Too Bad for Her It Isn’t a Popularity Contest

What is the Indy Racing League’s most popular driver of 2001 doing this weekend at a CART race in Long Beach?

For one thing, Sarah Fisher is driving in the Toyota pro-celebrity race Saturday. For another, she is looking for a ride.

Fisher, who raced the last two years as a contract driver for Derrick Walker in the IRL, was released from her contract last week and is now hoping she can continue her career with another team. Chances are slim, however, as the sponsorship market has shrunk.

Not only is Fisher, a second-place finisher at Homestead, Fla., and a front-row starter at Richmond last year, out of an IRL ride, so is Greg Ray, the 1999 IRL champion and 2000 Indy 500 pole winner. The CART picture is nearly as bleak, with Roberto Moreno, a winner last year at Vancouver, on the sidelines.

Fisher, 20, is one of three professional drivers who’ll compete in the 10-lap race against a variety of entertainment celebrities. The others are Tommy Kendall, a former Trans-Am champion who won the pro category in 1997, and Danica Patrick, a Formula Ford driver .

Among the celebs is actor Patrick Stewart, Captain Picard of “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” who recognized Fisher at a practice session.

“I was really excited that Patrick Stewart knew who I was,” she said . “He kept complimenting my driving abilities throughout the weekend we spent practicing at Willow Springs. My mom, who is a Trekkie at heart, was even more excited when I phoned her about my new friend.”

Fisher was left unemployed when a potential sponsor backed out at the last minute and Walker was unable to continue funding the team out of his pocket. Fisher, to whom school is as important as racing--she was an A-student at Teays High in Commercial Point, Ohio--had planned on attending Butler University in Indianapolis while running her IRL schedule, but Walker convinced her that driving an Indy car was a full-time job.

“I understood what Derrick wanted, but it was terribly disappointing when I had no sponsor, and learned about it too late to enroll at Butler,” she said. “I would like to get a degree in engineering. I admire Gil de Ferran [the 2001 CART champion driving this season in the IRL] for having one. I’m sure it has made him a better driver.

“Doing both [school and racing] would be nothing new for me. I used to run about 60 races a year when I was in high school and still kept up with my studies. I enrolled in an on-line college program but I miss being in the classroom.”

Fisher also worked on her own cars while growing up. Last month, she helped the crew for Silver Crown driver Brian Tyler at Indianapolis Raceway Park.

“I helped change tires, had fun getting my hands dirty again,” she said. “I hate this sitting around, waiting and hoping for a ride. I want to be doing something around cars, or else get back to school.”

Long Beach will be a novelty for Fisher. A veteran of Grand National karting, U.S. Auto Club midgets and outlaw sprint cars, she has never driven in a race with right turns.

“Not on purpose, at least,” she said, flashing that smile that helped earn her the IRL’s most-popular- driver award in a poll of fellow drivers, crewmen and fans.

Traction Control

As in Formula One, CART officials found rules forbidding traction control--a system using computers to avoid wheel spin and maximize grip on the road--too difficult to enforce so they legalized it. All three of CART’s engine suppliers, Honda, Toyota and Ford, have incorporated it into their packages.

In the season opener at Monterrey, Mexico, driver reaction was mixed. Some felt the system controlled the car too much, taking away the “feel” of the car.

On the other hand, as Jimmy Vasser said, “Obviously, it’s a driver aid, and what we used to do with our foot, based on our own senses, we now have the engine doing the work for us. There’s not just a switch where you turn it on and off, but there’s a lot you can do with it and we’re still learning about it every day.”

The 1.97-mile Long Beach circuit--drivers get their first look today during practice and qualifying--offers more problems than its 11 turns. The surface of the street course changes several times a lap from asphalt to concrete.

“That’s a situation where, as you come off the asphalt and onto the concrete, the grip is much lower and traditionally the wheels spin a lot more,” explained Bruce Wood, Cosworth-Ford’s CART program director. “Traction control will attempt to reel that in and that’s something the drivers might not like the feel of. So we think that’s going to be one of the biggest factors for the Long Beach race.”

“It’ll be a factor, but I don’t know how big a factor,” said Vasser, who has seven top-10 finishes in 10 races at Long Beach, including a win in 1996. “It’s all speculation and I’m not one to sit and talk about the ‘what ifs.’ Again, I think Cosworth has a good grip on traction control and I’m expecting that it’s going to work well and we’ll be able to tune it to our liking. How big a factor is it going to be? Your guess is as good as mine.”

This has been a busy week for Vasser. On Tuesday, the Canoga Park native was testing one of Bobby Rahal’s Dallara-Chevrolets for the Indy 500. His speed of 224.664 mph was second fastest of the test day.

Eddie Cheever, in an Infiniti-powered Dallara, was fastest at 225.386 mph.

Before Tuesday’s running at the Speedway, Vasser logged more than 700 miles at California Speedway in an IRL car. He drove in the last two Indy 500s for Chip Ganassi, finishing fourth last year. Rahal, who finished second four times at Long Beach as a driver, is hoping Vasser brings him a win as a car owner.

Drag Racing

John Force is getting most of the attention as he continues his quest for his 100th funny car victory, but how about Larry Dixon? In Don Prudhomme’s top-fuel dragster, the second-generation hot rodder has won 15 of 16 rounds in National Hot Rod Assn. competition this year, and three of four events.

His only loss was in the final round at Phoenix, where Tony Schumacher won. In final rounds, he beat Kenny Bernstein at Pomona and Gainesville, Fla., and Cory McClenathan last Sunday at Las Vegas.

“I think all the hard work that [crew chief] Dick LaHaie and the team put in over the winter is paying off for us now,” said Dixon, whose father, Larry, won the Pomona Winternationals in 1970. “We had to adapt to new rules, tires, motor and clutch changes.

“We are only one round from a perfect start and in my view that is well beyond a great start. Things really flow well for our team and everyone is firing on all cylinders.”

The NHRA will be at Houston this week with Force still chasing 100 and Dixon looking for more victories.

Last Laps

The Sprint Car Racing Assn. will return to action after two weeks off, sharing a Saturday night doubleheader with the new U.S. Auto Club Ford Focus series midgets at Perris Auto Speedway. Defending SCRA champion Cory Kruseman, after a slow start, has pulled to within 23 points of leader Tony Jones, 358-335. Ford Focus midgets are powered by two-liter Ford ZX3 engines that run on methanol. South Pasadena’s Josh Lakatos, who won the silver medal in pistol shooting at the 1996 Olympics, won the series opener at Bakersfield.