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Fiasco Italo-Brittanico
Appendix II: Results and scores

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Date

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Who?

Roberto Guerrero

What?

March-Alfa Romeo 90CA

Where?

Indianapolis

When?

1990 Indianapolis 500 (May 17, 1990)
Why?

This section contains an overview of the results achieved by the 1990 March-Alfa Romeo 90CA.

I. Indianapolis

The official entry list appearing in the 1990 Indianapolis 500 miles Official Program and the Carl Hungness 1990 Yearbook is listing four entries for Patrick Racing. The cars numbered 20, 20T, 40 and 40T were all listed as 1990 March 90CA models.

During the Month of May I have seen cars carrying the following numbers: 20, 40 and 20T, the latter carrying a registration number 82 on the roll hoop. Pictures of all these cars appear in sections of the 1990 Hungness yearbook called The Field and Missed the Show.

The 1990 Day-By-Day Trackside Report For the Media, as available on Race Day morning, didn't list any change in entry numbers for the Patrick Racing team.

The same Trackside Report contains a data sheet called Performance History (by Month’s Speed), valid at 5/22 listing all driver-and-car combinations out on the track during practice and qualifying in the Month of May.

Using this sheet as reference the achievements for the March-Alfa Romeos are as follows:

Rank Car no. Driver Chassis* Total laps Top speed Date top speed
48 40 Unser Sr 90CA (1) 171 214.593 5/11
53 20T Guerrero 90CA (3) 102 213.174 5/19
59 20 Guerrero 90CA (2) 84 212.384 5/11

* Chassis numbers allocated according to data supplied by IMS Historian Donald Davidson.

A total of 90 different car-and-driver combinations appeared at the speedway that year.

As an indication of Guerrero and Unser Sr's competitiveness during the 500-mile race itself, here is a listing with their positions in the official 10-lap standings. Between brackets is the number of laps driven by the Alfa Romeo drivers with the leader on the listed lap.

Lead lap Guerrero Unser Sr
10 27 (9) 31 (9)
20 28 (18) 32 (17)
30 27 (28) 29 (27)
40 29 (36) 28 (36)
50 27 (45) 26 (46)
60 28 (54) 26 (55)
70 25 (64) 21 (65)
80 25 (73) 20 (75)
90 23 (82) 19 (84)
100 23 (92) 40 (93)
110 22 (101) 17 (102)
120 19 (111) 16 (112)
130 21 (117) 17 (121)
140 22 (118) 15 (130)
150 14 (140)
160 14 (149)
170 14 (159)
180 13 (168)
190 13 (177)
200 23 (118) 13 (186)

The fastest laps set by the Patrick Racing drivers in the race were as follows:
Guerrero: lap 107, 43.190 sec = 208.382 mph (20th fastest driver)
Unser Sr: lap 106, 43.866 sec = 205.170 mph (26th fastest driver)

II. The 1990 CART PPG Indycar World Series

The following is an overview of the results achieved with the March-Alfa Romeo 90CA during the 1990 CART season, including the 500-mile race at Indianapolis.

In the following table these abbreviations stand for:

Date: date of event, European notation (day/month) C#: chassis number S: starting position on the grid R: ranking according qualifying speed (due to different qualifying system at Indianapolis) Speed: qualifying speed Fin: finishing result Laps: number of laps in the race Status: retirement reason, running at the finish or average race speed when full distance was covered Pts: point score for the 1990 CART PPG Championship

Date Track Driver C# S R1 Speed Fin Laps Status Pts
8/4 Phoenix Guerrero 14 157.274 16 145 Contact T1
22/4 Long Beach Guerrero 19 86.064 14 91 Running
27/5 Indianapolis Guerrero 3* 28 29 212.652 18 118 Suspension
Unser Sr 1* 30 31 212.087 13 186 Running
3/6 Milwaukee Guerrero 21 N/S 18 88 Suspension
17/6 Detroit Guerrero 18 83.857 21 22 Engine
24/6 Portland Guerrero 16 119.459 8 100 Running 5
8/7 Cleveland Guerrero 17 131.216 19 31 Gearbox
15/7 Meadowlands Guerrero 19 108.890 15 87 Gearbox

R1 At Indianapolis rules specified that qualifying happens on four days, the grid being lined up in the sequence of first-day qualifiers, second-day qualifiers and so on. In 1990, due to weather interference, Pole Day (Saturday 12/5) was rained out and all cars that nominated for qualifying were given their one shot for pole as soon as circumstances permitted. This meant that eventually 15 cars qualified on Sunday 13/5 and another seven cars on Saturday 19/5. From then on, all following cars were designated third-day qualifiers. The R column gives the ranking the drivers should have had if the grid had been lined up according to qualifying speeds, regardless of the moment the drivers qualified.

* The chassis number as released by IMS Historians.

Extract taken from 1990 CART/PPG Indycar World Series, final standings:

1. Al Unser Jr, Galles-Kraco/Valvoline Lola-Chevrolet T90/00, 210 points
...
16. Roberto Guerrero, Miller Genuine Draft March-Alfa Romeo 90CA & Miller Genuine Draft Lola-Alfa Romeo T90/00, 24 points2

2 Guerrero scored 5 points with the 90CA. From Michigan on Patrick Racing fielded Lola T90/00 chassis, in which Roberto went on to score 19 more points, his best score being a fifth at Michigan.