Long Wait Is More Than Worth It for Johnny Unser

By SHAV GLICK

May 18, 1998 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

INDIANAPOLIS —

For Johnny Unser, Sunday was the longest day of his life, spent staring at a TV monitor in his motorhome for six hours, watching every lap taken by every car on Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

“It was like they were shooting bullets at me,” he said. “I guess I must have been wearing my bulletproof vest.”

Unser, whose disappointing Saturday qualifying speed of 216.316 mph was the slowest left in the 33-car Indianapolis 500 field when the 6 p.m. gun sounded, said he was full of doubts all day that he would survive the bumping.

When rookie Jimmy Kite filled the field for Sunday’s 82nd Indianapolis 500, there was an hour left for those still on the outside to make an attempt at bumping the slower cars from the lineup.

Billy Roe was the driver on the bubble as tension mounted along pit row.

One after another, first Lyn St. James, then Claude Bourbonnais, Joe Gosek, Hideshi Matsuda and Danny Drinan tried and failed to better Roe’s 215.781 mph speed.

Mike Groff, the veteran from Pasadena, dropped Roe from the field with a nervous 216.704. Then it was Eliseo Salazar, who had qualified earlier in the day, sweating out a 216.259.

Again, one by one, first Paul Durant, then Gosek again took shots and came up short. Roe climbed in the Royal Purple’s backup car and bumped his way back into the field, sidelining Salazar.

This put Unser on the hot seat with nearly a half hour left.

Bourbonnais tried again, then Drinan, then St. James for her third and final attempt. As the clock crept toward 6, Salazar went out in a borrowed car and couldn’t better 211.

The only one left in line was Matsuda, who was seconds away from making another attempt when the gun sounded.

Unser let out a sigh of relief. The phone rang. It was his cousin, Little Al, calling to congratulate him.

“Al said he was on the edge of his chair, watching on TV,” said Johnny Unser. “He said it made him sick to his stomach, that he didn’t want to go through anything like that again. Neither do I. I’ve never seen my watch go so slow.

“It means so much more to me because of what it means to be an Unser at Indianapolis. This race took my dad’s life. I can’t put it into words what it means to our family to be here and make the race.”

Johnny’s father, Jerry, was the first Unser here. He drove in the 1958 race, but was involved in a eight-car crash at the start and failed to complete a lap. He was killed the next year while practicing for the 500.

On Saturday, Johnny Unser failed to complete his first qualifying when he ran out of fuel on the fourth lap.

“That was so embarrassing. What was worse was that we were running 217.5 and couldn’t seem to get close to that when he went out a second time. I didn’t think 216.3 would survive, but Ron [car owner Hemelgarn] makes the call and he decided to take it. That was eating on me all day today. I just didn’t think it was enough.

“I think maybe because this race is so special. It means everything to me, it’s on my mind all year long. Maybe an Unser angel was looking over me. I know two [real life] Unsers were. Just before I went out, I had Little Al sitting on one wishbone and Al Sr. sitting on the other one. That’s six Indy 500s sitting on my car. That had to help me.”

Long before the drama of the bumping, and the waiting to be bumped, the heavy hitters left unqualified in Saturday’s time trials had made their way into the race.

Defending 500 champion Arie Luyendyk averaged 218.935 mph, faster than his 218.263 pole winning speed last year, but it only got him a spot on the inside of row 10.

“I was real nervous last night because I thought about [Roger] Penske winning in ’94 [with Al Unser Jr.] and then not qualifying at all in ‘95,” car owner Fred Treadway said. “We had a new car, but Arie couldn’t get comfortable in it. We couldn’t get the seat right.

“We finally decided to go with our old car, the one Arie drove here last year. It’s the first IRL chassis produced by G Force. It’s No. 001.”

Former motocross champion Jeff Ward, last year’s rookie of the year, qualified at 219.086 mph, but it was not the fastest of the second day qualifiers. That honor went to rookie Jimmy Kite, who came back after crashing three times during the week to run an impressive 219.290.

“The team never gave up,” said Kite. “Every time I hit the wall, I got back up and the team backed me up. It’s been a roller coaster every day.”

The 33-car field averages 218.305 mph, 6.019 mph faster than last year’s 35-car field, the first under IRL’s new chassis and engine regulations. There are 19 Dallaras, 13 G Force and one Riley & Scott chassis. The engine count is more one-sided, 32 Olds Auroras and a single Nissan Infiniti, in Jack Miller’s car.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

INDIANAPOLIS 500 LINEUP

The lineup for the May 24 Indianapolis 500, with driver, car number, chassis-engine and four-lap average qualification speed around the 2 1/2-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway track in mph (w-former winner; r-rookie):

ROW 1

1. Billy Boat (11), Dallara-Aurora: 223.503

2. Greg Ray (97) Dallara-Aurora: 221.125

3. Kenny Brack (14) Dallara-Aurora: 220.982

ROW 2

4. Tony Stewart (1), Dallara-Aurora: 220.386

5. Robbie Buhl (3), Dallara-Aurora: 220.236

6. Sam Schmidt (99), Dallara-Aurora: 219.982

ROW 3

7. Scott Sharp (8), Dallara-Aurora: 219.910

8. Davey Hamilton (6), G Force-Aurora: 219.748

9. Roberto Guerrero (21), Dallara-Aurora: 218.900