Trying to Outrun a Two-Man Game

One of the ongoing controversies in auto racing is the value of a two-car team as opposed to a one-car operation. There are proponents on both sides.

Sam Hornish Jr., the driver for Pennzoil Panther Racing’s one-car team, thinks he is at a disadvantage facing Gil de Ferran and Helio Castroneves of Marlboro Penske Racing’s two-car team.

Their battle for supremacy in the Indy Racing League will continue today in the Yamaha Indy 400 at California Speedway in Fontana, the third of 15 IRL races.

“There’s two of them and only one of me,” Hornish said after qualifying fourth for today’s race. “The only thing is that I have to do twice the work.

“It’s a tough battle. Seeing two red and white cars in front of me is a little disconcerting because you’re trying to figure out how to get by one, and as soon as you do that, you have to go to the next one.”

Hornish, who became the youngest driver, at 22, to win a major open-wheel championship last year, has been more than holding his own against the combined forces of the 2001 CART champion, de Ferran, and last year’s Indianapolis 500 winner, Castroneves.

In the IRL’s opening race, on a 11/2-mile track in Homestead, Fla., Hornish lapped the field in his Chevrolet-powered Dallara. He led 166 of the 200 laps and only two caution flags late in the race allowed runner-up de Ferran and third-place Castroneves to finish on the lead lap.

Last week, on the Phoenix Mile, he finished third to Castroneves and de Ferran after leading 67 laps. He might have won again but a lengthy pit stop dropped him from first to eighth.

“Everything went good until we started to leave the pits and stripped off first gear. We kind of sat there, pulled into second, didn’t really do anything, pulled into third and then it stalled. Had to restart the motor.

“We were awesome except for that. We could move in and out of traffic whenever we wanted to. The Penskes no doubt set the bar higher, but that’s good for the rest of us. Our objective is to go out and put on a good show for TV and the fans.”

Hornish and John Barnes’ Panther crew has done all it can to put on a good show and also keep the Penskes and their CART reputations behind him.

Neither Hornish, a former karting champion from Defiance, Ohio, nor Gary Pedigo, one of the team’s co-owners with former NFL quarterback Jim Harbaugh, Doug Boles, Mike Griffin and Barnes, expected the success the team attained last season.

“I didn’t think I had a chance to win the IRL championship last year; I was really surprised,” Hornish admitted.

Said Pedigo: “I didn’t really think we would win a race.”

Most remarkable has been Hornish’s consistency. In 15 races with the Panther team, Hornish has completed all but seven of the 3,050 laps. He has won four of those races and finished all of them.

“Sam is a great driver,” de Ferran said of his rival. “We watched him through winter tests and he’s as good a driver as I ever raced against.”

De Ferran and Castroneves had surprisingly poor qualifying runs Saturday. De Ferran will start 13th and Castroneves 16th.

“Obviously, we don’t have the fastest car out there, but [today’s] race isn’t about speed, it’s about consistency,” Castroneves said. “I was flat the whole way around and the car is totally trimmed out, but we haven’t been able to get that extra half a mile per hour that would put us farther up the grid.”

De Ferran echoed his teammate’s feelings, but added, “It doesn’t matter where you start, because it’s such a long race. With 400 miles, you can win from anywhere on the grid. Obviously it will be difficult, but it’s certainly possible.”

Eddie Cheever, the 1998 Indy 500 winner, put an Infiniti-powered Dallara on the pole for the first time in series history. GM engines, either Oldsmobile Auroras or Chevrolets, have earned the pole in 53 IRL races.

“It goes without saying that a very large percentage of the time we did today can be attributed to the Nissan engine,” said Cheever, who also scored the Infiniti’s first IRL win in 2000 at Pikes Peak. “It was a big challenge to take on a company like General Motors. This [Southern California] is the headquarters of Nissan North America, so it was great to do it here.”

Cheever’s speed around the two-mile D-shaped oval was 221.422 mph. Jaques Lazier, with 220.909 in a Chevy-powered Dallara, will start alongside Cheever. Cheever’s rookie protege, South African Tomas Scheckter, is third at 219.661.

“The lap was quite uneventful,” said Cheever, 44. “I had a line I wanted to keep. I chose a gear that was a little bit shorter, and I had to come out of the throttle a bit to make sure I didn’t bang off the rev limiter. Just imagine how fast I could have gone if I’d have been full throttle.”

Rev limiters are electronic devices which cause a controlled engine misfire if the rpms exceed the limit set by IRL rules. The legal rpm limit is 10,700. The idea is to control speeds, thereby increasing safety and controlling costs.

Lazier, who lives in nearby Alta Loma, is one driver who doesn’t see the IRL season strictly as a race between Hornish and the Penskes.

“I’ve never felt we were on the outside looking in,” Lazier said. “We’re second and they’re fourth, 13th and 16th. Right now, we’re on the inside. When you look at the IRL, most of the tracks are 11/2-mile to 21/2-mile superspeedways. From the beginning of the year we’ve worked to maximize our effort for these types of tracks. Our goal is to give John Menard his first Indy 500 win, and to maximize our superspeedway package.

“I’ll take this team against anyone out there. Though we weren’t where we needed to be at Homestead [finishing 18th], we made dramatic gains in a short period of time. I’m very happy where we’re at right now. We’re going into a couple of race tracks where Team Menard has a chance to shine.”

Robbie Buhl qualified fifth in the highest-finishing G Force, but just after completing his timed lap his car crashed between turns one and two. He was taken to Loma Linda University Medical Center with a concussion and was listed in good condition.

Memo Gidley was named to replace Buhl in a backup Dreyer & Reinbold Racing G Force, but he will start last in the 27-car field.

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

RACE FACTS

Circuit: Indy Racing League

What: Yamaha Indy 400

When: Today, 12:30 p.m., ESPN

Where: California Speedway (D-shaped oval, 2 miles, 14-degree banking in turns), Fontana.

Race distance: 400 miles, 200 laps.