New PPG Cup champion Al Unser Jr will line up for the IndyCar Australia at the Gold Coast next March as the richest winner in the history of IndyCar racing.

Unser, 32, earned a season record US$3.6 million in winning eight of the sixteen races during the 1994 PPG Indy Car World Series.

The huge haul lifted his earnings to an all-time record US$15.2 million since he started IndyCar racing in 1982.

Team mate Paul Tracy's win in the final round, the bank of America 300 at Laguna Seca, capped a year of extraordinary success for the team run by billionaire industrialist Roger Penske.

Unser, Emerson Fitterpaldi (one win) and Tracy (three wins) finished 1-2-3 in the PPG Cup series and gave Team Penske the record for the most number of victories in a season.

The drivers finished 1-2-3 in six of the sixteen rounds held in Australia, the United States and Canada.

While Marlboro Team Penske dominated the championship like no team before, the 1994 season was memorable also for the continuing strong growth of IndyCar racing.

Virtually all events, including Australia, reported record attendances and television audiences. The Gold Coast's four day attendance was 243,000 and an independent survey found the event attracted Au$38.5 million in economic and promotional benefits to Queensland.

(139,456 bytes) Scene from 1994 IndyCar Australia.

In 1994 Honda became the first Japanese car maker to enter the series - although it was singularly unsuccessful - and Mercedes Benz power helped Unser to a runaway Indy 500 victory.

On the Gold coast in March 1994 Michael Andretti marked his return from Formula One with a debut win for his new Australian-designed Reynard Ford Cosworth.

French Canadian Jacques Villeneuve, driving for the West Australian team owner Barry Green, was Rookie of the Year and showed the same brilliance as his father, the late Ferrari driver Gilles Villeneuve.

This year the PPG Cup series opens on March 5th with a new round on the streets of Miami, Florida.

(101,084 bytes) Sadly, it will be without two of its greatest heroes. Mario Andretti, 54, retired at Laguna Seca after 407 IndyCar races and 1993 winner Nigel Mansell has returned to Europe.

However, the veterans will be followed by a host of "young lions", who will add extra glamour and excitement to the series.

Jacques Villeneuve, Robby Gordon, Paul Tracy, Jimmy Vasser, Adrian Fernandes, Scott Sharp and Bryan Herta are among the youngsters all seemingly poised for greatness in IndyCar racing.

Some will be representing brand new teams when they go to the Gold Coast on March 16- 19. Firestone will make its return as a tyre supplier after many year's absence and Mercedes-Benz engines will power Penske and Rahal-Hogan team cars.

As the world-wide popularity of IndyCar racing booms, season '95 promises to be more exciting than ever when it hits the streets of Surfers paradise on March 16-19.

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