Impatient UMD women open hockey practice eager for games
In just two weeks, the UMD women’s hockey team will open its second season, when St. Lawrence comes to Duluth to face the Bulldogs. If that means the season is coming up in a hurry, some of the players disagree.
“Last year, we had three days of practice and then we were off to Salt Lake City to start playing,” said defenseman Navada Russell. “This year, two weeks seems like such a long time until we play.”
Impatience was one of the trademarks of the Bulldogs in their first season. Here was a first-year team, with players ranging from world-class international stars to area players who had never played beyond club-team level, that tore undefeated through its first 23 games (21-0-2), won the first-ever Women’s-WCHA championship with a 21-1-2 record, and also won the W-WCHA playoff title to gain a trip to the final four. Finishing fourth at nationals might have been a distasteful finish, but it also left some extra incentive for following up that stunning 25-5-3 debut.
Four players from that team will not be with UMD this season — actually, three players and an asterisk. Winger Erin Nagurski from International Falls graduated, defenseman Breana Berry from Minnetonka transferred to St. Benedict’s, and goaltender Amanda Tapp from Calgary — who had a 16-0-1 record, a .928 save-percentage and a 1.33 goals-against mark — was scholastically ineligible and didn’t return to school. The fourth player that won’t be starting the season with the Bulldogs is Jenny Schmidgall, the All-American and national scoring leader with 41 goals-52 assists–93 points.
Schmidgall has skated briefly with the team but will not play because she is expecting a baby Jan. 1. She will miss the first semester and could take the full year off as a redshirt, or she could decide to play the second semester. But for now, filling the vacancy left by Schmidgall is the biggest challenge facing coach Shannon Miller, who has recruited five new players and anticipates all five will step in and contribute.
“We were new last year, and nobody knew what to expect,” said captain Brittny Ralph, the team’s lone senior. “Getting back to start practice this year felt really good, like we hadn’t missed a beat. Obviously, we are going to miss Shmiggy, but she’s still here and still part of the team. She’s always in great shape, so she probably could come back pretty quickly, and even if she comes back before she’s in perfect condition, her game is seeing the ice and making her teammates better.
“But we have five new players who seem to fit right in. There’s a little pressure on us this year to do as well as we did last year, but if we come out and play our best, everything will work out.”
The freshmen are forwards Sheena Podovinnikoff from Kamsack, Saskatchewan, and Sanna Peura from Jyvaskyla, Finland, defensemen Tricia Guest of Estevan, Saskatchewan, and Satu Kiipeli from Oulu, Finland, and goalie Patricia Sautter from Schaffhausen, Switzerland.
One thing unchanged from last year is the team’s high-spirited attitude. When practice opened this week, and the players gathered in game jerseys for the annual team picture, freshman Podovinnikoff was standing in one group, while another group noticed that to be spelled out on her jersey, the 13 letters of her last name started on her left sleeve, moved across her back, and ended as it started down the right sleeve.
Michelle McAteer, the team’s primary sparkplug, said: “She’s either going to have to get wider, or we’re going to have to put ‘To be continued’ on her jersey.”
Blending into the team’s free-spirited attitude will be equally important to blending in on the ice, although Bulldog returnees don’t see any problem for the rookies.
The team has 15 forwards and seven defensemen, with 12 forwards and five of the defensemen returning. The goaltending should be unexcelled in college hockey, with freshman Sautter coming from Switzerland’s national team to join Tuula Puputti, who came from Finland’s national team to attend UMD second semester, and backup Riana Burke. Puputti’s record (6-5-2) last season wasn’t as flashy as Tapp’s 16-0-1, but Puputti took over in all the tougher playoff games, and she still had a .925 save percentage with a stingy 1.98 goals-against mark.
The schedule is one of the biggest differences this year. Most established teams were reluctant to play a first-year unknown, and the Bulldogs could only play tough nonconference foes in six games, all during three trips out east. Their phenomenal first season changed all that, and St. Lawrence, New Hampshire, Harvard and Northeastern all are coming to Duluth for two-game sets, starting with St. Lawrence on Oct. 13-14.
That’s either two short weeks away, or a long time, depending on the Bulldogs’ impatience.
Schumacher wins U.S. Grand Prix, takes over Formula 1 lead
INDIANAPOLIS — Michael Schumacher overcame David Coulthard’s strong start with a wheel-banging pass, then took such command of Sunday’s United States Grand Prix that even his own late spinout couldn’t prevent him from a decisive victory that was also worth the overall Formula 1 points lead.
