Though Very Consistent, This Mears Is Ready to Win

Which is most important in racing, consistency over a season or winning individual races?

You can get arguments for each. Consistency wins championships, winning races builds reputations.

Casey Mears, 22, son of off-road racing great Roger and nephew of four-time Indy 500 winner Rick, has been the most consistent driver in Dayton Indy Lights history. And is still looking for his first win after 40 races.

Last year, Mears finished every lap of the 12-race season--2,055 of 2,055--and figured in the closest race in history, losing by 0.002 seconds at Michigan, and drove the fastest lap, 193.643 mph, at California Speedway.

This year, in four races, he has finished every lap but one.

“Am I frustrated?” he repeated a question. “No, I don’t think so. I know I need a win badly, but I feel like I have done very well. I finished second in the championship and had two seconds. Now, though, it’s time to get up front and win. Starting this week. Michigan owes me one.”

Mears and the Indy Lights crowd will share Michigan Speedway with CART champ car drivers this weekend. The Lights run Saturday, CART on Sunday on the two-mile track which is almost identical to California Speedway. Saturday’s Detroit News 100 support race is 50 laps.

Indy Lights is a development series for CART in which all competitors drive identical Lola open-wheel cars that are about 10% smaller than the champ cars they resemble.

“I proved last year, at Michigan and Fontana both, that I can drive on the big superspeedways. I could have beaten [Philipp] Peter at Michigan if my shock cover hadn’t come off. Our team plan was for Oriol [Servia], Peter and I to stay in line and get away from the pack. On the last lap, I was right behind Peter, ready to make my move, but I couldn’t back off to get a good run at him because of traffic. When I tried to pass him on the last corner, I had a little drag from the shock cover and didn’t quite make it.”

The finish was so close it took stop-action photos to determine the outcome.

Servia, the Spaniard who won the season title without winning a race, has moved up to CART, and Peter is in Europe running endurance races, leaving Mears to team with two rookies, Jason Bright of Australia and Townsend Bell of Costa Mesa.

“This year the opportunity is there. It’s been little things hurting us. If I can get a good clean weekend, there’s no reason I can’t win at Michigan.”

This is Mears’ fourth year in Indy Lights, two with Team Mears and his cousin, Clint, and two with Bob Dorricott Sr., who purchased Team Mears assets after the 1998 season.

“This is definitely my last year in Indy Lights,” Mears said. “I’ve got to move on. I don’t want to get labeled as an Indy Lights guy.

“All my life, I’ve wanted to race CART champ cars, like my dad and my uncle did, but recently I’ve begun to take a look at the Indy Racing League. There seem to be more promising deals in the IRL.”

Bobby Rahal, the new interim boss of CART, when asked why there are only two or three American drivers in his series, likes to say, “Our future is in Indy Lights. That’s where our young American drivers are going to come from.”

The hard fact is, though, that the last six Indy Lights champions have been foreign drivers and the points leaders this year are Scott Dixon of New Zealand and Bright of Australia. Mears is third, 16 points behind Dixon.

And what has happened to Clint Mears, the other partner in Team Mears?

It was Clint, 27, who was more successful than his younger cousin, winning the pole and Indy Lights races at Milwaukee and Fontana in 1997.

He is now an instructor, mechanic and test driver for Frank Hawley’s driving school at Irwindale Speedway, all the time planning on returning to the races next year as a NASCAR Craftsman truck driver.

“When our dads decided Team Mears couldn’t make it after the ’98 season, I went home to Bakersfield and got a job doing construction work,” Clint said. “After about three months, a friend of mine, Bruce Sarver, called and said Frank Hawley was looking for a race car driver to help instruct at Irwindale. I checked it out and that’s where I’ve been the last year and a half.”

Although he is at the half-mile track daily, Mears has raced only four times, three times in speed trucks and once in a Winston West race, all at Irwindale.

“I’m working with Core Motorsports, out of El Cajon, on a Craftsman truck deal for next year,” he said. “I drove the Winston West race for them and we were running as quick as the leaders when I had a right front tire blow out and put me in the wall. If we can put together some sponsorship, we’ll run the Craftsman series.

“They have a Ford F-150 truck and they had several drivers test for them before they hired me. I’ll probably run two more Winston West races with them this year.”

Both the Mears boys say the family name has opened doors for them, but that it has also had its down side because expectations have been high for them to succeed.

“The name has helped, no doubt about it, but the bottom line is that once you’re in the car, out on the track, all that goes out the window,” Casey Mears said. “What you do then is what counts.”

That, and finding a sponsor to support your habit.

TRANS-AM

The BFGoodrich Trans-Am series, which has been looking for a home for its final 2000 race, has decided on San Diego and the Naval Training Center in Point Loma, it was announced Thursday.

The dates are Nov. 3-5. Sports Car Club of America officials wanted a new season-ending Trans-Am race after one scheduled for the Aruba Motorsports Complex in Oranjestad, Aruba, was canceled because of insufficient time to build a track.

Brian Simo of Carlsbad, driving a Mangusta, has three wins and the points lead after six races.

SPORTS CARS

Now in its second year, Don Panoz’s American LeMans Series is giving sports car racing a bit of a renaissance.

The Grand Prix of Sonoma, fifth event of a 12-race series, is this week at Sears Point Raceway and its 12-turn, 2.52-mile road course in the wine country of Sonoma Valley.

