Motor Racing : Al Unser Caught DePalma After Lengthy Chase

Overlooked in the excitement over Al Unser’s joining A.J. Foyt as a four-time winner of the Indianapolis 500 last Sunday was that the speedway’s oldest record--most laps led, 613, by Ralph DePalma--was equaled by Unser.

Unser needed to lead 18 laps to catch DePalma, who last raced at Indy in 1925, and that’s exactly how many he got after passing Roberto Guerrero, whose engine stopped during his final pit stop.

DePalma, who won in 1915 and led until the final turn of the final lap in 1912, when he was caught by Joe Dawson, needed only 10 races to lead his 613 laps. It took Unser 22 races to match that feat.

In some ways, DePalma’s 1912 loss was similar to Sunday’s 500, in which Mario Andretti had a two-lap lead over Unser at one time before his fuel system malfunctioned and Guerrero took over. In the 1912 race, the second at Indianapolis, DePalma was five laps ahead of Dawson when his Mercedes suddenly lost power with only three laps remaining.

DePalma managed to make it around the 2 1/2-mile track twice more before the Mercedes stopped completely at the head of the straightaway on the final lap. DePalma and his riding mechanic leaped out and began to push the big car toward the finish line, but before they got there, Dawson’s National took the checkered flag.

Foyt, who has been in 30 races, seven more than any other driver, is third in laps led with 555.

DePalma died in 1956 at 72, but his widow, Marion, 92, of Laguna Hills, was at Sunday’s race, accompanied by Steven Clark, a Balboa businessman who is planning to produce a movie based on DePalma’s life.

The careers of Foyt and Unser, together at the top of the Indy parade with four wins each, have crisscrossed curiously.

It was Foyt, in 1965, who gave Unser his first ride at Indianapolis in one of the first Lolas to run in the 500. In 1985, the two were co-drivers of the winning car in the 24 Hours of Daytona, and last January, when Foyt debuted his own IMSA Porsche 962 at Daytona, he selected Unser to be one of his drivers. They finished fourth.

The first winner of the Clint Brawner Mechanical Excellence Award for the Indianapolis 500 went to a mechanic whose car didn’t even get into the race.

Little John Buttera, an Orange County car builder who once built drag racers for Mickey Thompson, Don Prudhomme and Tom McEwen, received the award for his effort to put a car powered by a naturally aspirated, stock-block Pontiac into the race.

The car, driven by Sammy Swindell, a World of Outlaws sprint car veteran, was bumped from the field after qualifying at 201.840 m.p.h. Swindell was first alternate but didn’t get into the race.

Buttera, who in 1982 had an Eagle with a Milodon Chevy engine, in a car driven by Dennis Firestone, received $5,000, presented in the name of the mechanic whose cars won 51 Indy car races and six national championships.

Phil Krueger, mechanic-driver for the Raynor Motorsports team, received this year’s Jigger Sirois Award for having the worst luck of anyone connected with the 500.

Krueger prepared an ’87 Lola for Firestone, and the Yorba Linda veteran crashed it in practice. Krueger prepared another one and Firestone crashed it, too. The second crash kept Firestone in the hospital so Krueger decided to repair the car and drive it himself.

He crashed, too, and was unable to make a qualifying attempt.

Johnny Rutherford, three-time 500 winner, and three Southern California racing pioneers honored posthumously--Jack McGrath, Earl Gilmore and Art Sparks--were named to the Auto Racing Hall of Fame.

McGrath drove eight times in the Indy 500, finishing third twice, before he was killed in the final race of 1955 at Phoenix. Gilmore sponsored the winning Indy cars in 1935 for Kelly Petillo and 1937 for Wilbur Shaw and owned Gilmore Stadium, a favorite midget racing track before World War II. Sparks was a car and engine builder who developed Forge True pistons used in many Indianapolis winning cars.

SPRINT CARS--Cars and drivers from an earlier era, including Bud Sennett, Cal Niday, Roy Prosser, Joe Gemsa and Ed Lockhart--all in their 70s--will highlight Saturday night’s California Racing Assn. series at Ascot Park. The 12th annual Antique Car and Old-timers’ Night will also include former Indy 500 winners Sam Hanks, Rodger Ward and Parnelli Jones. Mike Sweeney, who has apparently decided to run the full CRA schedule instead of tackling the World of Outlaws this season, took over the standings lead from defending champion Brad Noffsinger with last week’s win at Ascot. It gave Sweeney 1,539 points to 1,457 for Noffsinger, 363 for Bubby Jones and 1,361 for Walt Kennedy. . . . The California Golden State series for winged sprint cars will be at Santa Maria Saturday night.

STOCK CARS--Open competition modifieds will be competing for a $4,000 winner’s share of the $20,000 purse Saturday night in the Saugus 100 at Saugus Speedway. There will also be a hobby stock main event and a destruction derby. . . . Ascot champion Ron Meyer, who was busy last weekend when he finished third at Saugus and won at Ascot on successive nights, will try to stretch his good fortune in the Curb Motorsports Winston Racing Series feature Sunday night at Ascot Park.

SPEEDWAY BIKES--Round 1 of the U.S. national championship qualifying series will be held Wednesday night at San Bernardino’s Inland Speedway. . . . Doug Nicol, 1985 Rookie of the Year who dropped out of contention last season, will make his 1987 debut tonight at Ascot Park.

OTHER EVENTS--The United States Auto Club’s super-modified series will be at Mesa Marin Raceway in Bakersfield on Saturday night. . . . CMC motocross riders will race Friday night at Ascot Park.

NECROLOGY--Ray Smartis, who oversaw both the construction and the demolition of Ontario Motor Speedway, died of cancer Tuesday in Grass Valley, Calif., where he had moved earlier this year from Rancho Cucamonga. He was 62. Survivors include his wife, Shirley; daughter, Linda McDonald of Ventura; a brother and four grandchildren. Memorial services will be held at an as yet undetermined date in Grass Valley. . . . Services for sprint car driver Roger Newell, 35, who was killed during a heat last Saturday night at Ascot Park, will be held Friday at 1 p.m. at the Inglewood Cemetery-Mortuary, 3801 W. Manchester Blvd., Inglewood. Newell, driver representative on the CRA board and 1984 Rookie of the Year, lived in Torrance. Survivors include his wife, Lisa, and son, Ryan, 2. . . . Bob Vermeer, 53, CRA car owners’ representative, died last week after a long illness. Vermeer, of Chino, owned cars driven by Gary Howard, Tony Simon and Rip Williams.