Mini Driver

Janet Guthrie and Lyn St. James kicked the door down in getting women accepted in the Indianapolis 500, Sarah Fisher likes to say, but adds that she has other ideas.

“I want to blow the door open,” the 19-year-old Ohio honor student said as she prepared for her momentous role in Sunday’s 84th Indy 500 behind the wheel of a 650-horsepower Indy Racing League Dallara-Aurora. “I want to win the Indy 500.”

Only 5 feet 2 and weighing 120 pounds, Fisher looks more like Eddie Cheever’s kid sister, or Derrick Walker’s young daughter than she does a race driver who will start in Row 7.

She is only the third woman ever in the world’s most respected race and is the third youngest--male or female-- to qualify. Fisher will not be 20 until Oct. 4. Josele Garza, 1981 rookie of the year, and Troy Ruttman were 19 too, for their first 500s, and each was a younger 19. Three years after his rookie start, Ruttman became the youngest winner, at 22, in 1952.

Fisher made the field last Saturday with four consistent laps that averaged out to 220.237 mph.

Walker, one of the most astute car owner-managers in motor racing and the only one who has teams in both IRL and CART, is not always generous with praise or given to hyperbole, so his comments regarding Fisher take on added significance when he says:

“I think she’s got a lot of similarities to Rick Mears. Maybe he was a little older when I first saw him, but he was a rookie and I think she drives with a similar style. She has a very good feel for the car and is very smooth, things that were very evident in Rick.”

Walker was Mears’ tutor when Mears came out of Bakersfield with an off-road racing background to join Roger Penske’s team and go on to win four Indianapolis 500s.

Although she is only a year removed from being a straight-A student at Teays High in Commercial Point, Ohio, about 20 miles south of Columbus, Fisher has been racing since she was 5, advancing through quarter-midgets and go-karts to midgets and sprint cars.

When her father, Dave, a former sprint car driver, put her in a tiny quarter-midget, she was that “cute little girl playing racer,” but by the time she was 12 she was serious about racing.

“The first time I wanted to be at Indy was when I was 10 or 12,” she says. “Of course, I never thought I’d be here at 19, even last year when I was racing midgets. I thought I’d spend at least another year in a midget before I got a chance to test an Indy car.

“But then I got that call from Derrick. It was awesome, to hear someone like Derrick calling me and asking me if I’d like to try out for his team. Now that I’m here, I feel like all the drivers are supportive of me. I hold my own, and I pass clean.”

There was a moment last month at Las Vegas when Eliseo Salazar, A.J. Foyt’s driver who will start in the front row Sunday, didn’t think she was a clean passer. They were racing with the leaders when they collided in the fourth turn, knocking both out of the race.

Salazar, an emotional Chilean, did not mince words, saying Fisher wasn’t ready for this level of racing.

“I said things I regret,” Salazar said the other day. “I want to congratulate her. At 19 years old, I was racing small cars in Chile, and here she is at the Indy 500.”

Then he added with a mischievous smile, “On the other hand, I helped her a lot because look at all the publicity she’s received.”

Says Fisher, “You know, they’d just brought [Salazar] out of the infield care center and he was a little upset. He’d just crashed his car and I certainly didn’t mean to spin out in front of him, because it was going to tear up my equipment as well. I was running second at the time and we were doing a really good job. I took it in a little deep, I had cold tires and I was in the marbles passing cars, so it all pointed to a spin. It was a rookie mistake.”

On the wall above her desk in the Walker Racing Garage in Gasoline Alley is a sign with four words that Fisher says are her guidelines:

1. Patience.

2. Focus.

3. Relax.

4. Smile.

She explains: “Number 1, it takes patience at the racetrack. I learned that at Las Vegas. If you take unnecessary chances, you can ruin what you’ve worked for so far.

“The focus guideline is to focus on our objective, which was to make the Indy 500 field and try to finish in the top 10. Also, you have to be in the zone and focus on the line you are running and the changes you have to make to the car.

