Schumacher’s Ferrari wins USGP pole over McLaren stratregy
INDIANAPOLIS, IND. — Michael Schumacher’s fast-lap standard held up despite a final team-oriented challenge by West-McLaren teammates David Coulthard and Mika Hakkinen, giving the Ferrari driver the pole position for today’s United States Grand Prix.
“It’s a good feeling going ’round the banking, but because our entry speed is not so great, we don not experience being on the limit,” Schumacher said, describing his fastest laps on the 13-turn course that uses two of the speedway oval’s turns. “With the wall so close, I don’t want to experience it. We Europeans are probably more chicken than the Americans!
“I was surprised at the great reception from the spectators who were cheering us on. I hope we will give them a good show tomorrow.”
Regulars at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway had to be fascinated by the Formula 1 qualifying strategy, because drivers are limited to a maximum of 12 laps during the one-hour session, and the quickest lap counts for the grid. So the fastest racers generally try to establish a good time, then return to the pits, saving some laps in case they are challenged by faster foes.
The new 2.6-mile road course, set within the Indy 500 oval, appears to be starting out with good weather luck, same as the tradition of the 500, as overnight rain left the trank damp for the two morning practice sessions, but threats of drizzle held off until a light shower that came within a minute of the end of the hour-long qualifying session. Formula 1 cars run in the rain on rain tires, or in threatening weather on intermediates, but nobody wanted to run the intriguing qualifying session on anything but the grooved dry tires.
“I was hoping it was not going to rain at the start of the session, when I stayed in the garage,” said Schumacher, the German two-time Formula 1 champion who goes into today’s race two points behind Hakkinen, the two-time defending champion from Finland. “When I saw a few drops on my visor, I pushed harder to finish the lap.”
Schumacher and Ferrari teammate Rubens Barrichello were 1-2 in speeds early in the session, with Schumacher turning a 1:14.492, then they parked their cars. Halfway through, they came out again, running with each other briefly, and Schumacher ran his 1:14.266, at an average speed of 126.265 miles per hour, to further distance himself from the field. Barrichello couldn’t improve on his earlier 1:14.900, and it slipped from the No. 2 spot when Hakinen ran a later 1:14.428, improving from 1:14.689.
At the very end of the session, Hakkinen came out again, right behind Coulthard, and passed him on the first lap, by prearranged plan to have Hakkinen establish an aerodynamic tow for his teammate. It worked, as Coulthard ran a 1:14.392 (126.051 mph) to take second, bumping Hakkinen to third.
“Basically, I ran out of laps and ended up with only two left, which was not enough to do another qualifying run,” said Hakkinen. “Therefore, I was able to help David. It’s better to have two cars in the top three than only one. I’m confident that we’ll give the American fans a good race tomorrow.”
Coulthard was grateful for his teammate’s help. Car designer and team tactition Adrian Newey suggested the move. “Adrian asked me whether I would be interested in getting a tow from Mika on my last run,” said Coulthard, an Englishman. “It was an offer I couldn’t refuse. I appreciate Mika’s help. As a result, I was able to gain additional speed at the end of the straight and managed to put in a good performance to secure second place.
“There was a great atmosphere today and I’m really looking forward to the race.”
Schumacher said: “We played team tactics, just like the others did at the end, except that we did it differently so that we both got a run.”
Schumacher set his fast time on his turn with the draft, but Barrichello said he had a bit of understeer and couldn’t take advantage of his part of the team plan. “It’s great racing here in front of this very enthusiastic American crowd,” said Barrichello, a Brazilian.
Indy fans among the anticipated 250,000 spectators will be similarly fascinated by today’s 1 p.m. start. Unlike the Indy 500, where the field comes around accelerating to high speed as they take the green flag, Formula 1 cars do a fairly hard warm-up lap, then park on the straightaway just short of the start-finish line. A string of red lights hold them in place, while the drivers rev their exotic engines to ear-piercing RPM shrillness, and when the lights go out, a massive drag-race starts as the field hurtles toward Turn 1.
