Roberto José Guerrero Isaza (born 16 November 1958, in Medellín) is a Colombian-American former racing driver.
He participated in 29 Formula One Grands Prix, debuting on 23 January 1982. Info from Wiki
Bio by Stephen Latham
Starting in karts, Roberto Guerrero went on to win two national championships in Colombia plus finished third in 1975’s Pan American Karting Championship. He then joined the Jim Russell Racing School in 1977 and won five of their six races (and was second in the other race) and from there moved into British FFord 1600 in 1978 and took eight victories. He then competed in British F3 in Angila Car’s Argo JM3 and the following year raced Argo Racing Car’s Argo JM6, taking five victories at Cadwell Park, Brands Hatch, Thruxton (twice) and Oulton Park. Alongside this he also competed in European F3 for Angila Cars in the Argo JM3.
1981 saw him in a Maurer Motorsport Maurer MM81 in European F2 and he won the Jochen Rindt Memorial Trophy at Thruxton and there were fourth place finishes at Enna-Pergusa and Misano.
Then came a move into F1 with Ensign (Café de Colombia/Moda Caribu Ensign N180B) although it was a frustrating season. At South Africa he failed to qualify due to Maurer Motorsport filing an injunction to Ensign boss Morris Nunn, resulting in Roberto being withdrawn from the race. He returned for the Brazilian Grand Prix but did not qualify for the race but finished fifteenth at the US GP West, after crashing 27 laps into the race. The team missed San Marino due to the FISA-FOCA dispute and at Monaco Avon Tyres withdrew from F1 and the team had to use older tires. At Detroit, and now running on Michelin tyres, Roberto was involved in a crash on the sixth lap though scored his best finish at the German GP with an eighth place finish but in the season’s final race, at Caesars Palace, his engine failed in the warm up and he missed the race.
The following year, with the team renamed Theodore Racing he only failed to qualify at Monaco and his best finishes were twelfth at the Dutch and the European GP. Towards the end of the season he returned to F3 to finish second behind Ayrton Senna in Macau.
1984 saw his Indy car debut with Bignotti-Carter Racing in a Master Mechanic March 84C and he finished second at the Indianapolis 500, recovering from a triple spin, and also took fifth places at Cleveland and Michigan. He was named as Rookie of the Year for the Indy 500 (shared with Michael Andretti) and was awarded the series’ Rookie of the Year award. In 1985 the team became Team Cotter and he drove a March 85C but the season would prove disappointing, though he did achieve third place at the Indy 500 and fourth at Laguna Seca. Frustratingly, he was leading at the Michigan 500 and at Sanair but retired from both. Staying with the team, he continued his streak of impressive finishes with fourth at Indianapolis and a second place finish at Mid-Ohio. He took second at Miami although he had qualified on pole and led every lap until running out of fuel on the last lap and giving victory to Al Unser, Jr.
In 1987, with Vince Granatelli Racing, he took the March 87C to his first Indycar win at Phoenix, after starting from the back of the grid after his car had been declared illegal. At the Indy 500 he had been running second for much of the race, and took the lead on lap 177, but on his final pit stop his engine stalled as he exited the pit. The car began to move but stopped outside the pit lane but he finally got going and managed to finish second. He took four pole positions at Milwaukee, Portland, Cleveland and Mid-Ohio, plus his second Indycar victory at Mid Ohio. However, just as Roberto appeared to be on the verge of success, he crashed while testing at Indianapolis. The car’s rear suspension broke, sending it into the wall, but the right front tyre came off on impact and struck him on the helmet, knocking him unconscious for about a week and causing fears of possible brain damage. He was in a coma for 17 days before thankfully making a full recovery though did not compete again that year.
He returned with Vince Granatelli’s team and finished second at Phoenix’s opening race although but the season would be a disappointing one. In 1988 he also competed in IROC XII (International Race of Champions), representing CART (alongside Al Unser, Jr., Al Unser, Sr. and Bobby Rahal) and qualified on pole for the second and third races at Riverside and Michigan.
He then raced for Morales Motorsport’s Alfa Romeo engined Champ Car team in 1989 (with his best finish being 8th in Detroit) and stayed with them when Patrick Racing took over in 1990, driving a March 90CA-Alfa Romeo (until the team switched to a Lola T90/00).
In 1991 he was replaced by Danny Sullivan but drove a second car for them in the Indy 500, plus did three races for King Racing and drove a Fendi/Hawaiian Tropic Lola T91/00 at Toronto.
There were two races for King Racing in 1992 and at Indianapolis he set a new four-lap track record of 232.482 mph and a new one-lap record of 232.618 mph on the third lap. He qualified on pole and became the first part-time driver to qualify on pole since Pancho Carter in 1985 but unfortunately, he spun out and did not start the race. He raced full time with King Racing the following season and consistently qualified in the mid-pack, with his best finish being fourth at New Hampshire.