“Some people asked me to make a bit of a show this weekend,” said Schumacher. “I hope that was good enough.”
It was, enthralling a huge crowd estimated at 200,000 to watch the return of Formula 1 racing to the United States after a nine-year absence, and to watch the first race conducted at the 13-turn, 2.606-mile road course that has been constructed along two turns of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and twists through the infield of the legendary oval.
Brazilian Rubens Barrichello, Schumacher’s teammate, finished second to give Ferrari its third 1-2 finish of the season. Germany’s Heinz-Harald Frentzen was third in a Jordan/Mugen-Honda, with Canada’s Jacques Villeneuve fourth in a BAR/Honda, Coulthard fifth in a West McLaren/Mercedes, and Ricardo Zonta sixth in the second BAR/Honda.
But the show belonged to Schumacher, who is much thinner and more diminutive than he might appear on television. He said he was overwhelmed by the support shown by the fans, many of whom waved gigantic Ferrari flags or German flags — both of which were in support of Schumacher. He came into the race two points behind twice-defending champion Mika Hakkinen, and left Indianapolis eight points ahead, 88-80, with two races remaining in the globe-hopping series.
Asked if he could feel that this race, at this place, was historic, Schumacher, always gracious, said: “I don’t think it’s up to me to judge that.”
He can, however, judge what the victory means to himself and Ferrari in the individual and manufacturers’ competition for world championships, but he wasn’t about to celebrate anything prematurely. “It’s very important, because now I can finish twice second and still win the championship. But I still have to finish twice second. I’ll start to think about the championship once it’s over, not before. You can see what can happen.”
What can happen, did, to Hakkinen, who was a strong second and gaining on Schumacher after 25 of the race’s 73 laps, cutting into the lead with several of the race’s fastest trips around the circuit. But his Mercedes engine blew on the 26th lap, and he coasted to a stop with flames trailing from his engine compartment.
“What caused the failure, I do not know,” said Hakkinen, who now must rally from behind to bring the third straight title back home to Finland. “I think I could have won it. I was gaining every segment. We have two races to go now. It’s very, very difficult indeed and getting tougher.”
At the start, Schumacher’s concerns were with Coulthard, Hakkinen’s teammate. Rain that lasted until nearly the 1 p.m. race time had left much of the track wet and the teams all mounted rain tires. On the standing start, Schumacher, having won the pole, had a slight advantage on the staggered-start grid. When the starting lights were about to go out, Schumacher seemed to inch forward ever so slightly, then stopped again. Coulthard, also anticipating the start, lurched forward similarly, and just kept on going — zooming past Schumacher on the inside to take the lead as the field hit the brakes and cut sharply right into turn 1.
He led Schumacher for the first six laps, while race officials determined that Coulthard must make a stop-and-go pit stop for 10 seconds as a penalty for jumping the start. “I knew I jumped the start. It’s unfortunate. I planned to get the better start and be leading out of the first corner, but not with a jump-start. I moved, then tried to stop, but then the lights changed so I went.”
Before Coulthard went in for his penalty stop, however, Schumacher wrenched the lead away on lap 7. He came up hard on the outside as the two streaked down the main straightaway — running clockwise on the normally clockwise portion of the Indy oval — and circled on the outside as he cut into turn 1. The two were side-by-side, with Schumacher inching ahead, when they bumped going into the sharp left turn 2. Coulthard’s left front struck Schumacher’s right rear. Both cars continued, but Schumacher’s red Ferrari was in front to stay.
“David did hold me up in the infield, to let Mika catch up,” said Schumacher. “Obviously, the two are teammates, and that’s perfectly legal. On the overtaking side, I think he really tried a little bit too much. I passed him on the outside of turn 1, and I went really, really wide to leave him as much room as possible. But when we were going into turn 2, I don’t think he took a line to avoid contact.”
On the start of that seventh lap, Hakkinen had ducked into the McLaren pits to change from wet tires to dry, as the course was drying sufficiently. After Coulthard made his stop-and-go pit stop on lap 8, he came right back in on lap 9 to also put on dry tires. That left Schumacher in the lead by 14.4 seconds over Frentzen, and he stretched out that lead as the other cars stopped for tires. By the 16th lap, Schumacher had a 43.5-second lead over Hakkinen, and he made a pit stop for fuel and dry tires — all in 7 seconds flat — and he got back out still leading by 16 seconds.
