Indy 1992: Nightmare on the Parade Lap - The Tough Luck of IndyCar's Nice Guy, Roberto Guerrero
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- Опубліковано 6 жов 2024
- Roberto Guerrero's pole for the 1992 Indy 500 was a story of redemption for the friendly driver. He overcame injuries, unemployment, and people assumed he was washed-up. Now his track-record pole run gave him to chance to finally win the Indy 500 that had been snatched so painfully from him before. Then came one of Indy's most painful moments.
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Music:
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See You Soon - Otis McDonald
A Turn for the Worse - Sadness - Kevin MacLeod
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Attraction - Density and Time
Footage/Audio Owned By:
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This was not Roberto's worst nightmare. His worst nightmare was in 1996. He led easily, had control.of the pace, had everything going his way until a stupid mechanic mistake in the next to.last pit stop ruined the race, and it ended with a massive crash.
By far his most heartbreaking moment as he would never again be closer to victory.
And mine as well. I was his engineer.
I can only admire his neverending fight to find a win there. It still saddens me that fate never gave him a chance. Thank you for sticking by his side. A driver can only get somewhere if the team is as faithful too...
What was the mistake?? I remember both years quite well.
@@kwasg3 Hello, long story, that year we replaced the old standard flat refuelling nozzle with the new pointy one, we tested, used it, and were ok with it.
This new nozzle did have one red and rather critical "O ring" that was quite exposed, we knew that when placing the nozzle on the ground or wherever it had to be with the handle down and the nozzle up first so it would touch nothing as it was a more delicate thing. (regulations mandated the change).
In one of the last race pit stops, the fueler placed the nozzle on the wall with the pointy bit down, which meant the ring touched the wall, and even worse when we took a step to put himself in position he dragged the nozzle and the o ring over the wall, which damaged it, pulled it out of alignment.
few seconds later comes the pit stop, the nozzle would not lock, we had spillage, a small fire, driver was half out of the car, etc. So we managed the fire, pushed the driver back into the car, redid seatbelts, but did not redo the radio.
But by then the race was gone.
If I close my eyes I can replay every second of that stop...
As the radio was not reconnected, on the last lap Roberto was not sure what his position was, so he said to himself "Ill just pass whoever is in front of me" so he pushed mega hard, and had the accident we all know about which ended the career of Zampedri, which was friends with ax en Reynard colleague of mine.
This was my last indy 500.
I stayed with the team for a few more months, but frankly I was not very happy with the whole IRL thing, so later I moved to Hogan Racing in CART and eventually to F1.
@@ramirogarcia1967 Thanks so much for the reply! God dammit, the little details are so important. It is so hard to get every team member to realize the minutia is the key to success, and thinking ahead about paying attention is the only way to do that. Team members too unfocused or lazy to be sharp about that are a liability, even if the are the greatest mechanic ever back at the shop. Peoples health is in the balance! I was in the wall and lost a race at Road America over the small detail of the radio cord not taped. Congrats at working in the big time, as a semi pro team owner I have had to be jack of all trades - and have some regrets about never breaking into top echalant teams as an engineer or data guy, so mad respect there. RG seemed really quick, would have loved being a data guy for him.
It really can be the smallest things that can define a driver's day...
And I don't care what anyone says, Indianapolis is a track that is just jinxed for some extremely talented drivers. There have been a lot of exceptional drivers down the years who could never post a representative result in the Indy 500...
Win or lose, battling adversity on the race track defines a true racer. Roberto Guerrero was a true racer.
And also one of the genuinely nicest guys you could ever hope to meet, a true gentleman...
@@gosportjamie I agree. The old aying nice guys finish last. How many Indy car wins does he have?
Roberto won I think 3 races
5:02 This part deserves an entire video. This is the craziest sponsorship story I've ever heard in my life
I was at that race. It was incredibly cold. There were a lot of accidents and Michael Andretti was burying the field when his engine broke. This led to the legendary duel between Al Under Jr and Scott Goodyear, with Unser Jr. winning by 47/1000 of a second. It's still the most exciting sporting event I have ever attended.
Harry Novick I was there, too. Froze my ass off.
Thank you for this. I'll admit to Roberto Guerrero being before my time so I never understood who he was besides the guy who spun on the pace lap. I now see that he was so much more than that. The quote added at the end of the video from Forbes in 2016 was so inspiring to me. The world could use more Roberto Guerreros.
Someone needs to hire Brock to narrate for a living.
I think so too.
*hire*
@@johncholmes643 omg. That's embarrassing.
