Still races sportscars, doesn't he? Another of the F3000 refugees, I remember him coming 5th out of 5 at Pau.

Yes, he was a member of the Corvette team, driving in the longer races from 2000-2003. He won the Daytona 24 hours in 2001. Not raced this year though.

Randy Tolsma - Indy 500 1996 DNQ

While looking up what he is up to now, I also found a few more CART also-rans.
Jeff Andretti and Ted Prappas .

All three are now "Mazda Rev It Up Instructors".

I suspect Arnd Meier was a tax-dodge for Lola - for quite a while he was the only guy rinning one of their cars ;)

Fredrik Ekblom is the reigning Swedish Touring Car Champion, also having won the title in 1998, and placed 2nd in 1999 and 2000. Currently 3rd in this year's edition.
He raced in the European Touring Car Championship in 2002, so it has been mainly tin-tops for the last couple of years.

He may be best known abroad for his second place in the 1991 British Formula 3000 (or was it called Formula 2?) Championship, behind the late Paul Warwick.

Here is some more information about some CART also-rans:

Arnd Meier won the B-class (for year-old cars) of the German F3 in 1994 with a Josef Kaufman Racing-Dallara 393-Opel. In 1995 he switched to the main class in which he became 6th in the championship with a RSM Marko-Dallara 395-Fiat. A year later he drove For Opel Team BSR and became runner-up in the championship behind Jarno Trulli, but one place ahead of his rookie-team-mate Nick Heidfeld. Meier was third in the Monaco F3-GP during that season. For 1997 he switched to CART with the help of his loyal sponsor Hasseroder Beer and signed a ten-race-deal with German-owned team Project Indy. In 1998 he drove for Davis Racing as sole Lola-Runner during that season. But the team suffered from a severe lack of funds and used old-spec Cosworth engines. In 1999 Meier returned to Europe to race in the German-Supertouring-Championship with an Phoenix Racing Audi A4 and finished ninth in the standings. He also tried his luck in F3000 where he replaced Sacha Bert after three races at Nordic Racing. But he failed to qualify for all races he entered. But remember this was a field of more than 40 cars vying for just 26 places on the grid. Mario Haberfeld while driving as teammate to Nick Heidfeld (who won that years championship) for example failed to qualify for half of the races that year. There were just six drivers who qualified for every race uring that season. After that season Meier became disillusioned and quit racing. The latest I heard is that he is working as Tire-Development-Engineer for the Continental-Tire-Company. It’s the same Company which made the tires for the Mercedes W196 in 1954/55.

Jay Hill made one IMSA-start at Sebring in 1991 where finished second in GTP-Lights together with Almo Coppelli driving a works-Spice-Chevy.

Tero Palmroth raced saloon cars in 1984 and then switched to FFord. In 1986 he came to the US to race in Super Vees. He remained in that series the following year, his best result was fifth at IRP. In 1988 he debuted in Cart with Dick Simon.

Franco Scapini raced in FAbarth in 1981 and debuted in F3 the following year. In 1983 he was 10th in the Italian championship, 4th one year later. In 1985 he still raced in Italian F3 but without much success. In 1986 he switched to F3000 driving for the Italia 3000 und Lola Motorsport teams. His best result was 13th at the Osterreichring. He returned to Italian F3 in 1987, scoring just one point. For 1988 he crossed the Atlantic to race in Indy Lights. He made one start with TEAMKAr at Miami. He also drove in F3000 with ARF Racing but qualified for just one race. The following year he drove for the Automotor-Team with a best result of tenth at Birmingham. In 1989 he also drove the Mussato-Lancia LC2 in the WEC. During the late Nineties Scapini raced Ferrari F355s in Italian GT and GrandAm.

Vincio Salmi raced in Italian and European F3 from1980-1982. Don’t know about the following years. But he reappeared in Indy Lights in 1989 where he finished the season in 14th place. The following year he was seventh, winning at Vancouver with Genoa Racing.
Marozzo raced in Italian F3 from 1984-86. In 1989 he raced WSCC a Dollop Racing-Argo JM19.

Vladimiro “Tony” de Tommaso raced in Italian F3 in 1982-83. In 1988 he tried F3000 but failed to qualify for each race he entered.