While all 22 starters are hoping to win, most of them are realistic and suggest that either a Ferrari or a McLaren will win today. Another fascinating part of Formula 1, however, is that all teams try to do their best, and outdo other teams they regard as their closest competitors at whatever strata.
“It’s going to be, for sure, a race between Ferrari and McLaren,” said Jarno Trulli, who qualified fifth in his Jordan/Mugen-Honda. “Hopefully for Jordan, we can find Williams and everybody else behind us.”
Jacques Villeneuve spun off the course on his last attempt, because, he said, simply, “I tried too hard.” Villeneuve qualified eighth, behind Schumacher, Coulthard, Hakkinen, Barrichello, Trulli and Jenson Button, in a Williams/BMW. Jaguar teammates Eddie Irvine and Johnny Herbert struggled, with Irvine 17th and Herbert 19th on the grid.
“Eddie and I are close together,” Herbert said, “but at the wrong end of the grid.”
Formula 1 drivers enjoy first, fast trips around Indy road course
INDIANAPOLIS, IND.—The auto racing world got its first glimpse of its newest baby Friday, and the best race drivers in the world pronounced the site of Sunday’s United States Grand Prix a welcome addition to their prestigious, globe-trotting venues.
It cost $50 million to carve the new 2.606-mile road-racing course on and in the infield of the famous Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval, and the stars of Formula 1 got their first actual contact with the pristine new 13-turn layout during two Friday practice hours. Ordinarily, the two opening practices are just to check settings in F1 before the usual Saturday qualifying sessions, but this time they were unique sessions, because no drivers had actually driven around the circuit.
“It really does seem a lot tighter from a car than it did when I walked ’round the circuit yesterday,” said Jaguar driver Eddie Irvine. “As a track for Formula 1, this place can be right up there with Monaco. Like Monaco, Indianapolis is a special place. The potential here is phenomenal. The basic circuit could be better maybe, but the actual venue is second to none.”
Englishman David Coulthard, who drives for Team McLaren, set the day’s fastest lap time, clocking 1:14.561 for the 2.6 miles, an average of 125.766 miles per hour. Coulthard, who is pursuing teammate Mika Hakkinen and Ferrari’s Michael Schumacher in the F1 points chase, said he liked the track, because the road-racing layout also has “a touch of American racing with the two turns” from the 2.5-mile Indy 500 oval.
Heinz-Harald Frentzen, a German who was the first driver on the track when 11 a.m. came, and while he and most drivers came around and immediately pitted to revise their cars’ settings, Johnny Herbert completed the first full lap. Three minutes into the session, Michael Schumacher set his first of four consecutive “fastest” laps in his Ferrari, and later in the one-hour term he came back to reclaim fast-time three more times, finally holding it with a 1:14.927, an average of 125.152 mph.
Schumacher’s teammate, Rubens Barrichello, was second (1:15.707), ahead of Hakkinen (1:15.707), and Williams driver Jenson Button (1:15.741), while crowd favorite Jacques Villeneuve, the 1995 Indy 500 winner, was fifth at 1:16.429 in that first session.
After an hour break at noon, the second session commenced and the McLarens asserted themselves, with Coulthard’s 1:14.561 clocking best of the day, and Hakkinen second at 1:14.695. Schumacher was unable to improve on his first-session time but held third, with Barrichello fourth, and Frentzen, Ralf Schumacher in a Williams, Jarno Trulli in a Jordan, Button’s Williams and Minardi driver Mark Gene all under the 1:16 level.
“The circuit is basically fun to drive,” said Frentzen. “The characteristics are difference. The long front straightaway is adding entertainment to the race. Technically, it’s tight in the field, no different than anywhere else.”
What is different, however, is running on the banked turns that represent Turns 2 and 1 of the Indy oval. While the banking is nothing like at most U.S. superspeedways, it remained an attraction to the F1 pilots, who never run with any banked turns. When asked if the banking allowed the high-powered and light F1 cars to be propelled through those turns absolutely flat out, Frentzen shrugged and said: “Sure.”
