ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, May 27, 1996 TAG: 9605280143
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: HOLIDAY
DATELINE: INDIANAPOLIS
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
THE DRIVER overcomes a crash two months ago that left his back broken in 16 places to win at Indianapolis.
Buddy Lazier winced in pain as they gently pried him from the race car.
He can barely walk, but he sure can drive.
Winning the Indianapolis 500 proved that.
``An accomplishment like this makes all the pain go away,'' he said.
Two months ago, Lazier broke his back during a race car crash in Phoenix. It was broken in so many places, X-rays made it look, he said, ``like a hard-boiled egg that had been dropped.''
Pain was a companion Sunday. But in riding to victory, he left the field literally scattered behind him - and in a sense Indy-car racing itself.
When he pulled his purple Reynard-Ford into Victory Lane, the track was still littered with smoking debris from a spectacular last-lap crash involving Roberto Guerrero, Alessandro Zampedri and Eliseo Salazar.
Lazier's pain and the messy ending seemed to reflect the trouble within Indy-car racing - a split that sent most of the biggest names to the U.S. 500 in Brooklyn, Mich.
Speedway president Tony George touched off the feud by starting up the Indy Racing League as a rival to the established PPG Indy Car World Series. The Michigan race was born after George reserved 25 of the 33 starting spots at Indy for IRL regulars.
Asked if there should be an asterisk next to his name because he beat a field that didn't include past Indy winners Al Unser Jr. and Emerson Fittipaldi, Lazier said: ``Obviously, I hope not, because I gave it everything I had, my heart and soul. And I think everybody else out there did the same.''
He won by 0.695 seconds - about eight car-lengths, averaging 147.956 mph. It was the third-closest finish ever. Davy Jones was runner-up, rookie Richie Hearn was third, Zampedri was fourth and Guerrero was fifth. Only nine of the 33 starters were running at the end.
``This is extra, extra sweet coming back from such an injury,'' the 28-year-old Lazier said. ``I've never been hurt as badly as I was hurt, in a hospital bed, really, for about three weeks straight, not being able to walk.
``It wasn't that long ago - we're talking like a month ago - that I could barely walk on crutches.''
Lazier, riding in a specially designed seat, took the lead with eight laps remaining and pulled away from Jones on the last of the 200 trips around the 2 1/2-mile oval.
``The last 10 laps were as risky as I would ever want to be. It was basically just all out,'' said Lazier, who led five times for 43 laps.
The day turned out to be much safer than expected, considering 17 rookies were part of the most inexperienced field in six decades. But the finish was marred by the wild crash in turn 4 just as Lazier took the checkered flag.
Guerrero added to his long list of disappointments at Indy by losing control and hitting the outside wall on the last lap.
Zampedri, running third, suddenly found Guerrero in his path. The Italian's car slammed into Guerrero's and sailed into the air, cartwheeling high onto the catch-fencing above the concrete. It turned upside down and slammed back onto the track, tangling with Salazar.
Zampedri had injuries to both lower legs. Salazar had a bruised right knee. Guerrero, who once spent nearly three weeks in a coma after crashing in a tire test here, was uninjured.
At one point, it seemed that Guerrero was finally going to win the race.
He was leading as late as lap 158 before a routine pit stop. But seven laps later, a fuel spill and fire almost knocked the Colombian-born driver out of the race.
His crew got him back on the track without losing a lap, but he never mounted another challenge.
Zampedri took the lead on lap 170 following the final pit stops by most of the leaders. He stayed in front until Jones swept past on lap 190.
Lazier, who had been third and trailing the leader by about nine seconds, was charging by then. He, too, passed Zampedri on lap 191, then set out after Jones.
On lap 193, Lazier caught him coming out of the fourth turn and pulled away. That slingshot move got the loudest roar on a day of not many roars at all.
LENGTH: Medium: 92 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. AP The car of Alessandro Zampedri goes airborneby CNBafter colliding with Roberto Guerrero (left) and Eliseo Salazar
during the final turn of the last lap of the Indianapolis 500 on
Sunday. color
2. AP Alessandro Zampedri's car is overturned after a collision with
Eliseo Salazar on the final lap of the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday.
Zampedri received injuries to both lower legs and Salazar had a
bruised right knee. Roberto Guerrero, who also was involved, was
uninjured. KEYWORDS: AUTO RACING