Button Has Plenty to Offer

How does a Formula One driver spend time between a race in Montreal one weekend and another in Indianapolis the next Sunday?

Jenson Button, the young British driver for BAR-Honda, flew west to shoot a documentary at the Playboy Mansion in Holmby Hills on the life and style of an F1 driver. In the company of half a dozen scantily clad young women strolling the gardens and frolicking in the swimming pool, Button said the toughest part was trying to read his lines from a prompter.

“It’s nice to get away from the hectic pace and frenzy of the Formula One scene,” he said. “And this isn’t bad duty, is it?”

Even in such an idyllic setting Button says that he never stops thinking about racing, about what he might have done differently in the past and what he needs to do in the next race.

Button, 25, is the same personable, engaging young man he was five years ago when he beat Bruno Junqueira in a head-to-head shootout to replace Alex Zanardi for the BMW-Williams team. At the time, Button was the fifth-youngest driver in F1 history. To celebrate, he bought himself a new Ferrari.

He is still looking for his first Grand Prix win.

Between takes Wednesday at Hugh Hefner’s playground, Button got in a few comments about winning the pole and then crashing Sunday in the Canadian Grand Prix, the addition of Indy 500 winner Gil de Ferran to BAR-Honda’s management team, the future of American Scott Speed in F1, his hopes for Sunday’s U.S. Grand Prix at Indianapolis and the F1 season in which Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen have stepped forward as seven-time champion Michael Schumacher has gone winless in eight races.

* On the Canadian GP: “We made our qualifying run with less fuel than most of the others and were pleasantly surprised to be on the pole. Our three-stop strategy was working well until I started pushing too hard and made a bad mistake. Overall, it was an encouraging week for us even though we didn’t score any points. We showed that the car was back on form.”

* On De Ferran: “He knows how drivers feel, what we need and how to get it, and he has a long background with Honda, which helps. His experience at Indy will be very helpful, even if he was going the wrong way. [In the 500, cars race counter-clockwise; in the U.S. Grand Prix they run clockwise]. You can tell, he is a proper racer, and it’s good to have him on our side.”

* On Speed: “It’s difficult to know how good he is, he didn’t spend much time on the circuit [in Montreal], but he did get out of my way and let me by once. It would be great to have an American in the series, we need one.”

Speed, 22, from Manteca, Calif., is scheduled to drive one of the Red Bull cars again today during official practice at Indianapolis.

* On Indy: “I’m looking forward to it. We were competitive there last year, and I think we will be again this time. We have a new engine, which is important for a slow circuit like Indianapolis because it was hard on the engine. We’ll take it easy in practice and save it for the race.

“It’s good having Honda on our side. They keep trying new things, trying to make things better. Not all of them work, but it is a good feeling for a driver to know they are trying.”

* On this season: “It makes no difference if one guy, like Schumacher, wins all the time, or if six guys win, if we’re not quick enough to be one of the six. We have a lot left to achieve. We still don’t have any points.”

Le Mans 24 Hours

Audi works driver Tom Kristensen, who has won the Le Mans marathon six times in eight tries, will go for a record seven when the twice-around-the-clock race gets underway Saturday in France.

The Dane, who drives on the American Le Mans series, will team with JJ Lehto and Marco Werner in one of two Champion Audis.

If Audi wins the overall title, it will be the first private American-based team to win since 1979.

Favored in the Grand Touring class is the Petersen/White Lightning Porsche, featuring Patrick Long of Oak Park. The Porsche team has won its class the last two years.

Southland Scene

Burney Lamar, who came from Kernersville, N.C., to win a NASCAR Southwest Series race last year at Irwindale Speedway, will return Saturday night looking to repeat his victory in the Advantage Ford 100, race No. 6 on the elite division schedule. Lamar also won a qualifying race at Irwindale in last year’s Toyota All-Star Showdown.

“In general, we’ve run good there and I just like the track,” said the Sacramento native, who also won the Copper World Classic at Phoenix in January and is second in the series standings. “There’s plenty of room to race, and if we need to, there’s plenty of room to pass and make our way toward the front.”

Greg Pursley, 2004 national short-track champion, is entered, as are Southland favorites such as Augie Vidovich, Rip Michels and David Gilliland.

Also on the program will be Grand American modifieds making their debut on the third-mile track after having raced in the past on the half-mile oval.

To celebrate the track’s 10th anniversary of stock car racing, Perris Auto Speedway promoter Don Kazarian is charging only $5 for admission to Saturday night’s five-division Passcar program.... Rip Williams holds a 90-point lead over Cory Kruseman in the USAC/CRA sprint car series going into Saturday night’s race at Santa Maria Speedway. USAC midgets will be on the same program.

Jim Busby and Rick Knoop, of Laguna Beach, will drive a pair of Mazda Lola T616 cars from the IMSA series in the Goodwood Festival of Speed Hill Climb in England next week. They will compete in the Legends of Le Mans 1980-2005 class.