ROBIN MILLER ON MICHIGAN INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY

 

If you’ve harbored any passion for open wheel racing during the past 40 years, then you likely own some fond memories of Michigan International Speedway. A 2-mile, high-banked oval planted in the middle of the Irish Hills, it started life in 1968 as the first purpose-built superspeedway for Indy cars.

For all the great racing, which also included Can-Am, Trans Am and Formula 5000 on the road course plus USAC stocks and NASCAR on the oval, the crowds peaked in the mid-’90s for CART and have fallen off drastically in the past seven years.

Evidently unable to come to an agreement over a new date with the Indy Racing League for 2008 (it didn’t want to be a few weeks away from Detroit), MIS likely is hosting its final IndyCar race on Sunday.

Considering the ovals at Phoenix, Atlanta, Loudon, Fontana, Nazareth, Pike Peak, Orlando, Gateway and Las Vegas have all vanished from the IRL schedule during the past decade, there’s no reason to believe MIS will ever resurface.

But, for me, that drive up I-69 to Highway 12 across to MIS produced some indelible moments, great stories, miles of road rage and a few speeding tickets.

Here they are:

THE LEGAL EAGLE: Mistakenly disqualified from the ’68 Indy 500 and then re-instated after USAC learned its scales were way off, road racer Ronnie Bucknum and his Weinberger Homes Eagle scored the inaugural win at MIS in 1968.

ADIOS ARMCO: In his Indy-car debut in 1972, Merle Bettenhausen crashed on the backstretch. His car caught fire, his shield had flipped up and, instinctively, the middle son of Melvin Tony Bettenhausen tried to raise up out of the cockpit. But the car veered back into the armco guardrail on the backstretch and it severed his right arm. Badly burned on his face, Merle made a victorious comeback in USAC midgets in 1973 driving with a prosthetic arm and a hook. That armco guardrail was replaced by concrete walls and, eventually, armco would disappear altogether from oval racing.

A GOOD IDEA: John Hubbard was a gritty sprint car driver making his Indy-car debut at Michigan in the early ’70s and I was his pitboard man. A.J. Foyt had blown up in qualifying so he was starting last – a couple rows behind us. Before the driver introductions, John asked me if he should go introduce himself to Super Tex and let him know he intended to move over at the start. But, before he could, Foyt walked up and said: “Boy, keep your eye on those mirrors because I’ll be going by on the rightside and I don’t need you slowin’ me down.” Nice to meet you too, Mr. Foyt.

VUKY’S VICTORY: Despite being a tough racer and having a good career, Bill Vukovich Jr. only captured one USAC Indy-car race and it wasn’t easy. In 1973, in the opening heat of the twin 125-milers, Vuky was victimized. He won the race but they gave the checkered flag to Gary Bettenhausen and Johnny Rutherford pulled into victory lane. The ensuing chaos saw Vuky run from his car, jump on the pace car’s hood and start screaming at pace car driver Shim Malone, who had waved Vuky around during a yellow. USAC scoring had totally screwed up and, two weeks after the race, Vuky was awarded the win – by phone in front of nobody and with no celebration.

DICKED AGAIN: While working as the vent man on Johnny Parsons’ car in 1973, chief mechanic Bill Finley warned me not to go behind the car and help push until I made sure Dick Simon (pitted behind us) had come to a complete stop. Sure enough, on the first stops Simon smoked into the pits (no speed limits then) and slid all the way under JP’s rear wing. Finley kicked Simon’s front wing and threatened to smack him with a wheel hammer if it happened again.

Mansell added some unnecessary drama to his ’93 MIS win… (LAT Photo) MORE PHOTOS

ACADEMY AWARD: Following his dominating victory in 1993, Nigel Mansell all but collapsed while getting out of the car, holding his neck and writhing in agony until he looked a few feet away to see teammate Mario Andretti, who had finished second, barely sweating. Nige quickly regrouped and walked to the victory podium. The guy was a helluva racer and put CART on the international map, but what a lame actor…

RELAX RUBE: In 1974, working full-time as a stooge, vent man and beer chaser for Lloyd Ruby’s team, I was not allowed near the toolbox because of my mechanical ineptitude. But, the night before the race, our ace mechanic Danny Jones went on a bender and it was left to Jim Bob Luebbert and myself to assemble the rear suspension. Rube wandered in just before midnight and, to his horror, saw me with a wrench at the back of his car. “Hey, he’s not supposed to do that,” Rube shouted to Luebbert. We assured him I was only watching. Lloyd finished third the next day.

ONGAIS RULES: In 1977, Danny Ongais scored his initial Indy-car win at MIS driving the black Parnelli chassis of Roman Slobodyinski. Afterwards, in the press conference, I asked The Flyin’ Hawaiian to talk about being a tire buster at Indy-car races in the ’60s, not passing his first Indy-car test and now the accomplishment of being a race winner. He frowned and said: “I don’t talk about the past.” Thus began his great relationship with the media.

ARMAGEDDON: In 1981, the first 500-miler was staged at MIS and it was nearly the last. A major pit fire broke out during a pit stop by Herm Johnson and as tires exploded from the heat and pit equipment melted, it looked like Armageddon from the press box. Amazingly, there were no serious injuries in the inferno but A.J. Foyt nearly lost his arm in a grisly accident. On top of that, it rained and the race didn’t end until it was almost dark. Pancho Carter was declared the winner, although many felt it might have been Tony Bettenhausen Jr. because of a mixup during the red flag.

FEAR OF FOYT: In 1982, that “god damn Cooogan” (Kevin Cogan) and I were sitting in a garage when A.J. Foyt spotted us and started walking our way. Foyt had smacked me in 1981 at Indy because he didn’t like something I’d written and Cogan had swerved into A.J. at the start of Indy in ’82 triggering a big crash. “What do you think he wants?,” said Cogan. “Blood,” I replied. But we all had a nice little chat and A.J. walked away chuckling because he knew we were both terrified.

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