Mears Gets the Best of Both Worlds

By SHAV GLICK

Oct. 20, 2000 12 AM PT

Some race car drivers wait a lifetime for a shot at winning a national championship series.

Others often wait a lifetime hoping for a ride that will lead them into Winston Cup, CART champ cars or the Indianapolis 500.

Casey Mears, 22, son of Pikes Peak champion Roger and nephew of four-time Indy 500 winner Rick, will get both opportunities on Oct. 29 at California Speedway.

In the morning, the Bakersfield youngster will drive a Lola V-6 in the Dayton Indy Lights season finale, battling New Zealander Scott Dixon and Dorricott Racing teammate Townsend Bell of Costa Mesa for the championship in CART’s development series.

In the afternoon, he will climb into one of Bobby Rahal’s three Reynard-Ford Cosworths and drive in his first CART champ car race, the Marlboro 500.

One would be enough, perhaps more than enough, to satisfy the average race driver. If he finishes both races, he will have driven 600 miles.

But Mears can’t wait.

“I don’t foresee too much of a problem,” he said. “California Speedway is one of the best tracks to do it. You don’t lean on the Lights cars too hard, so it won’t take a lot out of me physically.

“Actually, running the Lights in the morning might help my focus on the champ car. If I wasn’t running the morning race, I might be sitting around, worrying about how things are going to turn out. This way I won’t have any time to think about it.

“I’ll be driving for two great teams, and I know they’ll give me the equipment to get the job done.”

One of the challenges will be in adapting from one car to another during practice Saturday and qualifying Sunday.

A CART car is 100 pounds heavier, about eight inches longer and puts out nearly double the horsepower of a Light, approximately 800 to 425. Lights engines are non-turbocharged production power plants; CART’s are built-for-racing turbocharged V-8s.

No one has driven in Lights and CART races the same weekend, much less on the same day.

After winning last week’s Lights race in Houston--the first of his career in that series--Mears moved to within five points of Dixon and one behind Bell.

“Joining Dorricott Racing has been a career maker,” Mears said after leading all 45 laps at Houston. “Bob Dorricott is so supportive and provides the best of everything to give us the most chances to succeed. I think it shows. Our drivers run up front. We test hard and learn from it.”

Oriol Servia, now driving in CART, won the Lights championship last year in a Dorricott team car. Mears finished second.

During last year’s California Speedway race, Mears ran the fastest official lap in Indy Lights history, 193.643 mph.

“I’ll have a lot of support in both races,” Mears said. “My dad is manager of the Lights team, and even though he’s working for Roger Penske, if [uncle] Rick notices something he thinks I ought to know about, he mentions it to me. He keeps an eye on me. That’s help you can’t buy, knowing what he knows.”

Rick Mears is Penske’s team advisor.

Casey earned the CART ride during a test last month at California Speedway when he drove 400 miles under simulated race conditions, including pit stops.

“I promised Casey he could have a chance to test one of Team Rahal’s cars this season and he certainly proved he is at home in a champ car during the test,” Rahal said.

“We are thrilled to help him launch his champ car career near his home in California and I am confident that Casey will be a fixture in CART for years to come. He has developed his skills in the CART ladder system and now he is ready to take the step to racing in the world’s fastest, most powerful cars.”

Rahal said having Mears in a third car will not take away from the team’s efforts with regular drivers Max Papis and Kenny Brack.

“It is important that the normal operation of the team goes uninterrupted,” Rahal said.

The engineering and pit crew for Mears will be handled by Rahal’s test team, which is headed by race engineer Ray Leto, the technical coordinator.

Gil de Ferran, the CART points leader, will test an Indy Racing League car this weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway as part of Penske’s continuing efforts to run his team in next year’s Indy 500.

He will be in a Dallara, running as part of a Firestone tire test. Penske team president Tim Cindric and advisor Mears will accompany their driver in the three-day test.

Helio Castroneves, Penske’s other driver, already has tested at Indianapolis.

