CART, IRL May Give Peace a Chance

The rift between Championship Auto Racing Teams and the Indy Racing League, during which interest in open-wheel racing has deteriorated over the last five years, may be closer than ever to healing.

Roger Penske, one of the founders of CART in 1978 and a supporter of the CART boycott of the IRL when Indianapolis Motor Speedway President Tony George formed his rival organization in 1996, is one of the most respected men in motor sports. He says it’s time to get together, or at least cooperate.

“I certainly am an advocate of seeing the two series go together,” Penske said. “I don’t think there are enough sponsors, drivers, teams or car owners to be able to have two series. I think the fans have been confused.

“We’ve got to figure out how to fill these stands up. That’s what I think Tony George and [CART President] Joe Heitzler have got to decide, how to get people in all the stadiums instead of splitting them up between two series. The way it is now, they can’t afford the purses.”

About 25,000 spectators were at Phoenix International Raceway on Sunday for the IRL’s season opener, despite the added attraction of Penske’s team with CART champion Gil de Ferran. Before the split, Indy car races there attracted more than twice that number, and Winston Cup stock car races annually draw close to 100,000 at the same facility.

The tilt toward togetherness is already underway.

Derrick Walker started it when he fielded teams in both series last year, Bryan Herta and Shinji Nakano in CART and Sarah Fisher in IRL. Then Chip Ganassi took his CART champions, Juan Montoya and Jimmy Vasser, to the Indianapolis 500, keystone of the IRL, and won the race with Montoya.

This year, Penske announced he would take his team to Indianapolis, where he has won 10 times, and as preparation he would run at Phoenix. Former CART champion Michael Andretti will announce Tuesday that he also will be at Indy this year, and several other teams are expected to follow Ganassi and Penske there next year.

The crux of getting together is a common engine formula, and there could be one by 2003. The current engine specifications for both series expire after the 2002 season.

“A common engine formula would be terrific,” Penske said. “If the rules were so that we could cross over, it would help everybody. Back in the early days [of CART] we ran Indy and didn’t run some of the other [USAC] races, so that wouldn’t be a new scenario.”

CART runs turbocharged engines, IRL normally aspirated ones.

“I’ve known Fred Treadway, Tom Kelley, A.J. [Foyt], Ron Hemelgarn and Jim Immke, all the key people in the IRL,” Penske said. “We’re all owners and we have a common relationship. We might run in different ballparks week in and week out, but collectively, we’re all in the same game.”

Two icon families of Indy car racing, the Rathmanns and the Mecoms, are betting on the 2003 developments.

Jim Rathmann Jr., whose father Jim won the Indy 500 in 1960, and John Mecom III, whose father John Jr. owned the winning 500 car driven by Graham Hill in 1966, have formed Heritage Motorsports to contest the IRL series with former motocross champion Jeff Ward as their driver.

“We’ve been talking about getting to Indy, with our dads involved too, since 1995, but we sort of wanted to wait until Tony [George] got through sorting out the IRL,” said Rathmann Jr. “Now he’s got a solid 13-race series and a sound future, so we decided to jump in.

“It’s an oval series and we think ovals are the way to go. Americans are used to seeing their sporting events in a stadium-type atmosphere, where they can see all the action. Going to a road race is like going to a football game where all you can see is maybe between one 40-yard line and the 20-yard line and all the rest of the field is out of sight.

“We believe a big change will come in 2003. Chevrolet will come into the IRL next year when Olds phases out and when that happens, Ford will probably want to be at Indy, so by then all sides should be in agreement that we need each other.”

SILVER BULLETS

The U.S. Auto Club Coors Light Silver Bullet series, which stole the show from the IRL on Sunday at Phoenix, will headline Saturday night’s program at Irwindale Speedway. It will be the only appearance of USAC’s premier series on the half-mile oval.

Texan Paul White, who won his first USAC main event after a wheel-to-wheel battle with Dave Steele and series champion Tracy Hines on the mile oval, will be in the 100-lap K&N; Classic.

“I look at it this way, the Copper World Classic is the Daytona of USAC races,” White said. “That’s the one everybody wants, but I hope I’m not finished. I seem to run good on tight, fast tracks so we are excited about coming back to Irwindale.”

White finished ninth in both 1999, when he was named rookie of the race, and 2000.

“I just hope I can get a good starting spot and run up front early,” he said. “Then if the power companies don’t elect to turn the lights out on us, we should be in the hunt at the end.”

