CART Program Gives Boost to African-American Drivers

Rancho Santa Margarita-based Precision Preparation Inc. conducted a test session Tuesday as part of Championship Auto Racing Teams’ newly formed African-American Driver Development program.

Each driver, David Francis Jr. of Cypress, Andrew Kelly (Columbus, Ohio) and Bill Lester (Oakland) completed 72 laps at the 1.41-mile Buttonwillow Raceway in a PPI-prepared Toyota Atlantic car. They responded to changes and went through a debriefing session with Nick Harvey, team manager of PPI’s Atlantic program, and race engineer Kyle Brannan. Each driver’s overall feedback, technical ability and performance will be assessed to add to his portfolio.

“They all showed some potential to move on,” Harvey said. “They all felt the changes we made on the car and came back and said the appropriate things.”

Francis, 26, who raced in three Barber Dodge Series races this season after finishing fourth in the 1998 Formula Dodge West Coast Series, said the test was “by far the greatest experience in all the time I’ve been racing.

“It was a tremendous opportunity to prove something to myself, but to also send a statement that I have the talent, and it’s not a bunch of marketing hype and fluff, but the guy can drive the wheels off that car,” said Francis, a 1991 graduate of Magnolia High who works at an Irvine computer software development company. “I think I displayed that. I wasn’t looking to set track records but run a consistent test.

“I’m even more inspired that I can do this with the proper seat time.”

Harvey noticed something else about the drivers.

“They were extremely grateful for the opportunity,” he said. “It was a fun day for them, and it was a fun day for us. They were very easy to work with. It will be great if we can help some of these young drivers make it into the [CART] FedEx championship series in the next five years or so.”

CHAMP CARS

Raul Boesel will drive for Dan Gurney’s All American Racers this weekend in Fontana. Boesel takes over for Andrea Montermini, who drove the car for the four consecutive road/street course races. Montermini’s best finish was 11th in his debut in Vancouver, and 15th in the last race, in Australia. He also finished 25th and 23rd.

Boesel, one of four drivers in the car this season, raced once this season and finished 12th in the last oval event, at Chicago.

* The performance at the race in Australia was another indication that Costa Mesa-based Toyota Racing Development engineers are closing on other engine manufacturers.

Scott Pruett qualified third (the best for the Toyota engine), and his Arciero-Wells teammate, Cristiano da Matta, qualified 10th.

Though drivers have different agendas for the prerace warmup, four of the top eight practice times were posted by Toyota’s drivers: Orange’s Robby Gordon (second), da Matta (fourth), Pruett (fifth) and Richie Hearn (eighth).

Gordon recorded the sixth-fastest race lap, Pruett the eighth.

* There’s reason for Gordon to be excited about racing at Fontana. During a test session this month, he clocked 232.5 mph, believed to be the fastest average speed by a Toyota-powered champ car, a team spokesman said. Gordon, in an Eagle chassis, accomplished the mark without drafting conditions. Though conditions were different for the U.S. 500, Gordon never reached as high as 221 at Michigan, which has a similar track configuration.

“We’ve had five days of testing [at Fontana] in the last month,” Gordon said. “Generally, when we’ve tested, we’ve run well. We . . . consistently ran in the low 232s without a draft.”

Pruett said Thursday it’s entirely possible for one of the Orange County-based cars, all Toyotas, to be on the podium for the first time. “A 500-mile race is a bit of a crapshoot,” he said. “If you have a good race car and use your head, you can be in position for the last charge because of the draft here. I’m not confident we can pull out in the lead, but I think we can be there at the end.”

NHRA

Yorba Linda’s John Force, who had a two-race slump with consecutive first-round losses, responded in typical championship fashion, winning the next Funny Car race at Topeka, reaching the semifinals in Memphis, then winning again last weekend in Dallas. With two races remaining, Force has already clinched the NHRA Funny Car title, his ninth.

His most recent victory was the quickest side-by-side Funny Car race in NHRA history, Force clocking 4.827 seconds, 0.16 faster than Warren Johnson.

MOTOCROSS

Carey Hart of Las Vegas won the first leg of the FreeRide Moto-X championships last weekend before 5,180 at Costa Mesa Speedway. Clifford Adoptante took second place. The three-round tour continues Saturday at the Santa Clara Fairgrounds.

Adam Pierce won the Step-Up title, and Shawn Highland took the newest freeriding event, Speed and Style.