LONG BEACH GRAND PRIX : Three Years Later, Things Looking Up : Auto racing: In April of 1991, Tracy was wondering if he had an Indy car future. Now he’s with Penske and back on the pole.

Three years ago, Paul Tracy was a disconsolate 22-year-old sitting on a curb in the paddock at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. The engine had blown in a car his father had leased for Tracy to drive.

“I thought my career was over before it really started,” Tracy recalled. “It had taken all the money my dad could spare to get a car from Dale Coyne for one race, and now my opportunity to show what I could do was gone.

“I was afraid it was time to go home and start working in the construction business. I thought I was out of options as far as racing was concerned.”

Today, Tracy is back in Long Beach, on the pole as defending champion in the 20th Long Beach Grand Prix, one of three drivers on Roger Penske’s powerful Marlboro team who were the fastest qualifiers Saturday.

Tracy’s 108.450-m.p.h. lap earned him his second consecutive pole this season, edging teammates Al Unser Jr. (108.407) and Emerson Fittipaldi (108.308). All broke Nigel Mansell’s year-old record of 108.198. Mansell, in the fastest non-Marlboro car, qualified at 108.173.

So what happened on that April day in 1991?

Penske came riding from the pits on a bicycle and stopped to tell Tracy that he had done a good job under the circumstances. Later, Penske sent word to Tracy to stop by the Marlboro trailer.

“That’s when I really felt bad; I was sure he was sending for me because I’d done something wrong,” Tracy said. “I thought maybe I’d cut off one of his drivers, something like that. My instant reaction was that I was in trouble.”

What Penske, the most successful car owner in Indy car history, wanted was to find out Tracy’s plans.

“When I told him I was talking with a couple of low-budget teams about the (Indy) 500 only, he told me not to do it, that it might do me more harm than good. He said if I would stay away from Indy, he might have something for me. He said to stay home.

“I was home (in Toronto) when he called. He said to come to Indy the day after qualifying. When I got there, he asked me if I was willing to test drive for him and run the 1992 Indy 500 if all went well. He had the test contract already filled out.

“He said he had to have the decision right there. I said, ‘Where’s the pen?’ ”

Penske made an announcement of Tracy’s signing the week after the 500 at Milwaukee. The next day, Tracy was testing at Mid-Ohio.

When Tracy got his first chance in a race, at Michigan, he crashed on the third lap and suffered a broken leg.

“Lying in the hospital turned out to be a learning experience for me. I lost 30 pounds, for one thing. I was out eight weeks and when I came back, I had a better feeling for the whole deal. I had found out that testing, no matter how much you do, is not the same as racing. And I had realized that an Indy car was a whole different thing from what I had driven before.”

Tracy had driven in the American Racing Series, now Indy Lights, for three years, winning the championship in 1990 as well as the race at Long Beach.

“Roger told me he wanted me back in time to race at Nazareth (Pa.). I finished seventh there and then tested all winter for the ’92 season. He told me I should race at Phoenix to get ready for Indy.”

Tracy finished fourth at Phoenix but lasted only half the race at Indy before his engine went out. He didn’t realize it at the time, but an incident occurred at Indianapolis that would accelerate his career.

Rick Mears, a four-time winner of the 500 driving Penske cars, suffered a wrist injury in a crash during practice and although he raced several more times, the wrist did not heal properly. When Mears suddenly retired, Tracy, the test driver, became the No. 2 Penske driver as Fittipaldi’s teammate for 1993.

After an electrical problem at Australia and a crash while leading at Phoenix, Tracy came to Long Beach and scored his first Indy car victory. He gave an indication of what was to come when he started second and accelerated past pole-sitter Mansell down Shoreline Drive to take the lead.

“It took a while for that win to settle in,” Tracy said. “I knew the team was capable, and inside I knew that I was capable, but I also knew that I had made a few mistakes.”

Once he had his first victory, Tracy wasted no time in winning some more. He won at Cleveland, Toronto, Elkhart Lake (Wis.) and Laguna Seca--all on road courses or temporary circuits. He led more laps for the series than anyone else. His five victories equaled the total of series champion Mansell.

Before the 1994 season started, Tracy said he hoped to improve on his finishing record. Although he won five races, he failed to finish in seven others, which left him in third place in the season standings behind Mansell and Fittipaldi.

Tracy’s emergence from near obscurity was a second example of Penske’s eye for hidden talent. He had discovered Mears, who won 29 races for him in 15 seasons, while the two were riding together on a motorcycle tour in Colorado.

This season for Tracy began as a copy of last year’s. Again he failed to finish in Australia because of an electrical problem and again he crashed while leading at Phoenix. This time, however, it was not his fault as he was trapped by an accident involving Hiro Matsushita and Teo Fabi.

“I was about six car lengths behind Hiro when they tangled, and I had no place to go. I had taken my steering wheel off and was about to climb out when all of sudden (Jacques) Villeneuve smashed into Hiro’s car and knocked his gearbox into the tub of my car.”

The car was damaged so badly it could not be repaired, so a new tub was flown from the Penske shops in Poole, England, to Long Beach for today’s race. It arrived Monday and the Penske crew built a complete car before the track opened Friday.

“We had a lot of teething problems, like we always do with a new car, and we didn’t have much time to get it ready,” Tracy said. “We had no time for shakedown laps except for Friday during qualifications. It was a constant struggle all week.

“I was able to take the settings from Al and Emmo’s cars to get mine right. That’s one of the values of a three-car team--being able to share what each other learns. Without their help, we would never have found all our problems in time for Saturday’s qualifying session.”

Now that he has the fastest lap ever run on the nine-turn, 1.59-mile Long Beach street circuit, Tracy said he plans to scale back his speed for today’s 105-lap race.

“With 30 cars on the track, it will become a tactical race.” he said. “We will be lapping cars in the first 20 or 30 laps. It is going to be very competitive. I would like to win it as slowly as possible.”

The Lineup

No. Driver M.P.H. 1. Paul Tracy 108.450* 2. Al Unser Jr. 108.407 3. Emerson Fittipaldi 108.308 4. Nigel Mansell 108.173 5. Robby Gordon 108.004 6. Mario Andretti 106.837 7. Raul Boesel 106.833 8. Mauricio Gugelmin 106.660 9. Michael Andretti 106.614 10. Stefan Johansson 106.480 11. Bobby Rahal 106.445 12. Teo Fabi 106.408 13. Marco Greco 106.408 14. Jacques Villeneuve 106.241 15. Scott Goodyear 106.083 16. Arie Luyendyk 106.014 17. Dominic Dobson 105.791 18. Mark Smith 105.707 19. Adrian Fernandez 105.695 20. Alessandro Zampedri 105.670 21. Scott Sharp 105.471 22. Willy T. Ribbs 105.439 23. Jimmy Vasser 105.421 24. Mike Groff 105.301 25. Davy Jones 105.122 26. Robbie Buhl 104.272 27. Franck Freon 104.085 28. Claude Bourbonnais 104.058 29. Robbie Groff 103.769 30. Buddy Lazier 103.288