By the way, does someone have photos of these drivers?

I have a video of him spinning off in a single seater at Druids at Brands Hatch, in around, I always guessed, 1992? It was definately before 1995, but according to one F3000 results site, he failed to qualify for the 1987 Brands Hatch F3000 event, maybe it's that...

Since I'm not sure exactly what to do with the new rules on posting pictures I'll just post this link and let everyone dig through it. There's all sorts of obscurities scattered through these pictures.

http://mwphoto.smugmug.com/Cars/5420

Woah! Some truly good pictures here. Thanks for sharing the URL.

Good lord - I've seen him race "for real" then -- he clearly left an
indelible blank on my mind ;)



Does anyone else instantly think of that inevitable Eurosport
sponsorship thing that turned up after every commercial break during
racing?

"Hasseroder....... the German Premium Beer."?

Wow, I never realized Vladimiro (or Wladimiro as I have also seen it spelt) was the same as Tony.

Anyhoo, he has a website with some CART pics: here you go. And he seems to have bounced around the lower formulae for ages - about 1975 to this century...

I ran into Tolsma when he was one of the people in charge of a Cadillac driving test day. Nice guy, and I was pleased to get to talk to him. I said I wished he was racing in the truck race that was on that evening and he said he did also. Jeff Wood was always in outdated equipment in Cart, one of those drivers that would race about 3-4 times a year in the early 90s.

John

Ted Prappas and Jeff Andretti may have been CART also rans it doesn'make them obscure drivers in the sense they didn't achieve anything (I didn't inquire for. Both of them won race race in the SCCA Super Vee championship which in those days could be considered as feeder series for CART (Geoff Brabham 1979, Al Unser 1981, Michael Andretti 1982 and Arie Luyendijk 1984 were amongst the series winners.
Also the term also-ran does not mean everything. Cristiano De Matta was a CART champion, in F1 he is an also ran. Some other examples; Alessandro Nannini and Danny Ongais.

Gerrit Stevens

Sorry, not complete.

I didn't inquire for Randy Tolsma.



Gerrit Stevens

Brian Bonner also raced in the Barber Saab series on his way up. He performed well there.

Franck Freon also owned a team in one of the U.S. lower formula series (Indy Lts., Atlantics, FF2000, Barber Dodge? - off the top of my head, I don't recall which one).

All I know is that Stromberger was racing in the Opel Lotus Euroseries in the beginning of the 90s. I saw him at the 1992 Hungarian Grand Prix feature race. Can't remember his results though...

I think this makes it clear that Arnd Meier must be rated somewhat higher than some other people mentioned here. And he still ist no mean driver - he currently leads the "Nürburgring Langstreckenpokal" at the Nordschleife (where points are distributed for each class, taking into account the number of participants), driving a BMW 318i Compact (together with René Wolff). A championship that is of course ignored by Autosport : http://www.langstreckenpokal.de/index.htm

