"BETTENHAUSEN HELPS SHOW
ROOKIE THE WAY AT INDY"

Published in the Johnson County (Ind.) Daily Journal, May 22, 1999 ©

         Together, they are the face of the Indianapolis 500, then and now.

         One weathered but not washed-out, permanently reddened by endless summer afternoons at race tracks, aged yet ageless, as familiar to the Indy 500 crowd as his legendary last name. The other younger by a generation, slim and goateed, eager to smile a new-kid smile, so unrecognizable now that it can go to a movie or the grocery without getting a second glance.

         When Gary Bettenhausen's face first appeared in the Indy lineup, John Hollansworth Jr.'s was looking forward to going to kindergarten in the fall. When Hollansworth first stepped into a racing car, Bettenhausen was making his 21st -- and perhaps final -- run at getting his face engraved on the Borg-Warner Trophy that has been waiting for a member of his family for half a century.

         Hollansworth graduated from law school. Bettenhausen came up through racing's school of hard knocks.

         Yet here they are, face-to-face, in the same garage back in Indy's Gasoline Alley, chasing the same faceless dream of 500 success, Hollansworth as the rookie student driver from Dallas, Bettenhausen as the teacher from Monrovia, Ind., with credentials 500 miles long.

         "It started when I saw what Gary did with Sam Schmidt last year," Hollansworth says, explaining how he and the veteran Bettenhausen were first drawn toward each other. "Sam obviously came a heck of a long way, and I commented to myself at the time that, if I ever got into a position where we had the chance to be here, I wanted to do the same thing."

         Bettenhausen, who coached rookie Schmidt into the 1998 starting field, picks up the story line quickly, the cylinders of the dialogue never skipping a beat. "John called me," he recalls. "I really didn't know John, period, because I hadn't been to the IRL races and didn't realize I had raced with his dad when my career was first gettin' going."

         Turns out Bettenhausen, now 57, had raced against Hollansworth Sr. back in the mid- 1960s. With only that one degree of separation, the connection with John Jr. came about easily. The two second-generation racers took a rented Mustang around the Indy oval for about two hours in late March, Hollansworth videotaping every inch of the track.

         "He watched it and watched it and rewatched it," Bettenhausen points out, with a smile creasing his reddish face. "I've never had another driver do that."

         The coach was convinced he had a real player then. And Hollansworth has only firmed up that notion this week, scoring a top lap of 222.7 mph in his TeamXtreme entry under the watchful eyes of his driving instructor.

         "I would say he impresses me more than probably any rookie I've ever seen here," Bettenhausen advises. "I mean, I didn't consider Nigel Mansell a rookie; I mean a guy who comes here with very little experience and does what he's done."

         Before the start of the current Indy Racing League season, Hollansworth had only raced motorcycles and sports cars. Nonetheless, with only a week's worth of training and practice, the Indy rookie, driving for a rookie team, is poised to qualify solidly this weekend for the May 30 super-event.

         And he flashes an eager rookie's smile when he credits Bettenhausen for much of his quick progress. "It's been just a great arrangement," Hollansworth says. "I'm really happy and thankful that he chose to work with us, and hopefully the results of that will show up Saturday."

         The coach, whose middle name admittedly has always been Confidence, is even more optimistic about his pupil's chances. "I think we're capable of being in the first two rows," Bettenhausen reports.

         The pair of faces ready for inclusion in this year's 500 yearbook both break out in broad, compatible smiles as they compare notes on the kind of advice that has passed from one to the other this week. "I'm doing nothing more than trying to give away the gift of knowledge that I have, that took me 31 years here to learn, to him in a month's time," Bettenhausen says.

         "It took a lot years for him to gather that sort of knowledge, and I'm just trying to listen to him and apply as much as I can as quick as I can," Hollansworth adds.

         The best advice the seasoned coach has given the raw rookie? "Probably to respect the place," the student reports. "That, and be patient."

         "I told him the day we rode around in the rental car, 'Don't let this place intimidate you," the teacher chimes in. "You've got to respect it, because it can bite you when you least expect it, but don't let it intimidate you because, when the car is right, this is an easier race track to run than Phoenix or any short track.

         "It's just a matter of getting the car balanced so the car will do the work for you."

         Besides tutoring Hollansworth, Bettenhausen has also worked with the TeamXtreme crew to help determine handling set-ups for the black-white-and-red No. 42 Dallara-Aurora.

         He may also have provided, with the slyness that comes with long racing experience, one extra little lesson in motivating his rookie student to succeed at Indy this week, like a shiny but tart apple. More coach than player the past three years, Bettenhausen still isn't willing to announce his retirement as a driver.

         "I never will," he announces instead, with a laugh that could fill a classroom.

         "He told me, if I show up late, look out, he'd be in the car," Hollansworth follows up, with a similar, playful laugh himself.

         Laughing together or listening to each other, the pair sharing a garage for the first time form a perfect school picture of the face of the Indianapolis 500. Now. And then. And maybe even for a long time to come.

         "I hope I can work with Gary next year," Hollansworth says, hopefully. "I hope it doesn't stop here. There's still a lot for me to learn."

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 Copyright 1999 by Jerry Miller ©

 Color photo courtesy of Indy Racing League

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