Among the many delights at this weekend’s 19th Goodwood Festival of Speed will be the sights and sounds of 33 Indycars running up the hill. Some of the cars will be driven by retired stars like three-time Indy 500 winners Bobby Unser and Johnny Rutherford, two-time winner Emerson Fittipaldi and one-time winners Danny Sullivan and Arie Luyendyk. Lord March has had his excellent team of people recreate a slice of the original ‘Gasoline Alley’ garages where the Indycars will be displayed over the weekend.

Which gives me an excuse to write a few words about a great Indy 500 racer from the 1930s who few people today know much about. His name was Billy Arnold and he was a true American superstar in the early ’30s, winning the 500 in dominant style in 1930 and starring as himself in a 1931 Hollywood movie, The Crowd Roars, with Jimmy Cagney. Arnold clearly was the man to beat at Indianapolis in 1930-32 leading more than 400 laps in those three events.

Billy Arnold and riding mechanic Spider Matlock at Indy in 1930

Arnold made his first Indy start in 1928, finishing seventh, and was eighth the following year. In 1930 he got his big break when Harry Hartz chose him to be his relief driver. Hartz had won the 1926 AAA Indycar championship and compiled a formidable record at Indianapolis. He finished second in the 500 in 1922, his rookie start, and was second again in ‘23 and ‘26. Hartz also qualified on the front row in five successive 500s (1922-26) and finished fourth in 1924-25. But he suffered serious leg injuries in an accident at the Salem, New Hampshire board track in 1927 and was out of action for a couple of years.

Hartz tried a comeback in 1930 with a new front-drive Summer-Miller he had commissioned. But after attempting some fast laps which would have got him onto the front row, he decided he wasn’t up to the job. He handed his car over to Arnold who had run some practice laps and was ready to go. Sure enough, Arnold qualified on pole and after ceding the lead at the start to Louis Meyer he passed Meyer on lap three and ran away with the race, leading the rest of the way to win by more than seven minutes – five or six laps.

Arnold was the man to beat again in 1931 but he had to start 18th after he was disqualified from his first, pole-winning qualifying run, then turned the fastest four qualifying laps on the second day. But in only seven laps Arnold was through to the lead and again ran off on his own, only to crash on lap 162 while enjoying a five-lap lead. The following year he qualified second for the 500, took the lead on lap two and took off on his own again before crashing on lap 60 while trying to avoid another car.

Arnold after winning the 1930 race in Hartz’s Summer-Miller

The previous winter Arnold had got married and his new bride pleaded with him to retire, which he did, becoming a field man for the Chrysler Corporation and serving in the UK with the US military during WWII. At the height of his fame Arnold starred with in The Crowd Roars. He played himself opposite Cagney who played Joe Geer in one of Hollywood’s most successful racing movies from the early days of ‘The Talkies’.

Without doubt Arnold’s record of laps led at Indianapolis is pretty amazing. In the three 500s from 1930-32 he led 410 of the 421 laps he completed, a remarkable 97.4 per cent. That’s better than either Ralph de Palma’s powerful record from 1912-21 or Bill Vukovich’s period of dominance from 1952-55 or Parnelli Jones through the mid-’60s. Arnold passed away in 1976, aged 70.

Photos courtesy of Indianapolis Motor Speedway

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This week I’m joined not only by Rob Widdows, but also Motor Sport’s editor Damien Smith. Not surprising really when there was such a dramatic Monaco Grand Prix and Indianapolis 500.

As always – let us know your thoughts and do post a question for next week’s show below.

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This year’s 100th anniversary Indianapolis 500 turned into one of the most exciting races anyone has seen at the historic track. The outcome was impossible to predict through the closing laps as the field shuffled itself while fuel strategies played out. For a while it looked like Dario Franchitti and Chip Ganassi’s team had played their cards perfectly, with the Scot stopping for fuel under a late yellow and then moving towards the front as the leaders peeled in for their stops.

But then Franchitti started running low on fuel, and instead of assuming the lead had to make another visit to the pits. That left rookie JR Hildebrand to lead the chase and he looked set to score a surprising win before it all went wrong as he lapped Charlie Kimball’s car into Turn 4 on the final lap.

“Knowing that the cars in second and third were coming [on] pretty strong I decided that rather than downshifting to risk slowing the car down coming onto the front straight,” said Hildebrand. “It was a move I had used earlier in the race to get around some slower cars but I guess with the tyres worn there were a bunch of marbles on the outside. Once I got up there, there wasn’t a lot I could do.”

In a flash Hildebrand was in the wall (below), and as his car skated toward the start/finish line Dan Wheldon shot past to lead the race’s final few hundred yards. It was the first time Wheldon had led all day but it was the right time to be in front as he scored his second Indy 500 victory, crossing the line two seconds ahead of Hildebrand’s churning wreck.

Wheldon first won at Indianapolis in 2005 when he was driving for Michael Andretti’s team. This year the Briton found himself without a ride but was hired a few months ago by Bryan Herta to drive his car on a one-off basis at Indy. Wheldon may not be the world’s greatest road racer but he’s an ace on ovals, finishing second at the track the past two years. He qualified on the outside of row two for this year’s 500 and was in the hunt all the way, running third or fourth for most of the distance in company with poleman Alex Tagliani, Chip Ganassi team-mates Franchitti and Scott Dixon, and Oriol Servia in Newman/Haas’s lead entry.

