"MINI" FACT SHEET

VICEROY RACING TEAM

DRIVERS: - -Lola #5 AI Unser - Viceroy-Lola #51

CAR OWNERS: Parnelli Jones and Vel Miletich Vel's-Parnelli Jones Racing, Torrance, Calif.

SPONSOR: Viceroy cigarettes. Brown & Williamson Co., Louisville, Ky.

CARS: Lola T 332 with 305 cuhic-inch engines.

BACKGROUNDS: Andretti, 35, horn in Trieste, Italy, Feb. 28, 19^0; lives in Nazareth, Pa., with wife, Dee Ann, sons Michael, 12, and Jeffrey, 11, and daughter, Barbara Dee, 5. Height: 5ft. 6 in. Weight: 138 pounds. First race at 13 in Ancona, Italy, 1953. Fourth year with Viceroy Racing Team. Winner of 1969 Indianapolis 500, 1971 South Africa Grand Prix, 1967 Daytona 500, three U.S. Auto Club national driving championships, Sebring 12 Hour, Daytona 2k Hour. Also, has won three 1975 Formula 5000 races (Mosport, , Watkins Glen); finished second in 197'^ series behind champion of England; and drives car on world championship circuit for Vel's- Parnelli Jones Racing.

Unser, 36, lives in Albuquerque, N.M., where he was born May 29, 1939. Father of Mary Linda, 15, Debra Ann, Ik, and AI Jr., 13. Height: 5ft. llin. Weight: 170 pounds. Seventh year with Vel's- Parnelli Jones Racing, fourth with Viceroy and first in Formula 5000 racing. Winner of 1970 and 1971 Indianapolis 500s; U.S. Auto Club champion• ship in 1970; Road Atlanta Formula 5000 race, Aug. 31, in Viceroy-Lola, and Springfield, III., USAC dirt car race, Aug. I6, in Viceroy-Ford.

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i VICEROY RACING RECORD Formula 5000-1975

June 1 - Pocono, Pa. (winner Brian Redman)

2nd place - AI Unser, Viceroy-Lola, 35 laps.

18th - Mario Andretti, Viceroy-Lola (engine failure, 24 laps; winner of heat race).

June 15 - Mosport, Ontario, Canada 1st place - Andretti, 40 laps (also winner of heat race).

DNS - Unser (engine failure in heat race). July 13 - Watkins Glen, N.Y. (winner Redman). 2nd - Unser, 30 laps. 6th - Andretti, 29 laps (ignition failure at start; winner of heat). July 27 - Road America, Elkhart Lake, Wis. 1st - Andretti, 25 laps (also winner of heat). 6th - Unser, 25 laps. August 10 - Mid-Ohio (winner Redman) 2nd - Unser, 42 laps. 18th - Andretti (broken gearbox, 32 laps; winner of heat). August 31 - Road Atlanta, Ga. 1st - Unser, 40 laps. 3rd - Andretti, 40 laps. Points - 1. Brian Redman, England, 159; 2. Unser, 113; 3. Andretti, 93, Remaining races: Sept. 28 - Long Beach Grand Prix.

Oct. 12 - Monterey, Calif. Oct. 26 - Riverside, Calif.

# # # From: Bob Thomas & Associates 835 Hopkins Way, Suite 504 Redondo Beach, Calif. 90277 213/376-6978 For: Viceroy

When car owners Parnelli Jones and Vel Miletich of Torrance opened the 1975 Formula 5000 season, they thought they had the circuit's 1-2 punch Viceroy teammates Mario Andretti and AI Unser.

The calculation was close. Jones and Miletich are making the short trip to Long Beach for the season's seventh race Sunday with a 2-3 punch instead.

Those are the current positions of their two all-star drivers based on points earned so far on the track. Alas, if only Formula 5000 racing were a team sport, Jones and Miletich must be thinking. If so, the Viceroy team would be leading the league. It isn't. Britisher Brian Redman, Mr. Consistent, is on top....again.

The Viceroy racers, however, are not doing too badly. To date, they've won half of the year's six races and taken second place in three. That adds up to a tidy total of 206 points 113 for Unser,

93 for Andretti. Redman has 159, a secure if not entirely comfortable margin with three races to go. Andretti, who most people considered to be the pre-season favorite after he narrowly lost last year's championship to Redman, admits that overhauling the steady Englishman in his Viceroy-Lola is a nice thought but not altogether practical.

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"No, I'm not thinking about catching him at this stage," he admits. "I'm just thinking about beating him...taking the rest of the year race by race." But beating Redman isn't enough at this point. If the Britisher finishes "in the money," as he usually does, Andretti can't cut away all of the margin that now exists. Andretti has proved that if he can finish a race, he's virtually unbeatable. That was the case at Mosport in Canada and Road America at Elkhart Lake. He was firmly in control in those victories. Pocono, Watkins Glen, Mid-Ohio and Atlanta have been stories of frus• trations engine failures, broken transmissions, faulty ignitions, etc. Unser somewhat shares Andretti's philosophy about the rest of the season. "It's not entirely in my hands," he says. "No matter what I do like win'em all something has got to happen to Redman." He means that there has to be an interruption in the Britisher's consistency. Redman rarely fails to finish. He wins or runs second which makes his advantage in points look even stouter than it appears.

Unser is the bright new star of Formula 5000 racing at 36. The two-time Indianapolis 500 winner is experiencing his first season of full-time road racing after years of stardom in oval track racing.

