Rookie Driver Lifts Spirits in Native Colombia

Every kid had the same goal at a beginner’s racing class at the go-cart speedway, even though some of them could barely reach the pedals.

They all wanna be like Juan.

Juan Pablo Montoya, that is, the 23-year-old Colombian driver whose phenomenal international success this year has helped lift a troubled nation’s spirits and increase its appetite for sport.

“He’s cool,” said a grinning Andres Perez, a skinny 9-year-old waiting to take a spin around the half-mile track in this Bogota suburb where his idol won his first championship at age 6.

“He’s from my country, and he’s winning.”

Is he ever.

In his rookie season, Montoya has dominated the CART circuit, a 20-race series held mainly in the United States and featuring marquee drivers Michael Andretti, Al Unser Jr. and Christian Fittipaldi, nephew of Brazilian racing star Emerson Fittipaldi.

The brash Colombian has won seven races, five more than any other driver, and leads every statistical category with only three competitions left, including a Sept. 26 race in Houston.

With a combination of youth, speed and control, Montoya is being compared to other greats, including the young Colombian’s own idol, Brazilian Formula 1 champ Ayrton Senna, who died in a 1994 crash at 24.

Montoya, however, doesn’t spend time worrying about what other people think about him.

“All I care about is going to the track, doing my best, and holding Colombia’s name up high,” Montoya said from Miami, where he lives during the racing season.

Like it or not, Montoya already is a star at home, where sports have proved an unreliable reprieve from a 35-year civil conflict, drug trafficking and rampant violent crime.

“It’s a country that needs heroes, but one that’s tired of its soccer heroes,” said Ricardo Soler, spokesman for the Colombian Automotive Federation. “Juan Pablo has become the alternative.”

Charismatic, clean-cut and from a well-to-do family--a sharp contrast to some of Colombia’s raucous, scandal-prone soccer stars--the driving ace has also become a marketing phenom.

Montoya’s face dons magazine covers and billboards. He’s appeared in commercials for beer, airlines and cellular phones, and in one ad, he even sings an a cappella jingle about flan.

When he races, the whole country tunes in. Millions of Colombians change their Sunday schedules to watch him.

Forty percent of Colombian television viewers saw his latest victory, Sept. 5 on a rain-soaked course in Vancouver that had practically every driver but Montoya spinning and crashing. The races compete with soccer on the country’s two major networks.

“Auto-racing never interested me before, but with Juan Pablo Montoya you start to become a fan,” said 39-year-old Julio Forero as he watched the race on a wall of televisions in a Bogota supermarket.

It’s remarkable how quickly Colombians have adopted a new sport, discussing the intricacies of auto racing as they might dissect a penalty shot in soccer, said Hugo Ferrer, production manager at RTI television, which airs Montoya’s races.

Colombians are even complaining differently in traffic.

“Before, when some kid sped past you on the streets of Bogota you’d say, ‘Hey, that guy thinks he’s Fittipaldi.’ Now it’s, ‘That guy thinks he’s Montoya,”’ Ferrer said.

While Montoya might appear to be an overnight success, he’s been at it for as long as he can remember. His father, Pablo, an architect and former amateur go-cart racer, bought one for his son when he was only 5.

“He learned to drive by looking through the hole in the steering wheel,” the father said.

After winning all there was to win in Colombia by age 17, Montoya raced briefly in the United States before going to Europe, where he was recruited by team owner Chip Ganassi after winning the Formula 3000 series last year and working as a Formula 1 test driver.

At the track in Cajica, where Montoya taught youngsters just a few years ago, the junior go-cart school has its first-ever waiting list. What people remember most is his competitive fire.

“With him it was always, ‘I win the race or I’m not interested.’ It makes his sick to see another car in front,” said Otto Rico, president of Colombia’s go-cart federation.

Manuel Forero, a 14-year-old hoping to race professionally, was only 7 when he had Montoya as an instructor. After a lackluster lap around the track, he recalls, Montoya chewed him out.

“He told me to give it all I’ve got,” Forero said, “or not to do this at all.”