Hideshi Matsuda was quite experienced before he turned to Indycars. Here’s a short summary of his career:
1984: 5th in Japanese F3 (1 win at Fuji)
1985: 15th in Japanese F2; drove Auto Beaurex-Toyota 85C in Fuji Longdistance-Series
1986: 16th in Japanese F2; made WSCC-debut at Fuji with Auto Beaurex-Toyota 85C
1987: 14th in Japanese F3000; drove British Barn Racing Team-Jiro/JTK 62C-Ford in Fuji Longdistance-Series, drove the same car at Fuji-WCSS-race; drove Toyota Corolla in WTCC at 24h of Spa and Fuji, raced car in Japanese Touring car-Championship.
1988: Japanese F3000, drove Toyota Corolla in Japanese Touring car-Championship
1989: Japanese F3000, drove Ford Sierra RS500 to 7th place in Japanese Touring car-Championship, drove Toyota Corolla at Spa 24h
1990: Japanese F3000; drove Ford Sierra RS500 in Japanese Touring car-Championship, drove Toyota Supra at Spa 24h
1991: Japanese F3000; drove Aoshima Tsunemasa- Spice SE90C Ford in Fuji Longdistance-Series and Autopolis WCSS-race, drove BMW M3 in Japanese Touring car-Championship
1992: made LeMans-Debut with Euro Racing-Lola T92/10-Judd, shared car with HH Frentzen, drove car to fifth place atSzuzka 1000KM-race with J. Pareja), seventh in JTC2-class of Japanese Touring car-Championship with BMW M3, drove Tom Milner-Spice-Chevy during Daytona 24h
1993: fifth in JTC2-class of Japanese Touring car-Championship with BMW M3.
1994: Indy 500-debut with Simon/Beck-Lola-Ford
1995: 15th place at Indy 500 with Beck Msprts-Lola-Ford
1996: 8th place in Indy 500 with Beck Msprts-Lola-Ford ; raced sporadically Team Taisan-Porsche 911 GT2
1997: raced ORECA-Viper at 1000KM of Suzuka, 3rd in GT2-class with J. Bell and Tommy Archer; drove Team Taisan-Viper at Motegi-All Star-race.
1998: raced ORECA-Viper at 1000KM of Suzuka, 2rd in GT2-class with Bell/Wendlinger; droveTeam Taisan-Viper at Aida-All Star-race, raced Subaru Impreza in Japanese Touring car-Championship, failed to qualify for Indy 500 with Beck Msprts-Dallara-Infinity, drove Della Penna-Swift-Ford at CART-race in Motegi
1999: tenth at Indy 500 with Beck Msprts-Dallara-Olds; made some starts with Team Taisan Advan-P. 996GT3-R
2000: Japanese GT-Championship Team Taisan Advan-P. 996GT3-R (3 three class-wins in GT300), failed to qualify for Indy 500 with Beck Msprts and Hubbard-Immke entries because of two crashes
2001: Japanese GT-Championship Team Taisan Advan-P. 996GT3-R;
drove Dick Barbour-Reynard-Judd during LeMans 24h
2002: Japanese GT-Championship 910 Racing-P. 996GT3-RS
2003: Japanese GT-Championship Team Gainer-Ferrari 360 Modena

How about Cor Euser?

12th in Laguna Seca '91 in a bettenhausen entry in his one and only CART event...


Henri Greuter

Depends on your meaning of obscure. Euser's not really obscure as he has a career stretching back from 83-84 F3, through the SWC in 1991-2 with Euro Racing, and on to FIA GT (and every other GT series) from the mid-90s to present day.

However, if we're now talking about on-off CART drives, fair enough

Alan Jones made also a one-off start in 1985 subbing for Mario Andretti at Elkhart Lake. He finished third. He showed a much better form than during his Beatrice-Lola adventure in F1 in 1986/85. There he seemed somehow unmotivated.

One other obscure driver is Scott Harrington. He tried CART for some years, then dissappeared and finally returned for some rides in the IRL.

Just a note: Cor is having a blast running in Grand-Am with his Marcos team.
I think he's having more fun than ever before.

Here's a name: Dennis Firestone

Euser did Grand-Am in 2002 with his Mantis team, but he's not there this year... (or last, apart from the Daytona 24 hours).

He's concentrated on the Spanish series this year in the absence of the Euro GT series,a lthough he won both GT races at the Masters F3 event at Zandvoort last weekend (Apparently his 153th & 154th victories in his 499th & 500th races!)

Yeah I heard that he won. I should not have said grand-am I should have just said Rolex 24.
If anyone knows him ask him about his latest vacation fishing off the keys.... the boat sank

Damaged goods, IIRC; he was done for driving under the influence.

There are plenty of obscurities from Indy, such as Steve Barclay, Harry Sauce and ex-Can Am driver Rick Miaskiewicz; John Morton had a one-off drive or 2; and who else remembers Steve Saleen having a desultory season in CART?

How about Arlene Hiss, the first woman in a Champcar. OK she was just before CART, but did she race more than her only entry in USAC Champcars.

Gerrit Stevens

Yes, he was - about three/four times now I believe. I won't defend Scott just because he's a mate and we've worked together - but I would ask you if you'd also decscribe Mika Salo as 'damaged goods'?

On the very occasion that I so nearly raced in an ARS round at Meadowlands, Barclay was there competing in that race. He is without doubt one of the worst drivers I've ever seen - and that just left me kicking myself for not grasping the opportunity and doing the race myself!