Has he adapted? Well, he comes to Long Beach from a victory on a track he had never seen before Atlanta. Plus, he won in the rain. "And I don't like racing in the rain." As an oval track racer he didn't have to. Admittedly, it was a conservative attitude at Atlanta that led to his victory over Redman and Andretti. They dueled in the rain while Unser resisted the temptation and, instead, ran steadily in third place until the sun came out with 10 laps to go.

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"I always had them in sight," he said. "Then, when the weather warmed up, I had more tire left and drove right by them."

"We had used up our tires," explained Andretti about his battle with Redman. Their worn rain tires could not withstand the heat buildup of a dry track.

"Chunks were coming off the tires," Andretti said. "I couldn't go fast if I wanted to." That was not meant to detract from Unser's performance. He has become more formidable against his seasoned road racing rivals as the year progressed. In the opener at Pocono, he was second behind Redman after Andretti experienced engine trouble. An engine problem kept him out of the Mosport race, but he came back at Watkins Glen with another second-place in his Viceroy-Lola. After a sixth place at Road America, Unser collected his third second-place finish at Mid-Ohio to set up his victory at Atlanta. "I'm still 'groping' around these courses," confesses Unser, "but I'm feeling more at home all the time." No driver, however, will have the edge of experience at Long Beach. It's a new course for everybody.

Andretti has taken a "can't wait" attitude about the race which smacks of the glamour of Monaco where he has competed on the streets. "This is different...altogether different...than road racing," he said about high speed on city streets. "There are no escape roads. You don't spin off harmlessly into a field. You've got to be far more precise."

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Andretti describes that as "driving with a tidy line" in contrast to "slipping and sliding." "You don't dare make a mistake. If you are too conservative, you'll be slow. If you're pushing too hard, trying to nip a little here and there off the corners, you're going to be in trouble. You're looking for a fine line on the street. "I love it!" he said. "I think this is the Real McCoy." Unser shares Andretti's enthusiasm about "street racing."

"I'll just have to find the best way around, that's all," he said. "I think the whole experience is going to be great....for me.... for racing."

So, if enthusiasm can be converted into horsepower, champion Redman may see images in his rearview mirror enormous and threatening. And they won't be Long Beach city buses.

### From: Bob Thomas & Associates 835 Hopkins Way, Suite 504 Redondo Beach, Calif. 90277 213/376-6978 For: Viceroy

Immediate Release

LONG BEACH, Calif. --- It's not the typical Formula

5000 race. The Long Beach Grand Prix does have the season's leader, Britisher Brian Redman, in its field. If consistency means anything

--and it does--he should be favored in Sunday's (Sept 28) seventh Formula 5000 race of the year. He's won three so far. His chief competition still remains the Viceroy combination of Mario Andretti and AI Unser. And if Andretti is your choice to run the race without interruption, he's doubtless your choice to win it too. He's won twice. Unser has won the only other race of the series. But there the similarity ceases between the inaugural Long Beach Grand Prix and the six preceding 1975 contests. For one thing. Long Beach has the only course with a traffic signal...which hopefully will be inoperative this weekend. And the lineup includes some names not commonly seen on , Formula 5000 programs this year e.g., , , Javier Jarier and George Follmer with Formula I racing backgrounds and Gordon Johncock who like Andretti and Unser is an Indianapolis 500 winner. Race officials are hoping that the similarity noted between this event and any past races is linked directly with Monte Carlo and the glamorous on the Riviera. -more- - 2 -

With the exception of another less prominent race in the town of Pau in the Pyranees area of France, Long Beach and Monaco are the world's only major automobile races on city streets. "This," says Andretti with a heavy emphasis on the word, "is real racing. This is where it's at." His reference, of course, is to race cars on city thoroughfares. Viceroy teammate, Unser, who unlike his partner has never admittedly raced on the streets, agrees. "This race must go. Whatta boost it can be to racing in America."

Former world champion , a five-time winner on the streets on Monte Carto and grand marshall at Long Beach, estimates speeds will range from 40 m.p.h. to 170 m.p.h. Both extremes will be untypically high for the 2.2-mile distance labeled for a weekend as a race course.

Traffic on normally busy Ocean Blvd. will be confined to low-slung, open-cockpit and open-wheel cars of very light weight mainly of foreign design with five-liter (305 cubic inch cylinder displacement) domestic powerplants, largely . The highest speeds will occur on Shoreline Drive in full

view of Long Beach's other international landmark, the Queen Mary. Hill, who recently retired as a driver at 46, predicts that the course will be even more competitive than the circuit at Monte Carlo. "This one is wider," he explains. "There will be more opportunities for passing." Thus, he figures, a better race.

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Wider or not, Andretti suggests "a tidy driving line" for those who are new to this type of racing. There are no grassy fields to absorb a spinning automobile. After Friday's and Saturday's practice and time trial runs, the field will be divided Sunday for a pair of 12-lap, 25-mile qualifying races, starting at 1 p.m. The second of these heats is scheduled to start 45 minutes later. The main race 50 laps or 110 miles through the streets will begin at 3:45 p.m. And with it the clock will roll back more than 60 years to a time when another race which helped influence an era was run along the shores of the Pacific. That was the first Santa Monica road race, Oct. 14, 1911. An 8.2-mile course was mapped out that, coincidentally, started on Ocean Avenue and even touched famous Wilshire Blvd.

Within a short time Southern California was the scene for more big-time racing than any other area of the United States.

"Gentlemen, start your engines... and watch out for traffic signals, pedestrians, municipal buses and bicycles and don't stop for hitch hikers."

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