PPI Team Still Needs Directions to Victory Lane

By MARTIN HENDERSON

June 16, 2000 12 AM PT

Cal Wells III and his PPI Motorsports team in Rancho Santa Margarita could really use a hug.

Expected to pick up where it left off in the CART Championship Series last season--with Scott Pruett the pole-sitter at Fontana--PPI has had a disappointing year while Chip Ganassi’s team swooped in as the Toyota engine’s savior.

It was Wells’ team that suffered through Toyota’s four years of growing pains with an engine that wasn’t competitive. Now that the engine is up to speed, PPI was left in the dust. Two weeks ago at Milwaukee, Ganassi driver Juan Montoya became Toyota’s first champ car winner.

“There’s a lot of people who have invested blood, sweat and tears into that success,” said Wells, whose drivers race Sunday on a road course in Detroit. “There’s no time like the first time. I applaud Lee White and [Toyota Racing Development’s] evolution of the program over the last 18 months. It’s been really miraculous.

“[But] it’s tough on the guys working in various departments who have been busting their butts for four years, and someone else is tasting the champagne. We need to have a podium.”

A top-three finish can’t come soon enough for Wells’ two drivers, rookie Oriol Servia and second-year man Cristiano da Matta. It can inject some life into the morale of a program that eliminated 30 jobs--about 25% of its employees--since the end of last season because of sponsorship changes.

That reorganization has affected PPI’s on-track performance while Ganassi’s team, which has won four straight championships and switched to Toyota this season, arrived on the scene at full gallop.

“I’m disappointed for my guys, I’m disappointed for Tracy Krosnoff,” said Wells, whose original Toyota driver, Jeff Krosnoff (Tracy’s husband), was killed in a 1996 racing accident. “You can’t make bigger personal sacrifices--we earned it. If we had [the current engine] RV8E last year, we would have won it.

“But Chip produced it. He’s got five months in it, I’ve got five years. Chip has proven that PPI is not up to the task yet. That can be a motivator or can crush us. We can look at this thing, suck our thumb and whine, or we can get up and go.

“The fact that [Ganassi] won and we didn’t isn’t the telling story. The fact that he won and we were 14th is the telling story.”

So what’s the problem?

* Pruett moved to Wells’ first-year Winston Cup program. In the last four races of 1999, Pruett had three top 10 finishes and in the other, he started on the pole. “Had we not pulled Scott out of the Pioneer car,” Wells said, “we probably would have won the first race.”

* Da Matta and race engineer Iain Watt have been slow to jell. Da Matta has been fourth twice in the last three scheduled races, all ovals, but qualified 17th and 19th. With better qualifying, he might have beaten Montoya to victory lane. “If you can finish fourth,” Wells said, “you can finish first. . . . We’re still not anywhere close to where I thought we would be with [that] car.”

* Servia, a rookie who has sixth- and ninth-place finishes among his first six starts, crashed before completing a lap in two other races.

* Additionally, there was the shakeup of human resources and the smaller budget, which led to eliminating the aerodynamics program.

Even though PPI isn’t likely to unseat Ganassi’s team anytime soon, there is hope. Da Matta and Servia are strongest on road and street courses, and 10 of the remaining 13 races are of that type.

“I think you’ll see the PPI Motorsports team in the winner’s circle this year,” Wells said. “It’s incumbent on us to produce the same results [as Ganassi]--no excuses.”

NASCAR

Nick DeFazio will be a senior at Newport Harbor High in the fall, but he’s going to get an education this summer that he could never get in a classroom.

DeFazio left Thursday for Moorseville, N.C., where he will work in the race shop of NASCAR Crafstman Truck driver Mike Wallace, who is Rusty Wallace’s brother.

“It’s pretty exciting for me,” said DeFazio, the son of Irwindale Speedway’s vice president, Bob DeFazio of Balboa Island. “I’ve always known, since I was little, I’d end up back there one way or the other. It’s a great opportunity to work with a professional racing team and do a little racing.”

DeFazio, who turns 17 in September, will race Legends cars on Tuesday nights at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Charlotte.

“The racing part is just to keep me busy and keep me in a car,” DeFazio said. “I would eventually like to move up to Late Models and into a truck and eventually Winston Cup, hopefully.”

Though he will have a chance to race, he says the real value will be working with the Ultra Motorsports team owned by Jimmy Smith of Orange. Nick will be staying with Jimmy’s brother, Wendell Smith, who heads the operation.

“I’m mostly looking forward to working with the team, learning stuff about the car that you can’t learn anywhere else,” Nick said. “My first choice would be racing. If I can’t make it as a driver, I want to be in the pits, maybe become a crew chief. But I definitely want to be part of the auto racing business.”

His father likens the three-month absence to “summer camp.” Last summer, Nick worked with the Evernham-Hawley Racing School at Irwindale Speedway.

“Trucks are a great place to learn,” Bob DeFazio said. “Nick will do everything from sweeping the floor to learning about setups and shocks. He will travel to some races and work with the pit crew.

“He opted to do this rather than go to the beach.”

If you have an item or idea for the motor racing report, you can fax us at (714)966-5663 or e-mail us at martin.henderson@latimes.com

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

ON TRACK

Orange County Speedway

Through June 11

Speedway motorcycles

1. Charlie Venegas, San Bernardino: 250

2. Brad Oxley, San Juan Capistrano: 181

3. Shawn McConnell, Brea: 160

4. Bobby Schwartz, Costa Mesa: 140

5. Randy DiFrancesco, Bakersfield: 139

6. Dukie Ermolenko, Cypress: 124

7. Eddie Castro, Ojai: 123

8. Ryan Fisher, Norco: 101

9. Andy Northrup, Alta Loma: 108

10. Chris Manchester, Upland: 107

Schedule

Saturday--Father’s Day (speedway, sidecars, peewee 50s, Jr. speedway); 24--Championship 25-lap Classic (speedway).

