Andretti wins at Gateway in tight 1-2-3 finish
Madison, Ill.—
Everytime the Championship Auto Racing Teams holds a race on Memorial Day weekend, the inevitable comparisons to the Indianapolis 500 are made. But there was great reason for some parallels on Saturday, after Michael Andretti’s victory in the Motorola 300 at Gateway International Raceway had 50,000 fans standing and cheering through the closing 30 laps.
Michael Andretti didn’t realize it, but 30 years ago this weekend, his father, Mario Andretti, won the Indianapolis 500. Michael found out from his father, right after Saturday afternoon’s race.
“I’m very happy to win at Gateway because I’ve never won here,” said Michael, dodging any inference about whether he’d rather be at Indianapolis. “I just found out dad won 30 years ago, and tht makes it nice. He was almost happier than me.”
Andretti’s first victory of the season was decided by the scant margin of 0.329 seconds over Helio Castro-Neves, while Dario Franchitti was just as close behind running in third. Roberto Moreno was fourth, followed by Max Papis, Greg Moore, Tony Kanaan, P.J. Jones, Christian Fittipaldi and Jimmy Vasser to round out the top 10. Series points leader Tony Montoya, Vasser’s Target-Chip Ganassi teammate, was 11th, just ahead of Al Unser Jr.
Montoya was in the thick of contention until he cut the timing between pit stops too close and ran out of fuel. He had to coast in, slowly down the pit lane, and lost a lap on Lap 105. Much of the excitement after that — until the finishing battle for first — was in watching Montoya, the rookie from Colombia — battle back to pass all the leaders, including Franchitti, Paul Tracy and, on a pit stop, Andretti, in an attempt to win his fourth consecutive CART race.
Another interesting tribute to the competitiveness of CART, Andretti had a Swift car with Ford-Cosworth power; Castro-Neves a Lola with a Mercedes engine; Franchitti a Reynard with a Honda engine. Three different chassis and three different engines all running so closely and putting their drivers on the podium. In fact, the top 12 finishers in the 27-car field broke down to be four Fords, four Mercedes and four Hondas.
As for historical significance, both Mario and Michael Andretti had been steadfast users of Goodyear racing tires until this season, when Michael switched to Firestones, which had proven dominant in recent years. That, too, was significant in Michael’s victory.
After 175 of the race’s 236 laps, Michael was in seventh place and Franchitti eighth. Michael moved up two places before the race’s sixth caution slowdown came on lap 185 and sent everyone in for a final pit stop. Andretti’s Newman-Haas crew gambled.
“The crew decided for me not to take on new tires,” Andretti said. “So I went back out and I didn’t know if the tires would last. But we’d done the same thing earlier in the race, so we figured we could go 70 or 80 laps on a set.”
By only splashing in a dose of fuel and not changing tires, Andretti came out of the pits in first place, with Moreno second, Jones third, Papis fourth, Franchitti fifth and Castro-Neves sixth. But Castro-Neves started charging, and Franchitti followed him up until the two were second and third, and closing on Andretti.
“I knew Helio had fresher tires, but I thought I could hold him off for a while and his advantage might go away,” said Andretti. “I was praying that my tires would hold up and they did. I’ve got to give the credit for this one to Firestone — those tires were incredible.”
Castro-Neves said he waited for Andretti to have problems passing slower cars over the last 30 laps. “But Michael is very good and he made his passes perfectly,” said the Brazilian driver. “I was never quite close enough to make a move, and the day was already very exciting, and I didn’t want it to go from second place to zero.”
It got particularly exciting for Castro-Neves when Franchitti closed in behind him, and car-owner Carl Hogan noticed it before his driver did. “Carl was on the radio, and he was screaming ‘Dario is right behind you,’ Castro-Neves said. “I was so focused on passing Michael, I hadn’t noticed, but I looked in the mirror, and sure enough — he was right behind me.”
Franchitti had to survive the latest in a series of bizarre incidents involving his teammate, Paul Tracy, who had driven hard and competitively through the first 147 laps, and was running second to Andretti with Franchitti third. But as Montoya shot past Tracy on the inside, Franchitti had room to try to go by, too. When Franchitti pulled his matching Kool green and white Reynard up alongside Tracy on the backstraight, Tracy went hard and deep into the turn, then veered to his left to claim the inside line, and his left side hit Franchitti’s right front tire.
