Mercedosaurus Rex at Indianapolic Park
Appendix 5: PC23's 1995-'96 results sans Mercedes Benz 500I
Author
- Henri Greuter
Date
- December 4, 2009
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 4: PC23's 1994 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
1995 Indianapolis 500-miles race
During the 1995 PPG Indycar World Series, Bettenhausen Motorsports fielded a PC23 powered by a Mercedes Benz IC108 engine for driver Stefan Johansson. The team had two cars available during the season.
The 500 miles of Indianapolis were part of the series for the last time. For this race, two more cars were entered by the Penske factory team itself. In the Official Entry Lists, these cars appear entered under numbers 89 and 98. Likely these cars were only entered in order to obtain garage space and were never intended to be at the Speedway. Otherwise I can’t explain the fact that the 1994 winning chassis PC23-007 had to be brought over from California in order to be tested by Fittipaldi during the second week of practice. If tests with a PC23 were necessary, then why bring over the 007 all the way from California if two entered cars were on the Speedway ground?
The Daily Performance History listings for the Penske PC23s that appeared at the Speedway read as follows:
| Day results | Month results | ||||||
| Date | Rank | Car | Driver | Laps | Speed | Laps | Speed |
| May 6 | 16 | 16 | Johansson | 8 | 190.472 | 8 | 190.472 |
| May 7 | 16 | 16 | Johansson | 96 | 224.165 | 104 | 224.165 |
| May 8 | 33 | 16T | Johansson | 27 | 216.586 | 27 | 216.586 |
| 37 | 16 | Johansson | 7 | 212.355 | 111 | 224.165 | |
| May 9 | 29 | 16 | Johansson | 16 | 221.032 | 127 | 224.165 |
| 35 | 16T | Johansson | 27 | 217.024 | 54 | 217.024 | |
| May 10 | 18 | 16 | Johansson | 30 | 220.837 | 157 | 224.165 |
| May 11 | 27 | 16 | Johansson | 105 | 225.214 | 262 | 225.214 |
| May 12 | 35 | 16T | Johansson | 39 | 226.598 | 95 | 226.598 |
| 37 | 16 | Johansson | 32 | 225.366 | 294 | 225.366 | |
| May 13 | 24 | 16 | Johansson | 25 | 225.654 | 319 | 225.654 |
| 26 | 16T | Johansson | 18 | 225.321 | 113 | 226.598 | |
| May 14 | 24 | 16T | Johansson | 29 | 222.030 | 142 | 226.598 |
| 27 | 16 | Johansson | 28 | 220.097 | 347 | 225.654 | |
| May 15 | 18 | 89 | Fittipaldi | 59 | 220.745 | 59 | 220.745 |
| May 19 | 17 | 61 | Johansson | 32 | 226.182 | 32 | 226.182* |
| 29 | 16T | Johansson | 45 | 223.203 | 187 | 226.598 | |
| May 20 | 10 | 61 | Johansson | 50 | 226.239 | 82 | 226.239* |
| May 21 | 11 | 61 | Johansson | 53 | 225.921 | 135 | 226.239* |
* Car was not a 1993 Penske PC22-Mercedes as mentioned in the Official Entry List but a 1994 Reynard 94I/Ford XB car, originally entered as #94 by Arciero Wells Racing. Johansson qualified this car for the race in the final ten minutes of Bump Day (May 21st) on the third and final attempt for this car.
In the Month of May Performance History – by best speed, the various Penske/driver entries as well as the other cars driven by all drivers originally entered to drive Penske-built chassis can be found at the following places. The 1994-type PC23 achievements are in bold, drivers initially entered with Penske chassis but running in other makes are in italics.
