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1997 Indy 200 at Walt Disney World

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United States 1997 Walt Disney World
Race details
3rd round of the 1996–1997 Indy Racing League season
DateJanuary 25, 1997
Official nameIndy 200 at Walt Disney World
LocationWalt Disney World Speedway
CoursePermanent racing facility
1.000 mi / 1.609 km
Distance149 laps
149.000 mi / 239.792 km
Scheduled Distance200 laps
200.000 mi / 321.869 km
WeatherMixture of dry weather and rain; temperatures reaching up to 75.2 °F (24.0 °C) along with wind speeds reaching up to 20 miles per hour (32 km/h)[1]
Pole position
DriverTony Stewart (Team Menard)
Time21.685
Fastest lap
DriverTony Stewart (Team Menard)
Time22.579 (on lap 5 of 149)
Podium
FirstEddie Cheever (Team Cheever)
SecondMike Groff (Byrd-Cunningham Racing)
ThirdScott Goodyear (Treadway Racing)

The 1997 Indy 200 at Walt Disney World was the third round of the 1996–1997 Indy Racing League. The race was held on January 25, 1997, at the 1.000 mi (1.609 km) Walt Disney World Speedway in Bay Lake, Florida, being the first IRL race of the calendar year 1997. It was the first race with the new chassis from Dallara and G-Force, as well as for the 4000 cc naturally aspirated engines supplied by Oldsmobile and Infiniti, and it marked the first time that a major open-wheel series contested a race with brand-new cars and engines. The race was won by Eddie Cheever after being called off on lap 149 of the scheduled 200 due to heavy rain.[2]

Report

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Pre-Race

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The Indy Racing League entered a four-month break between the second and third round, due to the nature of the 1996-97 calendar. This was combined with the addition of rounds at Texas and Pikes Peak that nullified a summer break, and the criticism about the Indianapolis 500 overshadowing the co-championship of Buzz Calkins and Scott Sharp.[3] As the majority of motorsport series and potential sponsors followed a calendar-based approach, all of those reasons led the teams to complain about the split season.[4] On October 9, the IRL announced an expansion of the season beyond the Indianapolis 500, ending at the 1997 Las Vegas 500K, and a switch to a calendar-based format for the 1998 season.[5]

Thus, the schedule for the current season went from five to nine races. This was followed on December 17 by the addition of a tenth round at Charlotte Motor Speedway, to be held on July 26.[6] Team Menard had previously a successful test session at Charlotte on September 25, with Mark Dismore and John Paul Jr., who subbed for the injured Tony Stewart, and a reported fastest lap of 207.61 mph.[7]

The future of Tony Stewart was one of the big stories of the winter gap. Stewart, whose contract with Team Menard was due to end at the Indianapolis 500 due to the original nature of the schedule, had his sights on a NASCAR ride, having missed his Winston Cup debut at Atlanta as a result of the injuries sustained at Las Vegas.[8][9] On September 17, it was announced that Stewart would race full-time in the 1997 NASCAR Winston Cup Series with his Busch Series owner, Harry Ranier.[10] However, the deal fell through a month later, as a mid-October deadline to find enough sponsorship for the full season was not fulfilled.[9][11] Also in October, reports surfaced about open-wheel interests on Stewart from both Team Green and General Motors. Team Green allegedly tried to lure Stewart to its KOOL-backed CART operation for 1997,[11] while General Motors reportedly wanted to get Stewart back from Ford by establishing an IRL full-time operation with Hendrick Motorsports centered around him, combined with a partial Busch Series schedule. However, Hendrick denied this information,[9] and both negotiations were reported to have collapsed weeks later.[12][13]

From September 30 to October 4, USAC conducted driver tests with the PDM Racing 'mule' car over five days. A total of 7 drivers passed their test, although only three of them would take part in an IRL race: Robbie Groff, with two IndyCar races under his belt, USAC Silver Crown champion Jack Hewitt and ARCA champion and World of Outlaws race-winner Andy Hillenburg. They were joined by Formula Atlantic champion Chris Smith, supermodified driver Mike Muldoon and Silver Crown veterans Cary Faas and Jim Keeker.[14] IMSA regular Tom Hessert also passed his test on a conditional basis, and Butch Brickell only passed two phases, having recovered from the injuries sustained at Walt Disney World Speedway earlier in the year.[15] On October 6, John Paul Jr. won at the 3 Hours of Daytona, the last round of the IMSA GT season, with a handful of other IRL regulars in competition.

