Ovals Just Fine for De Ferran

Gil de Ferran fell in love with auto racing’s road courses. These days, though, the Brazilian driver lives in the left-turn-only circuit, the Indy Racing League.

Still, De Ferran is a happy man because he’s driving for owner Roger Penske, because he’s having fun on ovals and because at this stage of his career, an IRL championship would be a crowning achievement.

De Ferran is one of two series champions who will compete in Sunday’s 200-lap Yamaha Indy 400 at California Speedway. Sam Hornish Jr. is the IRL champion and the current leader. De Ferran won the title in the rival CART series the last two seasons.

Then Penske switched from CART to the IRL, giving his drivers, De Ferran and Indy 500 champion Helio Castroneves, a chance to shine in a new arena.

“For me, an IRL championship would mean a lot,” said De Ferran, who set the world closed-course speed record at Fontana, 241.428 mph, in qualifying before the 2000 CART race. “Oval racing is a foreign discipline, it’s like fighting in someone else’s backyard.

“I remember my first oval race, Phoenix, ‘94, and I thought, ‘Boy, was I wrong about this.’ It looked so easy.”

De Ferran, 34, ranks third in the series with 80 points. Hornish, the leader, has 89 points and Castroneves 85.

De Ferran has finished second to each, Hornish in the season opener at Homestead, Fla., and Castroneves last week at Phoenix. Penske’s team did most of its testing at those tracks and Fontana. Thus the most challenging part of the season is ahead.

“We have no experience in night races [three are on the IRL schedule] or at a lot of these tracks, Richmond, Pikes Peak, Nashville,” De Ferran said.

He hopes he hasn’t seen his last road course, though. Would he like to return to CART, the series rival of the IRL which includes street and road courses as well as ovals?

“Let me answer it this way,” he said. “I would like to do some road racing at some point in the future. How that’s going to be, I don’t know. It’s probably not going to be this year. [He’s signed with Penske through this season]. I’m very happy driving for Roger. It’s hard to explain how much, but I really like being a Penske driver and I trust Roger’s judgment.”

De Ferran spent six seasons in CART, the last two with Penske, and says he is impressed by rules, attitude and marketing changes in that series since the arrival of Chris Pook as president in December. CART races through the streets of Long Beach on April 14.

“He’s pulled everyone together, made some tough decisions, some good decisions; his addition to the ranks has been a good one,” De Ferran said.

De Ferran, though, is a staunch supporter of a unified series.

“The flag I carry is one of my sponsors, my team and myself,” he said. “I’m pro Indy car.... They might be able to survive separately, but they’ll enjoy better prosperity together.

“To me, what’s necessary is people understand there is one Indy championship. That’s very important as far as the greater public good is concerned. That’s why the Indy 500 is so important; it brings our cars identity.”

But it would satisfy his competitive nature too.

“If there was a racing series that had [Formula One drivers] Mika Hakkinen, Juan Montoya, Michael Schumacher, David Coulthard, [Winston Cup drivers] Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, [IRL driver] Sam Hornish, [and CART drivers] Dario Franchitti, Cristiano da Matta all in one place, I would do my best to be there,” De Ferran said. “I would really want to go against those guys. Part of the reason I want this thing unified is exactly that, so that we don’t have any more dilution of talent.

“All I want is to race the most competitive guys on earth driving some of the most challenging cars there are, and if we can do it at Indianapolis, I’d be even happier.”

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IRL

Jeret Schroeder makes his season debut for PDM Racing, replacing Tyce Carlson, who announced his retirement after Sunday’s race in Phoenix.

George Mack began the season with the only G-Force-Chevrolet, and it was destroyed when Mack was caught in an accident last week in Phoenix.

But his team, 310 Racing, bought a new car for Fontana, the hometown race for the Inglewood native.

His mother, Sandy Mack, will sing the national anthem before Sunday’s Yamaha 400.

“She can sing,” George Mack said.

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SPORTS CARS

Darius Grala of Weston, Mass., driving for Ferrari of Orange County, won the pole Thursday for today’s Ferrari Challenge at California Speedway with a lap of 95.231 mph around the 21-turn, 2.8-mile road course. Eddy Aslanian of Las Vegas, Grala’s teammate, was only .078 of a second behind at 95.265 mph.

The first of two Ferrari Challenge races will be run today at 3:15 p.m. as part of the Grand American Road Racing series. The second 30-minute race will be run Saturday.

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CART

CART announced this week it will begin its 2003 season with a street race in St. Petersburg, Fla., the weekend of Feb. 21-23.

“That state is the center of the motor racing universe at that time of year,” Pook said, referring to Daytona International Speedway’s Speedweeks festivities.

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NHRA

Pro stock driver Bob Glidden, a 10-time series champion and winner of 85 national events, announced his retirement after a brief comeback.

Glidden crashed in Houston during preseason testing and has failed to qualify in his two races this season, at Pomona and Phoenix.

He walked away before attempting to qualifying last weekend at the Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla., after saying he no longer felt comfortable in the car.

Team owner Jim Dunn and driver Al Hofmann parted ways during the Gatornationals. Dunn expects to make a driver announcement on April 4 in Las Vegas. Frank Pedregon and Bruce Sarver are the leading candidates.

The National Hot Rod Assn. Motorsports Museum announced the NHRA National Hot Rod Reunion for June 20-22, 2003, in Bowling Green, Ky. The event is usually held in Bakersfield. Details can be had by sending name and address to NHRA National Hot Rod Reunion, P.O. Box 2345, Pomona, CA, 91769, or by via e-mail to museum@nhra.com.

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AREA TRACKS

Four classes will have their first races of the season Saturday at Irwindale Speedway, late models, super stocks, modified 4s and figure-8s. Canyon Country’s Dave Hessing, who edged Palm Springs’ Deryk Ward by 10 points, launches defense of his late models title. With two-time champion Jeff Green of Oak Hills switching to late model or super late models, the super stocks division is wide open. Guy Tripp of Saugus is the defending champion in modified 4s, and Rusty Stewart of Saugus will defend his figure-8 title.

The NAPA/Auto Trader SCRA sprint car series will be at Perris Auto Speedway on Saturday for Round 6. Jeremy Sherman of Phoenix won main events last Friday and Saturday at Manzanita Speedway in Phoenix. Tony Jones of Garden Grove is the series leader, followed by Richard Griffin of Silver City, N.M., Troy Rutherford of Ojai, and Cory Kruseman of Ventura.

A Southwest Tour stock car race, the Coors Light 125, will open the season Saturday night at Cajon Speedway in El Cajon.

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