Villeneuve said he didn’t like the two slowest corners in the infield as being “annoying,” but added that “Overall, the track is quite nice. They’ve done a good job. It seems to be a high standard.
“Just out of the main straight is where the heavy braking is,” said Villeneuve. “The rest of the track is just trying to get the car to flow through the corners. It’s very difficult. Just if we could get rid of the two slow corners, it would be a nice course. It is going to be a physically tiring race because apart from the straight line, you’re working the rest of the lap, which is a surprise — I didn’t expect it to be like that.”
In the Italian Grand Prix at Monza two weeks ago, there was an enormous, chain-reaction crash at the first turn because the cars all had to slow dramatically for a tight first turn. A course worker was killed by flying debris in that incident. Somebody asked if this track’s fast straight and tight first turn might be a similar problem.
Frentzen said: “After Monza, that’s a natural concern, because both tracks have a very quick straight and then braking to the first corner. But the first corner at Monza is much tighter. In Formula 1, you can’t guarantee safety, but this circuit has been designed as safely as possible.”
“There is a lot more space here than at Monza,” said Irvine. “Here, if you brake too late, there is lots of room to run wide and still get back.”
During practice, several drivers overshot Turn 1, and continued down the straightaway to turn in at a later spot and reenter the track. After the sharp right at Turn 1, the course turns sharply back to the left at Turn 2, then makes a sweeping right at Turn 3, and another sweeper at Turn 4, which the drivers took fairly wide, in order to set up for Turn 5, another righthander followed by a short chute into the hairpin left at Turn 6.
Jean Alesi spun his Prost off the track at Turn 4, whirling out into the middle of a sand-trap runoff area. He killed the engine and had to walk back, while a crew removed the car. Irvine spun his Jaguar off at the same spot, but he kept it running and trundled back onto the course. Joe Verstappen also spun at that spot in his Arrows, and he, too, was unable to get back.
Today’s two morning practice hours, and the pressure-filled one-hour qualifying term at 1 p.m. will lead up to Sunday’s 1 p.m. race, but after only two hours of one day, the Indy GP course was a unanimous success.
“You can think of the drivers and teams sort of like actors on a stage, and there’s no question we like to perform before large audiences,” said Ron Dennis, McLaren team manager. “Hopefully, the crowd on Sunday will be happy to see the drivers competing, and the emotions that I anticipate we’ll be sharing on Sunday is something that will be quite unique on the Grand Prix calendar.”
Mike Sertich withdraws to fishing boat, returns as radio expert
With the UMD Bulldogs annual invasion of Mariucci Arena this weekend, it was easy to worry about Mike Sertich. After spending most of his lifetime, as well as ours, affiliated in some form with the UMD hockey program, this is his first season without hockey since the year before he started as a little kid playing in Virginia, Minn.
I’ve called Sertie a number of times, ever since he was, shall we say, relieved of his coaching duties at UMD. If I ever called before dark, he was out in his fishing boat. He fished every day, all day, all summer. The only time I got him at home in daytime, I told him I was surprised and planned on getting his answering machine. Why, I asked, was he not out fishing?
“Too windy,” he said.
A couple weeks ago, I got him again, and he told me he had not been fishing. “What did you do?” I asked.
“Went hunting,” he said.
So I continued to worry about Sertie, and what he’d do once hockey season started and he would face serious withdrawl. Spending 12 hours a day in that fishing boat, every day, had to be getting a little old. And cold.
But Monday morning, I found him, and he seems to be OK. I was fiddling with the radio, and I thought maybe a little sports talk would be good background noise while I did a little writing. And there, on 710, good ol’ WDSM AM radio, I heard a familiar voice.
Mike Sertich, after all these years as a player, and then an assistant, and then a head coach, had found the secret to becoming an expert: He joined the media.
Sertich is the host of the 9 a.m.-to-noon sports talk show on 710, Monday through Friday. I don’t know if it’s permanent, in fact, I didn’t want to ask. I hope it is.
