the pace laps and Sullivan started the race from the pitlane as the field rushed into Turn 1 on the first lap. So began a frustrating day for the Patrick/Alfa combine.

Meanwhile, poleman Mears had somewhat uncharacteristically taken the lead at Turn 1. From the outside of the front row Mario Andretti handily outpaced Foyt and challenged Mears on the run into the turn. Hard behind Andretti, Al Unser Jr made a superb start only to have to back off and cede a place to a thing Michael Andretti.

'I went for a new set-up for the race,' commented Al Jr, and I didn't know how the car would react in Turn 1 so I had to do the big lift and when I did that Michael came shooting by on the outside.'

Michael went from fifth to third followed by Foyt, Unser Jr, Hobby Rahal, John Andretti, Eddie Cheever, a charging Kevin Cogan, Jim Crawford and Arie Luyendyk. In the middle of the field Gary Bettenhausen got sideways down on the apron and rookie Buddy Lazier spun in avoidance, clouting the wall. Bettenhausen caught it and drove to the pits for fresh tyres while Lazier was lucky to be able to drive around to the pits and retirement.

This incident brought out the yellow as the leaders jetted onto the backstraight. Two laps behind the pace car and the field was unleashed again. This time, starting in single file, there was much less excitement although Cogan passed Cheever for eighth and Emerson Fittipaldi got around Scott Goodyear for 12th. Out of it directly was Willy T Ribbs who came coasting in, engine blown.

Out front Mears continued for a short while to maintain a small cushion to the Andrettis. On lap 10, however, Mario caught Mears as they began to lap the tailenders and in Turn I on lap 11 he passed Rick for the lead. In three more laps Michael followed suit, also in Turn 1.

Mears's car was understeering, or pushing, particularly while running in traffic amid turbulent air. 'We started the race with a lot of push,' explained Rick, 'because in the last few years I've had the car too loose in the first part of the race. But this time it was the other way round. I was losing the front end pretty bad especially when I had to run down on the apron in traffic.'

Mears was able to stop at the pits with the rest of the leaders under the yellow on lap 19 and begin trimming his wings to reduce the understeer. This yellow was caused by Cheever who rolled to a stop on the track after part of the wiring harness chafed through. This was an unfortunate end to a good race for Cheever who had been running as high as sixth and was in eighth place when stopped by electrical failure.

From the restart Mario and Michael continued to lead from Al Jr. Rahal, Mears, John Andretti and Fittipaldi. Then one lap later there was another yellow however when a charging Cogan clipped Roberto Guerrero's car in the tail coming off Turn 1. The two cars ran down the outside wall before slithering across into the infield. Both cars were badly damaged but Guerrero was perfectly OK. Cogan however had to be taken to hospital for surgery to a broken right arm and thigh.

Also involved in the accident was AJ Foyt whose car was damaged by flying debris. Foyt had run well for a few laps before starting to tumble down the field just prior to the first round of pitstops. He then had trouble with his left front wheel, rejoining well back in the pack. And the damage from the Cogan-Guerrero incident meant Foyt drove slowly around to the pits and retirement. He drove quietly down the pit lane, waving at the crowd, before climbing out of his race car possibly for the very last time at Indianapolis.

In trouble during the subsequent yellow was last year's winner Luyendyk who lost a lap in the pits. He had been losing ground with a misfire and the decision was taken to change all eight spark plugs before rejoining.

The green flag waved again at the beginning of lap 33 with Michael Andretti outduelling his father in a wheel-to-wheel run into Turn 1. Coming into the pits as Michael seized the lead was Scott Goodyear who had run a first-class race, hanging onto the fleet of Chevrolet-powered leaders in ninth place with a Judd-powered Lola until his engine failed. Goodyear's demise meant that by lap 35 only Chevy-engined cars were on the lead lap.

Michael led from Mario, Al Jr, Rahal, Mears, John Andretti, Fittipaldi and Brayton. A lap down in ninth place at that stage was Geoff Brabham.

At the front of the field the Andrettis continued to rule with Michael steadily pulling away on his own. When he made his second pitstop after 54 laps, Michael's lead was up to 10 seconds over Mario and Al Jr.

