Robin Miller's Mailbag for March 3, presented by Honda Racing / HPD

Questions for Robin can be sent to millersmailbag@racer.com. Due to the high volume of questions received, we can’t always guarantee that your letter will be printed, but Robin will get to as many as he can. Published questions have been edited for clarity. Views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of RACER or Honda/HPD.

Q: With the Indianapolis COVID restrictions becoming more relaxed on Monday, has there been any word on how many fans may be in attendance at this year’s 500? I really hope at least 50% are allowed in. We all could benefit from seeing the Greatest Spectacle in Racing in a form as close to normal as possible.

Eric Mequon, WI

RM: No hardline percentage or numbers have been decided, but I know R.P. and Mark Miles want as many as possible. It will likely be April before it’s determined and I know that’s hard on out-of-town fans like yourself, but IMS is at the mercy of health departments and COVID numbers.

Q: I know it may be a little early, but are fans with Bronze Badges going to be allowed in the garage area this year? I think that many teams and drivers may feel uneasy with the close interaction with the fans during the pandemic. I know the numbers are coming down and fans will be allowed in the grandstands, but am not sure if Gasoline Alley will be open. We have our credit from last year that is good until 2022, but wouldn't want to waste buying a Bronze Badge this year if we are only limited to the grandstands. I would rather just pay the regular admission price for the two days of practice and qualifying weekend that we attend and save my credit until next year to get the Bronze Badge. Looking forward to a great year of racing. Thanks, and stay safe.

Jerry, Pittsburgh, PA

RM: “Jerry is not alone in asking that question. At this point, no determination has been made on whether we will be able to allow traditional Bronze and Silver Badge access this year. It will likely be some time later this month or early April before we know.” Doug Boles, IMS President.

Q: Do you have any thoughts about why Santino Ferrucci made the move to NASCAR? Is it about the opportunity to make money? What is interesting is, during Saturday's broadcast of the Xfinity race, it was mentioned that it was Ferrucci's first race, but they never once mentioned the word "IndyCar." Do you think that's deliberate?

Jim Doyle

RM: I haven’t talked to Santino but it could be as simple as the fact he didn’t have to bring a couple million dollars, or maybe Sam Hunt actually offered him a five-race deal to evaluate. Hard to say about identifying him as an IndyCar driver. NBC is good about it because NASCAR and IndyCar are partners, whereas FOX, not so much, although they gave Mario a shout-out on his birthday Sunday thanks to a text from Chip Ganassi.

"...and this is Ferrucci's first weekend in an Xfinity car. Prior to this he was racing... other stuff." Rusty Jarrett/Motorsport Images

Q: I respect Jimmie Johnson, but I feel it’s a bit arrogant and a bit out of his league thinking he can compete against guys that trained for years in open-wheel cars. I think he’d have a much better chance of being competitive if he were to run only ovals, don’t you?

MG from Niagara Falls, NY

RM: No doubt ovals would be his strong suit but I don’t look at it as arrogance, I look at it as a champion of one discipline wanting to branch out and try something different and challenging. I’m glad he’s doing it and I hope he hangs in there, but it’s going to be very difficult.

Q: I was shocked to see Iowa and Circuit of The Americas dropped from the schedule. Iowa has been there forever, and I’m hoping its just a one-year skip?

Arnold Edgar

RM: Iowa is done unless you want to buy the track, and COTA has dumped IndyCar for NASCAR because its probably going to draw four times the crowd.

Q: Since vaccines are slowly rolling out across North America and sporting events such as football, basketball, NASCAR and IndyCar are now allowing fans to be present, I was wondering if you have any insight on this year’s Toronto race? I purchased tickets for last year’s race, and after it was canceled I received an email from the promoters asking if I would like a refund or credit for a future race. Since then, I haven’t heard anything! I’ve reached out numerous times to the promoters to the ticket office, and nobody has an answer for me. Do you know if the race is still a go, and if so if fans will be allowed?