He did a fantastic job, I thought. You have to realize that here is a guy who never lost his cleverness, and his sense of humor, and his sarcasm, when necessary, despite all those years of coaching. When other programs were locking their dressing room doors, and only allowing certain, selected players to speak to the media, with advance clearance, Sertie always opened the door. And when other coaches were carefully planning their “media-speak” to make sure they used only approved cliches and tried to never actually gave out any pertinent information, Sertie was still capable of the glib, post-game remark.
For that, he often was villified. Some reporters didn’t speak “Range,” and needed an interpreter to figure out what Sertie was saying. Last year, shortly after the huge academic fraud scandal had rocked Minnesota, which was not too long after the Gopher hockey mess had led to a mini-scandal at Minnesota, UMD went to Mariucci and lost two wrenching games. A Twin Cities reporter kept pushing Sertie, repeatedly asking what the biggest differences were between the Minnesota and UMD programs.
Finally, Sertie said: “The biggest differences are that they score on the power play, and we don’t commit academic fraud.”
Fantastic. What a great line. However, after some murmuring spread, the Minnesota administration — let’s make that the previous, paranoid, damage-control administration — made a formal protest to the WCHA, and, believe it or not, Sertie was forced to apologize for perhaps the best spontaneous comment of the season.
Anyhow, there he is, on the radio, and I’m listening. I couldn’t resist. I had to call. I told Sertie I probably covered the UMD game when he scored his goal. He said: “I’ve still got the shinpad I scored it with, too.”
Sertie handled all sorts of calls, including one on new coach Scott Sandelin’s recent roster cuts. He said he felt a little heartsick about John Conboy being cut, because he had some back problems that prevented him from playing much as a freshman last year and that he thought he’d be a good one, with some patience. And he mentioned freshman Dave Shields, who was cut right after being recruited with a scholarship to score. But he added that Scott had to do what he had to do, because he was hired for a position in which success was mandatory.
He covered both sides, and was typically honest. He also talked about Dale Earnhardt coming from 17th place to win a Nascar race on Sunday, about Buddy Lazier winning an IRL championship while Scott Goodyear won the final race, about the Vikings being down 9-0 but never losing their poise or sight of their game plan against the Bears, about Bill Cortes making the transition from media type to coach, to successful football coach at Duluth East, and he even talked about Pecky Guyer, who used to play with Beefy Lawson on a Taconite Hornets hockey team that had a half-dozen amateur players who might have been NHL caliber today.
Pretty soon it was noon, and the show was over. It’s amazing how much a guy can learn sitting in a fishing boat. Welcome back, Sertie.
Bulldogs open ‘Sandelin Era’ with 9-1 goal outburst over Regina
DULUTH, MINN. — The Scott Sandelin Era of UMD hockey got off to a bold, free-wheeling start Sunday night, in a 9-1 exhibition romp over the University of Regina, and for a while it almost looked TOO free-wheeling.
The Bulldogs jumped ahead 4-0 in the first period, moving the puck crisply, skating hard and jumping at chances with eagerness. Repeatedly, one of the UMD defenseman zoomed in from the blue line to get a scoring chance as well.
“Yeah,” said Sandelin. “Mark Strobel came down from upstairs and said, ‘Did you tell those guys to go in like that?’ ”
Sandelin laughed. He hadn’t told the defensemen to gamble offensively, but he didn’t mind, either, that the Bulldogs — returning veterans and newcomers alike — seemed to play with intensity to exorcise the reputation of not being able to score.
In fact, a team that spent the last two years unable to score on purpose scored on Sunday on purpose, by accident, by hard work and by opportunistic strokes of luck. Jim Murphy, a freshman center from St. Paul Johnson by way of Waterloo in the USHL, scored two goals, while his linemates, Jon Francisco and Judd Medak, scored a goal each, and Francisco added three assists for good measure. Other goals came from veterans such as Ryan Homstol, Nate Anderson and Jesse Fibiger, and rookies such as Jay Hardwick.