In the closing stages Wheldon and Herta’s team, led by veteran engineer Steve Newey, played their fuel strategy perfectly. As the 200 laps ran out Wheldon was in second place, closing fast on Hildebrand, and when he crashed Wheldon was perfectly placed to score a popular victory for a small team with only one race in its schedule this year.

“With 20 laps to go they said on the radio, ‘You’re one of the guys that can make it to the end, but you’ve got to make sure you get everything out of the car that you possibly can’,” explained Wheldon. “So I said to myself I’m going to move the weight jacker every lap to optimise every corner and adjust the rollbars to maximise everything. I was able to catch traffic without having to lift and I started pressing the overtake button. On the last lap I was trying to deal with some lapped cars in turns three and four and in the corner of my eye I saw JR hit the fence. I just carried on by and at that point I knew it was mine.”

Dan Wheldon cools down with the traditional quart of milk after his Indy win

A great win for Wheldon then, and a jump-start surely for his stalled career. Former driver Herta says his plan is to concentrate on putting together a full season for Wheldon in 2012 rather than trying to add some races this year.

As Wheldon took the flag Hildebrand scraped home in second followed by Graham Rahal, Tony Kanaan and Dixon, while a deeply disappointed Franchitti was 12th, the last driver to complete the full race distance. Team Penske’s three cars were surprisingly uncompetitive with Will Power and Hélio Castroneves finishing a lap down in 14th and 17th and Ryan Briscoe eliminated in a collision with Townsend Bell.

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Alex Tagliani has qualified on pole for Sunday’s 95th Indianapolis 500. The Canadian narrowly beat 2008 Indy winner Scott Dixon to the top slot, averaging 227.472mph. The 38-year-old has been racing Indy-type cars for 11 years and started his own team, FAZZT Racing, in 2009. Tagliani sold the team in March to Sam Schmidt, a former driver who is running three cars in this year’s 500. Focusing on driving this year, Tagliani set the pace in last week’s rain-shortened practice at Indianapolis before taking pole on Saturday.

Alex Tagliani celebrates his Indy 500 pole

A Quebec native, Tagliani raced Formula Atlantics for three years before graduating to CART in 2000 with Jerry Forsythe’s Player’s team. He joined Paul Gentilozzi’s Rocketsports team in ’03, before scoring his first and only Champ Car victory at Elkhart Lake the following season. He drove for Derrick Walker’s Team Australia in 2005-06 before rejoining Rocketsports in ’07 and then racing stock cars in Canada in ‘08. The following year Tagliani ran a half season in the IRL before starting his own team.

A pair of Brits, Rob Edwards and Allan McDonald, runs Schmidt’s team. Team manager Edwards worked for Walker for many years while chief engineer McDonald most recently worked for Michael Andretti’s team. “I’m really thankful for the amount of work this crew has put in,” said Tagliani. “I’m going to pinch myself tonight. It’s a team effort, good sponsorship and an amazing crew that believes in the team and me. I’m really happy for Sam. He deserves it. He’s a great leader and hopefully there’s more results like this to come.”

Both Dixon and Dario Franchitti in Chip Ganassi’s cars ran out of fuel on their four-lap qualifying runs. Dixon hit trouble coming off Turn 4 on his last lap but was able to qualify second. “It’s frustrating,” he said. “I think it would have been damn close. But the car’s strong and hopefully we can have a clean day next weekend and maybe get another Borg-Warner Trophy.”

Franchitti looked like challenging Tagliani for pole but ran out of fuel going into his fourth and last qualifying lap. The Scot will start the 500 from ninth place. “The car was quite good and we were looking good,” he said. “I could see more rpm and speed coming out of Turn 2 and the balance was getting better, but it just ran out starting the last lap. It bobbled a bit before the yard of bricks and then it went completely going into Turn 1. Even the best team in the business make mistakes sometimes.”

Oriol Servia did an excellent job to qualify on the outside of the front row in Newman/Haas Racing’s lead car. Championship leader Will Power qualified in the middle of row two between Townsend Bell and 2005 Indy winner Dan Wheldon. Power’s Penske team-mates Hélio Castroneves and Ryan Briscoe both qualified poorly. Three-time winner Castroneves will start from 16th on the grid and Briscoe in 27th. This is the first time since 2004 that Penske has not had a car on the front row.

In even more trouble was Michael Andretti’s team. Michael’s cousin John was the team’s best qualifier among its five entries, in 17th, while Long Beach winner Mike Conway and Ryan Hunter-Reay failed to make the field. Hunter-Reay was bumped at the last moment by team-mate Marco Andretti.

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The first triple winner of the Indianapolis 500 was Louis Meyer, who won the great race in 1928, ‘33 and ‘36. In fact, he started a dozen 500s between 1928-39. Raised in Los Angeles, Meyer first went to Indianapolis in 1926 as a mechanic for Miller driver Frank Elliott. The following year Elliott entered Meyer in a spare car but it was sold during the month of May and a local driver, Wilbur Shaw, made his rookie start in it instead. Meyer continued as the car’s mechanic and drove relief for Shaw near the end of the race, finishing fourth.

Louis Meyer in the winners cricle (1936)

In 1928 Meyer made his formal rookie start at Indy driving one of eight factory Millers. He qualified 13th and drove a fast, steady race. Running third in the closing stages Meyer suddenly found himself in the lead with 18 laps to go after Tony Gulotta’s Miller and Jimmy Gleason’s Duesenberg hit trouble. He won by half a lap from another rookie, Lou Moore.