For 1994, there would only be one race, at the Indianapolis 500 with Pagan Racing, though he retired from the race due to a crash. He returned the following year for two further races with Pagan Racing (in a Reynold 94i-Ilmor-Mercedes-Benz IC108B) and finished sixteenth at Phoenix and twelfth at Indianapolis.
He and Pagan Racing raced full-time in 1996/97 and at Walt Disney World Speedway he qualified second and finished fifth. At the Indy 500 he led for 47 laps but in his final pit stop, the car caught fire when fuel fuel began to spill out. Roberto began to climb out but it was determined it was okay to continue racing but on the final lap he was involved in a crash that took out two cars and his car came to rest in the pit lane. At Las Vegas he took a season best fourth place but the series began using a different type of spec car, and he raced a Dallara IR7-Nissan Infiniti Q45. At Phoenix he finished seventh but retired from the Indy 500 due to a suspension failure. Switching to an Oldsmobile Aurora Indy V8 his best finish with it was at New Hampshire, where he came home in sixth place but at the season’s final race, at Las Vegas, he suffered a major accident where his car flipped into a grass area alongside the track but fortunately he was uninjured and able to climb out of his wrecked car.
Pagan Racing were without a sponsor in 1998 but at Indianapolis Roberto was awarded the Scott Brayton Award for best showing the spirit of the sadly deceased racer. From here he joined Cobb Racing, taking a fourth place at Texas, and staying with them for 1999 his best finish of that year was thirteenth place at Walt Disney World Speedway but the team folded after the Indy 500.
For 2000 Guerrero managed to get a one-off race at Indianapolis with A.J. Foyt Enterprises but he did not qualify, which was the first time since 1989 that he failed to start the Indy 500. He later competed for Team Coulson in the Belterra Resort Indy 300 at Kentucky, though retired with engine problems in what would prove to be his final Indycar race.
He attempted to compete in the NASCAR Busch Series during 2000 for the Hispanic Racing Team at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in their Chevrolet Monte Carlo but did not qualify.
In 2001’s Indy 500 race, Dick Simon Racing needed a driver, due to a driver leaving the team, so Roberto raced for them but on the final day of qualifying he was bumped from the field and failed to qualify. He returned to Hispanic Racing in 2002 for a NASCAR race at the Atlanta Motor Speedway but failed to qualify for it.
Roberto retired from racing in 2003 and has since worked as a spotter in Indy races and was a commentator for SpeedTV and FOX 3 Latin America broadcasts of the American Le Mans Series and the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series from 2009 to 2013.
Now living in San Juan Capistrano in California, Roberto also did off-road racing at the legendary Baja 2000 and has since raced in Baja 1000 events and guided tours of the Baja Peninsula with Wide Open Baja. In 2016 he returned to Indianapolis as part of the SVRA’s Brickyard Vintage Racing Invitational, and raced a 1969 Chevrolet Camaro (with Jody O’Donnell) in an Indy Legends Charity Vintage Pro-Am; finishing fourth in the ‘A Production’ class.
Following on from my post about Roberto Guerrero, the following is an interesting piece about his recovery after his crash at Indianapolis. When drivers have injuries their rehabilitation goes on largely forgotten by people but we overlook, or forget, the struggles they (and anybody undergoing rehab) go through.
It is taken from ‘Rapid Response. My Inside Story as a Motor Racing Lifesaver’, by Steve Olvey (who was a former CART doctor) and tells of Roberto Guerrero’s accident and recovery.
While testing at Indianapolis in 1987 he suffered head injuries when his car hit the wall and his tyre struck him on the head. Scans taken at hospital showed a diffuse axonal injury (the same as Jules Bianchi) and the outlook seemed very bleak.
“In the fall of 1987, I was getting a haircut on a beautiful sunny afternoon in Indianapolis. Halfway through I received an emergency page on my beeper. The news wasn’t good. Roberto Guerrero, Colombia’s best driver at the time, had crashed heavily while testing tyres for Goodyear at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Medics from the scene had reported a severe head injury with the patient in a deep coma. Guerrero was unable to breathe for himself and required assisted ventilation en route to Methodist Hospital.
I jumped from the barber’s chair with only half a haircut and sped to the hospital. When I arrived at the emergency room, I was met by Dr. Bock who was on duty that day. Mike Turner, an excellent neuro-trauma surgeon was on hand as well. They both reported that the head injury looked really bad. The CT scan of Guerrero’s head did not reveal anything that the surgeons could fix. Sadly, it showed instead a very swollen brain with severe diffuse axonal injury, or DAI. Basically, the brain had suffered an extensive shearing injury to the nerve fibres causing the entire central nervous system to short circuit. It could not be surgically repaired. Guerrero was moved from the emergency room to the intensive care unit.