I hate voice to text. You would think id go back and proof read what it types out for me. You would also think in that context it would put it in as "hire", not "higher". Thanks for pointing out my error
@@nascarmanHistory Thank you both, that's very kind. As I've said, NASCARMAN is the one doing most of the heavy lifting - I'm just the one fortunate enough to narrate for him. It's creatively exciting to be able to bring life to stories like his.
Thank you so much for remembering this amazing part of our motorsport history. Roberto was one of the guys who opened the door of Motorsports in Colombia, and a truly legend of our sport.
I worked as a mechanic at a small Indianapolis airport in the late 90s and met him before the 99 or 2000 Indy 500. He was one of the nicest guys I ever met. Signed my tool box and everthing!
Just watched this race last night! What an incredible pass by the andrettis going into 1 on the first lap
A coworker has a great anecdote of a contest he won. All expense paid trip by Buick and Quaker State to the 92 500. Free booze! A helicopter ride INTO the track. Sweet Indy500 jacket. Box seats... then that happened. lol
What happened
@@mitchm6083 Watch the video
Great video. I was 11 in 1992. I remember my dad saying, “No Way! How did he do that? This poor guy!” When Roberto spun out.
Excellent work, my friends. This is extraordinary!
I watched this race last year for the first time completely unaware of what happened. It was one of the craziest things I’ve ever seen.
Watch the start of the Rolex 24 last week !!! Hard to watch if you are a Porsche fan !!!!!😄😄😄😄😎😎😎😎🍺🍺🍺🍺🇺🇸🇩🇪
Great video. Thank you for making it. Tragic story, but a tale to always look at things in a positive light like Guerrero did and does.
So glad you did a video on Roberto. He was my favorite driver as a kid. Got an autograph from him at the 96 Indy 500. He was so nice.
That was the first Indy 500 I attended. I sat inside turn three, I cannot express how cold it was, the crowd cheered when the sun broke free of the clouds. They wrecked everywhere, except turn three, and I was stuck in traffic for four hours trying to get out of there. It was the best and worst 500 I ever attended. My seats have improved a bit over the years, but watching Al Jr. get his first win and nearly freezing made me a fan for life.
I would love to see a deep dive on the entirety of the 1992 Indy 500. There were SO many stories from that race: The 230 mph barrier, Jovy Marcelo , Lyn St James first start, The Piquet and Andretti injuries, Scott Goodyear coming from 33rd and Little Al's first win in the closest finish ever at the time. Would be a great video :)
I had the good fortune of meeting Mr Guerrero a few years ago at an HPDE (High Performance Driving Event) for Jaguar. He is a super nice guy and a top, excellent driver.
I'm not a indy fan and had never heard of him until now. After watching this clip I don't see how anyone can say he had bad luck! His quote saying he feels like he has been lucky not unlucky is one of the best quotes I ever heard!!! It's a miracle that he wasn't killed or didn't have permanent brain damage. His story would make one hell of a good movie!!! I wish I had his toughness, courage, and good luck!!
Roberto you where an exceptional driver, there’s nobody that I know that didn’t think the world of you. I was at Indy for all your races sitting at the top of the third turn. I never knew till today that you actually had a clutch issue in ‘87 we all felt your pain. I’m from Milwaukee and always went to the Milwaukee Mile the week after Indy. I had a similar incident with a unexpected brain hemorrhage in 2009... the had me in an induced come for 3 or 4 days. And I made a complete recovery with no deficit. I hope you get to read this because I’ve thought a lot about you over the years, the man ,the driver, the husband... a life well done Roberto !!! ✌️🙏🙏
Roberto Guerrero is the Jerry Nadeau of Indycar.
Hearing Bobby Unser in the booth brings me back in time.
How many times did he say "The track is really greasy".
"Just a liiiitle bit"
I got bad news regarding Bobby for you
Always seen this bizarre crash on the various compilations on UA-cam, now I finally know the story behind, thanks
the 92 race is remembered for the close finish and RG crashing on parade lap. Michael Andretti dominated a majority of the race. If it wasn't for an inexpensive part on the car breaking, he would have run away with it. I was in the 3rd turn that year. It was cold...
I met RG in 95 in gasoline alley. One of the nicest people you would ever want to meet. Wish he had won a 500.
Man your videos are great. Nice to see Kenny hugging Roberto.
I was there, closest finish in the history of the track. Little al over Scott Goodyear.
Man it was cold!
I was watching that race and rooting for guerrero and buick but I couldn't believe my eyes! at first I thought it was a rookie mistake but this explains a lot! thanks for posting!
