Carb Day At Indy Can Be Rough

SPEEDWAY, IN: Once again Carb Day is upon us. As we all know, this traditional event is the final opportunity for the starting field to test their race setups prior to the “500” itself. It also allows the teams to certain that all the nuts and bolds are tight, and that all the fluids are staying on board where they belong.

Carb Day can be a little tricky; the teams need to know how their cars perform in traffic but, they also realize that it’s too close to Race Day to risk too much. With that in mind, things usually proceed smoothly. But, not always….

The 1986 version of Carb Day became “Apocalypse Now”
for no less that four
qualified teams. The nightmare began when Dennis Firestone, preparing for his sixth Race, suffered a brake rotor failure coming off Turn Four.
His car blasted the inside wall, and
collected rookie Roberto Moreno on the rebound. The Moreno car then screamed into the pits, rear-ending an unsuspecting George Snyder, who was innocently cruising into down the pit lane. Roberto’s un-guided missile wasn’t quite through; it also took the left rear corner off of Josele Garza’s parked March. Suddenly, four qualified cars were in deep trouble. Fortunately, only a few minor injures were reported.

When the smoke cleared, the unlucky Firestone was odd man out. His car was destroyed, and his team was not in possession of a legal backup. Garza’s car was repairable, and he assumed his qualified position on Race Day. Moreno and Ziggy were forced to backups at the rear of the field.

The winner in all this was…..Dick Simon, who needed an unwilling hand from Dennis Firestone to gain a spot in his 15th Race, as first alternate.

With luck the bazaar events of Carb Day, 1986 won’t be repeated. With luck……

RacingNation Crew

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