Rick S.

RM: I haven’t heard anything, but obviously it’s all contingent on Canada reopening its border because there can’t be a race without the teams. I sent a letter to Green Savoree Promotions, so I’ll let you know when they respond.

Q: I am excited to attend the Music City GP this August. I noticed that when tickets went on sale Monday, the seating chart only had about half of the seats available, and they were in solid groups and not evenly spaced. Did they already sell out half of the seats on the first day, or did I see some awkward format for social distancing? Also, your take on the course layout -- it seems to offer more passing opportunities than, say, Long Beach. Lastly, can you shed any light on Dale Jr.’s role in promoting the event? I read that he recently invested in some sort of ownership capacity.

Reid Johnson

RM: No information on your seating question, but I can tell you that track designer Tony Cotman thinks it’s going to be the best street circuit ever, and he should know. A couple of great passing zones, long straightaway and scenic layout. All I know is that Justin Timberlake is also part of the Nashville race, and I imagine that’s because of co-promoter Scott Borchetta and his music connections. Might also be pals with Little E.

Q: In your memory, has anyone had the same degree of success at Indy as Jim Clark? He only had five starts there, but finished first once and second twice. I remember the controversy in 1963 when Parnelli's car was leaking oil and many thought he should have been black-flagged, which would have given Clark the win.

Two weeks ago you referred to questions about whether Graham Hill had actually won the 1966 race, when Clark again finished second. I had forgotten about that dispute. Could you fill in the details? Thanks from all your many fans!

Bob Isabella, Mentor, Ohio

RM: Well, Vuky should have won four Indy 500s in a row, Parnelli could have at least three or four victories with a little luck in his seven starts, but in terms of success without winning, how about Ted Horn? From 1936-48 he finished 2-3-4-4-4-3-3-3-4, and Bill Holland ran second-first-second-second from 1947-50.

The USAC scoring system was so hit and miss back in the '60s and '70s that it’s hard telling if Clark, Johncock or Hill won in 1966, but not many people had Hill in first place. Colin Chapman had a professional scorer at IMS that year and he simply claimed they didn’t score Clark’s lap on one of his spins, and I can’t believe Chapman didn’t file an official protest.

Let me give you an example of USAC scoring. I was working for Bill Finley’s team in 1973 the day Billy Vukovich won his first and only IndyCar race at MIS. As I recall, they gave the checkered flag to Gary Bettenhausen, Johnny Rutherford pulled into victory lane and Vuky went ballistic because he’d beaten Gary. Lloyd Ruby figured he’d finished no worse than fifth but wasn’t listed in the top 10, so his chief mechanic, Mike Devin, ran across the track and up to the floor where the scorers sat. Keep in mind, many times the scorers were just fans that were offered a job for a day. Devin asked who scored car No. 18 and a nice lady raised her hand. Then Mike asked what color the car was, and she hesitated and said, “I think it was yellow.” Of course, it was orange and white. Vuky was awarded the win in a press release two weeks later with Gary B. second, J.R. third and Rube listed sixth.

Horn was a force at the Speedway in the 1930s and 1940s, and won plenty of races elsewhere, but a place on the Borg Warner eluded him. Image by IMS

Q: Thanks for sharing the history of the CART/Horton Safety Team. I was fortunate to be a part of the team beginning in 1980. The picture brought back bittersweet memories. Along with Steve Edwards and Lon Bromley, also pictured are John Mull, who drove Safety 3, Dave Hollander, driver of Safety 2, Greg Passauer, who drove the mobile hospital to every race, and Dr. Jay Phelan. Lon, Dave, and John have all passed away and are greatly missed. If your readers want to learn more about the IndyCar team, they should watch Dr. Steve Olvey’s movie ‘Rapid Response’ and ‘Yellow, Yellow, Yellow.’ Both are on Amazon Prime. Congratulations on your induction into the Hall of Fame. I’m glad Wally Dallenbach’s induction is finally taking place -- a year late, since WD so deserves recognition for his contributions.

