Oilpressure

Although it’s hard to believe, the 1992 Indianapolis 500 ran thirty years ago this month. That race is known for many things. First of all, it is one of the coldest 500s in history. I sat there on that cold day that barely cracked 50°, but with the wind – it felt like it was below forty. It is also known as the race that was completely dominated by Michael Andretti, until he fell out with eleven laps to go. Most notably, it is known for the closest finish in the history of the Indianapolis 500 – officially .043 seconds between the winning car of Al Unser, Jr. and the second-place car of Scott Goodyear.

What has sort of gotten lost in the past thirty years is that 1992 was the debut of the Galmer chassis – the car that won the race. 1992 was curiously the demise of the Galmer chassis, as well.

Back then, it became popular for some teams to emulate Formula One and build their own chassis. Three teams in the 1992 Indianapolis 500 constructed their own chassis – Team Penske ran the PC-21 (Penske Cars) for Rick Mears and Emerson Fittipaldi, and the PC-20 for Paul Tracy. Truesports ran the American-built Truesports 92C (which became the ill-fated RH-01 the next year). Galles-Kraco also debuted their own chassis – the Galmer G92.

In 1988, Rick Galles formed a joint-venture engineering research and development firm, with renowned British engineer Alan Mertens. The new venture was Galmer Engineering, combining the first three letters of each of their last names. Their goal was to maximize the Lola chassis that Galles Racing was now using with Al Unser, Jr. as their driver, along with most of the CART paddock. In 1990, Galles Racing merged with Kraco Racing, owned by Maury Kraines. This brought a second car to be driven by Bobby Rahal. The combination of Galles, Kraines and Mertens led to Unser, Jr. winning the 1990 CART PPG Cup.

This led to bigger dreams and ultimately the decision to build their own in-house chassis for the 1992 CART season.

Building your own chassis is a high-risk, high-reward proposition. If you get it wrong, you’ve sunk millions into an absolute sled. Few teams had the ability to switch chassis in the middle of the year, like Team Penske did in 1986; when their PC-15 was not getting the job done. Roger Penske didn’t hesitate to pull the plug, and he ordered new March 86Cs for his three drivers. Few owners had that ability. That’s why most teams in the early nineties, stuck with the proven Lola.

But if you got it right, then your drivers had something that no one else in the field had – such as the PC-17 of Team Penske, that Rick Mears drove to victory in the 1988 Indianapolis 500, and Danny Sullivan used to win the 1988 CART championship. Whenever teams considered building their own chassis, this is what they thought of – the potential reward.

Teams needed four things in order to build their own chassis – time, money, expertise and patience. You needed time to plan your chassis the right way. A project of this magnitude could not be rushed. Money is certainly critical. It’s sort of like racing – if you can’t afford many crashes by your driver, you probably don’t need to be doing this. If you can’t afford mistakes staring out, you’re probably better off sticking with the Lola – even though most of your competitors have the exact same car.

Obviously you need a proven chassis engineer that knows what they’re doing, or it wouldn’t matter how much money you had. It would be a waste of time. Lastly, the team owner must have patience. Mistakes will be made. You are doing this because you want something no one else has. That means you need to try new things. Most will not work, but every now and then – you’ll nail it.

I’m not sure when the trio of Kraines, Galles and Mertens made the decision to commit to their own car, but I would imagine it was during the 1990 season. By the end of the 1991 season, we were already hearing about the Galmer chassis that the team would be using in 1992.

After 1991, Rahal moved on to buy the assets of Patrick Racing and was able to secure a lease for a Chevy-A engine – the engine built by Ilmor, that had been the premier power-plant since the late eighties. In a complete swap, former Patrick driver, Danny Sullivan, took Rahal’s spot at Galles-Kraco. For better or worse, Sullivan and Little Al would have the only two Galmers in the field for 1992.

It normally takes a while for a new chassis to be successful. Truesports had introduced their new chassis in 1991, and the results were not great. It never earned a podium in 1991, and Scott Pruett probably got everything out of it by soldiering it to a tenth place finish in points. It was worse in 1992, and Truesports folded at the end of the season. The chassis and the program was bought by Rahal-Hogan Racing for 1993, with disastrous results.

