microphone pict ©1999 SpeedCenter
Interview by Greg Spotts, Exclusive to SpeedCenter

Tim Bumps: You can't even hear the cars go around, I mean the crowd noise is that incredible

 

Two days after the race at Rio, Speedcenter had lunch with Tim Bumps, who calls the races for Scott Pruett at the Arciero-Wells team. Born and raised in Indianapolis, Tim's eighteen-year career has been centered around the Indianapolis 500. He has a great love for the Speedway and the tradition and history of open-wheel racing: his story is indicative of the smaller-scale, more personal costs of the CART/IRL split.


 

Question: Tell me about your family's history at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

    Tim Bumps: My grandparents on my mother's side went to every Indianapolis 500 since 1939 up until 1995. My dad was an Indiana State policeman, assigned to special unit, escorting Senators, Governors, and other dignitaries to qualification days and race days- sometimes he was assigned to the infield, arresting people who were drunk, and making sure that everybody had a good time.

Question: What was your first exposure to car racing?

    Tim Bumps: My first exposure to car racing was at the Speedway in 1968. I was 5 years old and I remember the red turbine cars, very vaguely. My first real recollection was when Al Unser Sr. drove the Johnny Lightening cars. My first full race was 1972. I watched the race in the infield between turns one and two, on top of my Dad's car, and I remember it being very hot and thinking the race took all day long, which actually it did.

    I was a spectator every year from 1972 to 1981. I graduated from Center Grove High School in Greenwood Indiana in 1981, and went to work at Patrick Racing in December of '81. I spent the first two years working in the engine shop. Working back there in the engine shop was like a college education. I worked for a gentleman name Sonny Meyer, who's father Louis Meyer, won the Indy 500 three times in the 20's and 30's. Sonny was the most meticulous person I've met, even to this day. He taught me what to do, what not to do, how to work, how to act... There are things that I do every day thinking what Sonny taught me eighteen years ago. For example, Sonny said when you have to work on a special part of the car you only get the tools out to work on that part of the car. When you are done with that part of the car you put the tools away. Unlike a lot of mechanics who just unload the toolbox first thing in the morning and spend all day searching for the right tool.

    In '84 I worked as a mechanic on Chip Ganassi's car, and the next year I was a mechanic for Gordon Johncock and Emerson Fittipaldi.

Question: When you were at Patrick Racing, what did you do on race day at Indy?

    Tim Bumps: In 1982 I was on Mario Andretti's car. My responsibility that year was pulling down the deadman on the fuel tank for the refuelers. Our race that day only lasted until the start, because we got involved in that crash on the main straightaway. [Note: the deadman is a spring-loaded handle controlling the valve to let the fuel out during a pit stop.]

    In '83, I did the pitboard out on the trackwall.

Question: What was it like standing out at Indy doing the pitboard with the cars going by that fast?

    Tim Bumps: It was phenomenal. Of all the tracks where we race, Indy is probably the only track that you have an appreciation for how fast the cars are going no matter where you're sitting in the grandstands, because the seats are so close to the racing surface. But being out on the trackwall, you get see it from the perspective that only a few people ever see.

Question: When did you leave Patrick Racing?

    Tim Bumps: In '85 I went to work for Penske, and was there from '86 until the end of the '93 season. In '86 I worked on Rick Mears' car, I switched to Danny Sullivan's car the next year and was his chief mechanic in '89 and '90. I then was chief mechanic on Paul Tracy's car from '91 to '93.

Question: During all those years, was the experience at Indy changing?

    Tim Bumps: At the time, no I didn't see it. Especially the years I worked for Penske, going to Indy was something special, because Roger devoted most of his energy to Indy, centered his entire racing season around Indy, made a lot of business decisions around Indy That's why Penske Racing was so successful there for so many years, because from mid-April until the checkered flag fell, the only thing they concentrated on was Indianapolis, whereas a lot of the other teams treated it like another race, and I think that was a mistake.

    The pressure was very intense, but you tried not to let it get to you. A lot of the teams were not successful there because they cracked under pressure. You used to be at the speedway for three and a half weeks, running day in and day out.

Question: Was there a certain pride competing in Indianapolis, having been born and raised there?

    Tim Bumps: Yes. I probably appreciated it more than a lot of other people. During the month of May I'd stay with my parents, I'd get to see my family, my brothers and sisters, everybody I went to school with. I'd run into old friends and neighbors in the grandstands. Back when I was in school we'd go to the speedway for field trips, we skipped a few days of school to go to the speedway when I got older. Going the speedway during May, it was like living in a small city. Even though many of the people saw each other only once a year, everybody had been going there for so many years that you knew people kind of like on a full time basis.

    One of the things I really liked about Indianapolis was seeing the old racers and feeling the great history there. Getting to talk to the older guys who raced there in the 30's and 40's. It was like an annual reunion. That's one the many things I miss about it, is not keeping involved with the history of open wheel racing. You don't see those old drivers any more, they don't come out. You see a few from time to time. But at Indy you saw Roger Ward, Jim Rathman, Parnelli Jones, a lot of the drivers who made history there. They would tell you stories of things that happened back then that no driver could tell you today. I enjoyed those stories a great deal.

