Background
Defending Indy 500 winner Bobby Rahal went on to win the 1986 CART championship. During the offseason, his Truesports racing team made a highly-publicised switch from the March chassis to the up and coming Lola chassis. Truesports, however, stayed with the proven Cosworth engine. Rahal was a strong favorite to repeat as winner.
For 1987, the Ilmor Chevrolet Indy V-8 began expanding its participation into Indy car racing. Penske Racing fielded a three-car effort with the powerplant, while resuming its in-house chassis program. The PC-16 chassis was the primary car for the team, but as a backup, three 1986 March chassis were also entered. Newman Haas Racing joined the Ilmor Chevrolet program, and Mario Andretti scored the engine's first victory a month earlier at Long Beach. Patrick Racing (Fittipaldi & Cogan) was the third team to utilize the Ilmor Chevrolet.
Roberto Guerrero won the second race of the season, held at Phoenix. Guerrero was coming to his own as a driver on the circuit, and the impressive at Phoenix made him an favorite for Indy. For 1987, his Vince Granatelli team was sporting a special paint job, a "throwback" day-glow orange which resembled Andy Granatelli entries from the late 1960s and early 1970s.
A new powerplant arrived at Indy in 1987. The Judd AV V-8 was badged as the Brabham-Honda, and was fielded by Galles Racing.
During the offseason at Penske Racing, three-time Indy winner (1970, 1971, 1978), and three-time national champion (1970, 1983, 1985) Al Unser, Sr. was released. Businessman and media mogul Ted Field arranged a deal with Roger Penske to field Indy veteran Danny Ongais in the third Penske entry. Unser, Sr. was unable to secure a ride before the month of May, and arrived at the track unemployed.
Goodyear arrived at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the first time with a new radial tire. After a few years of development in the CART series, the radials were ready for competition in the Indy 500.
The most noticeable construction project completed at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was a series of electronic dot matrix scoreboards installed around the track.
Read more about this topic: 1987 Indianapolis 500
Famous quotes containing the word background:
“... every experience in life enriches one’s background and should teach valuable lessons.”
—Mary Barnett Gilson (1877–?)
“In the true sense one’s native land, with its background of tradition, early impressions, reminiscences and other things dear to one, is not enough to make sensitive human beings feel at home.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)
“I had many problems in my conduct of the office being contrasted with President Kennedy’s conduct in the office, with my manner of dealing with things and his manner, with my accent and his accent, with my background and his background. He was a great public hero, and anything I did that someone didn’t approve of, they would always feel that President Kennedy wouldn’t have done that.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)