VANCOUVER, B.C., Canada (September 1, 1996) - Michael Andretti kept the Andretti/Unser streak alive by winning his his third race at the 7th Annual Molson Indy Vancouver today. Al Unser Jr. has won the other four races held here at Concord Pacific Place.

Alex Zanardi, the pole sitter, held off Andretti and led the field into the hairpin at the start. Zanardi would lead every lap he raced.

Through the first 13 laps, the only major action on the track was lapping Hiro Matsushita every 4-laps or so, and the AAR-Toyota-powered machines, though much faster than Hiro's car, that would play into the end results in a big way -- more on that later.

By lap 13, Zanardi held a comfortable 3.24 second lead over Andretti and looked to be on his way to dominating this race flag-to-flag.

On lap 17-19, Zanardi had been trying to get around P.J. Jones in every which way but up. On lap 19, entering turn 10, Alex made a very strange move to the outside of P.J. Jones who was holding the normal race line and the two cars touched wheels. Zanardi's right-side was lifted up 75-degrees and looked to be going over but his left front caught the barrier-wall and his car slammed down safely on all-fours, but terminally damaged in the runoff area.

Alex scrambled from his Target-Ganassi/Honda-Reynard and the only injury he suffered was his pride and a lost-chance at the PPG Cup Championship. As he walked back to the pits he was visibly upset...or super-pissed off might be a better word.

He violently shook off the comforts offered by Target-Ganassi's Public Relations Director, Michael Knight, and went directly into the transporter. When interviewed by ESPN, after he had obviously calmed down, he was asked if he would confront P.J. Jones.

"It wouldn't make any difference," Alex replied simply. And the race goes on....

Green flag racing resumed on lap 25 with the top-six being; Andretti, Rahal, Unser, Vasser, Herta and Fittipaldi.

Canadian favorite, Greg Moore, retired on lap 38 due to a transmission related oil leak.

16 laps later (41) the next race-event would be a NASCAR-style, banzai pass by Robby Gordon upon Jan Magnussen -- The pass failed as Jan was speared by Robby. Gordon was able to continue, but it took 5 laps for the corner workers to push-start Magnussen. Jan would later retire due to a spectacular, but safe, oil fire.

At the mid-way point in the race (50 laps) the top-ten order was; Andretti, Rahal, Unser, Vasser, Herta, Fittipaldi, Pruett, Fernandez, Tracy and de Ferran.

Three laps later (Lap 53), Pruett pulls off into the turn-3 runoff area due to yet another fried Cosworth powerplant.

One lap later (Lap 54) the caution flag is thrown, courtesy of Andre Ribeiro's contact with the outside wall, entering the hairpin, where his car stopped in a very precarious position. As the IndyCar Safety Team attends to Ribeiro's stranded car, a stubborn oil-fire erupts on Jan Magnussen's Hogan-Penske machine and this caution flag is extended until lap 62 to attend to both cars.

But, on lap 61, Al Unser Jr. dives into the pits for a quick splash of methanol. And, Jimmy Vasser, who had been advised (speed violation) that he would be black-flagged for a "drive-though" penalty, sneaks into the pits for a methanol-top-off.

One-green-lap later (Lap 62), Vasser serves his drive-through penalty. Rumors abound that he ordered a taco-salad to go, rather than a burger and fries. Jimmy is relegated to the 12th position, but climbs quickly into the 8th position with 20 laps to go.

On lap 68, Robby Gordon, in desperation, attempts a no-brainer pass on Fangio in turn 5 and wins again. Fangio clearly had the line and was offered, maybe in practice for his new career, a NASCAR-style bump by Robby.

With the heavy fines being handed out readily since Road America, don't be surprised to see a few more $20k-$40k fines announced at Laguna Seca.

Lap 74 began the next green flag in which the field was bunched-up in a huge way. Tracy bit it by trying to go wide at the hair-pin and was out of the race.

In the late-race chase, Vasser was on Herta like white-on-rice, waving his fist more than once. Vasser had seen Unser go by Herta so easily and probably got frustrated a bit.

When questioned about why Herta had been passed so easily, Bryan replied, "I got 'Hiro'd'".

Coincendentally, Jimmy Vasser had the same answer when asked about Herta. "...I hope he feels like a hero...." (Hiro?).

26 laps later, Andretti wins the 1996 race at Vancouver, punts Unser from his long-held second place PPG Points standing and dumps him to third, with the last possible chance for the PPG Cup.

The PPG Championship has three drivers in its grasp. Jimmy Vasser; Michael Andretti; and Al Unser, Jr...

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Picture above is the original Death Riders Motorcycle Crew of 1972
From left to right: Freddie Hall announcer, Al Chapbot, Danny "The Greek", Johnny Hardin,
 Crash Moreau, Danny Reed, Floyd Reed (owner) and Rusty "Squeaks" Smith

One of the Death Riders (Danny the Greek) performing a flaming boardwall crash.

A Death Rider jumping a motorcycle off a ramp that is lying on the top of a stuntman. We called this the Iron-man stunt.

We called this stunt the people jump which we layed out our stunt crew on the track and jumped a motorcycle over them.



A  few years later while being fimed for the movie DEATH RIDERS at Lagoon Amusement park. Larry Mann jumped over a long line of bodies on this people jump. The Death Riders were now jumping over 30 bodies at each performance. All volunteers from the audience.

Johnny Hardin performing an aerial boardwall crash that was made of solid 1x6's that is nailed up and down not crossed ways like other shows. These boards were not caffed. One out of two times Johnny would crash performing this stunt. It was only scene the first year of the Death Riders.

Crash Moreau performs a crash roll-over of a junk automobile at the Kansas State Fair on the Death Riders Motorcycle Thrill Show.



The Human Bomb stunt performed by Johnny Hardin at the Kansas State Fair.

Johnny Hardin being revived after the Human Bomb explosion. You can see Danny reed picking up the wood that was blown apart from the explosion.

Squeaks the Clown (Rusty Smith) performing his people jump stunt at Kansas. Watching is Johnny Hardin.



A Suicidal Sidewinder Crash performed by Crash Moreau at the Kansas State Fair.

A Divebomber Crash once again performed by Crash Moreau. This was a divebomber crash performed without the car loaded withburning hay as the Fire Marshall would not let us use fire.

A motorcycle jump by Crash Moreau at the Kansas State Fair. This was the featured bike jump of the Death Riders Motorcycle Thrill Show, their first season, as nobody wanted to jump after seeing all the other jumpers crash during the tour. You can see Rusty Smith lying on the hood of one of the cars as Crash takes off flying over the hoods.

Leaping Al Chabot was the first jumper for the DEATH RIDERS. This set of ramps were made by Johnny Hardin who would never jump off these ramps himself. Johnny had Al do the jumps. All the jumps Al performed was bad. Only 1 out of the 6 jumps he did was perfect. The last one was the most serious of all. Al broke both collar bones and had to leave for most of the season. He finally did come back and made one jump off the new set up Crash Moreau made for the show. He made the jump but was white as a ghost..