Fast Learner : Valencia’s Herta Leads a New Crop of Indy Car Rivals Headed for the Streets of Long Beach

There is a youth movement under way in Indy car racing.

In the first three races this season, no winner was older than 26. Canadian Jacques Villeneuve, the Miami winner, will turn 24 on Sunday. Fellow Canadian Paul Tracy, who won in Australia, and Robby Gordon, last Sunday’s Phoenix winner from Orange, are both 26.

Add to that group the name of Bryan Herta, 24, of Valencia, the surprise pole sitter at Phoenix, and you have the look of the future in the PPG Cup Indy Car series.

For years, the dominant drivers were A.J. Foyt, Mario Andretti, Johnny Rutherford and the Unser brothers, Bobby and Al, some of whom raced into their 50s. Before they began to retire, a small wave of newcomers emerged, notably Rick Mears, Bobby Rahal and Emerson Fittipaldi.

Al Unser Jr. and Michael Andretti brought second-generation talents to the sport before their fathers called it quits, but hard as it is to believe, both are in their 30s, virtual old-timers on the circuit.

Now come the 20-somethings.

“I think it’s wonderful for the sport of Indy car racing to have this new wave of drivers,” says Fittipaldi, at 48 the elder statesman. “Indy car racing is the best in the world to showcase new talent. I only hope they remember that experience is more important than youth at the end of the day.”

They will all be at Long Beach today when the Toyota Grand Prix weekend gets under way with practice and qualifying on the eight-turn, 1.59-mile street circuit where Sunday’s championship race will take place.

“I’m really looking forward to this weekend because I think I do better on a track where I’ve driven before,” Herta said Thursday after an autograph session with his Chip Ganassi Racing teammate, Jimmy Vasser, 29. “I drove there twice in Indy Lights and I think one reason I did so well at Phoenix was because I had driven there before.”

Besides winning the pole at Phoenix, Herta’s No. 4 Reynard-Ford Cosworth led the race for 30 of the the first 31 laps before he was assessed a stop-and-go penalty for running over a hose while leaving the pits. That cost him a lap.

“Everything just came together at Phoenix,” he said. “In the first two races, we had one little thing go wrong after another--a gearbox problem, an engine fire, a brush with the wall--things that happen with a new team. We’re still jelling, getting the right chemistry together.

“At Phoenix, we finally had a chance to get the right setup and it showed. If we hadn’t had a problem with the shocks later on in the race, I think we would have been a factor right to the end, even with the penalty. I’m definitely looking forward to Long Beach.”

Herta’s taking the Phoenix pole from Fittipaldi and running in front surprised many fans, but perhaps it shouldn’t have. The bespectacled former karting champion from Hart High in Newhall has paid his dues, moving steadily upward through the minor leagues of racing.

Seven years of racing karts--he finished third in 1987 and second in 1988 in the Karting World Championships--were followed by championships in the Skip Barber Formula Ford series in 1989, the Barber Saab series in 1991 and the PPG-Firestone Indy Lights in 1993.

In Indy Lights, the triple-A of Indy car racing, he won seven of 12 races and a record eight poles.

Shortly before the Indianapolis 500 last year, he joined Foyt’s team and finished ninth in the 500 after qualifying 22nd. He drove only four more races, though, before a devastating crash July 16 while practicing at Toronto nearly ended his career.

His car hit the pit wall at about 150 m.p.h. The impact broke Herta’s right thigh bone and pelvis, and tore his bladder. After six hours of surgery in Toronto, he was flown to Indianapolis Methodist Hospital--the healing home of injured race car drivers--where he underwent rehabilitation.

“I don’t think anybody will ever know what happened,” Herta said. “As much as I can figure out is that the car bottomed out on a bump, lost its grip on the front end and just slid off into the wall. I hit a ton.”

Shortly after the accident, Herta told On Track: “The right-front tire crushed the right side of the tub. I remember looking down and thinking, ‘The tub is only 12 inches wide and I’m a lot wider than 12 inches.’ They had to be very careful cutting me out.”

While recuperating, Herta began negotiating with Ganassi for a ride on the Target team this year as Michael Andretti’s replacement.

“It was no secret during the season that Michael was going to the Newman-Haas team this year, so when Chip showed some interest in me, I was enthusiastic,” Herta said. “A.J. and his team had been very supportive of me when I was in the hospital and assured me that I could have my ride back, but the opportunity to drive for Ganassi was too good to pass up.

“That team won two races last year, finished fourth in the PPG standings and was a team definitely on the climb, and I wanted to be the one to climb with them.”

Less than five months after his accident, Herta was back in a race car, testing for Ganassi at Mid-Ohio in November.

“I never lost consciousness (at the time of the accident) and never for a moment thought I wouldn’t be back racing,” Herta said. “I think positive and my desire to race never lessened. When I first got in the car at Mid-Ohio it was like it never happened.”

At this time last year, Herta was an unemployed driver, walking the pits at Long Beach, looking for a chance to drive an Indy car. As the Indy Lights champion, he felt he was ready to move up.

“It was a terrible feeling, going to Long Beach and just watching,” he said. “When I was a kid and went there, I thought it was great. But after racing there twice, it was a hard thing to do to just watch.”

In his two Indy Lights races there, Herta dropped out with broken suspension in 1992 and finished third in 1993.

Last Monday, the Ganassi team was at Firebird Raceway, near Phoenix, getting in one last test for this week’s street race, and Herta came away enthusiastic about his prospects.

“We tested a half-second faster than we ran there during the winter, when it was cooler and conditions were better for speed,” he said. “I think we’re ready for a good race at the beach. I consider it my home track and I know there will be hundreds of my friends from school there and I want to do well.

“The other night I was at the Target store in Valencia for an appearance with our show car, the one Michael Andretti drove in 1993, with my number on it. I was signing autographs when who showed up but my fifth-grade teacher. I thought that was really great.”