Following this round of stops Michael continued to pull away, although Al Jr got out of the pits ahead of Mario. Running very quickly Michael kept building on his lead. By lap 65 and he was 20 seconds clear of Al Jr with Mario following another six seconds behind in third place. Six more seconds and along came Rahal, Fittipaldi, Mears and John Andretti. This quartet got stuck around this time, trying to lap Gary Bettenhausen and it wasn't long before Michael was nibbling at their tails, trying to lap them.

On lap 70 Michael lapped cousin John and a few laps later in heavy traffic the leader came menacingly close to lapping sixth-placed Mears. Before he could do so, however, Michael had a big moment in Turn 1. 'All of a sudden,' he reported. 'I got completely sideways. Then the car got worse and worse. I went from running 220mph laps to 209 and slower. In traffic I was just stuck and I didn't know what had happened. It was too bad because if I had been able to lap Mears then it would have been a different story later in the race.'

What had happened was that Michael's left rear tyre had been punctured, but neither he nor his team realised until after his next pit stop. 'I stopped two or three laps early because the car was getting so bad,' said Michael. 'We took out some front wing to try to kill the oversteer, but when I got back on the track I had a big push. Then the guys discovered the problem with the rear tyre but it meant I had to run a full segment before we could make adjustments to get the car handling well again.'

Nevertheless, Michael continued to lead the race and was even able to fight off a challenge from Fittipaldi after another yellow flag closed-up the field. After starting from the fifth row, Emerson was finally beginning to make his presence felt taking the lead for the first time after a rapid stop under the green on lap 112.

By this time both Al Jr and Mario Andretti were in deep trouble. The clamp between wastegate and exhaust system on Unser's car broke around half distance, leaving Junior with no more than 43in of boost pressure.

'From that point on I just drove around without lifting,' said Unser. 'It was too bad because the car was great, but I was slower down the straight than anyone. I don't think I passed one car on the straight.'

Mario's problem was more serious. 'Something happened to the temperature sensor in the fuel system on lap 49,' said Mario. 'It made the system go full rich and the boost started fluctuating. The chassis was fabulous, just peachy. I had gone to a different set-up in the pits just before the problem and the chassis had really come round.'

There was more trouble for Mario a little later when USAC black-flagged him for passing under the yellow line. He was given a lap penalty as well as a stop-and-go penalty and after the race was livid with what he considered USAC's intransigence.

'I wasn't running down there on my own,' said Andretti. 'I was only going down there when I had to in order to pass people. I mean, you don't go down there unless you have to. It's not the quick way around here you know. I don't accept that I did anything wrong, but out of the blue they pick a penalty and nix everything I could've done here.

'Not only do they give me a lap penalty but they also black flag me,' Mario went on, 'and when I come in for the stop-and-go, there's nobody there from USAC. Is this any way to officiate a motor race?'

At the front, Fittipaldi started stretching his lead over Michael with Rahal in third, Mears in fourth and Al Jr hanging on in fifth. Then on lap 130 Rahal came creeping into the pits, smoke belching from behind.

'It was disappointing,' said Bobby, 'because we hadn't had any engine problems all month and the car was handling really well. I didn't have much straightline speed, but the car was good and I thought we had a chance to do well.'

Come the second-last pitstops - 150 miles to go - there were just three cars on the lead lap. Fittipaldi led from Michael with Mears more than half a lap behind in third place. Then came a yellow on lap 147 when Scott Brayton's Chevrolet gave out, dumping smoke and oil.

From the restart on lap 153 Michael made one of his patented charges down the inside of Fittipaldi to steal the lead in Turn 1. But Emerson stayed right with him over the next dozen laps, both of them chased hard by Mears.

On lap 166 Michael came in for more fuel and tyres. Could he run the distance without a fast, final stop for a splash of fuel? Fittipaldi came in three laps later, but disaster struck when he tried to leave.

Emerson had lost the clutch a little earlier in the race but now there were more serious problems. His mechanics had to give him a hard push just to get him rolling and then he was unable to get up to speed or change gears. An awful screeching came from his transmission and Fittipaldi eventually crept around to the north end of the pitlane before grinding to a halt, race over.

