By Eric Powell
indy500.com
Monday, August 14, 2006
1998 Indianapolis 500 winner Eddie Cheever Jr. was the class of the field at the GP Masters race at England's famous Silverstone circuit on Aug. 13, beating fellow former Formula 1 rivals – including several Indianapolis 500 veterans– under wet conditions for his first victory in the series.
Cheever started sixth in the 16-car field, which featured Nigel Mansell, Emerson Fittipaldi, Riccardo Patrese and others, and took the lead on Lap 3. Eric van de Poele passed Cheever for the lead on Lap 12, but Cheever took back the top spot on Lap 20, winning the 28-lap race by 16.677 seconds over Van de Poele. Christian Danner, who started on the pole, finished third.
The GP Masters series invites Formula 1 legends age 45 and older to compete against one another in cars prepared by the series organizers. The Silverstone event was the third in the new series' history. Mansell, who won the 1992 F1 World Championship and earned Chase Rookie of the Year honors at the 1993 Indianapolis 500, won the first two GP Masters events, in South Africa in 2005 and Qatar in April.
"I kept looking in my mirrors thinking, 'I know Nigel's going to be up here any minute,' but then I saw him in the garage on one of the big TV screens and thought, 'OK, I have a crack at this today!" said Cheever, 48, who made his 14th start at the Indianapolis 500 in May and won rookie of the year honors in 1990. "It was very slippery and very busy at the start. I was lucky that (Derek) Warwick and Danner both spun out in front of me, and then had a really exhilarating race with Eric Van de Poele where we swapped the lead several times."
A total of five Indianapolis 500 veterans competed in the race. In addition to Cheever, two-time "500" winner Emerson Fittipaldi finished eighth while Stefan Johansson finished 12th. Eliseo Salazar and Mansell were not classified after dropping out of the race on Lap 8 and Lap 2, respectively.
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