The fourth round of the 1996-97 Indy Racing League went to a debt-laden team that stayed out on fuel and beat the early favourite by less than a second.
Jim Guthrie won the 1997 Phoenix 200 for Blueprint Racing, leading 74 laps and finishing less than a second ahead of Tony Stewart. He had no sponsor, and his team ran a single Oldsmobile engine that had already been rebuilt three times.
The 1997 Phoenix 200 formed round four of the 1996-1997 Indy Racing League, held on 23 March 1997 at Phoenix International Raceway in Avondale, Arizona. Jim Guthrie won after leading 74 laps and beat Tony Stewart, a result widely regarded as one of the biggest upsets in Indy car history. Guthrie raced with no sponsor and a heavy personal debt, which made the victory especially striking.
Who was Jim Guthrie and why was his win so unexpected?
Guthrie co-owned Blueprint Racing, a small team with no sponsorship that ran a mustard yellow Dallara. He had borrowed against his house a second time and owed $185,000 to creditors. Volunteers made up much of the crew, and the car travelled to the circuit on a hired flatbed trailer.
Blueprint could not afford a spare engine. Its only Oldsmobile unit had been rebuilt three times and had covered 640 miles before the race. Guthrie compared his small group's effort to the story of David and Goliath.
The result gave Guthrie more than a trophy. His crew gambled on staying out to stretch fuel late in the race, and the tactic paid off. After the race the $170,100 payoff helped him settle some of his debts.
A month after the race a year-long sponsor was confirmed: Jacuzzi. The deal promised a serious Indianapolis 500 campaign, with fresh engines and a spare car that the team had never been able to afford.
A volunteer-run team with no sponsor beat the favourite by less than a second at Phoenix.
How did pre-race testing shape the weekend?
Testing was dominated by engine trouble and shortages. Stewart and Scott Sharp led much of the week at the Test in the West, which ran from 24 to 28 February with 24 drivers. Several teams were short of the scarce Infiniti engines.
Only Sharp and Stewart went quicker than 170 mph across the five days. Sharp posted the fastest lap in a brand-new G-Force chassis that A. J. Foyt Enterprises had bought to evaluate it against the Dallara. Davey Hamilton finished third overall, with Guthrie just behind him.
Buddy Lazier, Jack Miller and Mike Groff all had engine problems traced to a bearing application issue on the limited Infiniti units. The safety measure came after the Orlando crashes, when the IRL mandated a seven-pound attenuator fixed behind each gearbox.
Kenny Brack's week was the most notable. He had been a Formula 3000 runner-up in 1996, and Galles Racing used him as a potential long-term replacement for the injured Davy Jones. He set the week's fastest time, and the team signed him for the rest of the season. Brack had raced on an oval only once before, in 1993.
Sam Schmidt cleared his rookie test and was approved to drive the team's second car. Team Menard unofficially parted ways with Mark Dismore, and the team evaluated Billy Boat and Dave Blaney for its second seat.
The entry list appeared on 5 March with 23 entries. Team Menard confirmed Robbie Buhl as its second driver the following day, and Chitwood Motorsports swapped Danny Ongais for Affonso Giaffone, a one-race deal backed by General Motors do Brasil. Giaffone then failed to qualify.
Tire testing at Indianapolis Motor Speedway followed the next week. Fermin Velez drove for Goodyear, while Tony Stewart and John Paul Jr. tested for Firestone.
How did qualifying set the Phoenix grid?
Stewart claimed pole with the fastest lap of qualifying, and Guthrie took second. Treadway Racing placed Scott Goodyear and Arie Luyendyk on the second row, with Buzz Calkins and Robbie Buhl behind them. Sharp's engine caught fire in morning practice, so he was allowed to start at the back.
Stewart had also led the final practice session. Guthrie was due to qualify last. Despite setting the quickest first lap, he came up short of Stewart's time. That made him the only driver within four mph of the pole.
Guerrero was the quickest Infiniti-powered car in 11th, after his car was repaired in time. Guthrie had managed only 18th on the grid in 1996, so his second-place start marked a dramatic step forward for the team. Schmidt qualified seventh in his first IRL session, while Brack took 10th and Billy Roe 18th. Davey Hamilton could manage only 15th, and Mike Groff was 17th.
Guthrie was second in the morning practice session and third in the afternoon, marking him as Stewart's main contender before qualifying.
In practice, Fermin Velez surprised everyone with the third-fastest time before his engine blew. Roberto Guerrero's crash was also triggered by an engine failure, which raised concerns in the Oldsmobile camp about a possible oil link problem. Both of A. J. Foyt Enterprises' drivers ran G-Force chassis, although the team also had Dallaras available.
