Last Year’s Top Rookie Mostly Unnoticed Now

As Johnny Benson Jr. sat in a chair outside his team’s transporter at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, fans seeking autographs walked by without even noticing him.

That’s the way things have been going for last season’s rookie of the year and the Bahari Racing team. They haven’t been particularly good or particularly bad this season - just mostly unnoticed.

In 19 races, the driver from Grand Rapids, Mich., has five top-10 finishes, none better than his seventh last Saturday in the Brickyard 400.

“It was a huge race for us,” Benson said. “The track has so much history to it and you’ve got so many people there. It reminds you a lot of going to Daytona. For us, Daytona is a big hype deal, as far as the media attention, and Indy is a lot like it.

“We finished eighth there last year and seventh this year. Any time you leave the race track after running well, leading laps, things of that nature, it gives you more confidence. Now we need to run better at all the tracks.”

Big results were expected when Benson replaced veteran Michael Waltrip at Bahari Racing after winning the Busch Grand National championship in 1995.

A year ago, he finished 21st in the driver standings and won the rookie title with virtually no competition. More was expected this season, and it’s obvious that Benson and the team have improved.

But Benson certainly isn’t satisfied.

“I thought we were going to be better at the start of this year than we have been,” he said. “We need better finishes. We’ve been an extremely silent 12th (in the points).”

Actually, Benson is only 50 points out of 10th place, so a good showing on Sunday in the Bud at the Glen road race at Watkins Glen International could go a long way in giving the driver a little press. He finished 15th last year.

“We’d like people to notice us,” Benson said. “When they do, it means you’re doing something, hopefully, positive.”

Group to shoot for speed record

A group of racing professionals and engineers is going after the land speed record for electric vehicles with a driver who was partially paralyzed in an accident 23 years ago.

The record is 183 mph, set in 1994 by a General Motors team in Fort Stockton, Texas.

Ed Dempsey, president of World Record Performance Associates, has chosen Pat Rummerfield as the driver to try to break the record. Rummerfield, who has come back from his 1974 accident to take part in ironman competitions, will drive a streamliner built by Donald and Gerald Arivett of San Bernardino, Calif.

The brothers previously built a car for the late Ed Rannberg, who drove it 201 mph. It was not approved as a record, however, because he made it only one direction. To be credited with a land speed record, each time must be backed up with a second run within a set percentage.

The new car will be powered by two AC motors fed by a nickel cadmium battery pack using more than 6,000 tiny batteries.

“All we want to do now is set a record,” Dempsey said. “By doing that, we hope to encourage others who have developed superior technology for electric cars to be tempted to get into competition with us.”

The team will test next week during Bonneville Speed Week in Wendover, Utah.

Rummerfield will try for the record, weather permitting, in September or October.

Stewart rises to top

Everybody expected Tony Stewart to be the man to beat for the second Indy Racing League championship. It just took Stewart a little longer to get to the front than people figured.

The 26-year-old Stewart, who picked up his first IRL victory in June at the new Pikes Peak International Raceway, moved to the top of the series standings last week with a seventh-place finish at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Stewart now tops previous leader Davey Hamilton 233-226 with two races remaining in the 1996-97 season.

Nobody can dispute that Stewart belongs on top. His 812 laps led in the eight previous races this season is by far the best.