“There were a lot of positives, I thought,” said Sandelin, after his first game as head coach since taking over for Mike Sertich. “I thought all three goalies played well, and our new guys came through with some goals. It was also good that some of the ‘old guys’ got some goals. Sometimes the game wasn’t all that free-wheeling, but we got to work on our power play and penalty killing.”
The Bulldogs scored five power-play goals and a sixth just after a power play expired before a crowd that might have been curious to see the new team under the new coach. The game drew a crowd of 2,821, undoubtedly affected by the undefeated Vikings football game on home television, and it was the only chance the Bulldogs have as a dress-rehearsal before the upcoming weekend’s WCHA opening series at Minnesota. Regina had played 10 games before coming to Duluth, including games in the Cougars league at Manitoba Friday and Saturday.
But having not played didn’t slow the Bulldogs. Captain Derek Derow was held out of the game to fully recover from minor knee surgery, and Drew Otten was among the scratches, which meant the previously light-scoring Bulldogs opened without their top two returning goal-scorers. They responded by outshooting Regina 44-19 and swarmed at the Cougars from the outset. The hustling, aggressive ‘Dogs were held 0-0 for almost a full 10 minutes, then jumped to a 4-0 lead on goals by Homstol and Nate Anderson, both on power plays, and Medak and freshman defenseman Hardwick barely a minute apart later in the session.
None of the goals was what you’d call picturesque, but the early outburst was a promising sign. Homstol scored after rushing up the right side, and his attempt to chip a shot seemed to bounce, off-speed, and fooled goaltender Graham Cook at 9:46. Nate Anderson knocked in a loose puck at 14:27. Medak then went hard to the net to convert a blocked shot by Beau Geisler into the third goal, at 17:01. Hardwick, a freshman from Warroad who is the grandson of former long-time Warroad caoch Dick Roberts, stepped up for a loose puck and carried deep on the left, and when he tried to pass to the crease, the puck glanced in off a Regina defenseman at 18:07.
Sophomore Rob Anderson, the incumbent in goal based on experience gained last season, was flawless in the first period, although a 14-4 shot barrage kept the puck at the far end of the DECC rink most of his period.
Sophomore Jason Gregoire had more business in the first six minutes than Rob Anderson had the whole first period, as the Cougars played a much more spirited second period. Murphy, another Bulldog freshman, made it 5-0 with a spin-around shot on a rebound midway through the period, before Regina broke through on a power play at 13:42.
“We had a nice rush and I missed the net,” said Murphy. “Our line had two rebounds, and I knew I had to keep it low and get it on net for a rebound.”
Instead, it went in. Nathan Strueby got the Regina goal, winding up for a big slapshot from the right boards, but UMD, outshooting Regina 13-10 in the second period, had a 5-1 lead.
Adam Coole, a freshman from Duluth East, got the third period, and immediately benefited when Francisco knocked in another goal from the crease at 1:19, and another by Fibiger at 3:44 — both coming on power plays.
The obviously untried power play continued to function well later in the final period, as the Cougars continued a steady tour of the penalty box. While two men up, Nelson smacked in a rebound at 11:40 to make it 8-1, and Murphy got his second goal of his first collegiate game at 13:22, just three seconds after a power play had expired.
“I got the second one on a nice pass from Francisco in the corner,” said Murphy. “He and I and Judd had worked the puck in low, Judd cycled the puck to Frannie, and he made a nice pass to me. It took me two tries to knock it in.”
However, it did go in. Everything went in for the Bulldogs in the game — the perfect start to a new regime.
Holst, Alexander score late goals to lift UMD women to 4-3 win
DULUTH, MINN.—Sometimes winning requires nothing more than the refusal to lose. For the UMD women’s hockey team, Erika Holst and Laurie Alexander came through with third-period goals to lift the Bulldogs from a 3-2 deficit to a 4-3 victory and a sweep of their opening series against St. Lawrence.