| Rank | Car# | Driver | Car | Laps | Speed | Date |
| 39 | 9T | Emerson Fittipaldi | 1995/Lola-Mercedes | 173 | 227.813 | 19/5 |
| 42 | 1T | Al Unser Jr. | 1995/Penske-Mercedes | 211 | 227.261 | 12/5 |
| 45 | 11T | Al Unser Jr | 1995/Lola-Mercedes | 164 | 227.147 | 20/5 |
| 53 | 16T | Stefan Johansson | 1994/Penske-Mercedes | 185 | 226.598 | 12/5 |
| 56 | 61 | Stefan Johansson | 1994/Reynard-Ford | 135 | 226.239 | 20/5 |
| 60 | 16 | Stefan Johansson | 1994/Penske-Mercedes | 363 | 225.654 | 13/5 |
| 65 | 2 | Emerson Fittipaldi | 1995/Penske Mercedes | 669 | 225.011 | 13/5 |
| 72 | 1 | Al Unser Jr | 1995/Penske-Mercedes | 432 | 224.489 | 11/5 |
| 84 | 2 | Emerson Fittipaldi | 1995/Penske Mercedes | 68 | 220.821 | 13/5 |
| 85 | 89 | Emerson Fittipaldi | 1994/Penske Mercedes | 59 | 220.745 | 15/5 |
| 87 | 1 | Al Unser Jr. | 1995/Penske-Mercedes | 69 | 218.834 | 19/5 |
| 90 | 21 | Al Unser Jr | 1994/Reynard-Mercedes | 63 | 218.050 | 16/5 |
A total of 99 different car-and-driver combinations made their appearance at the Speedway.
1995 PPG Indycar World Series results for Penske PC23 chassis
In the following table these abbreviations stand for:
- Date: Date of event held, written in European style (day/month)
- C#: Chassis number
- S: Starting position on the grid
- Speed: Qualifying speed
- F: 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 1995 CART PPG Championship
| Date | Track | Driver | C# | S | Speed | F | Laps | Status | Pts |
| 5/3 | Miami | Johansson | 13 | 102.683 | 22 | 46 | Transmission | ||
| 19/3 | Australia | Johansson | 7 | 103.382 | 17 | 53 | Transmission | ||
| 2/4 | Phoenix | Johansson | 13 | 177.185 | 13 | 24 | Accident | ||
| 94 | Long Beach | Johansson | 24 | 105.506 | 6 | 104 | Running | 8 | |
| 23/4 | Nazareth | Johansson | 13 | 182.862 | 3 | 200 | 131.050 | 14 | |
| 28/5 | Indianapolis | Johansson | practice only | ||||||
| Fittipaldi | 007 | practice only | |||||||
| 4/6 | Nazareth | Johansson | ? * | ||||||
| 11/6 | Detroit | Johansson | 12 | 106.806 | 11 | 77 | 83.005 | 2 | |
| 25/6 | Portland | Johansson | 12 | 115.901 | 6 | 101 | out of fuel | 10 | |
| 9/7 | Road America | Johansson | 17 | 139.037 | 10 | 50 | 103.669 | 3 | |
| 16/7 | Toronto | Johansson | 18 | 108.676 | 14 | 94 | Running | ||
| 23/7 | Cleveland | Johansson | 20 | 144.146 | 8 | 89 | Running | 5 | |
| 30/7 | Michigan | Johansson | 21 | 220.238 | 6 | 244 | Running | 8 | |
| 13/8 | Mid-Ohio | Johansson | 17 | 117.847 | 23 | 61 | Engine | ||
| 20/8 | Nw Hampshire | Johansson | 24 | 166.856 | 25 | 17 | oil leak | ||
| 3/9 | Vancouver | Johansson | 17 | 108.397 | 4 | 100 | 95.178 | 12 | |
| 10/9 | Laguna Seca | Johansson | 18 | 111.054 | 14 | 83 | Running |
* According to published results lists, Johansson drove a 1993-type Penske PC22 at Nazareth in the race. Just like with the Reynard-Ford he drove at Indianapolis, Johansson didn’t score a point with the PC22.
Final classifications PPG Indycar World Series 1995 season
| 1 | Jacques Villeneuve | Reynard-Ford 95I | 173 pts |
| 2 | Al Unser Jr. | Penske-Mercedes PC24 | 140 pts |
| … | |||
| 11 | Emerson Fittipaldi | Penske-Mercedes PC24 | 67 pts |
| 12 | Adrian Fernandez | Lola-Mercedes T95/00 | 67 pts |
| 13 | Stefan Johansson | Penske-Mercedes PC23 | 62 pts |
1996 PPG Indycar World Series results for Penske PC23 chassis
In the following table these abbreviations stand for:
- Date: Date of event held, written in European style (day/month)
- C#: Chassis number
- S: Starting position on the grid
- Speed: Qualifying speed
- F: 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 1996 CART PPG Championship
| Date | Track | Driver | C# | S | Speed | F | Laps | Status | Pts |
| 26/5 | Michigan | G Bettenhausen | 008 | 27 | 208.607 | 21 | 79 | Accident |