Team Gordon Will Learn on Road

Driver Robby Gordon of Orange and Team Gordon start a critical stage of the season in Sunday’s Texaco/Havoline 200 at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wis.

The series will race three times in three weeks, and six times over seven weeks.

“Obviously, it’s going to be tough. We’ll find out which guys are the tough ones and which guys are the weak ones,” said Gordon, referring to his team members.

Gordon, 30, says his team is still struggling to get the Swift chassis dialed in on road courses, like the one he will be driving this week. But the schedule over the next 1 1/2 months could help the effort.

“There’s no better place to learn than on the race track,” Gordon said. “We’re learning about the race car, and we’re sharpening the racing skills of the race team. That may be more important than the setup. When you separate 20 cars by one second, and you lose three seconds in the pit stop, that’s more important than finding the sweet spot in the car.

“Pit stops are, for sure, the easiest place to pass people.”

Gordon did a fantastic job of that two weeks ago with a brilliant performance in the Grand Prix of Cleveland.

After starting 24th, he was running fourth with eight minutes left in the time race, only to fall to ninth with a flat tire. Clearly, the first podium finish is getting closer for engine manufacturer Toyota. And Gordon wants to be the first to take Toyota there. He thought he should have done it at Cleveland, and also in Japan.

“That was one of our goals when we started the team, but we have tough competition with [Arciero-Wells driver Cristiano da Matta] and [owner] Cal Wells. Both of us have had opportunities. It’s between the two of us which one pops up there first.”

Da Matta (16 points) is 17th in the standings, Gordon (nine points) is 20th.

* Da Matta, a rookie, has had a string of misfortune that has kept him from having a greater impact on the points race. Through nine races, da Matta lost top 10 finishes because of a tire puncture with 10 laps remaining at Homestead while in seventh place, engine problems at St. Louis while fourth, an ill-timed yellow flag at Milwaukee just after pitting in eighth, running out of fuel on the final straight at Portland while 10th and contact with a tire wall because of his rain-induced spin at Cleveland while fifth.

PIKES PEAK

Newport Beach’s Rod Millen, the recognized “King of the Hill” at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, won his eighth class and fifth overall title on Sunday, but again failed to crack the elusive 10-minute barrier. Millen clocked 10 minutes 11.15 seconds up the 12.42-mile, 156-turn dirt and road course.

An afternoon shower left the course too slippery to break racing’s version of the four-minute mile. Millen won his fourth consecutive title, by 27 seconds in a Toyota Tacoma truck that had been completely rebuilt--and had no testing--after a fire destroyed many components and its carbon-fiber body six weeks earlier.

Millen said that even if his purpose-built Tacoma had not burned, and then rebuilt with heavier fiberglass, it’s unlikely he could have broken the 10-minute mark with the 10% lighter, 10% more powerful truck.

“We had gone five seconds quicker in qualifying than we had ever gone before, so we knew we were on top of the truck,” Millen said. “But sitting at the starting line waiting for the weather to come in was disappointing.

“I don’t think the conditions were there even without the fire.”

However, his 1994 record, 10:04.06, might have fallen. He clocked two seconds faster than his 1994 effort over the bottom half of the course, a testament to the work his crew did under the leadership of engineer Jack Auld.

“The record would have been a possibility [without the fire],” Millen said. “I would have known the truck more, it would be lighter. It might have been five or six seconds faster, but certainly wouldn’t have been 11 seconds faster.”

As he has said every year since 1994, the 10-minute barrier will fall only when Mother Nature allows it.

“We had perfect road conditions in ‘94, and we’re going to need very good road conditions to get under 10 minutes,” Millen said. “This has happened three years in a row, where conditions roll in in the afternoon and by the time we race, it isn’t as good as if we had run earlier in the day.

“To drive fast on that mountain, you have to be totally committed. If you’re unsure of the road surface, you can’t be totally committed with the steep drop-offs.”

* Rhys Millen, Rod’s son, won the High Performance Showroom Stock class with a class-record time of 12:13.47.

SPEEDWAY

The Orange County Fair Derby Championship will be decided Saturday, the second day of the fair. Costa Mesa’s Bobby Schwartz is the defending champion.

For a little different flavor, sidecar, midget and quad championships will be raced tonight. Admission to the races is free with admission to the fair. Racing on both nights begins at 8 o’clock.