MILLER: Team Lunch

IndyCar

MILLER: Team Lunch

Team lunch isn’t going to be as much fun or nearly as combative.

Robin Miller | Posted September 25, 2012

Steve Chassey, Pancho Carter, Bob Harkey, Bubby Jones, Vuky, Lee Kunzan and Greg Leffler -- all Indy 500 veterans who came to Vuke's going away lunch. (Photo: Robin Miller)

Team lunch isn’t going to be as much fun or nearly as combative.

Bill Vukovich is heading back to Fresno, Steve Chassey is moving to Phoenix and our weekly gathering of old racers is going to miss their Type A personalities, verbal assaults and historic arguments.

I’m pretty sure Lee Kunzman, Johnny Parsons, Jerry Sneva, Pancho Carter, Bubby Jones, Steve Stapp, Tim Coffeen, Steve Long, Dave Gentry and Gary Bettenhausen are going to be sad to see them go because we’ve pretty much spent the past 40 years around each other.

Whether it was racing, lying, cussing, drinking, smoking, arguing, laughing or going down the road between races it’s been a great ride filled with memories of USAC’s glory days.

Vuky drove out of the shadow of his famous father, The Mad Russian, and put together a damn fine career while Chas came back to Indiana as a mechanic/sprint driver and made it all the way to the Indianapolis 500.

And they were both a colorful mixture of stubborn, hot headed and talented.

One of the best midget racers ever and always fast on the mile dirt tracks in a champ car, Vukovich came to Indianapolis in 1968 along with Bettenhausen and they quickly impressed.

A 12-time starter at the track his dad dominated, Bill finished second in ’73 and had some good runs in mediocre equipment. He was a terrible qualifier but a helluva racer once the green flag waved. Yeah, he only had one Indy-car win in 13 years but he never, ever drove for the best teams.

My favorite on-track memory is Vuky running second to Mario Andretti’s ground-effects car at Phoenix in 1981 with an old pieced-together Offy before it blew up. Or the time he punched the wrecker driver in Milwaukee for running over his car.

Chassey went from two years in Vietnam to Ascot Park and then decided to come back to the Midwest and see if he could cut it. Working full-time for Grant King and then Bettenhausen, he was a fabricator by day and racer by weekend – quickly earning respect.

He won regularly in USAC midgets and sprints (just missing the championship in 1980) but his real accomplishment was making Indy three times in the ‘80s. His last start in 1988 was his finest as he also served as his own chief mechanic, ala Jack McGrath in the ‘50s, and he was about the last USAC driver to get hired at the Speedway without bringing money.

Chas worked for Lola, ESPN on Thursday Night Thunder and spent much of the past 20 years in the racing insurance business. His hobbies are fishing and insulting Vukovich and Bettenhausen.

Vuke has been a part-time Hoosier on and off since ’68. During his driving days he lived in the trailer park on Georgetown Road across from IMS all summer, where he played golf at the Speedway during the day and softball in the evening with other drivers and mechanics.

He always wintered in California but was living in Indianapolis in 1990 when he and wife Joyce got the devastating news that Billy III had been killed in a sprint car back in their home state.

Understandably, Bill became a recluse and we didn’t hear from him for a few years as he tried to cope with the cruel reality that he’d lost his father and son to auto racing. But then he decided to come back here to live a few years ago and learned how to shovel snow -- much to the delight of his pals.

Being around the old gang and laughing for a couple hours at team lunch on Mondays and Fridays was good medicine for Bill and he even started talking more and more about Billy the last few years. His crazed laughter was usually followed by his favorites lines: “My dad wasn’t Russian and he wasn’t mad” and “What about cement head? (Gary B.)” and “the noon balloon.”

I’m certain Chas will come back each May but I doubt we’ll ever see Bill again unless we go out to visit and I think he knew that as he said goodbye last Friday.

We’re going to miss Vukovich and I think he probably feels the same way. He’d just never admit it.

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