Wilbur Shaw after winning Indy in 1940

The following year Meyer looked like winning again until he stalled his engine during his final pitstop, losing seven minutes before he could restart and finishing fourth. In 1930 he qualified second and again finished fourth, then won for a second time in 1933, beating Shaw and Moore. Meyer’s third win came in 1936 after a difficult month with a series of engine problems. He didn’t qualify until the final day and started 28th, but after leader Shaw ran into trouble with loose bodywork Meyer was able to score a convincing victory over Ted Horn. In his last 500 Meyer was running second with two laps to go when he hit the wall trying to catch winner Shaw.

After World War II Meyer and Dale Drake bought Fred Offenhauser’s engine-building operation. Kelly Petillo had scored the first 500 victory for an Offenhauser-powered car in 1935 after Fred Offenhauser took over Harry Miller’s bankrupt business, and Meyer-Drake Engineering continued to build the venerable Miller-based four-cylinder for over a third of a century. The Offy dominated AAA and USAC championship racing through the 1950s and into the ’60s, and enjoyed a second life in turbocharged form through the ’70s. Meyer died in 1995 at the ripe old age of 91.

Wilbur Shaw in 1939

The second man to win three Indy 500s was Wilbur Shaw, who scored his first win in 1937 driving his own sleek Gilmore/Shaw-Offy. Shaw finished second in 1933, ‘35 and ’38, and then scored back-to-back wins in 1939-40 driving Mike Boyle’s twin supercharged Maserati Grand Prix car. He was leading again aboard the Maserati in 1941 when a wire wheel collapsed and he crashed, injuring his back. Shaw led 508 laps at Indianapolis between 1932-41, second only to Ralph De Palma at the time.

Louis Meyer in 1939

Shaw’s 1941 accident at the Speedway and the arrival of WWII brought an end to his driving career. But he was a charming, outgoing man, and when Eddie Rickenbacker decided to sell the derelict Indianapolis Motor Speedway after the war Shaw convinced Tony Hulman to buy it. Had Shaw not done so the track might have been closed, but instead he helped usher in a new era as Hulman began to rebuild and modernise the ageing circuit.

Hulman appointed Shaw as president and general manager, and Shaw ran the place until he was killed in an airplane crash in October, 1954. A native Hoosier from nearby Shelbyville, Indiana, Shaw is reckoned to be one of the most influential figures in the Speedway’s great history.

All images courtesy of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway

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Ninety years ago, Tommy Milton and Jimmy Murphy were the men to beat in what was then known as AAA championship racing. Blind in one eye from birth, Milton won the Indianapolis 500 in 1921 and ’23, plus 21 other AAA championship races between 1917-25. He also won the AAA title in 1920 and ‘21. Murphy was Milton’s protégé who won the 1922 Indy 500 plus 18 other AAA races between 1920-24. He also posthumously won the 1924 AAA title.

Like most of the great drivers from that era, Milton and Murphy were first-rate mechanics and self-taught engineers. At Daytona Beach in April 1920 they shared a twin-engined Duesenberg designed by Milton to break the Land Speed Record. They became the first men to break the 150mph barrier on land, while Murphy went on to score a historic victory in the 1921 French GP with the factory Duesenberg team. Jimmy’s win (below) was the first all-American victory in Grand Prix racing – a feat that would not be duplicated until Dan Gurney won the 1967 Belgian GP aboard his own Eagle-Weslake.

The 1920 Indy 500 had been won by Gaston Chevrolet’s Monroe/Frontenac. Chevrolet also won that year’s AAA crown posthumously following an accident during the season-closer at the 1.25-mile Beverly Hills board track. Seven years later the AAA revised its historic record, adding five races to the 1920 series and declaring Milton that year’s champion. These revised rankings made Murphy the championship runner-up and dropped Chevrolet to third.

Milton had joined the Frontenac team for 1921, taking over Chevrolet’s seat and comfortably winning the Indy 500 after Ralph De Palma’s Ballot blew its engine. Murphy crashed out of the race, but the following month the Duesenberg team sailed to France to compete in the Grand Prix where Murphy scored his historic win. In doing so Murphy and the Duesenberg team missed three AAA races and Milton built an insurmountable championship lead. He won that year’s title, with Murphy fourth in the points. Milton reached his goal aboard a variety of cars, driving his own Durant with both Duesenberg and Miller engines as well as a factory Frontenac.

Milton’s results prompted Murphy to buy a Miller engine and install it in his Duesenberg, creating the Murphy Special. In this car he dominated the 1922 Indy 500, qualifying on pole and leading most of the race to win at record speed. Murphy easily beat Milton to the championship, winning seven races to Milton’s four.

Courtesy of Indianapolis Motor Speedway

In 1923 Milton (above) was on pole at Indianapolis and led most of the way to win, with Murphy finishing third, but neither enjoyed very good seasons. Murphy won two early-season races but his title challenge was blunted by another foray to Europe to compete in the Italian GP at Monza, where he finished third. He was beaten to that year’s AAA title by Eddie Hearne, while Milton failed to win another race after Indy and came fifth in the points.

The following year Murphy qualified on pole at Indy and led the race before being overwhelmed by Joe Boyer in one of the new supercharged Duesenbergs. Veteran Earl Cooper finished second as Murphy fell to third because of tyre troubles. But after Indy Murphy won three races in a row and took control of the championship before losing his life in a dirt track race at Syracuse, New York in September. So dominant was Murphy that he was declared the champion even though there were still three races left to run after his death.

