Mercedosaurus Rex at Indianapolic Park
Appendix 4: PC23's 1994 results sans Mercedes Benz 500I
Author
- Henri Greuter
Date
- December 4, 2009; updated May 25, 2012
Related articles
- March-Alfa Romeo 90CA - Fiasco Italo-Brittanico, by Henri Greuter
- March-Porsche 90P - The last oddball at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, by Henri Greuter
- Penske-Mercedes PC23-500I - Mercedosaurus Rex at Indianapolic Park, by Henri Greuter
- Introduction
- Part 1: Penske Racing at Indianapolis - new standards
- Part 2: Ilmor Engineering at Indianapolis
- Part 3: Mercedes, Benz and Mercedes-Benz at Indianapolis up until 1993
- Part 4: Equivalency formulas - waiting for things to go wrong
- Part 5: Stock blocks - keeping them rolling and promoting 'Born in the USA' technology
- Part 6: Indianapolis 1991 - Chevy And Rich Team owners
- Part 7: The Speedway narrowed, its speeds lowered
- Part 8: The forerunner
- Part 9: Pre-May '94 plans
- Part 10: Penske PC23 - a home for the engine
- Part 11: The 1994 Indycar season until mid-April
- Part 12: The unfair advantage and when others have it
- Part 13: Practice during the 1994 'Month of May'
- Part 14: Other bespoke-design 209s
- Part 15: From the last weekend of May '94 to the end of the season
- Part 16: Could the Mercedes Benz 500I have been stopped in time?
- Part 17: Creating an extinct species without it being forbidden, initially at least
- Part 18: The 1995 '500' - Did the Mercedosaurus bite its masters after all?
- Part 19: A possible twist of fate for Rahal-Hogan and Penske as a legacy of the 500I
- Part 20: Re-evaluation of our verdict
- Part 21: PC23's further active career after 1994
- Part 22: USAC’s points of views and some answers
- Part 23: The loose ends that didn’t fit in anywhere else and the epilogue
- Part 24: "Plan your work; work your plan" - Chuck Sprague on the PC23
- Appendix 1: Specifications
- Appendix 2: Car and driver appearances and performances during the Month of May 1994
- Appendix 3: Chassis, entry, practice and race numbers in 1994
- Appendix 5: PC23's 1995-'96 results sans Mercedes Benz 500I
- Appendix 6: A reflection on the PC23 chassis used by Team Penske in 1994
- Appendix 7: A review of Beast by Jade Gurss
Acknowledgement: the update of this Appendix in May 2012 was possible thanks to the much appreciated cooperation of Team Penske members Chuck Sprague and Nigel Beresford who supplied data from factory records they had available to them.
To be complete, here is an overview of the results obtained with the Penske PC23 chassis during the 1994 season.
Results 1994 PPG Indycar World Series
In the following table the following abbreviations stand for:
- Date: Date of event held, written in European style (day/month)
- C#: Chassis number (PC23 prefix omitted)
- S: Starting position on the grid
- R: Ranking according to qualifying speed (due to different Q-system at Indianapolis)
- Speed: Qualifying speed
- Fin: Finish result
- Laps: Number of laps driven in the race
- Status: Reason of retirement, running at the finish or average race speed when full distance was covered
- Pts: Point score for the 1994 CART PPG Championship
| Date | Track | Driver | C# | S | R1 | Speed | Fin | Laps | Status | Pts |
| 23/3 | Australia | Fittipaldi | 003 | 3 | 104.788 | 2 | 55 | 80.878 | 16 | |
| Tracy | 005 | 6 | 104.380 | 16 | 39 | gearbox | ||||
| Unser Jr | 001 | 5 | 104.384 | 14 | 51 | engine | ||||
| 10/4 | Phoenix | Fittipaldi | 003 | 6 | 173.346 | 1 | 200 | 107.437 | 21 | |
| Tracy | 005 | 1 | 176.266 | 23 | 62 | accident | 1 | |||
| Unser Jr | 001 | 9 | 172.342 | 2 | 200 | 107.221 | 16 | |||
| 17/4 | Long Beach | Fittipaldi | 003 | 3 | 108.308 | 21 | 66 | transmission | ||
| Tracy | 005 | 1 | 108.450 | 20 | 75 | transmission | 1 | |||
| Unser Jr | 001 | 2 | 108.407 | 1 | 105 | 99.283 | 21 | |||
| 29/5 | Indianapolis | Fittipaldi | 003 | 3 | 3 | 227.303 | 17 | 184 | accident | 1 |
| Tracy | 001 | 25 | 19 | 222.710 | 23 | 92 | turbo | |||
| Unser Jr | 007 | 1 | 1 | 228.011 | 1 | 200 | 168.872 | 21 | ||