Panoz not only owns the series, but also owns one of its strongest teams. David Brabham of England and Jan Magnussen of Denmark won the last round of the series at Nurburgring in Germany, driving a Panoz LMP-1 Roadster S. A second Panoz car will be driven by Johnny O’Connell of Flowery Branch, Ga., and Hiroki Katoh of Japan.

“I love this track because there are some good, fast flowing sections mixed with a tight road course stadium,” said O’Connell, a former Californian.

Dick Barbour, another former Californian from San Diego, is returning with two GT cars that have won their class in four races--the 12 Hours of Sebring, Grand Prix of Charlotte, Silverstone 500 and the Nurburgring 1000. His drivers, Dirk Muller and Lucas Luhr of Monaco are one-two in points.

“Having grown up in California and competing in one of my first races at Sears Point, I’m extremely happy to come back,” Barbour said. “In my last race at Sears Point I was fortunate to have my two cars finish first and second. I hope we can duplicate that feat.”

LAST LAPS

Bobby Boone of Palmdale, leading the U.S. Auto Club’s western regional midget car standings, heads the field for Saturday night’s midget-TQ midget doubleheader at Perris Auto Speedway. Boone leads 19-year-old Danny Ebberts by 29 points with 54-year-old Wally Pankratz 25 further back. . . . Greg Voigt of Goleta and Ben Walker of North Hills will continue their hot rivalry in Irwindale Speedway’s Food 4 Less super late model main event Saturday night.

Southland Supercross fans will have a bonanza next year when three of the first five events in the AMA’s 16-race series are held at Edison Field in Anaheim, traditionally the sport’s home base. The dates are Jan. 6, Jan. 20 and Feb. 3. . . . Wally Parks, founder of the National Hot Rod Assn., has been appointed chairman of the NHRA Motorsports Museum board. Board members include executive director Steve Gibbs, vice-president Brian Tracy, Peter Clifford, Dick Wells and Alex Xydias.

Cory Witherill, the Santa Monica driver who parted company with Genoa Racing earlier this month, has signed with Indy Regency Racing to the remaining Indy Lights oval races. . . . Cory Kruseman of Ventura, winner of four Sprint Car Racing Assn. events this year, will skip Saturday night’s main event at Tulare’s Thunderbowl to drive in Indiana’s Speed Weeks. Tony Jones will fill in for Kruseman in the Selway Machines sprint car.

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This Week’s Races

WINSTON CUP, Pennsylvania 500

* When: Today, first-round qualifying, noon; Saturday, second-round qualifying, 8:30 a.m.; Sunday, race (TBS, 10 a.m.)

* Where: Pocono International Raceway (triangle oval, 2.5 miles, 14 degrees banking in turn 1, 8 degrees in turn 2, 6 degrees in turn 3), Long Pond, Pa.

* Race distance: 500 miles, 200 laps.

* Defending champion: Bobby Labonte.

* Last race: Tony Stewart won the rain-shortened New England 300, a race marred by the death of Kenny Irwin during practice two days earlier in Loudon, N.H. Irwin was killed when his car slammed into a wall at 150 mph eight weeks to the day, and at almost the same spot where Adam Petty had a fatal crash while practicing for a Busch Series event.

* Next race: Brickyard 400, Aug. 5, Indianapolis.

BUSCH GRAND NATIONAL, NAPA AutoCare 250

* When: Today, qualifying, 11 a.m.; Saturday, race (ESPN2, 12:30 p.m.)

* Where: Pikes Peak International Raceway (oval, 1 mile, 10 degrees banking in turns).

* Race distance: 250 miles, 250 laps, Fountain, Colo.

* Defending champion: Andy Santerre.

* Last race: Ron Hornaday raced to his first victory, beating Elton Sawyer by 1.992 seconds at the Econo Lodge 200 in Nazareth, Pa. Hornaday--a two-time Craftsman Truck Series champion who drives the No. 3 Chevrolet for Winston Cup star Dale Earnhardt--was winless in 18 starts this year.

* Next race: Carquest Auto Parts 300, July 29, Madison, Ill.

CRAFTSMAN TRUCKS, Michigan 200

* When: Today, qualifying, 2:30 p.m.; Saturday, race (ESPN, 10:30 a.m.)

* Where: Michigan Speedway (d-shaped oval, 2 miles, 18 degrees banking in turns), Brooklyn, Mich.

* Race distance: 200 miles, 100 laps.

* Defending champion: Greg Biffle.

* Last race: Dennis Setzer, racing with a broken right shoulder blade, held off Joe Ruttman by 2.057 seconds to win the Chevy Silverado 200 in Nazareth, Pa. Setzer got his fifth series win.

* Next race: Powerstroke 200, Aug. 3, Clermont, Ind.

CART, Michigan 500

* When: Saturday, qualifying 8:30 a.m. (ESPN2, 9:30 p.m.); Sunday, race (ABC, 10:30 a.m.)

* Where: Michigan Speedway (d-shaped oval, 2 miles, 18 degrees banking in turns), Brooklyn, Mich.

* Race distance: 500 miles, 200 laps.

* Defending champion: Max Papis.

* Last race: Michael Andretti won the Toronto Molson Indy. The victory was his sixth in Toronto and the 40th of his career.

* Next race: Target Grand Prix, July 30, Chicago.