Also entered are veterans Jack Hewitt of Ohio and Wally Pankratz of Orange, former World of Outlaws rookie of the year Tyler Walker of North Hills, Sprint Car Racing Assn. points leader Cory Kruseman of Ventura and Jay Drake of Val Verde, winner of a record 19 USAC races last year.

Sharing the bill with the Silver Bullet race will be USAC western sprint cars and Auto Club-sponsored NASCAR late models. Sprint car favorites include IRL veteran Davey Hamilton, who won at Irwindale last year, and Bud Kaeding, winner of six of seven races there in 1999. Todd Ellison of West Jordan, Utah, is defending series champion.

SUPERCROSS

Ricky Carmichael has become so dominant in the EA Sports Supercross series that his biggest concern is not beating seven-time champion Jeremy McGrath, Ezra Lusk or world champion David Vuillemin, but getting past lapped riders.

“The lappers were horrible [last Saturday night in Minneapolis] and almost caused me to crash a few times,” Carmichael said after winning his seventh consecutive 250cc main event. Going into Saturday night’s race in Houston’s Astrodome, the stocky Florida rider has a 29-point lead over McGrath with five races remaining and is all but assured the $115,000 champion’s bonus--plus, probably, that much more from Kawasaki, his bike manufacturer.

PASSINGS

Porsche long-distance driving veteran Bob Wollek, killed last Friday while riding a bicycle on his way to a race in Sebring, Fla., drove in a number of Los Angeles Times Grand Prix events at Riverside International Raceway before the track closed. He finished third twice, with Mauricio de Narvaez in 1983 and with Paolo Barilla in 1986, both times in a Porsche 962.

Wollek, 57, was struck from behind while riding on Highway 98 toward Sebring International Raceway, where he was scheduled to race Saturday in the

12 Hours of Sebring, a race he won in 1985. Wollek also won four times in the 24 Hours of Daytona and twice in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. One of his Daytona victories was with Foyt.

“He drives race cars for more than 25 years and then gets killed riding a bike,” Foyt said. “It’s like I’ve always said, when your time is up, it’s up.”

LAST LAPS

An AutoWeek poll of motor racing fans found overwhelming support for retiring Dale Earnhardt’s No. 3 in NASCAR’s Winston Cup series. Of the respondents, 69% voted to retire the number and 31% were opposed. NASCAR’s policy is not to retire any number.

“Some argued that retiring the number was the least NASCAR could do for a man who had given so much to the sport,” said Dutch Mandel, AutoWeek editor.

Others maintained that if the number was retired, it would allow people to eventually forget Earnhardt’s legacy.

Cajon Speedway will host the second round of the NASCAR Featherlite Southwest Series with the Coors Light 125 on Saturday night in El Cajon. Matt Crafton of Tulare is defending series champion. Jon Nelson of San Bernardino won last year’s race on the three-eighths mile paved oval.

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This Week’s Races

WINSTON CUP, Food City 500

* When: Today, qualifying (Fox Sports Net, 12:30 p.m.); Sunday, race (Channel 11, 10 a.m.).

* Where: Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway (oval, .533 miles, 36-degree banking in turns).

* Race distance: 266.5 miles, 500 laps.

* Defending champion: Rusty Wallace.

* Next race: Harrah’s 500, April 1, Fort Worth, Texas.

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

BUSCH, Bristol 250

* When: Today, qualifying, (FX, 11 a.m.); Saturday, race (FX, 10 a.m.).

* Where: Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway (oval, .533 miles, 36-degree banking in turns).

* Race distance: 133.25 miles, 250 laps.

* Defending champion: Sterling Marlin.

* Next race: Jani-King 300, March 31, Fort Worth, Texas.

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

NHRA, O’Reilly Nationals

* When: Today, first-round qualifying, noon; Saturday, second-round qualifying, 9 a.m. (ESPN2, delayed, 5:30 p.m.); Sunday, final eliminations, 9 a.m. (ESPN, delayed, 1:30 p.m.; ESPN2, 3 p.m.)

* Where: Houston Raceway Park, Baytown, Texas.

* Defending champions: Bob Gilbertson, funny car; Larry Dixon, top fuel; Jeg Coughlin Jr., pro stock.

* Next race: SummitRacing.com Nationals, April 7, Las Vegas.

* On the Net: https://www.nhra.com.