I saw the 1992 Indy 500 on Thursday. I felt terrible that he didn’t shine before the green flag came out. Then seeing this video made me learn more about who he is! Well done!
600 mile testing session? Damn those guys really had their stuff together with those cars....
I think King Racing would be an interesting topic to do a video on. He is one of 4 car owners to win in both INDYCAR & NASCAR (Penske, Ganassi & Cal Wells the others)
Roberto Guerrero was really a Guerrero, a Warrior, who battled against life changing injuries and had proved to be a true racer
His last name fits well for him like you said.
Great video! I never knew how incredible his record at Indy was.
Roberto was one tough competitor. He was all about perseverance. Guy had some terrible luck.
I always pulled for Guerrero. As well as the strong runs in his first four Indy 500s, 1987 was pretty much his break-out year. He won a couple of races, including at Phoenix, where he came from last on the grid to win. Unfortunately, I don't think he was ever back to 100 percent after the testing crash. It's not that he forgot how to drive, and I don't think he was scared, but he just seemed to have a cloud of bad luck following him for years.
The 92 500 was one of my earliest motorsports memories. I had a poster in my room of the photo finish, and Al Jr. became my favorite driver for a while.
Fantastic video. It's a shame that you probably can't find more than 1000 folks in Colombia who still remember Guerrero
I had just turned 7 when this happened and I totally remember it. That might just be my most vivid early memory.
well, thank you for this information, I am Colombian and we do not forget that Roberto Guerrero opened the door to other Colombian Drivers, we have a lot of different stories, for example, bad luck of Carlos Muñoz that finished second twice, and you can talk about Juan Pablo Montoya the most successful Colombian Driver of all time.
Unfortunately Roberto José don't have the recognition he deserves among other Colombian athletes, truly a pioneer and very competitive.
Those Buick V6 engines were quick over a few laps but rarely ever made the distance. They had a habit of going boom...
Unfortunately, spinning on the parade lap and wrecking himself stayed with his reputation for the rest of his career.
BTW: The Buick engines where not un-reliable.. just like the Buick Hawk and GTP Corvette in the IMSA series, the GM V6 engines produced so much torque that they broke CV and half shafts on a regular basis. The technology for the engines drive train just wasn't there at the times.
the technology was there, the teams just didn't strength the parts accordingly.
I think a lot of the "unreliable" term for the Buick engine came from the number of team managers and owners who said they hoped it would prove unreliable when it was developed fully. If it didn't then it was the beginning of the end for the naturally-aspirated V8s, and that is exactly how it turned out. A person couldn't even conceive of someone trying to run a non-turbo engine at Indy now...
I mean it wasn’t Diesel Engine levels of bad.
@@Flamingbro69 There's nothing wrong with diesel engines. For one thing, they're more efficient than petrol engines, hence why racing trucks have to be restricted to 1,000 bhp out of what are pretty standard engines...
gosportjamie I was talking about the Diesel Engines they put in the Oldsmobile’s back in the 1980’s.
I had the pleasure of meeting Roberto a couple of years ago when he was the featured speaker at an event at the IMS museum. After the speaking event, Jaguar was conducting a demonstration of some of their vehicles at a small improvised track in the infield. You could either drive or ride with a professional driver. I chose to ride, and Roberto was my driver. Instead of the one lap in one car, I got three laps in two different cars. On top of being a really very nice guy, the man can STILL handle a car with the best of them
"obviously i wanted to die"
I find it impossible to interpret the foreshadowing of that comment's context. He, without knowledge I would certainly presume, comments that he wanted to die after the damage a tire that would kill a spectator to his car had significantly damaged his car. I had no idea a spectator died on that day. The sports media certainly handled such issues differently during that era.
I recall watching live that pace lap. Unfortunate fails to convey the misfortune.
@ nascarman History; Nice post! Roberto Guerrero (and Jim Crawford, his team mate that year) have for decades been two of my favorite Indy 500 drivers. PS. Dick Simon also. He was one of the most sportsmanlike owner/drivers in the 1980's and 1990's. Dick was the next version of Rolla Vollsted, always willing to give a new young talent a chance to show their stuff @ the 500!!!
I never knew his story at Indy and I'm proud of a man who's had success and major head injuries in racing tell the Scientology so called (Church) to fuck off, that man stood up for his Christian faith! Who can't admire and be humbled by that? Money isn't worth selling your soul out for.
Bro you have the best narration voice. Def best racing channel on UA-cam.
Great vid. You earned a sub
Those Buick V6's were fast. NO WAY they'd last 500 miles.
