MOTOR RACING : U.S.-Made Cars Bucking Imports at Indy

It’s a start, albeit a small one, toward returning America’s race, the Indianapolis 500, to American cars.

The Truesports 91C is an all-American manufactured race car built in Hilliard, Ohio. There are two of them in Sunday’s 75th 500, one driven by Scott Pruett, the other by Geoff Brabham.

The other 31 cars, 28 Lolas and three Penskes, are all foreigners.

There once was a day when cars were built from the ground up in backyard garages by mechanics such as A.J. Watson, George Salih and Lujie Lesovsky, and engines were Offenhausers designed by Leo Goosen, Louie Meyer and Dale Drake. It was an all-American race, just as it was planned to be by Carl Fisher and his associates when they held the first one in 1911.

Then along came Jack Brabham with his little rear-engine Copper-Climax and Colin Chapman and Jimmy Clark with their Lotus, and the race took on a European flavor that led to a complete takeover in the 1980s.

Since 1985, there had been no American-built car in the race. The Penskes, Lolas and Marches are built in England, the Porsches in Germany and the Alfa Romeos in Italy. Even the Chevrolet engines, which will be in all six cars in the first two rows Sunday, are English-designed and English-made.

The last time an American-built chassis won the 500 was in 1982 when Gordon Johncock drove a Wildcat built by Patrick Racing. The last time one was in the race was 1985 when Dan Gurney’s Eagles were driven by Ed Pimm and Tom Sneva. Pimm finished ninth and Sneva 20th.

Two Eagles were entered in 1986 by Gurney and Mike Curb for Jan Lammers and Johnny Parsons, but neither attempted to qualify. None have even been entered since.

“By most people’s standards, what we’re doing is extremely risky,” said Steve Horne, president and co-owner of the Truesports Racing team and the man responsible for launching the project this year. “A lot of people are skeptical. We’re going against the grain, we’re breaking the mold. On the other hand, we’re convinced that you just can’t gain an edge by buying an off-the-shelf car.”

The Truesports car, on the drawing board since the middle of 1989, was designed by Don Halliday, like Horne a New Zealander. Halliday originally was involved in the design of an Indy car in 1984 for Maurice Kraines’ Kraco team, but the car was never raced.

“Steve (Horne) talked me into coming across from England to have a look at the team and the setup,” Halliday said. “I realized not only how successful they had been, but also the tremendous commitment and enthusiasm.”

The team won the Indianapolis 500 in 1986 and the national championship in 1986 and ‘87, when Bobby Rahal was the driver.

After Rahal left in 1989, Pruett became the Truesports driver. Shortly after the project was under way, Pruett suffered serious injuries in a crash in early 1990, and the new car took on a new concept.

“It was basically designed around me,” Pruett said. “New safety factors were built in after the crash. Everything--from the knuckle clearance for the steering wheel to the location of the shifter--was done with me in mind. You can’t put into words the feeling I got when I first sat in the completed car. It was absolutely awesome.”

Aerodynamics are the lifeblood of the modern racing chassis, but most sophisticated wind tunnels are in England. Horne solved that problem by persuading Ohio State University to reopen and refurbish a U.S. Air Force wind tunnel at Port Columbus--six miles from Truesports’ headquarters.

“We knew we were bucking the odds, but Jim Trueman had always said he wanted to build his own race car, and we’re doing it just the way we think he would have done it,” Horne said. Trueman died of cancer shortly after watching Rahal win the 500 in his car five years ago.

“It is a small car, a very clean car aerodynamically,” Halliday said. “We’ve gone beyond what has been done by other manufacturers and we feel we’ve made this car significantly better than the others to date. Just how much better, we’ll see.”

The car’s problem is not its chassis, but its engine--a hybrid Judd V-8 that started out as a Honda before it was turned over to John Judd of England. Truesports is continuing the development with the idea of creating a newly named Truepower engine.

“Right now, 100% of the development and 50% of the manufacturing are American,” Horne said.

Southland Notes

STOCK CARS--Santa Maria Speedway will hold its 21st annual Little Indy for dirt cars Saturday night. . . . Also Saturday night, at Saugus Speedway and Cajon Speedway, there will be Winston Racing Series sportsman main events. In addition, Saugus will have Grand Am modifieds and a destruction derby. . . . Ventura Raceway will hold a street and mini stock program Friday night.

MIDGETS--A U.S. Auto Club western regional for full midgets and TQs is Saturday night at Ventura Raceway.

SPORTS CARS--The California Sports Car Club will race three days this weekend at Willow Springs Raceway. There will be qualifying Saturday, followed by eight-race programs Sunday for national championship points and Monday for regional points. Also Sunday will be the Toyota Budweiser super production car race. Classes will include Formula Atlantic, Formula Ford, showroom stock, sports racing, GT and super production cars. Racing starts at 10:30 a.m. Sunday and Monday.

SPEEDWAY BIKES--Weekly racing continues tonight at Lake Perris, Friday night at Orange County Raceway in Costa Mesa, Saturday night at Victorville and Wednesday night at Glen Helen Park in San Bernardino.

KARTS--The Southern California Karters will hold the Springnationals Saturday and Sunday at Las Vegas Speedway.