To the most recent generation of IndyCar fans, the words "new track record" mean almost nothing. Tom Carnegie's voice is a relic of a bygone era, from back when the Indianapolis 500 championed innovation (remember, the first 50 or so years of the event featured front-engine roadsters) and the sport hadn't even seen the creation of CART.
But new IndyCar czar Randy Bernard is determined to change that. In an attempt to return the series to the foreground of American motorsports, he's been initiating wholesale changes across the sport, with the advent of a new car for the 2012 season and beyond. Of Arie Luyendyk's Indy 500 qualifying runs in 1996, speed marks that stand to this day, Bernard says, "I want (them) gone."
Now, breaking new speed barriers has been a part of racing from the very beginning, but to top what Luyendyk did that May goes even further. It brings the sport back to what it was in the first place - the fastest closed-circuit racing in the world - and erases yet another lasting memory of the open-wheel "split" that nearly destroyed it in the late 1990s and most of the 2000s. To understand just how much more significant Luyendyk's record is than a simple speed record, you have to know the circumstances under which it was set.
1996 was the first year that the Indianapolis 500 was not run as part of the CART calendar. Indianapolis Motor Speedway president Tony George, determined to bring more Americans and ovals into what had become a States-based Formula 1, formed the Indy Racing League as a rival sanctioning body, and took the sport's crown jewel with him. Fans felt that this first "scrub" 500 would be a joke compared to the show that CART would put on at Michigan on the same day.
The drivers were, for the most part, CART castoffs - defending race polesitter Scott Brayton, 1990 race winner Arie Luyendyk, and ex-F1 pilot Eddie Cheever among them - or young American no-names from a variety of different backgrounds. Save for A.J. Foyt, Dick Simon, and John Menard, most of the owners were no-names as well. The cars were former CART models from between 1992 and 1995, meaning the speeds would stay relatively the same, provided the drivers could handle them.
On Pole Day, Davy Jones started the fun, breaking Roberto Guerrero's 1992 single-lap and four-lap track records by hitting 232 miles per hour. Not long after, Tony Stewart, a hotshot rookie driving for Menard, broke the 233 mph barrier. But Luyendyk had most everybody's number, breaking 234 on a single lap and setting a new four-lap average of 233.390, new records that would give him the pole. He had a history of being fast at the track - he won the fastest 500 ever, in 1990.
Or so it appeared. Brayton, who had already been on the front row, withdrew his locked-in car and requalified with a backup, his four-lap average good for the pole. Luyendyk's single-lap record still stood, until post-qualifying inspection deemed the car underweight, giving both records to Brayton.
Luyendyk's team, furious, responded by sending him out the next day with the fastest car in Speedway history.
The Reynard-Ford was achieving speeds north of 237 miles per hour. All four laps set new track records, the last three breaking the 38-second barrier at the Speedway for the first time. Luyendyk's final four-lap average was 236.985, his best lap 237.498.
Five days later, Brayton died after completing a 228 mile per hour lap. His car spun and slammed the wall in turn two, sliding 600 feet from the point of impact. It was the first death at the track since Jovy Marcelo in 1992, and raised concerns about whether the cars were too fast to be safe. In 1997, according to previously announced plans, the IRL introduced new car specifications, but you'd be hard-pressed to find a person who doesn't think that Brayton's passing didn't contribute to the new formula. The cars were slowed down nearly 20 miles per hour, making the racing much safer - no drivers died in that iteration of IRL chassis - but putting the hope of new track records out of reach. Meanwhile, CART kept at its own pace, eventually crumbling under unstable management and yielding to the Champ Car World Series.
And so it's been ever since. Dallara has done a solid job of producing IndyCar chassis, but with the same 225 mile per hour car on track since 2003, and Honda detuning engines with no manufacturer competition, the sport stumbled through a spec era. But with Bernard in charge and change on the horizon, keep Luyendyk's 1996 track record in mind. It may fall sooner than you think.
-Christopher Leone
Read more from Christopher Leone at Open Wheel America
Photo Credit: Stu Seeger
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