Marco Greco qualified with an engine loaned by A. J. Foyt Enterprises, which gave him a first top-10 qualifying result. For the first time in the series' history, every driver who took part in practice was able to start the race.
How did the race unfold?
Nine caution periods covered 83 of the 200 laps, which turned the race into a slow, attrition-filled contest. Six cautions came from engine failures and oil spills, and five of those involved Oldsmobile units. Only after the race did the maker identify an oil line fitting that did not suit the plumbing of the new chassis.
Guerrero had a battery failure from 10th on the grid and was five laps down by his restart. Stewart led away, while Guthrie tried to pass him on the outside and then had to defend against Luyendyk. Within a few laps Luyendyk's brand-new engine, fitted the day before, failed on lap 12.
John Paul Jr. passed Guthrie for second on the lap 19 restart, but he lacked the pace to challenge Stewart. Lazier retired on lap 33 after his engine failed and spilled oil on the track, and the clean-up kept the field under caution for 10 laps. Affonso Giaffone meanwhile climbed eight spots in the first ten laps, reaching sixth place by lap 35.
A five-car crash on lap 52 began when Scott Goodyear's engine failed on the exit of turn one. Marco Greco spun on the oil, Robbie Buhl was hit by Sam Schmidt, and Jeret Schroeder crashed into the outside wall behind them. Greco and Schmidt carried on, while Schroeder was taken away by ambulance with a mild concussion.
Sharp took the lead on the lap 61 restart by taking advantage of Stewart's cold tyres. His engine blew up four laps later, and he rolled into an access road. Later, a restart on lap 129 was aborted for an additional track inspection, and the pace car driver, Johnny Rutherford, had to swerve as four drivers passed him.
No penalties were issued, and racing resumed on lap 133. Kenny Brack, who was leading at that point, crashed on lap 146 after running high into the oil in turn three. Schmidt also crashed 20 laps from the end, with rear tyre failure and mid-back pain, which brought out another long caution.
Billy Roe, running 11th, began losing oil on lap 82 and was black-flagged, but he did not realise the problem until he crashed heavily on lap 85 as he entered turn three.
Who finished where?
Guthrie won ahead of Stewart. Davey Hamilton took his first Indy car podium in third, Marco Greco kept his top-10 streak, and Stephan Gregoire reached the top five for the first time. Mike Groff finished sixth and kept the championship lead. Stewart had led the early practice sessions, yet he finished second.
| Position | Driver | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jim Guthrie | Winner after leading 74 laps |
| 2 | Tony Stewart | Runner-up after a late charge that fell short |
| 3 | Davey Hamilton | First Indy car podium finish |
| 6 | Mike Groff | Kept the championship lead |
| 8 | Buzz Calkins | Finished with a back-up car |
Hamilton's podium lifted him to second in the championship standings, a result that surprised many observers in the paddock.
Buzz Calkins finished eighth with a back-up car, after losing several laps during the race. Groff had been black-flagged for smoke from his car and lost four laps to fix the problem. He fell as low as 18th before attrition brought him back to sixth.
Why did the race stand out in IRL history?
The win made Guthrie the fifth consecutive first-time winner in the IRL, an unprecedented run in post-war Indy car history. None of the top six finishers had won an Indy car race before. The race lasted 2 hours and 14 minutes, the longest Indy car race ever held at Phoenix.
The average speed was the second slowest for an Indy car race at the track. The event lasted 45 minutes beyond the 1986 Circle K/Fiesta Bowl 200, an event that still holds the venue's speed record. The slow pace reflected the caution flags and the trouble with the new engines.
Guthrie's victory echoed an earlier upset at the track. Arie Luyendyk had won an unsponsored race with a car of his own in 1991, and Guthrie's team was in a similar position six years later. Both wins showed how a small operation could still trouble the top teams.
What did Guthrie's win mean for his team?
Blueprint gained a year-long backing deal, new engines and a back-up car for Indianapolis, and the win transformed the team's standing almost overnight. For Guthrie it was his only Indy car podium finish, yet it carried the most meaning of his career.
Strategy decided much of the outcome. Stewart made late stops under yellow for rear-wing changes and then fuel, while Guthrie stayed out and stretched his fuel to the finish. Hamilton had benefited from the attrition and passed Marco Greco for third, which helped his team's standing in the championship.
The 1.609 km (1.000 mile) oval had been tested by the whole field during the week, and Blueprint's single Oldsmobile unit had been rebuilt three times before the race. In the end, the patience of a small, volunteer-run team beat better funded rivals on the day, and the fuel strategy did much of the work.
