"BOESEL DOES JOB,            
LOSES JOB AT INDY"                   

Published, in edited form, in the Johnson County (Ind.) Daily Journal, May 21, 2001 ©

         The look on Raul Boesel's face as he trudged toward the exit from Indy's Gasoline Alley Sunday evening was hardly that of someone who had just won a place for himself at the Indy 500 table.

         Despite what the official lineup was saying, the veteran Brazilian driver's face told the world that he probably wouldn't be eating with the grownups on race day next Sunday. Boesel had bumped his way into the 500 field by going fast enough Sunday afternoon. As the sun sank behind the west grandstands like a lump of pyrite in a murky stream later Sunday, he was being bumped out of it by "contractual obligations."

         Though his dark face was making it clear as clean lake water, Boesel couldn't make the cancellation of his new meal ticket official, deferring to car owner Fred Treadway. The disappointment in his face and his voice, made choppy by both his dismay and his familiar Brazilian accent, made whatever press release would be forthcoming from Treadway-Hubbard Racing on Monday anticlimactic.

         And uncomfortable for the 12-time Indy starter who blew into town at mid-week and easily qualified a third Treadway-Hubbard entry at 221.879 mph Sunday. "How comfortable can you be?" he asked, with a self-explanatory shrug of his shoulders. "I knew this was a possibility."

         The possibility that could have left Boesel off the guest list for Indy's feast next Sunday was the bumping of Treadway-Hubbard's second regular car, qualified by fellow Brazilian and Indy rookie Felipe Giaffone last weekend. That became an actuality shortly after 5 p.m., when Stephan Gregoire knocked Giaffone off the Indy seating chart.

         Enter the contractual obligations. What Giaffone had brought to the Treadway-Hubbard table was the sponsorship of Hollywood, a Brazil-based cigarette manufacturer. And, on the Indy-car banquet circuit, drivers and sponsors often are as inseparable as coconut shrimp and plum sauce.

         That contractual arrangement made Giaffone the more likely choice to pull the car Boesel qualified into the end of the serving line on race day. "That's probably the logical choice," Treadway even conceded, without putting his final stamp on the invitation.

         "Officially, the decision hasn't been made," Treadway added late Sunday, "but we'll have a press release tomorrow. There are a lot of things that go into the consideration. Right now, we're just talking about it, and we're going to sleep on it tonight and decide tomorrow."

         Later Sunday night, speedway officials reported that Treadway had notified them of his intent to file the paperwork required to replace Boesel with Giaffone, which would move the 31st-placed car to the final starting spot in the 33-car field. And Boesel back to his present home in Key Biscayne, Fla.

         The turn of events was the final odd twist in his odyssey of less than a week that brought him from Brazil, where the racing fare was edible but not as tasty as Indy's, to a Sunday afternoon drive in the racing park where he had seldom gone hungry, almost winning in fact in 1993.

         "I was back in Brazil, doing some touring car racing," he related, shortly after his successful qualifying run at 12:24 p.m. Sunday. "In fact, I was supposed to race today in my home club. But, when I received a call from the Treadway team, I grabbed the phone with both hands and said, 'When do you want me there?'"

         That had been Monday night, and Boesel flew into Indianapolis Wednesday. Thursday, he was back on the track where he had come in a year ago and put a Treadway machine into the field on the final day of time trials, and by Saturday he was doing laps at 222 mph.

         He nearly equaled that speed in his four-lap run Sunday. He said it was all worth missing that club race in his native Brazil.

         "I wouldn't trade Indy for anything else," he had said in the early afternoon. "It's so special to be part of the Indy 500. Last year here, I did almost the same thing; they called me, and I think we had one day of running and put the car safely in the show the second day.

         "So, it was like déjà vu. I hope next year they call me earlier."

         Boesel had smiled as widely as an overeater heading back for the buffet line. "I was very glad when they called me," he said, still feasting on the moment. "I was just waiting for something to happen, to get in a car.

         "It is such a good feeling when you have the opportunity to drive instead of just being around waiting for something to happen. That's not a comfortable thing."

         The heightened comfort level was moderated somewhat, even early Sunday afternoon, by the knowledge that the worst-case scenario could remove him from his hard-earned place in line. "Yes, I knew that was a possibility," he said, "but, still, it's a chance to drive a race car. That's what I do for a living."

         But, as his face announced so clearly later in the day, it was a possibility he didn't want to have to swallow. For Boesel, he wanted the whole meal, not just the appetizer.

         "The intention was for the team to have three cars in the field," he noted, as he headed for the exit - and for home, as it would turn out. "But, if this happened, I knew I had to step out, unfortunately. I don't think the team or myself wanted it to play out this way."

         But that was how the game of musical chairs around the Indy table played out Sunday. And, for Raul Boesel, qualified for the 2001 Indy 500 dining experience, his next Sunday meal would have to fit on a TV tray.

         "I'll go home and watch on TV, I guess," he said, with one last undernourished smile before he walked slowly out Indy's back gate.

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 Copyright 2001 by Jerry Miller ©

 Color photo courtesy of Indy Racing League

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