Despite reports that the introduction of the new chassis and engine formula could be postponed, testing went ahead as scheduled.[16] The G-Force chassis and the Oldsmobile engine made their debut at Phoenix on November 13–15 with Treadway Racing, as Arie Luyendyk run 175 laps with a best lap in the 162 mph range.[17][18] Dallara did so on November 25–26 at Walt Disney World with Team Scandia and Eliseo Salazar, who completed 203 laps with a best lap of 157 mph.[19][20] However, by the time of the open test at Walt Disney World on December 10–13, Oldsmobile's engine production had been scarce, and Infiniti was not ready yet to supply theirs.[21] The test was only conducted by Arie Luyendyk, Tony Stewart and Scott Sharp, with Luyendyk setting a fastest lap of 166.898 mph.[22] This was the first on-track activity overseen by the new IRL executive director and vice president Leo Mehl, the former general manager for Goodyear.[23]

On December 17, the litigation between the IRL and CART over the use of the "IndyCar" trademark, as well as the one filled by A. J. Foyt for anti-competitive practices, ended in an out-of-court settlement "without any acknowledgment of fault or liability by any party". As part of the settlement, CART agreed to end its licensing agreement with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and to cease use of the term "IndyCar" for their series, and the IRL would also be barred from using the IndyCar brand until 2003.[24] That same day, Joie Chitwood Jr. announced the new Chitwood Motorsports team, with veteran Danny Ongais as a driver,[25] and Treadway Racing followed suit by announcing Scott Goodyear as a driver for their second car, after the two-time Indy 500 runner-up had only run partial schedules in IndyCar for two years.[26] When open testing resumed at Walt Disney World Speedway from December 16–22, Goodyear led the proceedings with a 168.145 mph lap. Stewart, Salazar, Eddie Cheever, John Paul Jr. and Buzz Calkins also took part, while Galles Racing and Davy Jones elected to do so at Phoenix International Raceway.[27]

Testing at Orlando continued throughout the first weeks of January, with 10 drivers taking part, among them Fermín Vélez with Team Scandia. Tony Stewart put a best lap just south of the 170 mph mark (169.795 mph),[28] and Mike Groff debuted the Infiniti engine, getting it close to 160 mph in his best effort.[29] They were joined by Buddy Lazier, who got to do some system-check laps with the Infiniti,[30] and Dr. Jack Miller, a veteran Indy Lights competitor who passed his rookie test in the PDM Racing 'mule' car. Miller, known as 'The Racing Dentist' for his full-time job, had arranged a deal with the Arizona Motorsports rental crew to race in 1997.[31] On January 11, Eliseo Salazar lost control of his car after an engine failure and crashed in Turn 1, suffering a compression fracture in his lower back.[31] Salazar, injured at Orlando for the second year in a row, was ruled out of action "at least until the beginning of May".[29] On January 16, both Jeret Schroeder, a U.S. F2000 champion and top-5 contender in the Atlantic Championship, and Jim Guthrie were confirmed by McCormack Motorsports and Blueprint Racing, respectively.[32][33] The Riley & Scott chassis was absent at all from winter testing, being projected to debut at the Texas 500. The project had been commissioned by Kelley Automotive Group,[34] whose initial plans were to resell the cars at a later date.[35]

Practice and qualifying

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Further testing was conducted on the week of the race with 11 drivers, among them Roberto Guerrero and Marco Greco, designated by Team Scandia as Salazar's replacement.[36] Tony Stewart logged the fastest lap at 165.975 mph, with Buddy Lazier in close pursuit in his Infiniti-powered car.[37] The entry list was unveiled on January 21 with 22 car/driver combinations, but only 19 materialized after Mark Dismore, Robbie Buhl and Sam Schmidt were withdrawn due to the widespread parts shortage. Neither of them had been unable to test all winter, as well as Davey Hamilton, although he remained in competition.[32] The field of announced competitors was joined by Stéphan Grégoire driving for a new team, Chastain Motorsports.[38] On Thursday, Stan Wattles announced plans to become a driver-owner, reforming the Metro Racing System team from his Atlantic Championship stint. The deadline was set for a late 1997 start at the earliest, in anticipation of a full-season effort in 1998.