Al Unser Sr. finished 3rd in 1992 driving a Buick for Team Menard. So much for poor Buick reliability.
Yep, and Jim Crawford also finished 6th in 1988 driving the Mac Tools Lola-Buick ! I liked that engine and its low sound, I was hoping for a win in 1992 but that cold weather ruined everything....
me: gets on computer to watch nascarman history
UA-cam: ASK AND YOU SHALL RECEIVE
"-but Guerrero's career was on the up swing!" 4:50
Glad to see another vid from you man love seeing old racing vids and learning more about it all keep it up!
What an Incredible Guy.
Ah, those Buicks...they sounded great. Roberto is a great man.
UA-cam Premiere Countdown music in the background.
Total crap
I was at that race, and to say it was cold is an understatement. When we left at around 4am for the 2 hour drive to the track the temperature was in the 30s with a biting wind. It was the coldest 500 I have been to.
I was sitting up high in turn 3 and watched the spin as they came out of turn 2, and it was a collective gasp from the crowd. Not as bad as the Charade Lap at the US 500 a few years later though. The thing with those Buick V6 engines seemed to be that it was either full power or idle with not much in between, and they never seemed to make it 500 miles.
I did May 92 in Gasoline alley. Hung out quite a bit with Cheever ,jr and Roberto. Pretty cool "how the sausage is made".
Robeeto Jose Guerrero, The first Colombian in the Great spectacle in Racing. Unfortunately after the horrendous crash at Indy in 1987 not was the same
Some times forgotten because he was overshadow by Juan Pablo.
People don't even knew Guerrero was in F1 and Indy.
I wasn’t even alive when this happened but I’ve known of him since I became interested in Indycar. To me there might not be a nicer and more deserving person to have missed out on the 500 win. Same with Mark Martin and a cup championship. Makes you wish time and age weren’t a factor so that they could keep going at their peak until they finally got it done
Excellent work as always fellas.
You’re making great videos! If anyone hasn’t seen his tirewars video, you definitely should its amazing!
Met the guy in the garage area in 2011. Super nice guy...
Definitely a heartbreaker for a great driver. Temperatures the day before were in the 80's, then a thunderstorm and a huge cold front rolled in cleaning the track and dropping the temperatures down to the 40's race morning. A lot of accidents, but a great finish.
Racing history is full of guys like Guerrero. You can say he was just unlucky, but what defines successful racing drivers is how seldom they make mistakes. You can be the fastest guy on the track every weekend, but it only takes one mistake to throw everything away. Consistency is the number one thing that matters.
Great guy and awesome attitude. Amen!
How do you and Brock not work for NBC or Fox? Great storytelling, production, and find some of the most unique stories I would have never known about otherwise.
I was at this race. It was really cold that day. These was no traction upon starts and restarts The Buick had basically an on-off throttle leading to this embarrassing situation. The real heartbreak of the day belonged to the Andretti family. Michael was by far the fastest car on the track but because there were so many crashes he was never able to build much of a lead. Still he has a good lead in the past few laps when a small belt to the fuel pump broke putting him out. It was worse for the other Andretti’s. Jeff was seriously injured in a crash and I believe he never raced seriously again. Mario was doing great but he crashed coming out of turn four and injured his feet. John didn’t crash but he ran over a crew member when leaving the pits.
I run the Quaker State livery on my Indy Car in iRacing because Bernstein was my favorite race car driver and Roberto my favorite Indy driver
Great work on this story!
We were on the outside of backstretch in pull in parking and from there it looked like he kept going left! Couldn’t believe what we were seeing! Now I know the rest of the story!! Best part my driver won after my sisters ran out of gas right in front of us , some of our best Indy memories!
Those Buicks were so cool. They sounded so different.
These were the days when Indy was great. Not like the crap they are trotting out today.
Cool but really unreliable.
@@chrish931 Yep they were hand grenades. LOL But that's what made Indy great in those days. Nowadays all the engines just drone around for 500-miles with no blow ups. Taking 50% out of the anticipation of the race.
I was in turn two looking straight down the backstretch. It was 37 degrees at racetime. Drivers had trouble with cold tires all day. I believe 12 cars finished the race. Lynn Saint James finished 11th. I was also wearing a t-shirt underneath my many articles of clothing of the #3 valvoline indy car.
I was watching this live. My dad and I were just like "WTF did he do!"
That 82 to 87 Indy 500 record is pretty spectacular.
This was my first Indy 500. Cold and nasty. Unlike all the sunny races I had seen on TV. Still, it was something pretty special.
Hearing Tom Carnegie say "A new track record!" is the most nostalgic thing I've heard this year.