“The third thing is to relax. Typically I’m a very hyper type of person. I’ve always been. So I have to relax, because these cars don’t let the driver drive them, they pretty much drive themselves, and if you over-correct them, it can be a big mistake on your part. So relaxation is key to driving these cars.

“The last thing I put down is smile. There is a lot of pressure here. Whether it’s from the media, your team, or your family, there’s a lot of pressure involved in it. I just need to remember to smile and say to myself, ‘Hey, I’m at Indy. This is a dream come true to be here.’ ”

Fisher became the youngest driver in an IRL race last October--two weeks after her 19th birthday--at Texas Motor Speedway for Team Pelfrey. She qualified 17th and finished 25th when mechanical problems ended her race after 66 laps.

When Walker decided to form an IRL team this year with a rookie driver, he kept hearing about the girl from Ohio.

At Winchester Speedway, the self-styled “World’s Fastest Half-Mile,” east of Indianapolis, they like to brag about how Fisher lapped the high-banked oval in 14.6 seconds in a midget. Her record of 122.299 mph was faster than Tony Stewart or Jeff Gordon had ever done.

At Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio, they like to talk about the night she raced Steve Kinser, the World of Outlaws’ premier champion, in a heat and beat him. It also tells something about Fisher’s upbringing when she says Kinser, a sprint car veteran, is her all-time favorite race driver.

Said Walker: “I originally wanted to start this program and use a rookie and build it up because we were in a new series and it made a lot of sense to look for a rookie and it had to be an American. When I first met Sarah, I had never seen her drive, but I was impressed by her dedication, her focus, what she stood for and what she was trying to do.

“There were enough people around me telling me they had seen her drive and that she could drive. Other than a video, I never saw her race until she got in our car in a test at Las Vegas [in January]. So it kind of unfolded that way. It really started with an American rookie as the criteria and it just, dare we say it, it just happened to be a girl.”

Her father and uncle raced sprint cars and like offspring of so many drivers, Fisher hung out at race tracks with them when she was very young.

“I’m getting a lot of attention, more than I ever imagined, here at Indy but you know, I remember when I was 6 or 7, when one of the drivers would ask me how I was doing in my quarter-midget, it really inspired me,” she said. “The more they asked and fussed over me, the more I was determined to become a driver and get to Indy.”

Al Unser Sr., an IRL driving coach and four-time 500 winner, has been working with Fisher.

“What I like about Sarah is that, first, she listens, and then she goes out and follows instructions. I like that,” said Unser, another old-timer not given to praising youngsters.

Says Fisher’s father, “He talks to her the way I used to. Whenever she has a problem, Al can get her head on straight. For me, it can’t get any better than having a four-time winner take your child under his wing and show the way.”

Derrick Walker says, “The world is her oyster.”

Fisher’s answer is more teen talk. Asked what she thought of her future, she smiled and said, “We’re starting to rock and roll.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Indianapolis 500

* When: Sunday, 9 a.m. PDT

* TV: Channel 7

* Where: Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Indianapolis.

* Race distance: 500 miles, 200 laps.

*

ALSO

WAVING THE FLAG

An Ascot “alum” will be chief starter Sunday at the Indy 500. Page 5

Sarah Fisher Profile

* Born: Oct. 4, 1980.

* Resides: Indianapolis.

* Height / Weight: 5-2, 120 pounds.

*

RACING SUMMARY

* Races: 3

* Best start: 12

* Best finish: 13

* Earned: $39,500

*

HIGHLIGHTS

* Became youngest person to compete in IRL history by racing in the Mall.com 500 at Texas Motor Speedway on Oct. 17, starting 17th and finishing 25th.

* Scored five feature victories in 1999 while competing in NAMARS, ARCA and USAC midget competition.

* Started racing career at age 5 in quarter-midgets.

* Three-time WKA Grand National champion and 1992 WKA points champion.

* Racing experience includes competition in winged sprint cars in All Star Circuit of Champions and World of Outlaws series, including the Knoxville Nationals.