Doug Shierson Racing

Shierson's 1990CARTentry forArie Luyendyk,which won the1990 Indianapolis 500.

Doug Shierson Racingis a former racing team that competed in theCARTIndy carseries from 1982 to 1990. The team was sponsored byDomino's Pizzafor its entire run in CART. Shierson Racing won 7 Indy car races, with their biggest victory coming at the1990 Indianapolis 500,with driverArie Luyendyk.The team finished runner-up in the1985 CART Championshipwith driverAl Unser Jr.losing the title by one point.

Early years

Shierson was instrumental in the development of theFormula Atlanticseries in the late 1970s, winning the championship withHowdy Holmesin 1978 andJacques Villeneuvethe Elder in 1980 and 1981.Bobby Rahaldrove for the team in 1976 and suffered a season fraught with difficulties and he considered leaving the sport, on Shierson's urging Rahal decided to stay with the series in 1977 and eventually had a tremendously successful racing career.The team was also active inFormula 5000.

CART years

1982-1983

Shierson racing moved up to CART withHowdy Holmesin 1982. Holmes drove the team's car to 10th at theIndianapolis 500and 13th in points. The best finish was a 4th place atMilwaukee.Holmes repeated his 13th-place points finish and finished 6th at Indy the following year.

1984

Danny Sullivanreplaced Holmes in 1984 and brought the team its first three CART wins atCleveland,thePocono 500,andSanairon his way to 4th place in points.

The team experimented with its own DSR-1 chassis that was designed by Ian Reed ofMarch Engineeringand built by laid offWilliams F1fabricators.It was abandoned by Indianapolis when it was clearly off the pace and the team returned toLolaequipment. Sullivan was hired away by perennial superpowerPenske Racingfollowing his successful 1984 season.

1985-1987

Initially, Shierson signedJohn Paul Jr.;however, Paul would be jailed for racketeering in a case involving his father.After attempting to hireAl Unser Sr.,Shierson instead secured the services ofAl Unser Jr.,who would come into his own as a driver during his stint with the team.

In 1985, Al Unser Jr. won back to back mid-season races at theMeadowlandsandCleveland.He was leading the race atRoad America,when it started to rain. But before he could get to the pits for rain tires, he spun out suffering a fractured ankle. He rebounded to score six top-four finishes over the last seven races, and put himself in position to win the championship. Al Jr. famously lost the championship title by only one point. He effectively lost the championship in the waning laps of the final race of the season (Tamiami Park), when his father Al Unser Sr. finished just high enough to clinch enough points to mathematically secure the title.

The team fared strongly again in 1986 with Unser finishing 4th in points and winning the final race of the season. In 1987 Unser improved to 3rd place in points but did not win any races. At year's end Unser elected to return toGalles Racingwho had the newChevrolet-Ilmorengine which would go on to dominate Indy cars over the next several seasons.

Unser Jr. achieved top five finishes at the Indianapolis 500 for the team in 1986 (5th) and 1987 (4th).

1988-1989

Shierson replaced Unser withRaul Boesel.Boesel failed to win and only managed 8th and 11th in points in his two years with the team. The team was hampered by the use of the underpoweredCosworthandJuddengines. The highlight of the season, however, was a surprising third place at the1989 Indianapolis 500.

1990

For 1990 the team put veteran journeymanArie Luyendykin the Domino's car for which it had secured Chevy-Ilmor power and expanded to a second car forScott Goodyearrunning year-old equipment with Judd power. Luyendyk, who had never won a CART race before, shocked the establishment by winning the1990 Indianapolis 500from 3rd on the grid in what was the fastest "500" in history.

Midway through the 1990 season, Shierson sold 50% of the stake in the team to businessman Bob Tezak, owner of International Games (makers ofUNO).Longtime sponsorDomino's Pizzawas facing legal issues stemming from their "30 minutes or it's free"delivery guarantee. During the history of the team sponsorship, the Shierson entries traditionally carried the number 30, as a gesture to the" 30-minutes or free "delivery policy. Some delivery drivers were reportedly breaking traffic laws andspeedingto fulfill the guarantee. Such an instance caused a fatal traffic accident, and company officials deemed sponsoring a race car inappropriate given the circumstances.

Luyendyk rode a wave of positive attention and newfound popularity to an 8th-place finish in the 1990 CART points standings. However, he did not manage to win another race, and Indy was in fact the only top 3 result of the season. He had two 4th-place finishes, at theMeadowlands,and the exhibitionMarlboro ChallengeatNazareth.

End of team

Luyendyk driving the UNO/Granatelli car in 1991 at Laguna Seca

Facing sponsorship uncertainty, and deciding that he had accomplished his goals in the sport, Shierson eventually sold the entire team outright to Tezak in January 1991.Tezak took over the team in a joint effort with Vince Granatelli (merging with Granatelli's team,Vince Granatelli Racing), and re-booted the team asUNO/Granatelli Racing.The car's livery was changed to the classic day-glow orange utilized by Granatelli entries over the years, and Luyendyk's services were retained for 1991. Granatelli assumed day-to-day operations with Tezak fulfilling sponsorship and funding.

The UNO/Granatelli team suffered thoroughly from a lack of sponsorship money, which caused friction as the season endured.RCAsponsored the car at Indy, but for most of the other races, the car had blank sidepods. DriverArie Luyendykmanaged to win two races;PhoenixandNazareth.He finished 3rd at theIndy 500,and 2nd at theMichigan 500.A second team car at Indy forAl Unser Sr.was discussed, but ultimately the arrangement fell through.