Question: What was it like at Indy during the race itself?

    Tim Bumps: On race day 400,000 people went to the race. The biggest crowd we race for now is about 106,000 at California Speedway, which is nothing. Think about it, on qualification days there would be crowds of 150,000 to 200,000 people.

    On bubble day, the last day of qualifying, you'd see all the drivers hanging out the extra inch, that was pretty exciting.

    Say there's a pass for the lead by drivers that everybody's cheering for, in turn one, where most of the grandstands are located. You can't even hear the cars go around, I mean the crowd noise is that incredible. You can't hear anything like it anywhere else, not even close. The stands are so close to the track and surround the track both inside and out that there's no place for the noise to dissipate.

    One of the things about the speedway is that even the best seat in the house you can only see just a third of the track. So there was always an element of suspense, when the leaders would go away from your field of vision, there would be another thirty seconds before you'd see them again. So each lap was kind of like a thrill, and working in the pits you could hear that cheering very clearly.

Question: Tell me about the times you worked on a team that won the Indy 500.

    Tim Bumps: My first year as a participant was in 1982 with Gordon Johncock. We won the race and it was kind of shocking. I remember going to the shop after the race, we had a champagne toast and a big shindig afterwards, but my problem was I was 18 years old and wasn't old enough to drink. There was little time for partying anyway because we had to prepare to run at Milwaukee just five days later.

Question: How long did you have to wait to get another victory at the Speedway?

    Tim Bumps: In '87 we won with Al Unser Sr. The next year we won with Rick Mears, his third victory, and in '91 Mears had his fourth win, and in '93 we won with Emerson.

Question: Did the crew get a plaque or trophy when you won?

    Tim Bumps: We got Indianapolis 500 rings. I kept one, gave two to my father, gave one to my brother, and gave my first one to my grandfather. My family really enjoyed those rings. The biggest thing was the prize money. We got a percentage of it, and at Indy the prize money was so much more than the rest of the races.

Question: Where did you go to work after Penske?

    Tim Bumps: I took most of '94 off, except working the month of May for A.J. Foyt. Working for a person like Foyt, especially at the speedway, was the experience of a lifetime.

    When I was a child, the drivers of AJ's generation were my heroes. Growing up, AJ Foyt, Al Unser, Bobby Unser, Mario Andretti were my heroes.

    Ultimately in my career I got to work with all of them. AJ was the last of the drivers I admired growing up that I got to work for. Probably what impressed me the most about AJ was his ability to remember all of the changes that the mechanics made to the cars. He was the engineer for both John Andretti and Bryan Herta. He never wrote anything down. He could remember how he adjusted the shocks, the camber settings, the wing angle settings from three days ago, and from when he was running four years ago. That was amazing. I've never seen anybody be able to do that, and he was right. You could go back to the notes people took and he was spot-on every time. That was the most incredible thing I ever witnessed.

    Probably the best thing about working with AJ was that he and my father got along very well. In '94 my father was dying of cancer, and he was about the same age as AJ. Their friendship was very very special and was strong up until the day my father died a few years ago. They hit it off like they were brothers.

Question: What was the last 500 you worked?

    Tim Bumps: I went to work for Newman Haas Racing December of '94, working with Michael Andretti. So the last race I worked at the speedway was '95. There was a lot more friction in the air that year, because once the IRL was announced it looked like the split was truly going to happen. The last time I was involved in running a car there was at a tire test in November of '95. By that point the IRL/Cart split was getting pretty serious, Cart announced they were thinking about running another race the same day as the Indy 500. Looking back, I don't know why we even did the test. That was the last time I ever set foot in the Speedway, even though I've been to Indianapolis about 25-30 times since then.

    I remember running there, it was colder than hell, watching Michael go out running 228, 230 miles per hour. But in the back of my mind, there was a premonition I had. I remember telling my family that night "This is going to be a long time before we come back." Back then I figured about three or four years. Now I think it will probably be another two or three years.

Question: So how do you feel, how does it affect your feelings about my work?

    Tim Bumps: It doesn't really effect my work. But I feel sad. Just sad to see open wheel racing taking this big decline for basically no reason at all. When they put this back together, it will take a few years for it to be fully healed, getting the fans back, getting the TV ratings back up. NASCAR has very successfully taken advantage of this situation, and it's not going to change overnight.

    Right now is the worst time I feel it. There's actually a lot of mechanics and drivers who have been in the CART series for a few years now that have never even been to the Speedway. They don't even know what they're missing.

    Sometimes I feel like one of the old-timers on my team. I'm the one on the team who's telling the old stories. It actually feels weird, because I'm only 36. As far as age, I'm not the oldest person on the team, but as far as Indycar racing I'm the most experienced person on the team.

Question: Do the younger guys understand you attachment to Indy, or do they think you're just living in the past?

    Tim Bumps: A little of both, I think. They think I'm living in the past. But I can sense that when I'm talking about Indy to them, that they want to experience it, that they want to see it. I know deep down that we will eventually go back. It's just a matter of time. I force myself not to think about it emotionally, though it's tough. I do know that one day we will come back, we will go back.