The other man in Yip’s 1983 South American link-up was ex-Ensign driver Roberto Guerrero, who was part of the lock or stock or barrel Mo Nunn’s selled off to Theodore. The affable curly-haired Colombian gentleman from Medellin never got a proper ride in Grand Prix racing. Roberto’s best results came on the American ovals, as with so many talented Formula One cast-offs.
Incidentally, Roberto’s dad was just as sports-minded and two-wheeled as Cecotto Sr, Guerrero being the son of an Olympic cyclist. As with almost every aspiring racing drivers Roberto started out in karts at age 12 and he collected two national titles during his five years in the category. In 1975 he was third in the Pan American & National Kart Championships.
For 1977 Roberto took the obvious move and relocated to England as he honed his skills at the famous Jim Russell Driving School at Silverstone. His talent was obvious through winning 5 of the 6 school races and finishing second in the remaining one.
The British FF1600 series was a logical next step on the path to Formula 1. He won eight races and finished fifth overall in 1978. It was good enough to bag him the factory seat in the Argo F3 team, for whom Roberto drive for in 1979-80. Five wins in 1980 and second in the overall standings was his reward. Graduation to Formula 2 was next and he signed for the Mampe-Maurer team. He won the Thruxton race in the handsome Gustav Brunner-penned Maurer car.
His Grand Prix chance came in 1982 when he signed to drive for Mo Nunn’s Ensign – the next Colombian connection to Ensign after Ricardo Londono’s abortive attempt. He managed to qualify for eight races but had no results for his efforts. The Ensign project was bought by Theodore Yip in 1983 and Roberto continued to drive for the amalgated team. No points were gained in 1983 and Roberto decided to move elsewhere. He moved on to the North American CART-series and he would remain in Indy-style single-seaters to this day.
Despite a problem-filled race which included a 360 spin and having Danny Sullivan running up and over his rear wheel during a caution flag Roberto came home second in his Indy 500 debut in 1984. He also beat Michael Andretti to the CART Rookie of the Year title. The next couple of years showed that Roberto was really at home in this kind of racing. After the second place in the 1984 event he finished third in 1985 and fourth in 1986. In 1987 an another eventful Indy 500 saw Roberto once again finishing runner-up. He lost by five seconds to Al Unser sr. A bad clutch made him stall the engine at the final pitstop and this effectively cost him the win.
However, he did score his first wins in the category by winning the Phoenix and Mid Ohio CART races. His year finished off on a bad note though, when he crashed while testing at Indianapolis in late September. He was struck in the head by a tyre and was listed in critical condition, actually left in coma for 17 days. He had an amazing recovery and by the traditional CART curtain raiser at Phoenix in 1988 he put his Lola second on the grid.
But Roberto was never again truly the driver he used to be. His string of successes at the Indy 500 was also broken when he was taken out in turn two at the first lap of the 1988 race.
In 1989, Roberto signed for Pat Patrick’s team. They would be developing the new Alfa V8 engine. Together with Bruno Giacomelli Roberto tested the engine in a 1988 March. But the Alfa brass decided against racing at Indy and would make their debut at Detroit. Because of the Alfa contract Roberto was not allowed to find a ride for an another team for the big race and he was forced to sit out the 1989 Indy 500. Truesports had wanted him to drive for them but Roberto was unable to accept the offer. In all, 1989 was really a lost year.
For 1990 however Roberto was back and with Alfa power behind him as well. Unfortunately the March 90CE chassis dedicated to the Alfa engine was never competive and it suffered from unpredictable handling. His month of May included a massive crash, but he was quicker than his team mate Al Senior. But the race ended after 118 laps with suspension maladies.
Earlier in the year in January Roberto became a naturalized American citizen and he made USA his adopted homeland.
In 1991 he again had a Alfa V8 behind for the Indy 500. This time he was out after 23 laps after have contact with Kevin Cogan and the outside concrete wall. His Indy fortunes were in rapid decline now and in 1992 it went from bad to worse. Although qualifying went really well, his powerful Buick V6 allowing him to set a record speed of 232.482mph and bag the Indy 500 pole, a rookie mistake took him out even before the race even got underway. Coming out of Turn Two on the second warm-up parade lap Roberto floored the pedal and tractionless cold tires put him in a spin out on the infield grass where he damaged the suspension. Amazingly, the polesitter was out…
He did earn a full-time ride for Kenny Bernstein for 1993 but the Budweiser-liveried Lola did not achieve much success. Roberto again crashed out of Indy after contact with Michael Andretti´s younger brother Jeff. Roberto’s best result was a fourth place at New Hampshire.