The team nearly folded in June/July when Tezak announced he was out of money, and pulled his support. In early August, Granatelli battled a restraining order from Tezak and Total Petroleum, which prevented them from taking to the track at the Michigan 500 for practice and qualifying. The order was lifted, and Luyendyk nearly won the race, finishing a close second toRick Mears.

Despite two wins and a 6th-place finish in points for 1991, the re-booted team closed its doors permanently at the conclusion of the 1991 season.

Doug Shierson died May 26, 2004, of cancer.

Drivers in CART

Doug Shierson Racing

• Howdy Holmes(1982-1983)
• Danny Sullivan(1984)
• Al Unser Jr.(1985-1987)
• Raul Boesel(1988-1989)
• Arie Luyendyk(1990 - primary)
• Scott Goodyear(1990 - secondary)

UNO/Grantelli Racing

• Arie Luyendyk(1991)

Race Results

CART IndyCar Series results

(key)

Year	Chassis	Engine	Drivers	No.	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	Pts Pos	Pos
1982					PHX	ATL	MIL	CLE	MCH	MIL	POC	RIV	ROA	MCH	PHX
	March82C	CosworthDFX	Howdy Holmes	30	16	DNS	10	16	12	4	27	16	10	5	10							13th	56
1983					ATL	INDY	MIL	CLE	MCH	ROA	POC	RIV	MDO	MCH	CPL	LAG	PHX
	March83C	CosworthDFX	Howdy Holmes	30	9	6	7	12	32	16	13	13	8	8	17	5	21					13th	39
1984					LBH	PHX	INDY	MIL	POR	MEA	CLE	MCH	ROA	POC	MDO	SAN	MCH	PHX	LAG	CPL
	DSR-1	CosworthDFX	Danny Sullivan	30	24	6		16														4th	110
	LolaT800						29		23	2	1	10	19	1	3	1	9	20	9	18
1985					LBH	INDY	MIL	POR	MEA	CLE	MCH	ROA	POC	MDO	SAN	MCH	LAG	PHX	MIA
	LolaT800	CosworthDFX	Al Unser Jr.	30	9	25	7	2*	1*	1	15	17*	2*	4	3	23	3	2	3			2nd	151
			Tom Gloy										DNS									—	0
1986					PHX	LBH	INDY	MIL	POR	MEA	CLE	TOR	MCH	POC	MDO	SAN	MCH	ROA	LAG	PHX	MIA
	LolaT86/00	CosworthDFX	Al Unser Jr.	30	12	2	5	8	3	9	8	4*	8	6	5	2	21	11	23	6	1	4th	137
1987					LBH	PHX	INDY	MIL	POR	MEA	CLE	TOR	MCH	POC	ROA	MDO	NAZ	LAG	MIA
	March87C	CosworthDFX	Al Unser Jr.	30	2	14	4	5	20	8	3	20	18	23	3	23	6	4	2			3rd	107
1988					PHX	LBH	INDY	MIL	POR	CLE	TOR	MEA	MCH	POC	MDO	ROA	NAZ	LAG	MIA
	March88C	CosworthDFX	Raul Boesel	30	5	4		4	26													8th	89
	LolaT88/00						7			5	8	9	11	5	6	14	5	21	22
1989					PHX	LBH	INDY	MIL	DET	POR	CLE	MEA	TOR	MCH	POC	MDO	ROA	NAZ	LAG
	LolaT89/00	JuddAV	Raul Boesel	30	14	6	3	4	28	7	8	6	7	20	20	23	9	11	10			11th	68
1990					PHX	LBH	INDY	MIL	DET	POR	CLE	MEA	TOR	MCH	DEN	VAN	MDO	ROA	NAZ	LAG
	LolaT89/00	JuddAV	Scott Goodyear	11	10	17		10	8	22	18	17	9	10	8	7	22	12	10	14		13th	36
				28			10
	LolaT90/00	Chevrolet265A	Arie Luyendyk	30	9	7	1	19	5	6	6	4	5	19	13	26	21	6	17	9		8th	90
UNO-Granatelli Racing
1991					SFR	LBH	PHX	INDY	MIL	DET	POR	CLE	MEA	TOR	MCH	DEN	VAN	MDO	ROA	NAZ	LAG
	LolaT91/00	Chevrolet265A	Arie Luyendyk	9	9	5	1*		17	3	7	5	18	19	2	22	19	9	5	1	8	6th	134
				1				3

IndyCar wins

#	Season	Date	Sanction	Track / Race	No.	Winning Driver	Chassis	Engine	Tire	Grid	Laps Led
1	1984	July 8	CART	Grand Prix of Cleveland(S)	30	Danny Sullivan	LolaT800	CosworthDFXV8t	Goodyear	5	7
2		August 19	CART	Pocono 500(O)	30	Danny Sullivan (2)	Lola T800	Cosworth DFX	Goodyear	9	22
3		September 9	CART	Sanair Super Speedway(O)	30	Danny Sullivan (3)	Lola T800	Cosworth DFX	Goodyear	2	95
4	1985	June 30	CART	Meadowlands Street Circuit(S)	30	Al Unser Jr.	Lola T900	Cosworth DFX	Goodyear	6	51
5		July 7	CART	Grand Prix of Cleveland(S)	30	Al Unser Jr. (2)	Lola T900	Cosworth DFX	Goodyear	7	4
6	1986	November 9	CART	Tamiami Park, Miami(S)	30	Al Unser Jr. (3)	Lola T86/00	Cosworth DFX	Goodyear	19	1
7	1990	May 27	USAC	Indianapolis 500(O)	30	Arie Luyendyk	Lola T90/00	Chevrolet265A	Goodyear	3	35

• Note:this does not include two wins achieved in1991asUNO/Granatelli Racing