Milton continued to race until 1927. He won the season-opener in 1925 and finished second to Pete de Paolo in that year’s championship but wasn’t a serious factor in the following two years before retiring. Milton was chief steward at Indianapolis for many years but died from self-inflicted gunshot wounds in 1962, aged 68, after suffering in his later years from burns received in a 1919 accident.

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When Dario Franchitti first went to the Indianapolis 500, he tried to approach it like any other motor race. But as he admits during his lunch interview with Simon Taylor in the May issue of Motor Sport, he couldn’t help being affected by ‘The Brickyard’. The size and scale of the place, the buzz surrounding the town through the month of May, how much it mattered to everyone around him: he knew this was special, and for a driver with a rare passion for racing history and an obsession with Jim Clark, Dario couldn’t avoid the magical draw of America’s greatest race.

That it remains in 2011, despite the scars of the split that almost destroyed the sport of Indycars. The ‘500’ was the glue that kept single-seater oval racing intact in an era dominated by NASCAR. The race – the event – was quite simply too big to go down.

This May Indianapolis will celebrate the 100th anniversary of a yearly occasion that fired a nondescript Midwestern city into the consciousness of any true sports fan anywhere in the world. It is a landmark that we at Motor Sport felt compelled to celebrate – which is why we have dedicated a sizeable chunk of the May issue to the wonderful history of the race.

So why should a British magazine get so excited about an event in which 33 drivers only turn left around a four-corner rectangle for 500 miles? Read Robin Miller’s article on his own personal relationship with the Speedway to find out. The determination, strength and humour of the racing spirit is the oxygen that gives life to our magazine, and Robin’s piece is high on it! At the Speedway, it’s so strong you can taste it, as John Cooper, Colin Chapman, Jimmy Clark, Graham Hill, Jackie Stewart, Nigel Mansell, Dan Wheldon, Franchitti and many others from ‘over here’ found out when they travelled ‘over there’.

Britain’s relationship with the 500 has ebbed and flowed over the century, but it’s always existed. Take the Speedway’s great historian Donald Davidson: you wouldn’t know it speaking to him now, but he’s a Brit. But on his first visit to the Speedway in 1964, he knew he’d found his true home. As the locals found out, no one has more understanding and knowledge of the race, and he was the obvious choice to put a 100 years of racing history into context.

Now, that sounds like the subject of a doorstop-sized book, so how could we distil it into a magazine article? Donald thought long and hard. What he came up with – the greatest, most dramatic finishes in the 500’s history – does so beautifully. Even if you’re an Indy doubter, I’d urge you to read it.

The British theme continues via Ian Wagstaff, who has written a recent book on the subject. We’ve steered clear of the rear-engined revolution of the 1960s because so much has already been said, as any regular reader of Motor Sport will know. No, too obvious for us! So Ian tells the story of the second British invasion of Indianapolis that in its own way changed the shape of the race as much as the pioneering years of the mid-60s.

Add the interview with Dario and another with the Unsers – the first family of the 500 – and I hope you’ll find it does justice to 100 years of incredible speed and action.

Now, I know US oval racing is not everyone’s shot of bourbon. So as usual there is plenty more in the May issue to keep you reading for the month. Nigel Roebuck is typically forthright in his assessment of Formula 1’s recent entanglement in real-world politics, and as usual he puts the Bahrain debacle in context beautifully by reflecting on previous occasions when the sport has found itself on dodgy ethical ground. Then there’s his description of the Cuban Grand Prix – a race at which Juan Manuel Fangio found himself being kidnapped. Writing about it in 2011, it’s hard to imagine it actually took place. Fernando, count yourself lucky…

Nigel also sits down with Stirling Moss to revisit what many consider his greatest race, the 1961 Monaco Grand Prix – yes, another anniversary, this time just a mere half-century ago. We also print an edited version (God, he’d go mad at us for cutting his copy!) of Denis Jenkinson’s original race report for Motor Sport and reproduce some of his beautifully neat and detailed notes from the weekend when Moss beat the ‘Sharknose’ Ferraris.

Alan Henry talks to Ron Dennis about his formative years in team management, in Formula 2 during the early 1970s; Patrick Head recalls the breakthrough years of the Williams FW07; and Tiff Needell opens his personal scrapbooks to show us his collection of racing photos that he snapped from the spectator banks of the 1960s – when his love of the sport took hold.

And if that’s not enough, don’t miss our free supplement* on the Motor Sport Hall of Fame, in association with TAG Heuer, which took place in London during February. It seems like ages ago already. Before we know it, we’ll be heading back to the Roundhouse in 2012 for the next one…

*Available in the UK only

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In a remarkable turnaround, Bridgestone/Firestone announced last Friday that the company’s Firestone brand will continue as the exclusive tyre supplier to the IZOD IndyCar Series until 2013. The announcement was made just seven days after the company formally revealed it was pulling out of the IndyCar series at the end of this year…

The move was precipitated by IndyCar’s team owners insisting to series CEO Randy Bernard that he broker a deal with Bridgestone/Firestone. Bernard was considering a switch to Continental or Cooper tyres, but the team owners made it clear that they didn’t believe a change could be made on such short notice. The owners also emphasised to Bernard that they don’t believe any other tyre manufacturer can equal the high quality and safety of Bridgestone/Firestone’s tyres.