| 5/6 | Milwaukee | Fittipaldi | 005 | 8 | 158.269 | 2 | 192 | 118.774 | 16 | |
| Tracy | 001 | 2 | 160.757 | 3 | 190 | running | 14 | |||
| Unser Jr | 007 | 11 | 157.997 | 1 | 192 | 118.804 | 21 | |||
| 12/6 | Detroit | Fittipaldi | 005 | 4 | 106.542 | 1 | 77 | 88.127 | 20 | |
| Tracy | 001 | 3 | 107.845 | 2 | 77 | 88.245 | 16 | |||
| Unser Jr | 007 | 2 | 107.965 | 10 | 77 | 85.579 | 4 | |||
| 26/6 | Portland | Fittipaldi | 005 | 3 | 116.101 | 2 | 102 | 107.748 | 16 | |
| Tracy | 001 | 4 | 115.685 | 3 | 102 | 107.253 | 14 | |||
| Unser Jr | 007 | 1 | 116.861 | 1 | 102 | 107.777 | 22 | |||
| 10/7 | Cleveland | Fittipaldi | 008 | 3 | 143.387 | 3 | 65 | exhaust header | ||
| Tracy | 001 | 2 | 143.716 | 3 | 85 | running | 14 | |||
| Unser Jr | 007 | 1 | 143.983 | 1 | 85 | 138.026 | 22 | |||
| 17/7 | Toronto | Fittipaldi | 002 | 4 | 109.136 | 3 | 98 | 96.561 | 14 | |
| Tracy | 001 | 5 | 109.094 | 5 | 97 | running | 10 | |||
| Unser Jr | 007 | 3 | 109.565 | 29 | 3 | engine | ||||
| 31/7 | Michigan | Fittipaldi | 005 | 7 | 228.710 | 10 | 209 | engine | 3 | |
| Tracy | 001 | 11 | 226.825 | 11 | 150 | fuel pressure | ||||
| Unser Jr | 007 | 14 | 226.376 | 8 | 231 | engine | 5 | |||
| 14/8 | Mid-Ohio | Fittipaldi | 005 | 3 | 119.442 | 3 | 83 | 109.731 | 14 | |
| Tracy | 001 | 2 | 119.454 | 2 | 83 | 110.357 | 17 | |||
| Unser Jr | 007 | 1 | 119.517 | 1 | 83 | 110.387 | 21 | |||
| 21/8 | Nw Hampsh. | Fittipaldi | 005 | 1 | 175.091 | 3 | 200 | 122.601 | 16 | |
| Tracy | 001 | 4 | 173.422 | 2 | 200 | 122.648 | 16 | |||
| Unser Jr | 007 | 10 | 170.365 | 1 | 200 | 122.635 | 20 | |||
| 4/9 | Vancouver | Fittipaldi | 005 | 12 | 107.151 | 9 | 101 | accident | 4 | |
| Tracy | 001 | 6 | 107.562 | 20 | 94 | suspension | ||||
| Unser Jr | 007 | 8 | 107.510 | 1 | 102 | 89.166 | 20 | |||
| 11/9 | Road America | Fittipaldi | 005 | 9 | 133.656 | 3 | 50 | 116.873 | 14 | |
| Tracy | 001 | 1 | 136.602 | 18 | 50 | engine | 2 | |||
| Unser Jr | 007 | 4 | 135.598 | 2 | 50 | 116.911 | 16 | |||
| 18/9 | Nazareth | Fittipaldi | 005 | 1 | 185.600 | 3 | 200 | 130.803 | 14 | |
| Tracy | 001 | 2 | 184.818 | 1 | 200 | 131.141 | 21 | |||
| Unser Jr | 007 | 18 | 175.220 | 2 | 200 | 130.939 | 16 | |||
| 9/10 | Laguna Seca | Fittipaldi | 005 | 9 | 110.942 | 4 | 84 | 92.649 | 12 | |
| Tracy | 001 | 1 | 113.768 | 1 | 84 | 92.978 | 22 | |||
| Unser Jr | 007 | 4 | 112.056 | 20 | 74 | transmission |
All results except Indianapolis obtained with Ilmor/D engine, Indianapolis with the Mercedes Benz 500I engine
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 1994, due to weather interference, Pole Day (Saturday) was partly rained out and all cars nominated for the qualifying line-up were given their one chance for the pole as soon as circumstances permitted. This meant that eventually 21 cars qualified on Saturday and another four cars on Sunday. From then on, all following cars were designated second-day qualifiers. Paul Tracy had lost the opportunity to qualify on Pole Day due to his accident and as a result of this he at best could become fastest second-day qualifier and line up behind all the cars that had qualified according the sequence determined for Pole Day. 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.
Final classifications PPG Indycar World Series 1994 season
| 1 | Al Unser Jr | 225 pts |
| 2 | Emerson Fittipaldi | 178 pts |
| 3 | Paul Tracy | 152 pts |
It can be concluded from these results that the PC23 in both engine configurations was not always fastest in qualifying. It was, however, a formidable race contender. The finish results for the PC23s list:
- - 5 1-2-3 victories (all of these after Indianapolis in the last 12 races of the season)
- - 2 1-2 victories
- - 1 1-3 victory
- - 4 single victories
In the four races lost the team still scored the following podium places:
- - 1 2-3 result
- - 1 2nd place
- - 1 3rd place
Which means that on just one occasion that year (the Michigan 500) none of the Penske drivers finished in the top 3.