July 8--Fan Appreciation Night w/Razzo (speedway, sidecars, peewee 50s, Jr. speedway); 14--Friday sidecar, quad, midget championship; 15--Fair Derby (speedway); 16--Youth Motorized Olympics (Jr. speedway series), Vintage Dirt Track races.

Aug. 5--Demolition Derby (speedway, sidecars); 12--Kids Night (speedway, sidecars, peewee 50s, Jr. speedway); 19--Harley-Davidson Night (speedway, sidecars, Harley races and show); 26--Dan Nay Night (championship speedway, peewee 50s, Jr. speedway).

Sept. 9--Freestyle Motorcycle Jumping (speedway); 16--Skirt Night (speedway, sidecars, peewee 50s, Jr. speedway); 23--North vs. South (speedway, sidecars), 30--Sidecar State Championship (speedway, sidecars).

Irwindale Speedway

Through June 11

Super Late Model

1. Greg Voigt, Goleta: 404

2. Ben Walker, North Hills: 340

3. David Brandon, Palmdale: 318

4. Tim Woods, Chino: 280

5. A.J. DiMarzo, Saugus: 260

6. Dan Holtz, Bakersfield: 256

7. Tommy Fry, Simi Valley: 254

8. Shawn Brink, Lancaster: 238

9. Brian Kelley, Arleta: 228

10. James Bruncati, Glendora: 224

Super Stock

1. T.K. Karvasek, North Hills: 346

2. Jeff Green, Long Beach: 334

3. Mike Price, San Pedro: 244

4. Greg Benner, Whittier: 238

5. Don Rogers, Simi Valley: 232

6. Tom Siebuhr, Canyon Country: 232

7. Kevin Wood, Saugus: 224

8. Yagel Berkovitz, Burbank: 224

9. Steve Gilmore, Granada Hills: 206

10. John Wilkes, Northridge: 182

Late Model

1. James Weston, Goleta: 380

2. Tony Green, Oak Hills : 366

3. Todd Burns, Riverside: 360

4. David Hessing, Canyon Country: 326

5. Steve Nickolai, Simi Valley: 304

6. Nick Conti, Palm Desert: 302

7. Deryk Ward, Palm Springs: 302

8. Guy Goldstein, Cathedral City: 286

9. Richard Hooper, Palmdale: 282

10. Dan DiGiammarino, Highland: 200

Grand American

1. Rip Michels, Mission Hills: 234

2. Dean Kuhn, Oceanside: 222

3. John Watkinson, Canyon Country: 200

4. Robert Rice, Hawthorne: 188

5. David Andrews, Frazier Park: 176

6. Henry Ford Jr., Alta Loma: 170

7. Tom Topping, Los Angeles: 167

8. Jimmy White, Covina: 140

8. Travis Thirkettle, Newhall: 140

10. Brian Tully, Redondo Beach: 138

Schedule

Saturday--NASCAR Late Models, Super Stocks, Speed Trucks, Mini Stocks, Figure 8s, American Race Trucks; 24--NASCAR Home Depot Winston West 250, Super Late Models.

July 1--NASCAR Late Models, Grand American Modifieds, Super Stocks, Legends Cars, Figure 8s, and Fireworks Show; 8--NASCAR Super Late Models, Grand American Modifieds, Spec Trucks, T.Q. Midgets, MSRA Pro 4 Modifieds; 15--NASCAR Late Models Twin 40s, Super Stocks, Mini Stocks, Legends Cars, Mini Stock cars, Figure 8s; 22--NASCAR Super Late Models, Grand American Modifieds, Speed Trucks, MSRA Pro 4 Modifieds; 29--NASCAR Home Depot Southwest Series, Late Models, Super Stocks.

August 5--NASCAR Super Late Models Twin 50s, Grand American Modifieds, American Race Trucks, Mini Stocks; 12--NASCAR Late Models, Super Stocks, Mini Stocks, Spec Trucks, Legends Cars, Figure 8s; 19--NASCAR Home Depot Winston West 250, Late Models; 26--NASCAR Super Late Models, Super Stocks, Grand American Modifieds, T.Q. Midgets, American Race Trucks.

Sept. 2--NASCAR Super Late Models Twin 50s, Super Stocks, Speed Trucks, Mini Stocks; 9--NASCAR Super Late Models, Late Models, Grand American Modifieds, Legends Cars; 16--NASCAR Late Models, Super Stocks, MSRA Pro 4 Modifieds, Mini Stock cars, Figure 8s, American Race Trucks; 23--USAC Midgets, Sprint Cars, CAM 360, T.Q. Midgets; 30--NASCAR Super Late Models 100, Grand American Modifieds, Mini Stocks, Legends Cars.

Perris Auto Speedway

Through June 11

SCRA Sprint Cars

1. Richard Griffin, Silver City, N.M.: 982

2. Rip Williams, Yorba Linda: 754

3. Ricky Gaunt, Torrance: 721

4. Tony Jones, Corona: 686

5. Jeremy Sherman, Phoenix: 649

6. Mike English, Norwalk: 639

7. Mike Kirby, Lomita: 618

8. Steve Ostling, Corona: 617

9. Troy Rutherford, Ojai: 575