Thursday practice was dominated by Tony Stewart, who led with a 167.715 mph lap in the morning session[39] and a 165.738 mph lap in the afternoon, with Buzz Calkins and Buddy Lazier trailing him.[40] One hour into the morning session, Davy Jones was second fastest in front of Scott Goodyear when he lost control going into Turn 3 at 11.45 a.m. His car crashed rear first into the concrete wall, skidded across the track and pounded the inside wall. Jones was extricated and airlifted to Orlando Regional Medical Center in critical condition,[41] although he was upgraded to serious a few hours later.[42] He suffered a closed head injury, as well as injuries in his neck's ligaments.[43] A lengthy and successful recovery would follow for Jones, who would not race again until the 1999 12 Hours of Sebring. On Friday morning, Galles Racing announced Jeff Ward as their replacement driver for the weekend. A former motocross champion and Indy Lights regular, Ward had not driven an Indy car since failing to qualify for the 1995 Indianapolis 500, and had not started an Indy car race.[44]

Tony Stewart completed his practice sweep by leading Friday's morning session with a 167.046 mph over Scott Sharp and Eddie Cheever,[45] and confirmed his dominance on qualifying, scoring his first pole position in IRL competition with a best lap of 166.013 mph.[46] As expected, lap times were significantly slower than the previous year, with a 1.8 second, 15 mph drop between Buddy Lazier's pole from 1996 (181.388 mph) and Stewart's. His pole margin, however, was significantly smaller compared to practice, where he averaged a 3 mph advantage. Three other drivers went below the 22 second mark, with Arie Luyendyk being the closest to Stewart at 164.964 mph. Buzz Calkins, who started his qualifying attempt at the 11th hour due to fuel pressure issues, ended up third, on what would be the best qualifying effort of his IRL career, in front of Scott Sharp, Eddie Cheever and early favourite Scott Goodyear. Jeff Ward put his new ride in a solid 8th place, while the Infiniti drivers lagged behind: Lazier managed to qualify 11th after overcoming a gearbox failure in the morning, and points leader Mike Groff was only faster than Jeret Schroeder and Danny Ongais, who had no testing mileage whatsoever.[44]

There were only 16 qualifiers, as three drivers had not had enough running to make an attempt: Roberto Guerrero had been sitting idle since suffering an oil system problem in his only test with the Infiniti engine on Wednesday, as a spare engine was not ready in time,[44] while Jack Miller (11 laps, best lap at 84 mph) and Stéphan Grégoire (7 laps, 125 mph) had not run a single lap at speed.[45] Guerrero and Miller were allowed to start the race at the back of the field, but Grégoire was required to take part in the systems-check practice scheduled for Guerrero on raceday.[44] Despite picking up a fuel problem, he got permission from USAC to start the race, where he parked the car after just two laps. Fermín Vélez, who qualified in a career-best 10th place, also participated in the systems check after losing an engine on Friday afternoon practice, replacing it for an "Oldsmobile development engine".[47]

Key Meaning
R Rookie
W Past winner
Pos No. Name Lap 1 Lap 2 Best (in mph)
1 2 United States Tony Stewart 21.760 21.685 166.013
2 5 Netherlands Arie Luyendyk 21.888 21.823 164.964
3 12 United States Buzz Calkins W 22.037 21.945 164.046
4 1 United States Scott Sharp 22.011 21.980 163.785
5 51 United States Eddie Cheever 22.070 22.012 163.547
6 6 Canada Scott Goodyear 22.218 22.041 163.332
7 14 United States Davey Hamilton 22.048 22.172 163.280
8 4 United States Jeff Ward R 22.132 22.317 162.660
9 27 United States Jim Guthrie R 22.185 22.190 162.272
10 33 Spain Fermín Vélez R 22.379 22.272 161.638
11 91 United States Buddy Lazier 22.418 22.313 161.341
12 22 Brazil Marco Greco 22.671 22.470 160.214
13 18 United States John Paul Jr. 22.563 22.585 159.553
14 10 United States Mike Groff 22.591 22.790 159.355
15 30 United States Jeret Schroeder R 23.247 23.565 154.859
16 17 United States Danny Ongais 23.834 23.765 151.483
17 21 Colombia Roberto Guerrero1 Didn't qualify No speed
18 40 United States Jack Miller2 R Didn't qualify No speed
19 77 France Stéphan Grégoire2 Didn't qualify No speed
  1. ^ His engine had an oil system problem, and a spare was not ready on time. He was allowed to start the race at the back of the field.
  2. ^ Elected not to qualify. He was allowed to start the race at the back of the field.