Mike Semel, Las Vegas

RM: Olvey’s book “Rapid Response” should be a must read for any racing fan, and he and Terry Trammell should be following Wally into the HOF. I’m old enough to remember Sammy Sessions being pinned in his car at Langhorne in 1970 and Jim McElreath straddling the cockpit while unloading two fire bottles, and after about five minutes a safety vehicle finally arrived. CART’s safety team was such a breakthrough and a godsend for all of today’s IndyCar drivers.

Q: I'm glad that it was you answering the letter on NASCAR vs IndyCar safety. I would have been banned for life if I said what I thought. Having said that, CART, IRL, and IndyCar have been the gold standard for decades, and the reasons you stated are why. If anyone ever needs IndyCar safety explained to them, I only need two words: Alex Zanardi. The SAFER Barrier at the Speedway was in its second generation before NASCAR did anything. But to hear NASCAR announcers talk about it, you'd think it was handed down from the mount to them. I can remember old NASCAR races where emergency services consisted of couple of NASCAR officials and local first responders. I've used and trained people on Hurst Tool usage and was pretty good with it, but don't ask me how to cut up a race car. That's what constituted safety then.

Finally, I believe it was Bourdais' qualifying accident at IMS several years ago where the wheels were still spinning when the trucks pulled up... as an old first responder, that was not lost on me. IndyCar is, in my book, first, best and always improving. Anyone that doesn't see that needs to reposition their head. What got the CART safety team started?

Jim Mulcare, Westbury, NY

RM: After Gordon Johncock broke his leg at Milwaukee in 1974 and was dumped out of the ambulance as it pulled away because of the negligence of the EMTs, Wally Dallenbach approached USAC about having its own safety team. It took shape in 1976 but was nothing like the finished product with CART in 1981, with trucks, professional paramedics and specialists attending every race.

Q: I remember a few years ago you wrote something about changing the qualifying format so it's not so drawn out for 33 or 35 cars, and I think right now is the perfect time to make the change. Instead of having qualifying the weekend before the 500, make qualifying the Thursday and Friday before the race on Sunday. This would certainly help me out, as I wouldn't have to spend extra money and vacation time coming from Boston and I would get the most bang for my buck. I did come out for qualifying a few years ago, but there is just so much downtime between qualifying and the race that there is not much do.

This might just a selfish request for me, but maybe not, as it might bring more attendance in (as there will likely be more people in town that are going to the race that would now go to qualifying) and it might ramp up the pressure and storylines to qualify just days before instead of a whole week. I dunno, this would really help out my wallet and fun time for when I'm able to get back to Indy for the 500 – it certainly won't be in 2021, but hopefully in 2022. Thoughts? Emotions?

Jake Murray

RM: I believe my commentary was that if only 33 cars were showing up then why spend all that time and money and effort to go through two days of qualifying? It’s been streamlined lately, but IMS and IndyCar would never go for Thursday and Friday. Not as long as NBC televises time trials, and that wouldn’t happen on a weekday. The Carb Day/Legends Day and Race Day is about as compact as you can ask for, and hopefully that can resume this May.

Q: Who will be the rookies of the IndyCar series for the 2021 season? I mean the entire season, not just the Indianapolis 500?

Chris Fiegler, Latham, NY

RM: Jimmie Johnson and Romain Grosjean are running all the street and road courses, but Scott McLaughlin looks like the lone full-timer.

Q: Mario won just about every open-wheeled championship you can think of, but what was his record in F5000? I don't recall him winning the F5000 crown. I suspect he had so many irons in the fire that it was difficult to race an entire season in that series. I got to see him race in F5000 at Mid-Ohio, in probably 1973. Mario took pole and I want to say Sam Posey qualified second. The Chevy small blocks in those Lolas sounded awesome...