One had to wonder if the Galmer would bring the same fate to Galles-Kraco, a team just one season removed from winning the championship, and finishing second and third in the 1991 season.

When we saw our first pictures of the Galmer, it was strange looking compared to the 1991 Lola that we were so used to looking at. It had a needle nose that steeply sloped downward. The movie Batman Returns made its debut just a month after the 1992 Indianapolis 500. When I saw Danny DeVito’s Penguin his nose reminded me of the Galmer.

It was also the first Indy car in quite a while that did not have any type of windscreen. The Reynard would follow suit a couple of years later, but the Galmer was the first. The roll hoop was also very distinctive, as it seemed taller and had an aggressive looking forward slant to it. The cowling featured a lower sleek design, than the previous year’s Lola.

The Galmer did surprisingly well in its first outing at Surfers Paradise, placing fourth and fifth. Neither driver wound up on the podium, but for a first time outing, it was something of a pleasant surprise. At Phoenix, Unser, Jr. finished fourth again, while Sullivan finished twelfth.

It was at Long Beach, when everyone took notice of the brand new Galmer. In the late stages of the race, Al Unser, Jr. led while trying to win his fifth race on the streets of Long Beach. Danny Sullivan was right behind him in second, showing that the Galmer/Chevy was the package to beat. In the closing laps, Danny Sullivan made a move to the inside to pass his teammate. Unfortunately, they touched and Little Al spun into the runoff area. Sullivan continued on for the win, in only the Galmer’s third race – and the last race before heading into the Month of May.

The experts said the Galmer would not be expected to do well on the big ovals like Indianapolis and Michigan. It had the Chevy-A engine, which was getting a little long in the tooth; compared to the Team Penske Chevy-B, or the new Ford-Cosworth XB in the cars of Newman/Haas and Chip Ganassi Racing. But the Galmers hung in there all day, and when Michael Andretti’s Lola/Ford quit on him; Unser was right there to battle for and earn the win. Sullivan finished fifth in his Galmer.

After the Indianapolis 500, Unser, Jr. went on to capture five podiums with the Galmer, and six more Top-Ten finishes. His lowest finish for the entire 1992 season was eleventh at Nazareth – on his way to third in the championship. Sullivan did not fare as well, but still earned one more podium after the Month of May along with seven more Top-Ten finishes , while finishing seventh in points.

On paper, this looked like it was one of the most successful debuts for a new chassis constructor in history. It was even more successful than the debut of the Reynard two years later, except that the Reynard won in its very first outing. The future looked very bright for the Galmer.

Somewhere along the way, the team decided to pull the plug on the Galmer by the end of the 1992 season.

There are conflicting reports on when that decision was made. Donald Davidson says that the decision to scrap the project was actually made on the morning of the Indianapolis 500, but the decision was held secret. Other reports say that they were still trying to massage the chassis throughout the summer of 1992, but finally made the painful decision to not move forward for 1993.

Regardless of when the decision was made, it ultimately came down to money. Alan Mertens has been quoted as saying that the team underestimated how much money it took to fund a brand new chassis. To do it again for 1993, would have taken more than Galles and Mertens were willing to spend. Plus, at some point – Maury Kraines announced he was pulling out, because in 1993 the team was back to just Galles Racing. I imagine losing the backing from Kraines factored into the decision, but I don’t know that for certain.

The Galmer did have life into 1993, as a used car. Dominic Dobson drove the year-old Galmer, modified with 1993 specs, in three races in 1993 – including a twenty-third place finish in the 1993 Indianapolis 500. After an eighteenth place finish at Laguna Seca, the Galmer never turned a wheel in CART competition again.

I have no idea what kind of money was poured into developing the Galmer, but I’m sure it was a lot. It’s a shame they bailed on the project so soon, because it really was successful in its first season. But they probably made the right decision, if the first year far exceeded their proposed budget. It was probably only going to get worse from there. Instead, the Galmer has become an interesting footnote in the history of the Indianapolis 500.

George Phillips

This entry was posted on May 4, 2022 at 4:02 am and is filed under Indianapolis 500. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.