Failed to qualify or withdrew

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Race

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Rain fell in the early hours of the day, although the track had been dried 90 minutes before the start of the race. In a cool and cloudy Saturday morning, polesitter Tony Stewart ran away from the start, as his competitors couldn't match his pace. Jeff Ward had a great start and placed 5th in the order, while Eddie Cheever went the opposite way by losing two additional spots to Scott Goodyear and a fast-starting Buddy Lazier. Buzz Calkins pressured Arie Luyendyk for second place and eventually passed him on Lap 15, pulling away shortly after. In fourth place, Scott Sharp lacked some pace, and started developing a loose condition around Lap 30. One of his corrections on Lap 32 made Ward lose the three spots he had gained, as he veered out to avoid an incident, and Stewart reached that group of cars by Lap 37, his lead having increased to 15 seconds. Sharp eventually started to drop back and had to do his first pit stop on Lap 45, much earlier than intended.[47]

Around Lap 40, smoking was consistently reported out of Calkins' car while braking for Turn 1. Vapor chemtrails coming from the rear wings as a result of the high humidity also caused some confusing reports of smoking for other drivers, among them Stewart.[48] His first pit stop on Lap 65 was a slow one, preventing him from putting a lap on Calkins and Luyendyk. Jeff Ward had gearbox problems on his pit stop and slowed on track shortly after, having to retire from the race. After the first round of stops, Cheever was up to fourth place, having passed Scott Goodyear on track on Lap 50 and Buddy Lazier in the pit stop window. Running a race of his own, Stewart got around Luyendyk on Lap 79. Three laps later, Buzz Calkins, who was bound to have the same fate, slowed on track after turning off a switch in his car by accident, trying to nurse his engine problems. He got back up to speed shortly after that mistake, in third place.

Running six laps down in 13th place and leading a pack of lapped cars, rookie Jeret Schroeder spun on his own on the exit of Turn 1 and crashed into the wall. The trail of cars that followed him slowed suddenly, and Arie Luyendyk lost control trying to avoid them, crashing into the inside wall. Both incidents happened at reduced speeds, but the damage took both drivers out of the race, and caused a race-changing caution.[47] With rain looming in the background as a strong possibility, and the race being past the halfway point, most of the drivers chose to pit earlier than intended, hoping that rain appeared before Lap 170, with the exception of race leader Tony Stewart, Marco Greco and Jim Guthrie, who stuck to their two-stop strategy. Scott Sharp had just pitted before the yellow, and took the restart ahead of Scott Goodyear and Buddy Lazier, who passed the Canadian a few laps later, although Sharp would eventually lose both places within 30 laps.

After his second green-flag pit stop on Lap 130, Stewart rejoined the track some 20 seconds behind Buzz Calkins, and cautiously let Eddie Cheever take second place while running on cold tires, before passing him again on Lap 143. Stewart was trying to make up a 10-second gap with the leader when, two laps later, Calkins slowed on track with a blown engine. That gave the lead back to Stewart, only for him to spun a few seconds later in Turn 3, damaging his rear wing and puncturing his right rear tire against the outside wall. It was thought that the spin had been caused by Stewart running into some debris from Calkins' blown engine, but he later clarified that he had suffered an oil leak, which led to his crash. Both drivers retired from the race while the caution was out, with Eddie Cheever as the new race leader, and heavy rain started falling on the track less than five minutes after their incidents.[47]

IRL officials brought out the red flag on Lap 149, and the race was eventually called with 51 laps to go, with Eddie Cheever being proclamed as the winner despite not leading a lap under green flag conditions. Cheever finally got his first win on any series since the 1988 1000 km of Fuji, his first win in an open-wheel car since the 1979 Formula 2 race at Zandvoort, and the first major open-wheel victory of his career, having scored 9 podiums without a win in his ten-year F1 tenure, and another four in CART since 1990. This was also the first win for a driver-owner since A. J. Foyt at the 1981 Pocono 500.

