I was 10 years old here with my step dad who got me into racing. Glad I got to see IndyCar when it was awesome and legends like Mansell, Fittipaldi, Andretti. I remember hearing about Ayrton Senna testing Emerson's 92' Penske car for a possible move to Indy from Formula 1. I was so excited cuz I thought I'd be able to see him race in person at Long Beach. Had he made the move, he'd likely be alive today.
Happy to say I attended Long Beach during these glory years for CART. Just walking the beach to get to the grandstand at the hairpin made it an unforgettable day
I was 10 in 4th grade. This was also my very first GP. Didn't realize at the time of the legendary lineup of drivers. Also saw GTP in San Diego that year too.
Thanks a bunch for uploading this. This was _the_ race and _the_ year I fell in love with Indycar. Like many others I followed Mansell to it. There was a program made specially in the Uk - it aired once a week and showed highlights. The Huge advertising wall at the tight right-hander and the view through the rear suspension stayed in my memory all these years. So exciting to see it all again.
Would have loved to seen nigel mansell win longbeach. I was surprised to see after surfers paradise, the rest of nigel mansell victories came on the ovals.
He wasn’t really in a state to win this race - he did really well to get the pole. He was having fluid drained from his back twice a day following his Phoenix crash, and had neat anaesthetic injected into his lower back to wipe out the pain. Greg Norman witnessed these procedures on race day - and asked him “Nigel, are you sure you know what you’re doing??” So Nigel was focussed on scoring points, and to finish this race was probably the biggest and bravest thing he did in Indycars.
Can't say I was ever a huge Rahal fan, but to put the car where he did took some luck and guile for sure, because at certain times that TrueSports chassis looks like hot garbage. Despite the bad luck for Penske again, they made some good calls in this race for Tracy to get the result he did. I also wondered when they were going to get around to the pit speed issue. Already in its first implementation drivers were having their race negatively impacted, and crew members were getting hit anyway just like today.
5:09 race start with first yellow flag 10:15 second green flag 49:22 second yellow flag 52:38 third green flag 1:02:48 third yellow flag 1:08:23 fourth green flag 1:27:37 end of the race
Regarding the flat tyres.. no, in this case it had nothing to do with luck. Mansell raced with the best in the tier 1 motor sport and held his own. That was the difference, experience and skill. He learned when to be aggressive and when to be patient racing with guys like Prost, Senna, Schumacher, Berger, Piquet, Patrese e t c. To be honest, it was a bit unfair of him to race in this series. It could only end in one way.
I kinda disagree about patience. He was never a patient driver. He was very fast and didn't win more championships exactly because he couldn't take good care of his car.
All about the car in F1. All the F1 guys who come to Indycar say how much harder an Indycar is to drive vs F1. Back then, maybe not, but in any case, F1 is all about the car, not the driver.