BTW is Arlene Hiss any relation to Mike?

Twinny

Wife (possibly ex); I understand she was entered as a spoiler to stop Janet Guthrie being the first woman to drive in a Champcar race. Don't know why...

Re Salo - no idea about his past; I remember Harrington nearly drive into the back of approximately 31 IRL cars on his Indy debut when he apparently missed the yellow flag, yellow lights, pace car and the other 31 cars going slooooowly. But in this day and age he's not going to get chances.

And of course James Weaver had a CART appearance or two and got into the points!

Carlos Guerrero is a Mexican and he was born the 20 November 1957. He has two brothers also racing : Peregrino & Fernando.

1987-1989, he was a race winner in Mexican "formula K" (a domestic clone of formula Atlantic, powered by a 2.2 Chrysler)
1990-1994, he raced both in Mexican National F2 (ex-fórmula K) & in Mexican races for F3 "internacional" (i.e. more or less relevant to FIA F3 regulations). He was a front runner and a regular race winner all these years in both formulae, becoming national champion for F2 in 91 & 92, then for F3 in 93 & 94.
He tested the works F1 March late 1992 and was said to be signed for 1993 by Brabham-Judd...
1996, after his journey in CART, he went back home for the "nacional formula 3000" domestic races (with brand-new Lola cars powered by a 3.5 V6 Chrysler), held on the last monthes of the year.
Later, he got involved with Allen Berg's racing team (in ILP, F3 mexicana, & formula Atlantic).

Salo was done for DD in late 1990/early '91, and that's why he had to bugger off to Japanese F3000 as he'd lost the backing for his planned European F3000 drive.

He didn't reappear again in a 'European' context until he raced the Lotus at the back end of '94.

Seems like it was covered up quite well after all...

Twinny

"How about Tero Palmroth from Finland? He`s last start was in Laguna Seca 1992. He qualified for four Indy500 races between 1989-1992. Otherwise he raced sporadically and did not achieve very much."


This article is from www.indyracing.com


- - - - -


(By Jan Shaffer)


Through the years, the Indy Racing League and the Indianapolis 500 have presented opportunities not only for short-trackers from the United States, but for those from overseas as well.

There's the story of Tero Palmroth, the former captain in the Finnish Navy who was working in his family's shoe factory. He decided to rekindle his racing career by coming to Indianapolis. He hung around the press room in May 1988. All of a sudden, the affable Palmroth wound up in one of Dick Simon's cars and eventually became a four-time Indianapolis 500 starter.

Then there was Hideshi Matsuda, who came to the Speedway as a Japanese television commentator in 1993 and returned with his helmet in 1994 and also became a four-time 500-Mile Race starter.

More recently, Wym Eyckmans of Belgium watched the 1998 Indianapolis 500 from the grandstands. In 1999, Eyckmans returned with a helmet and qualified for his first 500-Mile Race.

The biggest influx has come from Brazil, where drivers have looked more at Indianapolis. Airton Dare, who made his Indianapolis 500 debut in 2000, explained the draw.

"I'd always watched Emerson Fittipaldi race there," Dare said from his home in Bauru. "For us, the television broadcasts weren't as good as they are today. It all started when Emerson won there.

"There was one point in my career when I had to decide whether to go to Europe and follow the steps to Formula One or go to America. I talked to teams on both sides and I had an opportunity with Indy Lights. When you go to race in America, the focus is to race in the Indy 500."

While he raced Indy Lights, though, Dare didn't see the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for two years. Then an IRL opportunity beckoned.

"John Barnes (of Pennzoil Panther Racing) did my first rookie test in Dallas," Dare recalled. "I raced in America for two years without seeing the Speedway. It's a different feeling walking in there. We drove a regular car around the track and I had never seen straightaways so long. He told me you could run flat out."

Dare said his second experience at Indy was more overwhelming than the first.

"The first time, it wasn't that shocking," Dare said. "After the first year, I realized how important it was. The first year was the best. I was running second to (eventual winner Juan Pablo) Montoya and running faster laps. I actually had something more for the end but the engine went. The following year, I had some butterflies. After the first year, I realized how important it was."

Dare believes the next generation of Brazilian drivers will also take a long look at focusing on the Indianapolis 500.