FORMULA ONE

Michael Schumacher already has clinched his third Formula One championship, but he’s not about to relax. He and his Ferrari will be the favorites when the Grand Prix season ends Sunday with the Malaysian GP in Sepang.

“I feel very young still,” the German driver said. “It’s taken five years with Ferrari to be competitive from the first race to the last. Now we have it. I’m just glad to be there and taken more advantage.

“I enjoy racing. I enjoy Ferrari, and I want to have some more of these times. I have seen big waves of emotions--good and bad ones--and these waves make life interesting and joyful. I feel I am too young not to experience many more of these. Yes, I definitely look forward to a few more seasons of racing.”

Which could mean that the legendary Juan Manuel Fangio’s record of five championships is in jeopardy.

THE EARNHARDT MYSTIQUE

Dale Earnhardt’s hard-to-believe 17th-to-first dash in five laps to win last Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway has had repercussions at North Carolina Speedway.

When offices opened Monday in Rockingham, N.C., phone lines were clogged with a rush of ticket orders.

“I’ve never seen anything like this before,” said Deanna Ingram, speedway ticket manager. “It is truly amazing that one driver is so popular, and can make the phones literally ring off the hook. I’ve had to bring in additional help just to handle the calls and orders.”

Earnhardt’s win vaulted him into second place in NASCAR points, 210 behind leader Bobby Labonte, with four races remaining in his quest for a record eighth Winston Cup title.

“Dale did exactly what we needed to do to stay in the race for the championship,” said car owner Richard Childress. “Now we need to go to Rockingham and do the same thing--win the race.”

MESA MARIN RACEWAY

The October Classic, on the half-mile oval in Bakersfield, will be the center of stock car activity this weekend with a 100-mile NASCAR Weekly Racing Series late model race tonight, a 100-mile Featherlite Southwest series race on Saturday night and a 125-mile Winston West series main event on Sunday.

Sean Woodside, 1999 Winston West champion and a three-time Mesa Marin winner, will run in all three races.

IRWINDALE NOTES

Tony Stewart, a four-time Winston Cup winner this year, and 1999 U.S. Auto Club midget champion Jason Leffler, who put on the season’s most exciting race in last year’s Turkey Night Grand Prix before Leffler won, are returning this year for an encore. They will be part of Steve Lewis’ four-car entry in the Nov. 23 race with defending USAC sprint car champion Dave Darland and Kasey Kahne, this year’s midget points leader.

Todd Ellison’s fifth-place finish in last week’s USAC Western sprint car finale earned the West Jordan (Utah) driver the series championship. . . . The City of Hope/City of Duarte’s Rose Parade float navigated Irwindale’s half-mile oval at 38.808 mph, nearly twice as fast as last year’s “world float record.

LAST LAPS

For the first time since 1993, American motorcycle riders won both the world Grand Prix and Superbike championships. Kenny Roberts Jr. won the GP and Colin Edwards the Superbike. In 1993, Kevin Schwantz won Grand Prix and Scott Russell the Superbike. Although not on a cycle, former motocross champion David Bailey won the physically handicapped class in the world Ironman triathlon in Hawaii.

Kevin O’Brien, public relations director of the Grand Prix Assn. of Long Beach, has taken on added duties as director of sales and marketing for the organization. He replaces Mike Clark, who resigned to take a position with Panoz Motorsports of Braselton, Ga.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

This Week’s Races

WINSTON CUP

Pop Secret Microwave 400

* When: Friday, first-round qualifying, 2 p.m.; Saturday, second-round qualifying, 9:30 a.m.; Sunday, race (TNN, 9:30 a.m.)

* Where: North Carolina Speedway (tri-oval, 1.017 miles, 22 degrees banking in turns 1-2, 25 degrees in turns 3-4), Rockingham, N.C.

* Race distance: 399.681 miles, 393 laps.

* Defending champion: Jeff Burton.

* Next race: Checker Auto Parts/Dura Lube 500k, Nov. 5, Avondale, Ariz.

* On the net: https://www.nascar.com

BUSCH GRAND NATIONAL

Rockingham 200