Hakkinen then clicked off some very impressive laps, cutting the lead all the way down to 5 seconds by the 24th lap, while turning several consecutive quickest laps, including a 1:15.773 on the 25th trip. But the long straightaway means the F1 engines are run flat-out for over 20 seconds — the longest of any F1 circuit — and the strain showed when Hakkinen’s engine blew one lap later.
While various other interesting duels came about back in the field, particularly between Villeneuve and Barrichello, and then Villeneuve and Frentzen, Schumacher’s only challenge thereafter came from himself. On lap 69, with only four laps remaining, Schumacher rounded a curve too casually, hooked the right front tire over the edge of the asphalt, and spun around a time and a half. He caught it, straightened out, and kept going, while the only damage was to his pride, and to cut his lead in half, to 16 seconds, over Barrichello.
“I wasn’t concentrating any more because I was just cruising,” Schumacher confessed. “I caught the tire on a bit of grass, which was still slippery, and it spun. The team mentioned that I should keep my concentration, and I said, ‘Don’t worry, I’m awake now.’
“All I was thinking about was to bring the car home. These cars are built to take being driven hard, but you want to make sure you don’t stress it. You take it easy, and you start to talk to your car.”
Someone asked Schumacher what he said to his car. “Luckily, it didn’t talk back to me,” he said.
Schumacher wins U.S. Grand Prix
INDIANAPOLIS, IND.—Michael Schumacher overcame David Coulthard’s strong start with a wheel-banging pass, then took such command of Sunday’s United States Grand Prix that even his own late spinout couldn’t prevent him from a decisive victory that was also worth the overall Formula 1 points lead.
“Some people asked me to make a bit of a show this weekend,” said Schumacher. “I hope that was good enough.”
It was, enthralling a huge crowd estimated at 200,000 to watch the return of Formula 1 racing to the U.S. after a nine-year absence, and to watch the first race conducted at the 13-turn, 2.606-mile road course the has been constructed along two turns of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and twists through the infield of the legendary oval.
Brazilian Rubens Barrichello, Schumacher’s teammate, finished second to give Ferrari its third 1-2 finish of the season. Germany’s Heinz-Harald Frentzen was third in a Jordan/Mugen-Honda, with Canada’s Jacques Villeneuve fourth in a BAR/Honda, Coulthard fifth in a West McLaren/Mercedes, and Ricardo Zonta sixth in the second BAR/Honda.
But the show belonged to Schumacher, who is much thinner and more diminutive than he might appear on television. He said he was overwhelmed by the support shown by the fans, many of whom waved gigantic Ferrari flags or German flags — both of which were in support of Schumacher. He came into the race two points behind twice-defending champion Mika Hakkinen, and left Indianapolis eight points ahead, 88-80, with two races remaining in the globe-hopping series.
Asked if he could feel that this race, at this place, was historic, Schumacher, always gracious, said: “I don’t think it’s up to me to judge that.”
He can, however, judge what the victory means to himself and Ferrari in the individual and manufacturers’ competition for world championships, but he wasn’t about to celebrate anything prematurely. “It’s very important, because now I can finish twice second and still win the championship. But I still have to finish twice second. I’ll start to think about the championship once it’s over, not before. You can see what can happen.”
What can happen, did, to Hakkinen, who was a strong second and gaining on Schumacher after 25 of the race’s 73 laps, cutting into the lead with several of the race’s fastest trips around the circuit. But his Mercedes engine blew on the 26th lap, and he coasted to a stop with flames trailing from his engine compartment.
“What caused the failure, I do not know,” said Hakkinen, who now must rally from behind to bring the third straight title back home to Finland. “I think I could have won it. I was gaining every segment. We have two races to go now. It’s very, very difficult indeed and getting tougher.”
At the start, Schumacher’s concerns were with Coulthard, Hakkinen’s teammate. Rain that lasted until nearly the 1 p.m. race time had left much of the track wet and the teams all mounted rain tires. On the standing start, Schumacher, having won the pole, had a slight advantage on the staggered-start grid. When the starting lights were about to go out, Schumacher seemed to inch forward ever so slightly, then stopped again. Coulthard, also anticipating the start, lurched forward similarly, and just kept on going — zooming past Schumacher on the inside to take the lead as the field hit the brakes and cut sharply right into Turn 1.
He led Schumacher for the first six laps, while race officials determined that Coulthard must make a stop-and-go pit stop for 10 seconds as a penalty for jumping the start. “I knew I jumped the start. It’s unfortunate. I planned to get the better start and be leading out of the first corner, but not with a jump-start. I moved, then tried to stop, but then the lights changed so I went.”