The cause of this injury in the general public is usually a car accident. The forces of a crash, if severe enough, cause the head to violently rotate. Severe damage can occur to the brain without the head ever coming into contact with anything. Nerve fibres within the brain and brainstem are damaged by this shearing effect. A helmet offers virtually no protection for this type of injury. The mortality rate in the general population was over 80% in 1987, and the only treatment was, and still is, supportive care. Judicious use of medications to help remove the excess brain water and to control the increased pressure that develops inside the skull are the only modalities of therapy.
One promising treatment had recently been tried in some large medical centres with varying degrees of success. It was not yet in common usage, and most neurologists and neurosurgeons did not feel it was beneficial and were reluctant to try it. The treatment involved the use of barbiturates in very high, even toxic doses, and were given intravenously. The medication was thought to decrease the metabolism of the brain and, as a result, lower the pressure within the brain itself. If the brain was allowed to swell too much, it would herniate or rupture through the opening in the base of the skull. This extrusion of the brain stem would normally result in instant death.
We had used barbiturates to treat increased brain swelling in the past, but only in the standard recommended doses. We had never used the very high experimental doses that had been reported in the medical literature. Dr. Turner and I met with Guerrero’s wife Kati and explained to her the gravity of the situation. We told her there wasn’t anything we could do surgically and that the only hope for her husband was supportive care and the use of high dose barbiturate therapy. We asked for permission to use these very high doses. Kati grasped the situation fully and told us to do anything we thought might save her husband’s life.
Dr. Turner and I placed Guerrero in an artificial coma with the barbiturates. He required the ventilator for breathing support and constant monitoring of his vital signs, and a probe was placed inside his brain to measure his intracranial pressure. It was sky high! Normal was less than 15. His was over 60. I started pushing the barbiturates intravenously. We reached the usual maximum dose with zero effect on the pressure inside his head. The situation looked grim. I then gave him five times the recommended dose. This caused his blood pressure to drop to near zero. I thought he was dying. I quickly started another medication to raise his blood pressure, and he required huge amounts of this medicine. I was not at all hopeful. Kati remained by his bedside, determined.
After about seven hours of this treatment, and a lot of criticism including accusations of experimentation amongst the nursing stuff, the pressure within Guerrero’s brain began to subside. Within 24 hours it was back to normal. He woke up three weeks later. I had spent most of the first 36 hours at his bedside. His wife never left him at all! She remained by his side throughout his entire stay in the intensive care unit. She would later accompany him daily through the long rehabilitation process.
When Guerrero first spoke, he spoke in Spanish, his native language. He told Kati that he loved her. He steadily progressed, and eventually was ready for a long and difficult rehabilitation. Spurred on by Kati and his young son Marco, he took this rehabilitation to heart. He was one of the first patients to receive what we call cognitive rehabilitation. This form of rehab used computer-assisted exercises to bring a person’s memory and visual motor skills back to baseline via biofeedback. It was very much like playing a series of complicated video games. Guerrero was scheduled spend five hours a day doing these exercises. He would spend nine. During this period he would also re-learn to walk and to speak the English language.
Kati was unrelenting, pushing hard. As a result of her efforts, her determination, and her deep affection, Guerrero was driving the family car within two months and had played a full game of golf in three. His recovery surprised all of us.
In April of 1988, he wanted to drive a race car again. His team entered him in the race at Phoenix. I thought he could do it as well because he appeared to me to be fully recovered. No-one else seemed to think so. Due to justifiable apprehension on the part of the CART officials, as well as his fellow drivers, doctors subjected him to a full nine-hour battery of neuro-psychiatric tests. He passed them all with flying colours. I repeated the tests for a second time at the University of California in Los Angeles just to assure the officials that they weren’t biased. Again he passed! At UCLA, he was consistently monitored for any seizure activity. He had none. He was then required to go through a strict driving test under the eyes of the CART Chief Steward Wally Dallenbach. Again he passed! CART had no choice but to clear him to race.
Guerrero qualified second in a field of 28 cars. Some of the other drivers would barely speak to me. The only two people, other than Roberto, who were convinced he could drive were Kati and me. Once the race started I could barely function. All I could think was what if he crashed and hurt or killed himself or someone else? I would never be forgiven in spite of all the precautions I had taken.
After the start, Guerrero held onto second place. He began passing lapped cars as if possessed. He passed on the outside as well as the inside. Phoenix is a one-mile oval track with each lap taking 25 seconds. Negotiating heavy traffic on such a tight course was what made the short ovals so spectacular to watch. Roberto was awesome! He would finish second that day less than six months after his devastating and usually fatal head injury. I was vindicated on all counts. Because of my experience with him, head injury became my primary focus of study.
Guerrero went on to race for many more years. He and Kati are still married and live in California with their two boys. It is amazing what persistence, love and dedication can accomplish. Also, a certain degree of really good luck!”
Roberto Guerrero – Teddy Yip’s feast from the East – from 