For the 1994 Indy 500 Roberto was back in his old 1992 chassis. Roberto qualified the now two-year-old Lola T92/01-Buick in 20th spot but again this unfortunate car put him out first in the race. He crashed the car on lap 20. Roberto surely must have hoped that this car would be buried and put to rest there and then. 33rd place for the second time in three years and with the same car…
For 1995 Roberto was demoted to the Pagan Racing outfit, driving a year-old Reynard 94I. He actually did put in a spirited drive and finished a creditable 12th after fighting an ill-handling car. With lesser competition during the first year of the now IRL-sanctioned Indy 500 in 1996 Roberto had his best car for years and finished 5th in a Ford XB-powered Reynard 95I, again driving for Pagan Racing. The new IRL series provided Roberto, now aged 38, with a lifeline in Indy-style singleseaters: in 1997 Roberto remained on Pagan Racing’s payroll, now driving the new dedicated, unblown, production-derived V8 powered IRL cars. Roberto finished 7th in the overall standings for the 1997 season driving a Dallara with Infiniti power. Mechanical problems let him down in the Indy 500 and he finished a lowly 27th after qualifying 19th. His best finish of the year was a sixth in Loudon.
He began 1998 entering his fourth year with the Pagan Racing team but switched to Price Cobb’s CBR team in the latter part of the season. He led 22 laps of the Lone Star 500 at Texas, becoming first Nissan Infiniti-powered driver to lead a lap in Indy Racing League competition. He finished fourth. A problematic month at Indy again held him back and he finished in a lowly 22nd place. But he was awarded the Scott Brayton Driver’s Trophy for a driver who exemplifies the character and racing spirit of late driver Scott Brayton. For 1999 Roberto again was entered by Price Cobb but his season finished at the Indy 500 because the team folded after Roberto finishing 25th.
For the new millenium Roberto was still without a ride late in the month of May. AJ Foyt offered Roberto to qualify the #41 car. Despite little practice in the car he ran 220mph in practice but was unable to better 218 in qualifying proper. He was forced to abort two attempts in the #41 G-Force before he was trying out the Hideshi Matsuda 20T spare. He managed to put in three practice laps in the #20T Dallara running at 207 and then got out on the track for qualifying nine minutes before the end of qualifying. Unable to get the car up to decent speed during the first lap meant an another abortive attempt and it was all over for him for this year. For the first time Roberto failed to qualify for the Indy 500.
Only a few minutes remained of the session but this gentlemanly abortive attempt did mean that one more car would have a shot making it onto the Indy grid. Billy Boat grasped the opportunity and made the cut. Guerrero has no hard feelings about what happened at Indy. He said the outcome was extremely disappointing, but adds that he went there without a ride and said his opportunity with Foyt looked for a while like it had come down from heaven.The cars, Guerrero added, were always great, and it was found later after his aborted run that the sluggish speed of the car had nothing to do with his driving.
“It was a problem with the battery, and that’s what kept the speeds down,” he said. “So it ended going from being the best opportunity I would have to being pretty bad. But there’s no point crying about it. You put your head down and keep trying. So we’ll just keep trying and see what happens.”
At this very moment Roberto is back in the IRL driving a 1999 G-Force for Corey Coulson at the new Kentucky Speedway. Guerrero, who will be 42 on November 16, admits that he has thought about retiring, but then says to himself, Why? “I still think I can do as good a job as anybody out there. I’m in better shape physically now than I was when I was 20 years old.”
Guerrero is also involved in the second-division of NASCAR racing, the Busch Series. The plan is to test and prepare to race in the season finale at the Homestead-Miami track. Roberto will drive there and at the other high-speed tracks next season while his brother Jaime works toward getting cleared to drive in NASCAR high-banked events. If both the Indy Racing and Busch arrangements work out, Roberto could be a busy driver in 2001.
“I’m just keeping all my options open,” he said. “It would be very nice to have to make that choice between an IRL team and a Busch team. It would be a very tough decision. I think I would have to weigh both teams and what the possibilities would be, but I still have a very soft spot for the Indycars. I feel if I had a decent opportunity to do Indycars, I think I would go that way.”
Now also a part owner of a gym in Dana Point, California, called The Sweat Shop, it seems that we have not seen the last of Roberto for quite some time yet…
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