Joint Indianapolis 500 rookie of the year from 1989 Scott Pruett has become the latest former IndyCar star to join the field for The Race Legends Trophy’s round on the Indy oval.
Pruett raced in the Indy 500 four times, with his strongest performance coming in 1995 with Patrick Racing. A year of testing the new Firestone tyre paid off and he was a frontrunner before crashing on oil.
His best Indy 500 finish was on his debut in 1989 (pictured below), when he scored 10th in a Truesports-run Lola, sharing the rookie of the year honour with Bernard Jourdain – uncle of Legends Trophy regular Michel Jourdain Jr.
“When you think about Memorial Day weekend traditions, you think about the Indianapolis 500 and for me personally the memories of being Indy rookie of the year and competing in such a historic event,” said Pruett.
“Now to have a chance again to race against a field of friends and legends at the virtual Indianapolis Motor Speedway is going to be exciting.
“The Legends Trophy will be my first sim online competition so I’m excited to see what that will be like, but more than anything else this will be an incredible show for the fans with the combination of legendary drivers competing at this legendary race track.”
Pruett first made his name in the Trans-Am championship where he battled with the likes of Willy T Ribbs, before stepping into single-seaters in what was then the CART Indycar World Series.
Serious leg injuries from a pre-season testing crash in 1990 cost him momentum early in his career, but he became a two-time race-winner with Patrick in the mid-1990s and finished sixth for the team in the 1998 championship.
Pruett also had spells in NASCAR, but found more success returning to sportscars.
His association with Ganassi brought five Daytona 24 Hours victories and five Grand-Am titles, plus a Sebring 12 Hours win, and he was part of Corvette’s GTS class-winning line-up in the 2001 Le Mans 24 Hours.
He’ll join a star studded field for the Legends Trophy this weekend, taking on Formula 1 champions Mario Andretti, Jenson Button, Fernando Alonso and Emerson Fittipaldi, as well as three-time Indy 500 winners Helio Castroneves and Dario Franchitti and many more.
The race will be commentated on by legendary Brickyard announcer Paul Page, joined by Formula 1 and Formula E’s Jack Nicholls.
The Legends Trophy event will be broadcast live on The Race’s YouTube channel, but will also be shown live on the main ESPN channel in the US for the first time.
Previous rounds of the championship have been shown on ESPN 2. UK viewers can also watch live on Eurosport UK.
Entry list
Fernando Alonso
Mario Andretti
David Brabham
Jenson Button
Helio Castroneves
Tom Coronel
Mario Dominguez
Emerson Fittipaldi
Adrian Fernandez
Gil de Ferran
Dario Franchitti
Bryan Herta
Michel Jourdain Jr
Tony Kanaan
Vitantonio Liuzzi
Jan Magnussen
Tiago Monteiro
Juan Pablo Montoya
Max Papis
Emanuele Pirro
Jason Plato
Andy Priaulx
Scott Pruett
Mika Salo
Oriol Servia
Petter Solberg
Darren Turner