"There are a lot of new guys coming up," Dare said. "Vitor Meira ran with Menard last year. Here in Brazil, we don't have ovals, but that's the way you have to do it if you're coming there. It's a big mystery here about ovals. Once you get there, you learn about it and it's not that big of a ghost.

"We just built a go-kart track here in Bauru and I helped design it. We designed a 700-meter (just short of a half mile) oval with banking for go-karts. We made it like Phoenix with banking in one turn and flatter in the other. (Felipe) Giaffone has one in Sao Paulo, which is a road course but also has an oval-type track with four turns.

"Who knows? I might be contributing to Indy racing by starting that."

I do! I met Steve at an autograph signing at my local Ford dealer a few weeks ago and mentioned to him that I saw him race a champ car at Cleveland. Even he seemed surprised that I remembered.

How about Kenji Momota who attempt to qualify at 92 Indy and crash at practice? Last I heard of him was driving couple of races in NASCAR Supertrucks.

He still does TV coverage of open wheel for one of the Japansese networks.

ex wife - she has a website I once stumbled across. Mike her husband looked pretty good for Penske in USAC and there was even talk of him moving up to F1 with Penskes fledgling team, then it all seemed to go pear. Anyone know why? I dont he was on bad terms with Penske as such cos he subbed for Andretti during Indy practice in 77 IIRC.

I would STILL like to know whether or not Mike Hiss is still alive.

According to Richie's Indy 500 WATN, see link , he is. Rumours of his demise being somewhat wide of the mark

I came across my long-lost colour and b&w shots from a few 1987 CART races earlier today.

There are a couple of interesting folk in there...

Rick Miaskiewicz - he was in a Machinists #59 car at Cleveland.

John Richards - Mackenzie #27 car in Cleveland.

Ian Ashley - drove same car as Richards in Miami.

Fulvio Ballabio - bburago/Babycresci sponsored gold/black #23 in Miami.

Twinny

Would be nice, If you could put those pictures online.

The Ashley one is on the Ian Ashley thread; the rest will have to wait until Wednesday or Thursday...

Twinny

Great pic, looking forward for the others

PS: Just found an additional info on Alan Jones: He qualified the Theodore car in Ontario 1977, but didn't start the race.
And there's also another strange entry: Ken Schrader in Indy 1983 !

But didn't Richie himself state that information wasn't as concrete as he'd like it to be (i.e., based on lack of information that Mike is deceased)?

Gaston Mazzacane

I have no proof that either Mike Hiss or Bobby Olivero are dead, but this doesn´t necessarily mean they´re alive. The comment I put in the WATN was the best compromise wording I felt :\
I could give you a list of abut 10 GP drivers whom I believed deceased but I can´t confirm it unless I have proof.. the holy grail....

I know that rumors of Bobby Olivero's demise were just that...rumors.

A columnist for the regional racing paper even talked to him (I believe Olivero contacted him). This I am certain of, no memory failings or tricks...unfortunately, I cannot recall which issue of the newspaper this was in and I simply haven't had time to go through the whole batch. I even remember which columnist it was.

And this columnist covered Olivero on his way up the ranks, so I believe he'd be familiar with him and chance of it being a hoax would be quite low.

IIRC, Olivero was living in Indiana at that time (c. 2000). He had kept an extremely low profile, which helped fuel the rumors.

He was also playing back marker when Arie Luyendyk was driving a one off for Chip Ganassi (subbing for Alex Z.). Arie was in for a nice win (rare for Arie in CART) when he met Herr Meyer. This race was broadcast live in Holland as well (sponsored by Eurosport, ;-) ). It was a nasty looking shunt that lead to Jaap Luyendyk (Sr.)(at home in Someren NL) to say to Arie's mother: "Its over." Luckily Arie did survive, as did his mom and dad and Ardt (only just).

Franck Freon is a Le Mans regular (veteran?). He drove some of the last Kudzu Mazda's, the Riley Scott and Corvette.
Didnt he win ehhrr Daytona??

I believe the driver referred to in this thread is Arnd Meier, not Ardt Meyer.

A belated reply, but I don’t believe Alessandro Nannini ever appeared in CART. Can anyone confirm evidence to the contrary?