Before Coulthard went in for his penalty stop, however, Schumacher wrenched the lead away on Lap 7. He came up hard on the outside as the two streaked down the main straightaway — running clockwise on the normally clockwise portion of the Indy oval — and circled on the outside as he cut into Turn 1. The two were side-by-side, with Schumacher inching ahead, when they bumped going into the sharp left Turn 2. Coulthard’s left front struck Schumacher’s right rear. Both cars continued, but Schumacher’s red Ferrari was in front to stay.
“David did hold me up in the infield, to let Mika catch up,” said Schumacher. “Obviously, the two are teammates, and that’s perfectly legal. On the overtaking side, I think he really tried a little bit too much. I passed him on the outside of Turn 1, and I went really, really wide to leave him as much room as possible. But when we were going into Turn 2, I don’t think he took a line to avoid contact.”
On the start of that seventh lap, Hakkinen had ducked into the McLaren pits to change from wet tires to dry, as the course was drying sufficiently. After Coulthard made his stop-and-go pit stop on Lap 8, he came right back in on Lap 9 to also put on dry tires. That left Schumacher in the lead by 14.4 seconds over Frentzen, and he stretched out that lead as the other cars stopped for tires. By the 16th lap, Schumacher had a 43.5-second lead over Hakkinen, and he made a pit stop for fuel and dry tires — all in 7 seconds flat — and he got back out still leading by 16 seconds.
Hakkinen then clicked off some very impressive laps, cutting the lead all the way down to 5 seconds by the 24th lap, while turning several consecutive quickest laps, including a 1:15.773 on the 25th trip. But the long straightaway means the F1 engines are run flat-out for over 20 seconds — the longest of any F1 circuit — and the strain showed when Hakkinen’s engine blew one lap later.
While various other interesting duels came about back in the field, particularly between Villeneuve and Barrichello, and then Villeneuve and Frentzen, Schumacher’s only challenge thereafter came from himself. On Lap 69, with only four laps remaining, Schumacher rounded a curve too casually, hooked the right front tire over the edge of the asphalt, and spun around a time and a half. He caught it, straightened out, and kept going, while the only damage was to his pride, and to cut his lead in half, to 16 seconds, over Barrichello.{IMG2}
“I wasn’t concentrating any more because I was just cruising,” Schumacher confessed. “I caught the tire on a bit of grass, which was still slippery, and it spun. The team mentioned that I should keep my concentration, and I said, ‘Don’t worry, I’m awake now.’
“All I was thinking about was to bring the car home. These cars are built to take being driven hard, but you want to make sure you don’t stress it. You take it easy, and you start to talk to your car.”
Someone asked Schumacher what he said to his car. “Luckily, it didn’t talk back to me,” he said.
Schumacher wins U.S. Grand Prix, takes over Formula 1 lead
INDIANAPOLIS, IND.—Michael Schumacher overcame David Coulthard’s strong start with a wheel-banging pass, then took such command of Sunday’s United States Grand Prix that even his own late spinout couldn’t prevent him from a decisive victory that was also worth the overall Formula 1 points lead.
“Some people asked me to make a bit of a show this weekend,” said Schumacher. “I hope that was good enough.”
It was, enthralling a huge crowd estimated at 200,000 to watch the return of Formula 1 racing to the U.S. after a nine-year absence, and to watch the first race conducted at the 13-turn, 2.606-mile road course the has been constructed along two turns of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and twists through the infield of the legendary oval.
Brazilian Rubens Barrichello, Schumacher’s teammate, finished second to give Ferrari its third 1-2 finish of the season. Germany’s Heinz-Harald Frentzen was third in a Jordan/Mugen-Honda, with Canada’s Jacques Villeneuve fourth in a BAR/Honda, Coulthard fifth in a West McLaren/Mercedes, and Ricardo Zonta sixth in the second BAR/Honda.
But the show belonged to Schumacher, who is much thinner and more diminutive than he might appear on television. He said he was overwhelmed by the support shown by the fans, many of whom waved gigantic Ferrari flags or German flags — both of which were in support of Schumacher. He came into the race two points behind twice-defending champion Mika Hakkinen, and left Indianapolis eight points ahead, 88-80, with two races remaining in the globe-hopping series.
Asked if he could feel that this race, at this place, was historic, Schumacher, always gracious, said: “I don’t think it’s up to me to judge that.”