Jonathan and Cleide Morris, Ventura, CA

RM: Mario and Brian Redman dominated the USAC/SCCA Formula 5000 series in 1974 and 1975 -- each winning seven races -- but Redman’s reliability earned him both championships over the soon-to-be world champion.

Q: I was interested in PaYR's letter concerning Phil Hill's legacy. Your response was correct. Too many years have passed and too many of his fans are gone. A few years ago I analyzed drivers who raced in major championships in open-wheel (U.S. and European), sports cars (U.S. and European) and stock cars. I reviewed over a thousand races back to 1902, and compiled a listing of the drivers who won championships in these five disciplines. The results showed there were only 23 drivers who won major championships over two of these disciplines. Of the three you mentioned, only Mario (F1 and Indy cars) was in the 23. A.J. (seven IndyCar) and Gurney (1958 USAC road racing) won titles in only one discipline, even though both were outstanding drivers and very successful "interlopers." One driver, Phil Hill, won in three of the five disciplines, U.S. sports cars (SCCA, 1955), European sports cars (World Sportscar, 1959) and European open-wheel (F1 in 1961). Also, I loved the picture with the article.

Bill B.

RM: Well Bill, thanks for those informative statistics. I imagine if Phil would have run Indy that could have raised his profile, but he had a fabulous career and the respect of anybody that was somebody in the 1950s and early 1960s.

Scott McLaughlin heads what might forever stand as the best-credentialed rookie field in motorsport history.Michael Levitt/Motorsport Images

Q: So Jeff Bezos contacts you for your advice. He’s going to start a three-car IndyCar team with the main focus on winning the 500. Bezos has a special device that allows him to time travel any drivers you pick, and deliver them to you at their peak. Who would you pick to put in your cars to go all-out to win the Indy 500?

Jon Lee Clark, Wixom, MI

RM: Only picking three is almost impossible. Vuky, Rufus, A.J., Big Al, Mears, Mario, Wilbur Shaw and Mauri Rose.

Q: Back in 1977, I was a 21-year-old Yellow Shirt at the Speedway. My assignment was directing traffic at the intersection of 6th and Hulman. My first day on the job, a guy pulled up in a beat-up old Ford van, which had the back half chopped-off and replaced with a small set of bleachers, and tried to pull into the Gasoline Alley lot without a window sticker. I was about to run the guy off when the veteran Yellow Shirt working with me came up and greeted him, then introduced me to James Hurtubise. As you know, he was a pretty cool guy.

Just about every time he came by my station he'd stop and BS for a bit. One afternoon I was invited over to his garage in Gasoline Alley for "refreshments." I'm pretty sure I had a good time, because I don't recall much about it for some reason. I do remember the Formica countertop he had, which would slip over the rear wing of his Mallard when the drinking lamp was lit. Good times. I felt kind of bad that for a few years his qualification speed couldn't cut it, but would have been good enough to get him into the previous year’s race.

Do you think had he had a bigger bankroll and technical assistance, that Herk could have eventually gotten the Mallard in the show? Do you know right off of any present-day IndyCar drivers who, like Herk, are able to climb out of the car and go to work improving on it?

Patrick C.

RM: The fact he qualified it in 1968 was amazing, and the first time I showed Dario a photo of the Mallard he said, “He ran that against rear-engine cars?” Herk went as fast as humanly possible from 1969-71, but gave away so much in cornering speeds that Smokey Yunick couldn’t have helped him. Jack McGrath, Bob Sweikert and A.J. were all damn good mechanics, but that’s no longer practical or necessary.

Q: For the first time, read an article in RACER about Electric F! [ED: Do you mean Formula E?] Looked at video, looks like no one attends. Didn't help, still not interested. Have never heard of anyone that watched one of those races yet, have you? Maybe the autonomous Indy race should be run with the electric F1 cars. I won't watch anyway, but just a thought. Keep up with writing the retrospective pieces. Nice to remember the old days, so much I still remember, but also so much I forgot and I enjoy getting my memory refreshed!

