Winless Brayton Sees Victory as Just Beyond Every Horizon : Indy cars: A new team and opportunity to run the complete CART series makes 31-year-old optimistic that he’s getting closer to his goal.

Scott Brayton has driven Indy cars for 10 years and has yet to win a race. Nor is there any strong indication that he will sometime soon.

He is not among the favorites in today’s Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, and if he would, by some strange quirk of fate, happen to win, the accomplishment would be hailed as the upset of the season, maybe the decade.

So is Brayton some down-in-the-mouth guy, mad at the world for mistreating him?

Hardly. He sees himself as a still-young man--he’s 31--improving in a field dominated by elite practitioners. And if he doesn’t win today’s race, or next month’s Indy 500 or some other race this season or next, well, there will be others. And at least one of them, maybe more, will have his name on it.

Besides, he likes what he’s doing.

“I’m very involved in business, and I love business, and I have felt like there are times when I can make this much money elsewhere, and it would seem a little more attainable,” he said Saturday. “I get so frustrated with it.

“But then, when you begin to look over the fence and you know that you’re here because you love to go fast, there isn’t a streetcar in the world that offers you this kind of ride.

“I love speed. I love getting in fast cars and standing on the gas. That’s why I do it. And then I feel, deep down in my heart, that if I work at it long enough, I’m going to achieve (victory) because I’ve never quit at anything I really wanted.

“Now, there may come a day that I walk away, as several others have in Indy car racing, winless, but I don’t plan on being one of that number.”

Actually, Brayton figures he has never had it so good. He is the lead driver on Dick Simon’s team this year, up from No. 2. He is coming off a season in which he won $451,317 and finished sixth at Indianapolis and 10th at the Meadowlands in East Rutherford, N.J., and at Nazareth, Pa. And he is working at racing full time.

“Without consistency, you don’t have the shot,” he said. “Four of (his 10 seasons) I’ve only run five (or six) races. The other years were never full seasons. This is the first time in my career that I’ve had two back-to-back years of racing in CART. For instance, this is the first time I’ve come back to Long Beach, having run here last year.

“That’s very important. Baseball players who only play half the games generally aren’t the best, and golfers that go to half the (tournaments) generally don’t win the championship. You’ve got to get the momentum going for you . . .

“Now I feel that we’re getting closer every day.”

Brayton felt particularly encouraged by his performance in the final qualifying session Saturday. He moved up five spots in the lineup, to eighth, and, although his new Lola is powered by a Cosworth engine, not one of the hot Chevrolets, it was faster than the Chevy-powered rigs of Bobby Rahal, Eddie Cheever, Arie Luyendyk and A.J. Foyt.

“It’s the fastest I’ve ever gone here by over two seconds in qualifying, and I feel real positive about the race,” he said. “In this last session, we started to get a handle on the car. We had a difficult time in Phoenix (in the season opener). We were so excited about doing well, and it kind of went out the window.”

At Phoenix, Brayton’s crew had problems setting up the car properly and he qualified 10th and finished 13th. His handling problems were compounded by an unscheduled trip to the pits when he was black-flagged after track observers noticed smoke coming from his car’s engine, often the sign of an oil leak.

There was no leak, and CART officials determined that the smoke was coming from a protective layer of asphalt over the left rear suspension.

That sort of thing happens in racing, and, unfortunately for Brayton, it frequently happens to him. Cheerfully, he goes on.

“I feel like (today) is the day that if we can come out, be consistent and run strong all day long, we’re going to achieve the goal that I had going into this weekend,” he said.

“If you took just hard, cold facts, a lot of things that happen in the world wouldn’t happen. When the first guy went to the moon, nobody really thought we could get there and walk on it. And when he did it, ‘Oh, my God, let’s go to Mars!’

“I’ve set a track record and I’ve sat in the front row at Indy (in 1985 when he qualified second). I’ve led races. I have never won. And so I feel personally, when the combination is right and we can consistently run fast, we’re going to be very competitive. And once we’re there, we’ve got a shot at winning.

“On the outside, that looks lots harder to attain than on the inside. For instance, who would have thought that Al Unser would have won the (Indianapolis 500) in ’87 and become a four-time winner?”

Who, indeed? The senior Unser was being given sort of a courtesy ride that year in Roger Penske’s third car in that race.

So, with that sort of thing to remind him that he can win at this level, Brayton expects the best every day.

“I’ll guarantee you one thing, we’re closer than we’ve ever been,” he said. “How close that is, I don’t know. But I know I’m going to win. It’s in me.”