During the caution, Buddy Lazier, Scott Goodyear and Scott Sharp made a pit stop, but Mike Groff, who had run in ninth place for most of the day, didn't follow suit, gaining three places on all of them for what would be the best finish of his career in second place, extending his championship lead to 10 points over Buzz Calkins. Also, Lazier's pit stop was significantly slower, dropping down to fifth place behind Goodyear and Sharp. Marco Greco finished in the top 10 finish for the third race in a row with his two stop strategy, which also propelled Jim Guthrie into his best result at that moment in sixth position in front of the unsung Davey Hamilton. Spaniard Fermín Vélez was the last running car in ninth place, in another career-best showing. Despite being credited with a 10th-place finish, Tony Stewart failed to see the checkered flag for the fifth IRL race in a row, having only finished a race in his first start at Orlando the previous year.

Box Score

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Pos No. Driver Team Laps Time/Retired Grid Laps
Led		 Points
1 51 United States Eddie Cheever Team Cheever 149 1:06:43.145 5 4 35
2 10 United States Mike Groff Byrd-Cunningham Racing 149 + 51.278 sec 14 0 33
3 6 Canada Scott Goodyear Treadway Racing 149 + 54.803 sec 6 0 32
4 1 United States Scott Sharp A. J. Foyt Enterprises 149 + 55.506 sec 4 0 31
5 91 United States Buddy Lazier Hemelgarn Racing 149 + 56.162 sec 11 0 30
6 27 United States Jim Guthrie R Blueprint Racing 148 + 1 lap 9 0 29
7 14 United States Davey Hamilton A. J. Foyt Enterprises 148 + 1 lap 7 0 28
8 22 Brazil Marco Greco Team Scandia 147 + 2 laps 12 0 27
9 33 Spain Fermín Vélez R Team Scandia 147 + 2 laps 10 0 26
10 2 United States Tony Stewart Team Menard 146 Accident 1 131 28
11 12 United States Buzz Calkins W Bradley Motorsports 144 Engine 3 14 24
12 5 Netherlands Arie Luyendyk Treadway Racing 97 Accident 2 0 23
13 17 United States Danny Ongais Chitwood Motorsports 94 Suspension 16 0 22
14 30 United States Jeret Schroeder R    McCormack Motorsports 93 Accident 15 0 21
15 40 United States Jack Miller R Arizona Motorsport 85 Suspension 18 0 20
16 4 United States Jeff Ward R Galles Racing 63 Gearbox 8 0 19
17 21 Colombia Roberto Guerrero Pagan Racing 56 Fuel Pump 17 0 18
18 18 United States John Paul Jr. PDM Racing 46 Oil Pump 13 0 17
19 77 France Stéphan Grégoire Chastain Motorsports 2 Fuel Pump 19 0 16

Race Statistics

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  • Lead changes: 3 among 3 drivers

Standings after the race

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Drivers' Championship standings
Pos Driver Points
1 United States Mike Groff 96
2 United States Buzz Calkins 86
3 United States Scott Sharp 85
4 United States Davey Hamilton 82
5 Brazil Marco Greco 81
  • Note: Only the top five positions are included for the standings.

References

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  1. ^ "1997 Indy 200 at Walt Disney World weather information". Old Farmers' Almanac. Retrieved October 26, 2013.
  2. ^ Siano, Joseph (January 26, 1997). "Lucky Victory Is Sweet To Star-Crossed Cheever". New York Times. Retrieved July 2, 2009.
  3. ^ "News from the IRL - IRL starts new season". IndyCar Magazine. June 27, 1996. Archived from the original on November 6, 1996. Retrieved April 2, 2018.
  4. ^ "IRL season will go with the normal calendar year". The Auto Channel. October 22, 1996. Retrieved April 2, 2018.
  5. ^ "IRL: Seasons to change to calendar years". Motorsport.com. October 9, 1996. Archived from the original on January 21, 2018. Retrieved April 2, 2018.
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  46. ^ "WDW Starting Grid". Motorsport.com. January 23, 1997. Archived from the original on April 2, 2018. Retrieved April 2, 2018.
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  48. ^ "IRL: WDW report". Motorsport.com. January 25, 1997. Archived from the original on April 3, 2018. Retrieved April 2, 2018.
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1997 Phoenix 200
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