Jim Wilson

RM: Formula E, Electric F and iRacing all have the same attraction for me: none.

Q: Did you see the new NASCAR promotion “I am NASCAR!”? Sounds real familiar, doesn’t it? I didn’t see Gene Simmons, though. How original. NASCAR loves to steal from IndyCar, from the claims of safety, to the increased use of road courses. It makes me laugh.

William L. Peer

RM: I did see that, but the one thing NASCAR has that IndyCar doesn’t are those clever commercial promoting the series and drivers. It may be a FOX/NASCAR combo, but Kyle Busch sitting at a press conference and admitting he’s only there so he doesn’t get fined is priceless. That’s what IndyCar needs, even if it has to pay for it.

Q: Robin, always enjoy your insights into the crazy world of motorsport. As a young lad growing up in Toronto in the '60s, always enjoyed the trek to Mosport to see the Players 200: Jim Clark and some of the world's best going wheel-to-wheel. Great stuff.

What experience can you share regarding the Can-Am series? McLaren vs Chaparral vs Lola. McLaren, Hulme and Hall running the best road course in North America. Nothing beats the sound of those big block 427 Chevys firing up!

Bryan Caven, Barrie, Ontario, Canada

RM: I only got to attend a few at Mid-Ohio, MIS and Road America, but those cars were so awesome, and that sound captivated so many people and the crowds were big-time. I think watching Stewart, Gurney, Follmer, Hulme, Revson and Donohue was about as good as it gets for a road racing fan.

The Formula E field takes the start at... just kidding. 1970 Can-Am Challenge Cup, Watkins Glen. Motorsport Images.

Q: Robin, you’ve often mentioned the treasure trove in the basement of the IMS Museum. Can you offer a few examples?

Roger in Wichita

RM: Let’s go to Jason Vansickle, curator of vehicles for the IMS Foundation, for the details, which includes a way for fans to visit the basement. “The basement contains various IMS Museum-owned vehicles that are not on public display. The basement houses former Indianapolis 500 vehicles, Formula 1 cars, sports cars, midgets, sprints, and champ dirt cars. We also have passenger cars such as pace cars and an extensive collection of Indiana-built passenger cars. We rotate vehicles for our various public exhibitions and that alters what is in the basement. Currently housed in the basement are fan favorites such as Duke Nalon’s Novi, Jim Clark’s 1964 Lotus 34, Smokey Yunick’s sidecar, Schumacher’s 1991-92 Benetton B191, and much more.

"The Museum offers tours of the basement to race fans in various ways. We offer a 30-minute private guided tour for $100 a person on weekdays and $125 a person on weekends. If you are interested in a more in-depth tour, as a Borg Warner Society member, you and a guest get a private 90-minute tour of the Museum’s exhibition floor and the basement with me. The basement tours help support the not-for-profit Museum’s mission of celebrating the innovation, thrill, and adventure at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum. Additionally, the Museum’s current Exhibition ‘From the Vault presented by Bank of America’ brings the basement to the main floor, with cars usually in the basement, such as the 1965 Ferrari 250LM, Mercedes-Benz W196, and both Larry Bisceglia vans. From the Vault closes April 20th to make way for our summer exhibition.”

Q: The past week has been filled with coverage of Tiger Woods’ car accident and, apparently, his substantial lower leg injuries. I’m reminded of the '80s and '90s and the litany of grievous leg injuries suffered by CART drivers like A.J., Rick Mears, Derek Daly, Nelson Piquet and Davey Hamilton, as well as sports car star Tommy Kendall. As I recall, all were treated by noted orthopedist Dr. Terry Trammell. With a history of successfully treating elite athletes, is it possible Dr. Trammell would be asked to consult in the Woods case? If I were a member of Woods’ team you can be sure that he would be at the very top of my call list.

Jack Broomall, Malvern, PA

RM: I called Terry and he never heard from anyone in Tiger’s camp, and I doubt there’s much shared information between golfers and racers.