On one hand, great to see this again, but on the other, it makes me so sad to see how far American open wheel racing has fallen. There were at least four different chassis in '92 (I counted Lola, Penske, Galmer, and TrueSports) and three engines (Chevy A/B and Ford-Cosworth). I attended a few CART races at Mid-Ohio, and it was always an entertaining show. You really can't imagine how different it was to watch these cars in person vs. how it looks on TV - it's all much more visceral in person.
Went with my dad that weekend. Great weather. Great racing. We thought PT was going to get pole on Saturday. Just enjoyed the whole experience so much. Back when Mid Ohio was a complete jewel of a circuit. Indy Car racing is getting to be really good again, but so sad that Mid Ohio is just a shell of what it once was. Jim Trueman must be rolling in his grave.
I really miss champcar, My father and I was there, I remember having to camp at the overflow camping at clear fork, and being escorted back to camp by the local sheriff for axing on an dead standing tree across the road, great memories....
heres a conspiracy for y'all fans: given that Nigel announced his retirement from F1 that weekend and that he jumped ship to Indycar the next season ... combined with Senna's test of a Penske Indycar that same off-season and his apparent praise for the Indycars themselves ... one has to wonder if Bernie had anything to do TG announcing his intention to create his own break-away open-wheel series.
@kflfv3 How many teams is that? Ganassi? Penske isn't sponsored by Marlboro anymore. Hell, the number of teams that competed in that race that are still active has got to be small also. I count Penske, Newman-Haas, Ganassi, Coyne, Foyt, and Rahal. And comparing present-day Newman-Haas to 1992 Newman-Haas is a stretch, as is mentioning Rahal there since he has not been active.
Just a couple of years ago you had the REIGNING formula 1 champion coming over to Indycars now you have a Francesco Dracone coming over with absolutely no career highlights while guys like Servia,Junqueira,Tracy and the future of indycars Hilebrand,Edwards,Summertone or Rahal are without full time rides........why oh why!?!?......still I'll watch every race and follow the sport because I'm a fan.
Ayrton Senna made comment when testing with Penske in the Winter of 92 that the Indycar chassis were much more forgiving of driver error than any F1 he had ever driven. He additionally remarked that the car responded nicely to being drifted out of corners, where an F1 car would be notoriously twitchy. Taking these statements into account, its not wonder Michael Andretti struggled in a Formula 1 car. He was accustomed to a car with a completely different attitude. But he was lacking in commitment
@djbadlt like, Bernie lost one major star in Mansell ... i wouldnt blame him for being worried about losing an even bigger star in Senna, maybe im giving him more credit than he deserves, but i wouldnt put it past the troll.
@M1WChamp24 In Andretti's defense, he had decent qualifying performances and not much luck. If he stayed a couple more years, he could have done something special.
@viper2131 There were undistinguished drivers in that field also. There always are. Ted Prappas, Jeff Wood, Brian Till, Mike Groff (although he did lead the IRL points once), Brian Bonner, Hiro Matsushita, John Jones, Dennis Vitolo? Ride-buying was already rampant at this time. The main difference is that the qualified drivers were usually able to get rides, when they aren't now. Of course, Arie Luyendyk didn't even have a full-season '92 ride and wasn't in this race, so maybe not...
One other Mid-Ohio memory - in 2001, I attended the CART race, and it was impossible to ignore the presence of traction control on Penske's Reynard-Hondas (against the rules, but difficult to police). Going through turn one, you could plainly hear the stutter when Castroneves and DeFerran got on the gas. Don't recall hearing it on anyone else.