He can, however, judge what the victory means to himself and Ferrari in the individual and manufacturers’ competition for world championships, but he wasn’t about to celebrate anything prematurely. “It’s very important, because now I can finish twice second and still win the championship. But I still have to finish twice second. I’ll start to think about the championship once it’s over, not before. You can see what can happen.”
What can happen, did, to Hakkinen, who was a strong second and gaining on Schumacher after 25 of the race’s 73 laps, cutting into the lead with several of the race’s fastest trips around the circuit. But his Mercedes engine blew on the 26th lap, and he coasted to a stop with flames trailing from his engine compartment.
“What caused the failure, I do not know,” said Hakkinen, who now must rally from behind to bring the third straight title back home to Finland. “I think I could have won it. I was gaining every segment. We have two races to go now. It’s very, very difficult indeed and getting tougher.”
At the start, Schumacher’s concerns were with Coulthard, Hakkinen’s teammate. Rain that lasted until nearly the 1 p.m. race time had left much of the track wet and the teams all mounted rain tires. On the standing start, Schumacher, having won the pole, had a slight advantage on the staggered-start grid. When the starting lights were about to go out, Schumacher seemed to inch forward ever so slightly, then stopped again. Coulthard, also anticipating the start, lurched forward similarly, and just kept on going — zooming past Schumacher on the inside to take the lead as the field hit the brakes and cut sharply right into Turn 1.
He led Schumacher for the first six laps, while race officials determined that Coulthard must make a stop-and-go pit stop for 10 seconds as a penalty for jumping the start. “I knew I jumped the start. It’s unfortunate. I planned to get the better start and be leading out of the first corner, but not with a jump-start. I moved, then tried to stop, but then the lights changed so I went.”
Before Coulthard went in for his penalty stop, however, Schumacher wrenched the lead away on Lap 7. He came up hard on the outside as the two streaked down the main straightaway — running clockwise on the normally clockwise portion of the Indy oval — and circled on the outside as he cut into Turn 1. The two were side-by-side, with Schumacher inching ahead, when they bumped going into the sharp left Turn 2. Coulthard’s left front struck Schumacher’s right rear. Both cars continued, but Schumacher’s red Ferrari was in front to stay.
“David did hold me up in the infield, to let Mika catch up,” said Schumacher. “Obviously, the two are teammates, and that’s perfectly legal. On the overtaking side, I think he really tried a little bit too much. I passed him on the outside of Turn 1, and I went really, really wide to leave him as much room as possible. But when we were going into Turn 2, I don’t think he took a line to avoid contact.”
On the start of that seventh lap, Hakkinen had ducked into the McLaren pits to change from wet tires to dry, as the course was drying sufficiently. After Coulthard made his stop-and-go pit stop on Lap 8, he came right back in on Lap 9 to also put on dry tires. That left Schumacher in the lead by 14.4 seconds over Frentzen, and he stretched out that lead as the other cars stopped for tires. By the 16th lap, Schumacher had a 43.5-second lead over Hakkinen, and he made a pit stop for fuel and dry tires — all in 7 seconds flat — and he got back out still leading by 16 seconds.
Hakkinen then clicked off some very impressive laps, cutting the lead all the way down to 5 seconds by the 24th lap, while turning several consecutive quickest laps, including a 1:15.773 on the 25th trip. But the long straightaway means the F1 engines are run flat-out for over 20 seconds — the longest of any F1 circuit — and the strain showed when Hakkinen’s engine blew one lap later.
While various other interesting duels came about back in the field, particularly between Villeneuve and Barrichello, and then Villeneuve and Frentzen, Schumacher’s only challenge thereafter came from himself. On Lap 69, with only four laps remaining, Schumacher rounded a curve too casually, hooked the right front tire over the edge of the asphalt, and spun around a time and a half. He caught it, straightened out, and kept going, while the only damage was to his pride, and to cut his lead in half, to 16 seconds, over Barrichello.
“I wasn’t concentrating any more because I was just cruising,” Schumacher confessed. “I caught the tire on a bit of grass, which was still slippery, and it spun. The team mentioned that I should keep my concentration, and I said, ‘Don’t worry, I’m awake now.’
“All I was thinking about was to bring the car home. These cars are built to take being driven hard, but you want to make sure you don’t stress it. You take it easy, and you start to talk to your car.”
Someone asked Schumacher what he said to his car. “Luckily, it didn’t talk back to me,” he said.
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.”
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.
For those who want to keep up with John Gilbert's view of sports, mainly hockey with a Minnesota slant, click on the following:
Click here for sports