'What happened was the same as at Long Beach,' said the '89 winner. 'A retaining nut broke on the mainshaft in the transmission. It didn't have anything to do with the clutch. It was very disappointing because the car was running and handling great. I could run very hard in the turbulence. We never changed the set-up. I went up one notch on the roll bar at one point, but that was it. The pitstops were fantastic and we had a great month until the transmission broke. It's very disappointing but I can't be unhappy with how well the car and team performed.'

Meanwhile Michael appeared in control of the race, leading Mears by a dozen seconds with 25 laps to go. In another five laps Michael had added three more seconds to his advantage. It was possible, it seemed, that he might be able to make a splash-and-go stop and still stay ahead of Mears.

Then on lap 182 Sullivan's breathless Alfa V8 expired in a smoky explosion down the front straight. Both Michael and Mario ducked in for their last dregs of methanol so that Mears led by a car length when the green flag waved once more.

Mears and Michael were behind AJ Jr and John Andretti in the restart line and there were some exciting moments as Michael tucked his nose underneath Mears's wing and slotted his way across cousin John's nose on the run into Turn 1.

Showing his aggressiveness and keen judgement in magnificent style, Michael drove around the outside of Mears in the turn. Clearly, he was going to take some beating. But barely 40 seconds later, Mears reversed the situation, repassing Michael in the exactly the same manner Michael had passed him.

'Michael made me stay low when he passed me,' commented Mears. 'He pinched me a little and I had to back off. When we came round the next time he was doing all he could to make sure there wasn't a lane open to me.'

Did Rick recall ever having made an outside pass for the lead before at Indianapolis?

'No,' he grinned. 'I don't think I ever have!'

Right away Mears started pulling away, his lead going from 1.1 to 2.0 to 2.7s in successive laps. Then on lap 190 there was another yellow as Mario Andretti's car ground to halt in the pitlane entrance off Turn 4. Mario's engine had finally given out after running over-rich most of the afternoon although there were dark whispers that he had deliberately parked in the pitlane to give Michael a final shot at Mears...

The green flag waved a final time at the beginning of lap 195, but Mears was gone, powering away on his own. There was nothing Michael could do as Mears ran the final laps of the race at 220-221mph, faster than he'd run all day.

'We had been conserving the car, running in sixth gear most of the race,' explained the winner. 'Then at the end we dropped it down to fifth and that's what gave us the extra rpm and speed. I think we also had a better car than him in clean air. It might have been a different story if I was behind him but the way it was I was able to pull away.

'I wasn't that worried on the last restart,' Rick recounted, 'because we had pulled him before. I just wanted to get a good enough jump that he couldn't get a tow and draft by. Also, the last set of tyres were the best set I had all day. It also seemed like the track was cooling down a little at the end which made for a little more grip and speed.'

Said team boss Penske: 'I told him on the radio, "You've been here before and you know what to do." I was giving him the splits over the radio on each lap there at the end.'

'You never know about this place until the last lap,' said Mears. 'I was talking to the car off Turn 4 on the last lap and I knew I was OK when I went past the pit entry and everything was still runnin' strong. From there, you can coast home.'

Mears's record-equalling fourth win was Penske's ninth victory at Indy. A great day for driver and team, therefore, and as ex-team mate Sullivan said: 'It's unfortunate for Big Al and AJ, but Rick's will be a five-time winner. No doubt about it.'

A lap behind in third place was 1990 winner Luyendyk, who ran a good race. Al Jr was two laps down in fourth with John Andretti another lap back in fifth.

John lost at least one lap to the pace car and was quite unhappy about the matter after the race. Nevertheless, he had driven a good race, matching the leaders' pace for much of the distance. The few remaining runners were nowhere.

Two-time winner Gordon Johncock soldiered round for sixth place, 12 laps behind, while both the expired machines of Mario Andretti and Sullivan were classified in the top 10. Of the rookies only Matsushita was running at the finish, although he was 50 laps behind after a long stop to rectify a misfire.

A great race then, but one that emphasised the huge chasm between CART's front and backfield. Even as everyone gets ready for the rest of the season, starting this Sunday at Milwaukee, big changes are on the horizon for Indycar racing.