“The team owners are collectively very relieved that Firestone had an open mind and that they were able to reach this agreement with IndyCar,” said Dennis Reinbold (below with Tomas Scheckter), co-owner of Dreyer & Reinbold Racing. “Firestone’s racing tyres are not only important from a safety and reliability standpoint, but they contribute greatly to the wheel-to-wheel competition for which our sport is famous.”

Since Bridgestone/Firestone entered Indycar racing in 1995 the company has never suffered a tyre failure, other than through punctures by debris. The bulletproof reliability of Bridgestone/Firestone’s tyres is something everyone in IndyCar has come to rely on. In contrast, Goodyear’s spec tyre programme in NASCAR has been and continues to be riddled with failures in many races. Continental has also had troubles in this its first year as the spec tyre supplier to Grand-Am.

Bridgestone/Firestone has also developed a reputation for producing tyres that perform identically from set to set. Quality control and consistency in both performance and dimensions have been bywords for the company, and it has done a tremendous job building tyres for the wide range of tracks Indycars race on from street circuits to superspeedways.

Back in 1995-99 Bridgestone/Firestone drove Goodyear out of CART and the IRL by utterly outperforming its rival. It took four years for all the teams to make the switch and for Bridgestone/Firestone to become the sole tyre supplier in both CART/Champ Car and the IRL. Over the past 16 years the team owners have learned to deeply appreciate Bridgestone/Firestone’s products, and after considering a switch to another tyre company Bernard seems to have taken on board the same lesson.

“We feel that this new supply agreement will benefit everyone,” he said. “It provides a safe and reliable product for the transition to the all-new cars for 2012. We have to thank everyone at Firestone for working with us to help ensure the best for the long-term growth of our sport.”

Bridgestone/Firestone’s Amercian racing boss Al Speyer (above with Helio Castroneves) says he hopes the agreement will continue until the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500 in 2016. The deal does not extend to the Indy Lights series, however. The Lights cars will race on Firestones this year, but will have to find a new brand for next season.

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Chip Ganassi’s Grand-Am team added to its already stunning record in the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona last weekend when its pair of BMW-powered Riley Daytona Prototypes finished one-two. Defending Grand-Am champions Scott Pruett/Memo Rojas shared the winning car with Graham Rahal and Joey Hand, while Scott Dixon/Juan Pablo Montoya/Dario Franchitti/Jamie McMurray drove Ganassi’s second car. This was Ganassi’s fourth Rolex 24 win but only its first one-two. The team scored three straight wins in 2006-08 and finished runner-up in 2009-10.

Last weekend’s sweep further embellishes Ganassi’s reputation. His teams scored successive wins in last year’s Daytona 500, Indianapolis 500 and Brickyard 400, and now the Rolex 24. Some people are calling it ‘The Chip Slam’. Grand-Am team leader Pruett, by the way, now has four Daytona 24 Hours wins to his name and has been on the podium in 14 of his 26 starts in the race.

Ganassi’s previous Rolex 24 wins came with Lexus (Toyota) engines, but Chip’s Grand-Am team switched last year to BMW power. Pruett and Rojas won the championship for BMW last season and have now scored the German manufacturer’s first Daytona victory since 1976, when Brian Redman/John Fitzpatrick/Peter Gregg won the 24 Hours in a factory BMW 3.5 CSL.

Neither of Ganassi’s cars enjoyed trouble-free runs last weekend. Montoya used his NASCAR fender-banging style to good effect on a number of occasions, but that also meant his crew had to twice change the car’s nose. Joey Hand made his debut with Ganassi’s team and did an excellent job in the winning car. Last year he drove for Bobby Rahal’s BMW GT team in the American Le Mans Series and has served a long apprenticeship in open wheel and sports cars. Hand lapped as quickly at Daytona as any of Ganassi’s drivers, and recovered well from a Sunday morning pit penalty after he was mistakenly waved out too early and hit one of his used tyres.

An indication of the thorough professionalism of Ganassi’s team was a decision during the race’s second hour to change the gear clusters in both cars. Warmer weather than anticipated and a change in wind direction meant both Ganassi cars were hitting their rev-limiters on the banking, so each car was brought in under successive yellows to remove the short gears and install a new stack of ratios.

Finishing third behind Ganassi’s cars were last year’s winners. The Action Express team ran two Riley-Porsches this year with João Barbosa/Terry Borcheller/Max Papis/Christian Fittipaldi finishing a strong third after the team’s other car was delayed by a few incidents. Martin Brundle/Mark Blundell/Mark Patterson/Zak Brown were an excellent fourth aboard United Autosports’ Riley-Ford run by Mike Shank Racing (see Damien Smith’s blog).

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One of motor racing’s truly great guys passed away in Indianapolis this week. John Anderson, known to all as ‘Ando’, suffered a heart attack while playing racquetball on Thursday. An Australian who came to the United States more than 30 years ago, Ando was an old-school master mechanic and fabricator who could build anything and everything. He was also a very funny man, a hilarious storyteller and a kindly soul.

Anderson worked in Formula 5000, Can-Am, Indycars and the American Le Mans Series and became one of the finest team managers in the business. In recent decades he was a key man at PacWest, Team Green and Andretti-Green, running Dario Franchitti’s car at Andretti-Green in 2007 when he won his first Indianapolis 500 and IndyCar title. In 2008 and ‘09 Anderson ran Gil de Ferran’s ALMS team and spent three months last winter trying to salvage Peter Windsor’s USF1 outfit.

