Mike's Indy/CART Roundup - November 1996

Much has happened since Jimmy Vasser won his first Indycar World Series championship, Reynard it's second, and Honda their first. Some folks have stayed put, others have moved to new locations, and yet others are out of the Indycar picture altogether. Yes, it's Silly Season again, and it appears that this one will be sillier than most.

In a surprising development Robby Gordon decided that NASCAR needed not one, but two Gordons in it's series. While a gain for 'dem good ole boys, it's left Team Green looking for a new -preferably *American* driver to satisfy it's new sponsor - KOOL. The answer to this riddle appears to be in the form of Parker Johnstone who in another surprise move ended his stay at Brix/Comp- tech. This also presents a dilemma in terms of what will Team Green have power their car? The current Ford or the (seemingly) invinceable Honda? For Brix/Comptech the answer is very easy - they'll run the Honda until their contract expires at the end of 97 -- as long as they can get a driver up to Parker's level to drive it. As for Team Green, they aren't sure as the deal with Parker isn't finalized yet.

Recent testing at Homestead yielded some surprises. Starting with Christian Fittipaldi getting a taste of the retaining wall in Newman/Haas's *LOLA*. That's right, they're doing tire testing with the Lola simply because the Swift isn't ready for testing yet. More on that in a moment. The probable cause of Fittipaldi's spin was attributed to high winds which minutes earlier cause the Target/Gannassi team to call it a day. Speaking of T/G, Alex Zanardi (whom we'll never forget for his Banzaii charge at Laguna Seca) walked off with the fastest time in testing (20.8 seconds) with the cars in '97 trim. Also in the cast of Homestead Testing were Patrick Racing, Penske, and Davis & Craig Racing (The Team Formerly Known As Hall Racing).

Getting back to Newman/Haas's new chasis, Swift Engineering reports that the first car is currently on schedule for delivery. That's the good news. The bad news is that if anything goes wrong, that schedule will be blown. And racing being what it is, something will (eventually) go wrong. In the Newman/ Haas workshops and in Swift Engineering facilities, praying is becoming a good habit to get into (appologies for nuns everywhere for that most unintentional pun). Currently the second car is scheduled to be three weeks behind the first, again barring anything going wrong.

In yet another decision to change their package, All American Racers has decided to go abroad for it's 97 *starting* chasis. In the season opener the team will put a Reynard chassis under the Toyota engine and leave the Eagle for developing the next generation Toyota engine. Personally, I hope it's faster than my Dad's Toyota pickup or AAR might be in trouble...

An unrelated development came in the Del Penna camp. There they've chosen the Lola platform for their weapon of choice in 97. Given the few number of victories garnered by the Lola in '96, that doesn't sound like a particularly wise move. Then again, Lolas tend to be Ford powered (yes, I *am* biased against Ford, but, given their 96 campaign record, I think I'm justified. All Ford wins came at tracks where handling was more important than raw horsepower and at those venues Fords performed with mediocrity rather than distinction) and the wins that Michael Andretti scored with his Lola were on tracks where handling is what yields speed, so, perhaps the Lola isn't a bad choice after all.

On the road following Laguna Seca was Raul Boesel and the Brahma sponsorship to the surprise of none. The duo found a new home in Patrick Racing, er, *formerly* Patrick Racing. It's now hearalded as the Brahma Sports Team. I wonder if they'll play soccer (football for non-US folks) on the off weekends? The deal did have certain performance requirements. Namely that the team must win 10% of the races (2); finish in the top 5 50% of the time; in the top 10 75% of the time; have both cars finish in the top 10 in points [that's not unreasonable if they meet the rest of the requirements]; and one car in the top 5 [again, if they can meet the other terms, that is almost a surety] in the final standings. What would being able to do all that mean for BST? A three year extension of their contract. For BST, this is a pivotal year indeed.

With the retirement of Jim Hall an era has passed into history in Indycars, wether ye be in the IRL or PPG ICWS. With Hall leaving the sport, the father of Aerodynamics has left his legacy (and team) behind. The legacy will go into the annals of Indycar history but the team has to get ready for another season of racing. Now known as Davis and Craig Racing, they will continue to campaign with the Reynard riding Goodyears, BUT with Honda leaving they've opted for Ford to power the car. It must be noted that most of the team will remain in place with Gaulter Salles taking over the driving role of Gil De Ferran who had an emotional victory at Laguna Seca in 95.

More package changes. Players Forsythe Racing will see a Reynard ride on their Goodyear shod, Mercedes powered car.

In a driver note, Jan Magnussen will *not* race Indycars next year. Instead he has been contracted to Jackie Stewart's F1 team. Good luck, Jan. It's a tough cruel world in F1 for a new team.

Max Papis who performed so very well in the car vacated by Jeff Krosnoff's death, got his first taste of oval racing at Milwaukee. He said "It is very different from anything I have driven in the past. It is a totally new discipline. The driver just turns left. I have never had to turn only left. It requires a lot of finesse and you have to be a very clean driver."

Unrelated to Papis, the team has also undergone a name change - Team MCI is what Aciero Wells racing is currently going by.

In the IRL, we have had an unsurprising event occur. The schedule has been changed to follow the calendar year. Jack Long at the IRL explained it as being unanimously supported by the teams and has been done to help the teams and sponsors in bugetary planning.

Also in the IRL, Arie Luyendyk got to test the new G Force/Aurora combination at Phoenix. Feedback from the testing indicates that while more work needs to be done to get the car race ready, it's very good right out of the box. The engine performed near flawlessly in the three day test which surprised Arie. He stated that when he was told that they'd have one motor for the three days, he told them they better just schedule one day for testing. Arie also noted that the package seemed to have a lot of drag in it. That will be addressed before it is ready for it's first race in Orlando.

This all being said, I can honestly say that there has been a lot more happening that I haven't touched on. This is both a limitation of space and a result of me not being able to contact certain resources. Fortunately, we've plenty of time to catch up.

Me. I was originally born in Nazareth Pa. The same one where Penske has the racetrack. I was born in time to celebrate Mario's victory at Indy, and even went to school across from his (old) home. My loyalty to PPG series is derived from a bit of home town pride and loyalty to those who have helped my home town heros, the Andrettis. In 1977 we moved to Berwick, Pa (home of the notorious Jimmy "Mr. Excitement" Spencer) another town with some racing background. Surprisingly enough, I didn't really get involved with racing until after leaving the US Navy and returning home and discovering NASCAR Racing by Papyrus. This lead me back to those racing roots sprouted by my father (who remembers the old dirt mile at Nazareth). I quickly became involved in Indycar Racing by Papyrus and ICR2. Through these worthy ambassadors, I've quickly immersed myself in racing lore and am having the time of my life.

Mike