Aaaaaand he's on it.
Kenny Bernstein's car almost won the first Brickyard 400 a couple of years later when Brett Bodine finished second to Jeff Gordon. While Bodine did actually win one Winston Cup race, I'm guessing that that second at Indianapolis was his biggest day in the top NASCAR series. I'm sure it was the biggest payday. Of course he also wrecked his brother Geoff in that race in a famous incident that caused much comment.
Well on the stat side of things, he coulda been remembered as one of the speedway's fatalities. Instead he is remembered as one of the best drivers to never have won there which I am sure most drivers would rather have. I remember watching that day in 1992 on ABC, I was a huge Penske fan back then BUT I was also rooting for Bernstein's 2 Buicks, like I honestly thought they had a really good shot that day at running up front & contending for the win & I also thought that IF Roberto could avoid trouble & his Buick held on that he would be there at the end to contend with Mears or whoever it was gonna be. As it was though, his crashing on the parade lap was just a preview of what was to be a very dark day which included Rick crashing out for the first time in his career. That 92 Quaker State Lola Buick is still to this day though one of my favorite cars to have ever raced at the speedway...
It shows that Guerrero knew how to compete at Indy, even though he only won a few races overall. As far as drivers with only a few wins in Indycar, Scott Goodyear, Carlos Munoz and Vitor Meira (who never even won a race) came close to winning the 500 on multiple occasions themselves.
Well, we all saw the initial finishes 2nd, 4th, 3rd, 2nd. Think about this! That is an almost unbelievable stat especially when one considers the Indy 500 is world's most prestigious single day race! The month of May is a wondrous time in the Midwest but it's still a time when all of sudden, nature can whip up a good ole fashioned reminder of those overcast, cloudy, windy cold dreary days we'd endured for months on end. Roberto Guerrero didn't deserve that day and neither did the fans. A disastrous day and race.
9:15 He was actually released before the season ended, 13 of the 16 races to be exact.
Yep, Cheever finished the season in the #40 car
Omg i miss Tom Carnegie's voice at the speedway
And its a new track record man that gives me chills
Loved the Buick V6 in IndyCar. The last link to OE parts at Indianapolis.
One other driver in Indycar history also had terrible luck: Lloyd Ruby.
Although Ruby had some success in the series, he never won the Indianapolis "500", and in fact, often dropped out of the race when either leading or within striking distance of the leader.
The Indy incident was really a drag. I was there that year and we were really, really looking forward to seeing a turbo Buick show the Cosworths a thing or two. Then I see Roberto's car buck and spin..we're thinking "What?" The field comes by again with no Roberto. There was a kind of collective sigh. The race turned out to be pretty good, but I wanted to see Jim Crawford's earlier efforts to be recognized. Didn't happen.
You can actually see the right rear tire explode, start to come off the rim and then the car dives left...Yes, it dove left because the right rear tire blew causing the car to jerk left.
Roberto Guerrero..... always a bridesmaid at Indy.
Wasn’t there a similar incident to this in the early 1980’s, when Kevin Cogan (I think that’s the right spelling) lost control on the parade lap and took out Mario?
Yes. And Mario was incredibly pissed.
Also, in the 2001 500, polesitter Scott Sharp spun and crashed in the first turn of the first lap.
At the start in 1982.
"Crash" Cogan.AJ Foyt got took out also by him.
The legendary "Coogin" incident. Although Cogan's culprit was a broken CV joint. Roberto's was simply hitting the gas on cold tires.
I was in turn 1 when he hit that tire coming out of turn 4 in 1987. I saw it fly like a golf ball high into the air. We found out when leaving the stands later that afternoon that someone was basically decapitated in the top row of the grandstand. Horrific. Mario Andretti had bad luck that day after having lead most of the race and lost out on a 2nd victory yet again.
George Mallory I saw the tire fly through the air too. It was terrible. Somehow we all knew it hit somebody even though they did not announce it until after the race.
greatest finish in 500 history
This was the first Indy 500 I ever attended. A cold 5 year old was very happy when Unser Jr won!
It was my first too, although I was a bit older.
Bobby Unsers' voice,,,,, literally makes my skin crawl.
What a guy
I miss Guerrero as a motorsport commentator for speed latam in the former grand am series.
Oh, BTW, great video reminder, thank you.
Great video
Amazing
Holy Shit! I had never seen footage of Roberto hitting the tire
I remember this. This completely sucked and i was so bummed when he crashed
Great Driver! 🔝🏎❤
I was there, pole and crash lol cold as hell that year
That was the worst day for Andretti's