Ando was also an enthusiastic amateur aviator who loved to fly his own light plane. But most of all he was a tireless worker who could motivate people like few others with his superb skills, sharp eye and bottomless pit of humour. Our thoughts this week are with John’s wife Lesley, his extended family and many friends around the world.

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You have to take your hat off to Roger Penske. At a time when many American race teams are struggling to sell sponsorship, Penske has announced a string of new deals in the past week. Using the power of the Penske brand both within motor racing and beyond, as well as his superb ability as a salesman, Roger has completed a skein of new agreements for his NASCAR and IndyCar teams.

Last week Penske announced that Shell and Pennzoil would replace long-time backer Miller Beer as the sponsor of Kurt Busch’s NASCAR car (below). Both companies will also act as primary sponsor of Hélio Castroneves’s Indycar at next year’s Indianapolis 500 and on other selected events, as well as associate sponsors of Roger’s entire IndyCar team. On December 1 Roger announced that Meijer (a thriving Midwestern grocery and superstore chain) would be another associate sponsor of his three Indycars. And this week Penske announced IZOD (a clothing brand which is the IndyCar Series’ title sponsor) as an associate sponsor of his Indycars and the primary sponsor of Ryan Briscoe’s car.

From 1990-09 Penske’s IndyCar team was sponsored primarily by Marlboro, but in recent years restrictions on tobacco advertising progressively reduced the company’s involvement with the team. Although Penske Indycars continued to appear in Marlboro’s familiar red and white colours, the cars were not allowed to carry the cigarette manufacturer’s brand. Last year, after the arrangement finally came to an end, Roger’s cars were painted black and white with Team Penske logos, while Verizon came on board as the primary sponsor of Will Power’s car.

Now the team’s post-Marlboro age has arrived. In recent years Shell and Pennzoil have backed Richard Childress’s NASCAR car driven by Kevin Harvick (above), while IZOD became the IndyCar Series sponsor last year and also backed Ryan Hunter-Reay’s Andretti Autosports car for the most of the season. Grocery chain Meijer has been active for many years as an associate sponsor of a variety of Indycars, and with Verizon continuing as the primary backer of Power’s Indycar, Team Penske will enjoy a full slate of sponsorship in 2011. There’s also a chance that Sam Hornish will return to Indy racing to drive a fourth Penske entry in the Indy 500.

It was revealed last month that a new Ilmor/Chevrolet Indycar engine will appear in 2012 and of course Penske is the driving force behind the latest Ilmor/Chevy partnership. RP started his race team in 1966 and has established himself as one of American racing’s most successful and influential figures. Over the years his teams have won 332 major races – including 15 Indy 500s – and 23 national championships in numerous categories. Then there’s the Penske Corporation, described as a diversified transportation services company, which operates in more than 1800 locations worldwide with more than 36,000 employees and annual revenues exceeding US$16 billion.

Roger will celebrate his 74th birthday in February and his role in the sport remains as pervasive as ever. Other US team owners like Rick Hendrick and Chip Ganassi have achieved their share of success, but in the big picture Penske stands in a class of his own.

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The Canadian Grand Prix at le Circuit Gilles Villeneuve adjacent to downtown Montréal is a favourite for many people. We were all disgusted and distraught when the race was axed for 2009 and were equally delighted to see it return to the Formula 1 calendar this year. And it’s a pleasure to report that the race has rebounded in fine fashion, healthier than ever with a massive crowd all weekend. In fact, the place was sold out by the middle of last week with 300,000 paying spectators streaming through the gates and jamming the grandstands over three days.

Francois Dumontier is president of the Canadian GP, replacing long-time former promoter Normand Legault. Following Sunday’s resounding McLaren 1-2 sweep Dumontier said he could not have been more pleased with the perfect weather and huge crowds. He was delighted to see the revived race pull a larger percentage than ever of fans from around the world.

“This year we had more people coming from Europe and the States than in the past,” said Dumontier. “I would say 40 per cent of our crowd is coming from outside Quebec. It’s pretty amazing and I don’t really have an explanation for that. The Euro is struggling and the US dollar also, but the people are still coming. For the tourism business and our business community this is really good, because it’s new dollars coming into town.

“This is a result of a great package we provide in Montréal,” he added, “which is both the appeal of the track and attractiveness of the city. People enjoy staying in the city and dining in Montréal’s many great restaurants just as much as they love the setting and the race track on Ile Notre Dame.”

The track surface on the island remains abrasive and to get the best from their tyres the drivers had to work for their living last Sunday. But there were no problems with the track coming apart as there have been in the past. Dumontier was pleased the new paving worked.

“This is the same recipe that’s been used at Bahrain and Abu Dhabi,” he said. “They’ve also used it at the Nürburgring and we imported it here. We worked closely with our people here in Quebec and adapted the paving for our weather and climate requirements, and on Friday morning after the first session I went out on track just to make sure everything was holding up, and it was.”

I am one of many thousands who enjoyed the return of F1 to Montréal. It was a great pleasure to see the enthusiasm for the racing and it’s worth pointing out that the Canadian GP is now by far the largest road-racing event in North America, and is beginning to challenge the Daytona and Indianapolis 500s for the title of North America’s biggest motor race.

Of course, many people have high hopes for the revival of F1 in the US. Will it happen successfully in Austin, Texas? Austin promoter Tavo Helmund will be at Silverstone next month for the British GP where it’s said he will explain his plans to bring F1 back to America.

