Up to Speed

Stefan Johansson’s American Spirit team may have the most appropriate name in motor racing.

Johansson is Swedish, but the team’s two drivers, veteran Jimmy Vasser of Las Vegas and rookie Ryan Hunter-Reay of Boca Raton, Fla., are the only two Americans in CART, whose champ car drivers will race this weekend in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, the marquee event of an 18-race schedule.

“I have a lot pride in being an American driver and I’m proud to be on the only American team, although I think there are many young American drivers worthy of a ride who ought to be here,” Vasser said as he awaited the arrival of the team’s Ford-powered Reynards for today’s practice and qualifying for Sunday’s main event.

“It’s remarkable that this team is even here,” Vasser said of the team Johansson, a former CART driver, hastily put together. “I had been good friends with Stefan for a long time and I had a desire to stay in CART so we started talking about putting together a team toward the end of last year.

“On Jan. 2, all we had were two guys, an idea and no cars. Obviously, the team has been flat-out buying equipment, finding a place to work, rounding up personnel. We’re still feeling each other out, getting our chemistry working, but I think the rhythm is there.

“If there is any place to make our stand, it’s Long Beach. I love Long Beach; it’s always been good to me.”

In 1991 Vasser won a Toyota Atlantic race from the pole in Long Beach, a victory that led to his first CART ride in 1992 with Jim Hayhoe in a year-old Lola. A seventh-place finish was his best of that season and earned him his first champ car points.

In 1995 he moved to Chip Ganassi’s Target team and the following year a victory at Long Beach started him on his way to the CART championship.

“I should have won two or three more Long Beach races, especially last year when I started on the pole and lost to Michael Andretti,” Vasser said. “He qualified 15th, but when he pitted out of sequence and we had a mix-up in the pits and lost a lot of time, Michael got a big lead. We ran him down with six or seven laps to go but couldn’t get by. We sat right on his butt, but it’s one thing to catch an Andretti and another thing to pass one.”

Andretti is 40 and Vasser only three years younger, but he wasn’t surprised when Andretti announced that he was retiring after next month’s Indianapolis 500.

“He has nothing more to prove,” Vasser said. “He’s won so many races [42] and if he thinks it’s time to retire, then I think it’s time. As for me, I’d like to do a couple more years in CART and then get into Winston Cup. NASCAR has intrigued me for some time and I really enjoyed my Busch race at Daytona.

“The results don’t show it, but the race opened some eyes and gave me a little boost toward a Winston Cup seat. I qualified fifth and was running in the top five when we had a bad pit stop and fell back to 30th. I worked my way up twice and was passing Jamie McMurray for fifth when I got hit by Todd Bodine.

“I really took a hit. The car was destroyed and it broke one of my ribs. I didn’t tell anyone because [CART] opened the season the next week and I didn’t want to miss it. It was really painful, but I finished sixth.

“I hope to have a couple more Busch rides this year, probably at Nashville and California Speedway, especially Fontana. I love that track, I’ve won two 500-mile races there so I have good energy in Southern California.”

When Vasser won the CART race at Fontana in 2000, his average speed of 197.995 mph was the fastest open-wheel race in history. He’d previously won in 1998, after having finished second to Mark Blundell in the 1997 inaugural.

Busch cars will run at Fontana on April 26, the day before the Auto Club 500 Winston Cup race.

“The dynamics of the series and diversity of the tracks -- road courses, street races, short-track ovals and superspeedways -- make CART’s formula for racing the best in the world, but the closer I look at it, it may be time to reach out to NASCAR,” Vasser said.

Vasser also plans to race in his eighth Indianapolis 500 on May 25, probably with Bobby Rahal, his team owner last year. If not Rahal, possibly Ganassi.

“I’ll have to wait until the second week to qualify because we have a race in Germany the first weekend of Indy qualifying, but that’s OK, I want to race there again,” Vasser said.

He has not won in seven starts at Indy, but in 1996 CART scheduled its own U.S. 500 at Michigan International Speedway on the same day as the Indy 500. Vasser won that race and collected a $1-million check. In 11 seasons, he has earned $10.7 million.

Hunter-Reay will be Vasser’s first American teammate since 1995, when he and Bryan Herta drove for Ganassi.

“He’s a good prospect,” Vasser said of Hunter-Reay. “He came up the way I did, through Formula Atlantic. He showed he knows how to win and how to drive fast.”

Alex Zanardi, when he came from Italy and won CART championships in 1997 and 1998, was lavish in his praise of Vasser as a teammate and advisor. Hunter-Reay hopes for a similar experience.

“I don’t think I have words to describe what this means to me,” said the 22-year-old. “I’ve been working for this since the first day of karting, and to have Jimmy as a teammate and Stefan Johansson as a team owner is just unbelievable. I’m just going to be a sponge this season.”

One of the problems facing the Johansson team is that the Reynard apparently is behind the Lola in development.

“The Reynard chassis is down on down force,” said Vasser after finishing sixth in St. Petersburg, Fla., and 14th in Monterrey, Mexico. “It’s obvious in qualifying, where none of the Reynards are even close to being in the top 10.

“There’s not much we can do about it because CART froze the rules on chassis development. I believe that was the right thing to do, in order to restrict costs, but nevertheless we’re a little behind.”

One carryover from last season for Vasser is the Ford Cosworth engine.

After Honda and Toyota dominated the series for years, they left for the IRL this year and now Ford is the only engine supplier for the series -- distributing a turbocharged power plant designed to produce 700 to 750 horsepower.

“I hoped it would help, but it’s not the same Ford,” Vasser said. “They put more boost into it, so we don’t have much of an advantage.”

Team Johansson may have a secret edge or at least a different look in the pits.

Tess Brelia, who handles the front end of Hunter-Reay’s No. 31 car and changes the inside front tire during pit stops, is the only female mechanic in CART.

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Long Beach Facts

* What: CART Toyota Grand Prix at Long Beach

* When: Today, qualifying, 2:45 p.m.; Saturday, qualifying (Speed Channel, 1:30 p.m.); Sunday, race (Speed Channel, 1 p.m.).

* Where: Long Beach Street Circuit (temporary road course, 1.968 miles, 11 turns).

* Race distance: 177.120 miles, 90 laps.

* 2002 winner: Michael Andretti.

* Next race: Brands Hatch, May 5, Kent, England.