Schumacher-Fangio Winner Is Up for Debate

When Juan Manuel Fangio won his fifth world Formula One championship in 1957, it was thought to be a record impossible to equal. Sort of like Lou Gehrig’s consecutive-games record.

Michael Schumacher reached No. 5 this year and, with Ferrari behind him, the German driver shows no signs of slowing down.

Immediately, the question popped up, “Is Schumacher better than Fangio?”

The answer? Apparently, there is none.

“You can talk about it, you can put values on their accomplishments, but no matter how you try, comparisons don’t do justice to either one,” said Phil Hill, America’s first Formula One champion and a contemporary of Fangio’s.

“Fangio was incredible in that he was able to show his superiority by winning with different teams [Mercedes, Maserati, Lancia and Ferrari]. Schumacher, on the other hand, has been seven seasons with the same team [Ferrari], something that would have been impossible in Fangio’s day. The fact that Schumacher has done that is incredible in itself.”

Dan Gurney, who drove parts of 10 seasons in F1 and reveres “the Maestro,” as the Argentine was known, says what makes the comparison so difficult is that the consequences are so different.

“My friend Tony Brooks, who raced for years against Fangio, said, ‘It’s like comparing the performance of a tight-rope walker in a circus using the mandatory safety net with one whose act involves balancing on a wire strung across a deep gorge.’ That’s about it.”

Fangio, asked in his later years the difference between his era and the 1990s, said that he had lost 33 friends in his last nine years of driving.

Fangio himself might have given the best answer to differences in eras:

“I lived in the last epoch of romantic car building, made up of improvisation rather than calculus, intuition rather than formula.”

In some quarters, Schumacher’s achievements have been played down because he has the financial clout of Ferrari behind him, which makes his success more machine than man.

Gurney totally disagrees.

“Ferrari had not won a driver’s championship in [16 years, since Jody Scheckter in 1979] when Schumacher got there and it was five years before he won. He was the one who built the team, hand-picking crewmen and helping design the car and the electronics. It is Schumacher’s package.”

Before joining Ferrari in 1996, Schumacher won world championships with Benetton in 1994 and 1995.

One of his first moves was to take technical director Ross Brawn and aerodynamicist Rory Byrne along with him from Benetton.

Schumacher, who will try for his 11th victory of the season in the U.S. Grand Prix in Indianapolis this weekend, lives in a high-tech world and that’s the way he likes it.

“People ask me if I would prefer the cars of 10 years ago because they were less sophisticated and didn’t have the electronics and technical advances we have today,” he told Racer magazine earlier this year. “The answer is definitely not. The more precisely I can drive, the more I enjoy myself. I hate to take compromises with a racing car.

“The more standard a car is, the more compromises you have to take; but the developments we have now bring it closer to perfection, which is what I want.”

One more thing: Fangio was 40 when he won his first F1 title in 1951. Schumacher is only 33 and has won five titles.

Motorcycles

The Motocross des Nations, the world’s most prestigious motocross event, was scheduled for this weekend at Competition Park, an obscure site on the Soboba Indian Reservation near San Jacinto. When the event was announced a few months ago, motorcycle fans were shocked that such a famous event could be awarded to such a little known facility.

Not surprisingly, the event was been canceled.

“There is no bigger race in the world than the Motocross of Nations, yet at the moment there is no bigger joke,” said Cycle News.

Four-time world champion Joel Smets of Belgium and teams from 27 nations, among them the U.S. trio of Ricky Carmichael, Tim Ferry and Mike LaRocco, were scheduled to ride.

Billy Hamill of Monrovia won his third AMA national speedway championship by winning the third and final round last Friday at Auburn, Calif. Greg Hancock, of Balboa Island, who had led after two rounds, was unable to ride because of a bronchial infection.... Seven-time supercross champion Jeremy McGrath may miss the U.S. Open of Supercross in Las Vegas on Oct. 11-12 after dislocating his hip in a crash while practicing on the KTM test track in Corona. McGrath has switched from Yamaha to KTM for the coming season.

Ventura Raceway

Rumors that the beachside track on the Ventura County Fairgrounds is about to close are premature, says track promoter Jim Naylor.

“We will definitely conclude the current season with the Wagsdash on Oct. 26,” he said. “The fair board is discussing some overall changes for next year, but we plan to be back racing when the season opens in March.”

Unlimited Hydroplanes

Gary Garbrecht, president of Hydro-Prop, which owns the Unlimited Hydroplane series, said after Sunday’s final event in San Diego that the transition year of 2002 had been more successful than he had anticipated.

“We need more races, that’s for sure, but the ones we had were good spectator events and that’s what we’re all about,” he said. “We’re getting there. We will have two more races next year, in Owensboro, Ky., and Lakeland, Fla. “I’d like to get up to 12 by 2005, but we don’t want to get so many we price some of our sponsors out.”

Last Laps

Late model stock car drivers Todd Burns of Riverside and Tim Huddleston of Agoura Hills will decide the Irwindale Speedway track championship Saturday night. Burns leads, 756-722. Although Rip Michels of Mission Hills has already clinched the super late model series, he will be seeking additional glory--and money--in the $10,000 Miller Lite Big 10 contest. Michels has a tenuous lead over Tony Bruncati of Glendora.

Earlier Saturday, on Irwindale’s eighth-mile drag strip, Los Angeles area police officers will compete against a team of TV entertainers at 10:30 a.m. Acting L.A. Police Chief Martin Pomeroy is scheduled to race, as are actors William Baldwin, Daryl Hannah, Alan Thicke, Kelly Perine and William Lee Scott. The public is invited.

Figure 8s will be featured at both Perris Auto Speedway and Orange Show Speedway on Saturday night. At Perris, Michael Hughes will attempt to jump a 6,500-pound limousine into a stack of 500 tires.... The Racers of Balboa Stadium held their 24th reunion in El Cajon last Saturday, honoring midget car drivers from the 1930s to 1960s. Because there are so few old-timers left, organizers said it was the final one.

Brown & Williamson, whose Kool brand of cigarettes has been a major motor racing sponsor since 1996, announced it will end its sponsorship program at the end of the year. Kool colors have been on Team Green CART cars driven by Paul Tracy and Dario Franchitti.

Formula One won’t be the only racing show in Indianapolis this week. Tonight, a few miles west of the speedway, Laguna Beach publisher-entrepreneur Steve Lewis will present the Indianapolis Twin 25s, a pair of Monza-style midget races that have attracted the best drivers in the country.

Southern Californians did not fare well in the SCCA Valvoline Runoffs, failing to win a single event. Bill Hagerty of San Diego appeared to have won in Showroom Stock C, but inspections disqualified his Honda Civic Si and the victory was given to Joel Lipperini of Pittston, Pa. Larry Hansen, of Eureka, driving a GT-3 car built by Eureka High students, finished second in his class.

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How They Compare

*--* How Juan Fangio and Michael Schumacher compare (Numbers in parentheses indicate percentage of success against attempts): F S Formula One years 8 11 Formula One races 51 175 Wins 24 (47%) 63 (36%) Seconds 11 (21%) 32 (18%) Thirds 1 (9%) 16 (9%) Poles 28 (55%) 47 (27%) Front row 48 (94%) 88 (50%) Top three 36 (70%) 112 (64%)

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