“We hope to create the same enthusiasm in Austin as we have here in Montréal,” said Bernie Ecclestone last weekend. That’s a tall order, but race fans across the US hope Helmund and Ecclestone will succeed in the Texas capital. If the Canadians can do it so well, why can’t America?

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Practice starts this weekend for this year’s 94th Indianapolis 500. Qualifying takes place at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on May 22-23, with the race on May 30. But most of the talk in Indycar circles is about the future, as the IRL debates its new formula for 2012. In Tuesday’s Indianapolis Star, the IRL’s new CEO Randy Bernard declared the time has come to leave the IRL brand behind and find a new, more fan-friendly identity for Indycar racing. Mario Andretti says he hopes Bernard can achieve the many goals he’s set for himself.

“I’m excited with the prospects for Randy Bernard,” said Mario. “The jury is still out, but he’s beginning to show the elements of leadership that we’ve all been hoping for for so many years. He’s talking to a lot of people and I think he’s listening.

“Look at what he said recently about it’s time to bury the reference to the IRL. I talk to a lot of people and so many of them can’t bear to hear the IRL name. Unfortunately, the IRL entity just keeps all the old wounds open. There are probably millions of open-wheel fans who have migrated away from the series and don’t even turn the TV on anymore because they have such bad feelings about the IRL name.

“I called and left a message with Randy when I read what he said in The Star. It takes cojones to do that, to recognise the fact that the IRL name destroyed what was good about Indycar racing. I’m so happy that Randy is addressing this issue because it’s one of many things that need to be put to bed before we move on.

“Randy (above) has got a lot of good ideas and I’ll do everything I can to support the guy. I’ve said to him don’t try to reinvent the wheel. This is a series that had its glory days. A lot of us know what the formula was and we’ve got to get back to that formula. It was a series that everyone took notice of, including NASCAR and Formula 1. But right now it’s reduced to almost a club series. The drivers are barely making a living and nobody cares or knows who they are. There’s no appeal or dimension to it. We’ve got to get back to the level we had 10 and 15 years ago.

“But you can’t do that by copying NASCAR or Formula 1. We’ve got to redevelop the formula that worked for us. We’ve got to get back to venues like Laguna Seca, Elkhart Lake and Milwaukee. These are the traditional venues that are very appealing to the fans and sponsors.

“And they’ve got to get away from all this talk about Scott Dixon being the most successful Indycar driver in history. Why do they take themselves away from their tradition so that everything before the IRL doesn’t count? Where are Foyt, myself and the Unsers? By only quoting the IRL winners you’re giving up the essence of what the sport is all about.

“Indycar racing goes back to the beginning of the 20th century and no other racing organisation anywhere in the world can make that claim,” Mario concluded. “Scott Dixon is a fine driver, but let him fall in line with the rest of the great drivers. Let him go up against Ralph De Palma, Pete de Paolo, Jimmy Murphy, Bill Vukovich, Rodger Ward and all those great drivers who were part of creating the aura of what Indycar racing was all about.”

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The opening rounds of qualifying for this year’s 93rd Indianapolis 500 take place this weekend, with the first 11 starting positions determined on Saturday and the next 11 on Sunday. Practice for the 500 started on Tuesday for rookies and experienced drivers who haven’t competed in any IRL races so far this year. The rest of the field was scheduled to start practicing yesterday (Wednesday) but steady rain for most of the day resulted in a washout.

Fastest in practice so far therefore is Paul Tracy, who has raced at Indianapolis only once in the past 14 years. A CART/Champ Car stalwart, Tracy ran the Indy 500 in 2002 and appeared to have won the race when he passed Hélio Castroneves with two laps to go as the yellow light came on. But Castroneves was awarded the victory.

Since Champ Car’s failure at the start of last year the 40-year-old Tracy has been without a regular ride, but he’s been entered at Indianapolis by KV (Kalkhoven-Vasser) Racing on a one-off basis in a car sponsored by Geico Insurance. On Tuesday Tracy showed he’s gathered little if any rust as he jumped into the KV/Geico Dallara-Honda and quickly got up to speed.

By the end of the day Tracy was clearly the quickest driver, turning a fast lap in 40.3462sec (223.089mph). Fastest of the rookie drivers was Dutchman Robert Doornbos (above), who lapped his Newman/Haas/Lanigan entry at 221.735mph.

“The car felt good and I felt great,” said Tracy. “It was no problem. All I was hearing all week from the press here in Indianapolis was how long do you think it’ll take you to get up to speed? Well, I was up to speed in five laps and then we got with the programme.

“We had a high-mileage motor in the car, race-level downforce and we had heavy, race day gearbox oil,” added Tracy. “We didn’t have the good wheel bearings or any of the little go-fast stuff in the car. It was a race set-up and we’ve got a lot of speed left. If it rains [today] like they’re predicting and nobody gets to run, then we’ve got a leg up on everybody.

“The team has done a lot of work and all the good stuff is going on the car for Friday. We’ll see. I don’t know if we can make the front row, but I think we can qualify in the top 11 on the first day.”

Tracy is the cat among the pigeons at Indianapolis this year. He has raced Indycars since 1992 and is the most successful active North American open-wheel racer with 30 wins to his credit. But with Champ Car’s failure and Jerry Forsythe’s withdrawal from racing, Tracy found himself without a ride in 2008. He ran the final Champ Car race at Long Beach last year in one of Forsythe’s cars and also raced at Edmonton in July, where he finished fourth in his only IRL start of the year. Dario Franchitti would love to see his former team-mate and old friend in action in all of this year’s races.

