Drivers Test Fontana Track, Express Concerns About Heat

They were explorers, 600 or so horses drawing their wagons, and they set out into the unknown Monday in search of a path to riches and at least temporary fame. They found no gold. No silver. Even the path tended to change as travel became more intensive.

But mainly they found that it sure gets dusty in the spring in Fontana.

It gets warm too, and the eight Winston Cup drivers who tested their cars at the new California Speedway haven’t seen anything yet.

“How hot will it be in June?” asked Wally Dallenbach Jr., who had the only Chevrolet on the premises.

About 105 degrees, he was told, and he grimaced, then forecast a scenario for qualifying for the June 22 California 500, the main event on the track’s opening weekend.

“Speeds will be in the 38s,” he said, meaning seconds per trip around the two-mile facility. A 38-second lap is 189.47 mph; 38.9 seconds in 185.09.

“But when it’s that hot, the track might get greasy and that will slow you down a 10th of a second or so. So in the qualifying draw, if they qualify [as scheduled June 20] at 3 o’clock, say, you’d probably want to be near the end of the line because the track will be cooler. Nowadays, a 10th of a second can be 15 places in a lineup.”

Cars weren’t approaching 38 seconds or even 39 on Monday. Mainly, the seven Fords and Dallenbach’s Chevy were trying to find the best way around the facility, groove-searching in the breeze-blown dust and tweaking various car parts, seeking the best possible setup for speed.

And being fairly secretive about it.

“We’re just messing around,” said Mark Martin, who was back on an oval track a day after winning over the road course at Sears Point. His “messing around” involved more time on the track than any other driver, working between two cars, turning 46 laps in one, 33 in the other, but none faster than 40.50 seconds, or 177.78 mph.

“The track is dirty,” he said. “As of right now, there’s been so little running on it, [the racing groove is] going to widen and spread out as you get more cars on it and get it cleaned up.

“There is still a lot of construction out here, and I was the first one out and there was a lot of dust and stuff on the race track, so as we get it cleaner and cleaner and worked in and get more cars on it, I think it’s going to be great.”

To a man, drivers lauded the facility, which NASCAR President Bill France Jr. called, “state of the art.”

Added Dallenbach, “This should be the standard for a race track built for NASCAR now.”

To a man they called it smooth, with Rusty Wallace predicting enough room for passing and some serious racing.

And it’s not Michigan, where Roger Penske’s other two-mile track is.

Those who don’t test, many of whom figure to race the same cars on successive June weekends at Michigan and Fontana, are going to be surprised, though an extra day of practice June 19 is going to help them cope.

“Everybody wants to compare any new track or any new facility to something else because that is the only thing we know how to do,” said Martin’s Ford teammate, Jeff Burton. “I kept hearing that it was like Michigan, and there are a lot of similarities with Michigan, but it’s different.”

For one thing, Michigan’s banking is 18 degrees in the turns, California’s 14 degrees.

Also, said Dallenbach, no matter what is advertised, California Speedway’s Turns 1 and 2 are not like Turns 3 and 4.

“We pushed on 1 and 2,” Dallenbach said, meaning the car preferred to go straight, rather than making the turns. “We were right on 3 and 4, so there’s a difference.”

Viva la difference.

“I’m glad because I get a little upset when a guy builds a race track and he tries to build it exactly like somewhere else,” Burton said. “I want to go somewhere different, somewhere exciting, where everybody is on equal ground. I think that’s what this will be.”