The two pivotal goals both came from individual determination. UMD outshot the Saints 44-29 for the game, but Emily Stein, a senior and surprise starter in goal for St. Lawrence, had been almost impossible to beat for over two and a half periods. With 7:46 to play in the third, the 3-2 Saints lead forged on two goals from Shannon Smith was looking more and more valid. Then Holst scored her second of the night, an opportunistic goal to be sure.
“The puck came out to me and I shot,” said Holst, a sophomore center from Nykoping, Sweden. “The puck bounced up in the air, and I was behind the goal line so I tried to bat it out in front. But it hit the goalie’s pads and went in.”
A little luck was the result of Holst’s work, and the score was knotted 3-3.
With 3:58 remaining, and overtime looming, the Bulldogs attacked again. The top two lines couldn’t find the net, so Alexander, a sophomore from Pense, Saskatchewan, carried the puck out from behind the net in heavy traffic. “I got one shot, and we kept hacking at it. She left a little room, and it went in under her pads.”
Was it her biggest goal at a Bulldog? Alexander, who scored three goals as a freshman last season, smiled and said: “I think so, yeah.”
This was a game the Bulldogs seemed almost destined to lose. In Friday’s 7-0 victory, the Bulldogs admitted it might have been different had St. Lawrence scored on repeated early chances. In Saturday’s rematch, the Saints DID score on some of those chances, and it WAS a different game.
Smith, a sophomore from Fernie, British Columbia, solved UMD goaltender Tuula Puputti at 1:05 of the first period to give the Saints a 1-0 lead, and five minutes later, Suzanne Fiacco, a junior from Norwood, N.Y., scored again. The Bulldogs, who played an erratic first period in Friday’s game, played a much better first period in the rematch, but trailed 2-0 because of Stein’s 13 saves. The Saints had used two goaltenders in Friday’s game, neither of whom was Stein, a senior from Nepean, Ontario. She was solid all night in Game 2, and the Bulldogs had to work to crack the scoring column.
“We have two seniors and two freshmen for goaltenders,” said Saints coach Paul Flanagan. “Emily played very well tonight. They’re so strong, but we came out here wanting a tough series, and we got it. Give our kids credit. Last night we fell back on our heels after they scored their third goal. Tonight, we did a better job of checking and staying in our systems.”
If there was a turning point that got the Bulldogs untracked, it was when referee Annette Voracek called a weird penalty on Holst to open the second period. She was squeezing a Saints skater off along the boards right in front of the benches, and the St. Lawrence skater thumped into the padded post separating the two player benches and went down hard. Voracek, from across the rink, called an elbowing penalty on Holst.
“I was mad,” said Holst. “We came out all pumped up for the second period, and 20 seconds into it they called that penalty on me.”
The sophomore from Sweden came out of the penalty box and went right to the net, joining a flurry of action just in time to swat a loose puck past Stein to cut the deficit to 2-1. “I was frustrated, and just after I came out, Jenny Hempel and I came in on the net,” Holst said. “She shot, and the rebound was staying there for me.”
The jump-start got the Bulldogs going, and just 25 seconds later, Brittny Ralph whistled in a shot from the right point for a 2-2 tie.
That score stood until the third period, but nothing was easy for UMD in this one.
Smith carried the puck into the UMD zone, filtered through a gambling defense, and cruised in front, hesitating to let Puputti drop to the ice and then lifting a shot into the upper left corner to reclaim a 3-2 lead for St. Lawrence at 5:32.
That put the pressure squarely on the Bulldogs offense, and, thanks to Holst and Alexander, they responded to gain both a narrow escape and a victory.
About the Author
John Gilbert is a lifetime Minnesotan and career journalist, specializing in cars and sports during and since spending 30 years at the Minneapolis Tribune, now the Star Tribune. More recently, he has continued translating the high-tech world of autos and sharing his passionate insights as a freelance writer/photographer/broadcaster. A member of the prestigious North American Car and Truck of the Year jury since 1993. John can be heard Monday-Friday from 9-11am on 610 KDAL(www.kdal610.com) on the "John Gilbert Show," and writes a column in the Duluth Reader.
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