INDIANAPOLIS 500 / DAILY REPORT : Drivers Playing ‘Let’s Make a Deal’ as They Try to Qualify for the Race

It will take more than a program to keep track of the driver and car changes today when qualifying resumes at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for next Sunday’s 76th Indianapolis 500.

Drivers who have not been mentioned, nor taken laps on the track this month, are cropping up every hour as last-minute deals are struck in hopes of making the 33-car field.

With the last-place car receiving perhaps as much as $150,000, simply being one of the 33 starters can be more profitable than winning any other race on the Indy car circuit.

Last year, for instance, only one winner elsewhere, Rick Mears in the Michigan 500, earned as much as Jeff Wood did for finishing 33rd in the Indy 500. Wood received $162,000. Mears won $173,182 for winning at Michigan.

So the shuffle began in earnest Friday as “new” drivers tested “new” equipment to be ready when time trials resume today. Six berths in the race remain open. After they are filled, bumping will begin--drivers posting a faster time than the slowest qualifier bumping the slower car out.

Three-time winner Johnny Rutherford made his first appearance, driving a Lola-Chevy for Walker Motorsports. Rutherford is hoping to qualify for his 25th 500. He drove only 32 laps, trying to get the car up to speed. His fast lap was 205.841.

Veteran observers say it will take 217 or 218 to make the race.

Other first timers included Dominic Dobson, 220.146; Pancho Carter, 219.577; Mike Groff, 218.755 and Johnny Parsons, 207.934.

Rocky Moran also was named to drive one of the Team Menard Lola-Buicks, but he did not get onto the track in time to take any laps. Parsons was signed by Frank Arciero as a replacement for Fabrizio Barbazza, who shifted to the Euromotorsport Racing team.

Barbazza would have been a Lola-Cosworth teammate of Jovy Marcelo, who was killed during practice Friday.

Philippe Gache, who will start inside in the sixth row, will be the first French driver to run in the 500 since Rene LeBeque and his relief driver, Rene Dreyfus, in 1940.

Alan Mertens of Galmer Engineering was awarded the Louis Schwitzer Award by the Indiana section of the Society of Automotive Engineers for his design of the Galmer 9200 Indy car chassis being driven by Al Unser Jr.