“PT is 40 now but in his mind he’s 21,” said Franchitti. “He’s got a hell of a lot of enthusiasm and confidence, and he’s worth the price of admission.

“Paul was very, very loyal and really stuck by everybody in Champ Car,” added Dario. “Sadly, that’s been to his detriment because he was [left] sitting there with nothing. Paul deserves to have a competitive ride and it’s great that he’s at Indy this year. I hope it works out so he can race in the IndyCar series on a regular basis.”

It will be interesting to see where Tracy qualifies this weekend and even more intriguing to see if he can steal some thunder from the IRL regulars in the 500 on May 24.

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The opening weekend of qualifying for this year’s 92nd Indianapolis 500 takes place this weekend. Favourites for the pole must be Scott Dixon and Dan Wheldon who have been the men to beat on oval tracks so far this year in Chip Ganassi’s pair of Dallara-Hondas. Other pole contenders include 2001 and ‘02 race winner Helio Castroneves and new team-mate Ryan Briscoe with Team Penske, and Tony Kanaan, Marco Andretti (above) and Danica Patrick (below) at Andretti-Green Racing.

Thanks to the unification of IndyCar racing thirty-four drivers are entered at Indianapolis this year and the field is a little stronger than in recent years. On the other hand, the previous two winners Dario Franchitti and Sam Hornish are missing from the field as they have moved their careers, for better or worse, to NASCAR. The only previous winners entered this year are Wheldon, Castroneves and Buddies Rice and Lazier.

Five Brits are entered – 2005 winner Wheldon, Darren Manning, Justin Wilson, Jay Howard and Alex Lloyd. Wilson, Howard and Lloyd are rookies, although Wilson has some oval experience from his four years in Champ Car and is the number one driver of course, at Newman/Haas/Lanigan, replacing Sebastien Bourdais in the team’s McDonald’s car.

This has been a tough week for Newman/Haas/Lanigan because the team’s most experienced and respected man Davey Evans was brutally murdered in an Indianapolis bar last Saturday night. Evans, 63, had worked for Carl Haas’s race team for forty years, going back to the original Can-Am and Formula 5000 series. Born in Sudbury-on-Thames, Evans started his working life in 1959 as a teen-aged engineering apprentice with HWM Motors. He moved on to Maranello Concessionaires before finding work at Lola Cars and then becoming a key man in America in Haas’s Can-Am and Formula 5000 teams before the creation in 1983 of the Newman/Haas CART team.

For many years Davey worked at Lola during the winters building Haas’s cars. Evans was an old-school artisan who could construct almost anything. He was not only Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing’s most experienced crewman, but also probably the longest-serving man in the contemporary IndyCar garage area.

“I have a tough time accepting it and I’m sure everyone else feels the same way,” Mario Andretti commented. “It’s such a waste of a wonderful life. For some meaningless human being to take another life that meant so much is a total travesty. There are very few people that I’ve known in my life who you could say, ‘I don’t think this guy had an enemy in the world.’ All the years that I’ve known and worked with him, whether it was with Carl’s Can-Am team or through Formula 5000 to all the years with Newman/Haas, Davey was always there with a smile, always kind. What can you say? He was a friend for life.”

Two memorial services were held in Indianapolis this week for Evans as many who knew him paid their respects to one of the sport’s most-liked men, fated to lose his life in deeply tragic circumstances.

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The new issue of Motor Sport, on sale now, is a very special one for all of us on the magazine. Producing each edition always has a ‘labour of love’ element to it, but that feeling was heightened as we worked towards deadline this time. And it was all down to the great man who graces the cover.

As I have written in Matters of Moment this month, Jim Clark died before I was born, but that hasn’t lessened the power of his influence over me. He remains an inspiration to racing fans around the world, from his home town of Duns in Scottish border country to the pilgrims who head to the Indianapolis 500 every year.

To mark the 40th anniversary of his passing, Nigel Roebuck offers a personal tribute to the man who was “everyone’s hero”, as Brian Redman puts it. Also, American writer Robin Miller looks back at Clark’s incredible impact on the Indy 500, speaking to Dan Gurney, Mario Andretti, AJ Foyt and Parnelli Jones about how this quiet legend won over the tough Brickyard racers.

David Tremayne recounts that final, fateful day at Hockenheim, while Rob Widdows asks Lotus mechanic Jim Endruweit for the insider’s view of what Clark was like. It was a pleasure to put the pages together and we hope it is just as much a pleasure to read.

Back in the current world, we are enjoying the start of what looks set to be a fascinating Grand Prix season. The first race in Australia got a big thumbs up from everyone at the magazine, as you can read in the issue. The loss of driver aids has been a big gain for the sport.

And if you are a motorsportmagazine.co.uk regular, you will have spotted yet another addition to our coverage during the first couple of GPs. Our web maestro Ed Foster, who is one of Motor Sport’s three ‘bloggers’, has been writing frantically during GP weekends, from Friday through to Sunday, to offer his thoughts on the action. He’s also organised for practice times and race results to be added to these special blogs, so please do take the opportunity to read his words and add your own comments. We’d love to spark some conversations between fans on the site, with Ed’s GP coverage becoming a regular feature.

So enjoy our special Jim Clark issue – and keep logging on to motorsportmagazine.co.uk!

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