Both cars went into tire-smoking spinouts as they entered Turn 3 on the egg-shaped oval — Tracy’s car spinning up into the wall and ending his day with the crash. Franchitti fought desperately to hold his car from going past the point of no-return on its spin, and he caught it before it went around, then saved it by driving down on the infield grass.
“I got a run on Paul but he kept me pretty close to the pit lane,” Franchitti said. “He wasn’t going to give any ground. We probably could have made it two-abreast if he’s given me a little more room.”
Menard enjoys race despite double disappointment
INDIANAPOLIS, IND.—
It was easy to summon good feelings for A.J. Foyt, whose name is synonymous with the Indianapolis 500, after his Swedish protege, Kenny Brack, won Sunday’s 83rd running of the Indy 500. But it was easier to summon sympathy for John Menard, whose perseverence at Indy is laudable, given the number of times he’s felt the sting of frustration and near misses at the legendary old track.
This was the 20th anniversary of Menard’s annual disappointment. His cars have qualified fastest, have looked dominant, and have led large stretches of the 500. But they’ve never won. Still, Sunday’s setbacks had to be particularly devastating for the Eau Claire, Wis., owner of home-improvement supply stores.
You could choose which was more of a blow:
First, Greg Ray, the No. 2 qualifier and a driver who led four different times for a total of 32 laps and was up front all the way, inherited the lead when Arie Luyendyk crashed on the 118th lap. But when he pulled out of his pit two laps later, his bright yellow No. 2 race car bumped Mark Dismore’s car. Dismore was able to get fixed and keep going; Ray’s car suffered wing and suspension damage and was through for the day.
Second, Robby Gordon had a shot at glory when he stayed on the track when everybody else pitted when, of all people, Dismore hit the wall to bring out another caution. Having just pitted, Gordon had only to stretch his fuel over the final 31 laps, while the rest of the field was certain to go the distance by pitting with only 27 laps left. Gordon almost made it, but he ran out of fuel as he came around Turn 4 at the end of the 199th of 200 laps.
Heartbreaking? It had to be. But Menard would have no sympathy.
“Don’t feel too sorry for us,” said Menard. “We had a great time racing today. This is what racing is all about. I haven’t had this much fun at a 500 in a long time. If I live long enough, one of these days I’m gonna win this race.”
Gordon knew it would be a close call on fuel, but when he radioed in, he was told: “Your fuel is OK, just drive…drive!”
“That was me,” said Menard. “There is still probably enough fuel in the car, but maybe there was something wrong with the pickup.”
Gordon said the only mistake the team made was not going with a big enough downforce wicker on his rear wing at the start, which caused some instability. “I was holding onto my rear end the first 20 laps, because she was trying to pass me,” Gordon said. “I got lapped because of it, but after we got the bigger wicker on a pit stop, we were OK.
“Kenny Brack didn’t have enough speed to catch us at the end. I was leading him by 4.6 seconds when I went to sixth gear to conserve fuel. He caught up a couple of seconds, so I clicked back to fifth gear and went right back to a 4-second lead. I knew I had the fastest race car on the track the last 100 laps.”
The other thing that would have surely won it for Gordon was if there had been one final caution slowdown, allowing the cars to save fuel by the mandatory pace.
“I was praying for a yellow,” said Menard. “How many times do you go 25 laps without a yellow at this place? If we’d had one more yellow, we’d be drinking milk.”
MILK, YES; YOGURT, NO
Kenny Brack won the IRL season title last year, and now has won the Indy 500. “If you had to choose one of the two, you would have to focus on the Indy 500,” Brack said.
He disputed Gordon’s claim that he didn’t have enough speed to catch up had Gordon not run out of fuel on the last lap.
“When I was racing with Arie and Greg Ray earlier I the race, it was hard, but we didn’t go down to fifth gear and go all-out,” Brack said. “I was going to go all-out at the end, and I caught right up to him in traffic. I think I could have caught him.”
In the interview room, reporters asked Brack whether he felt better for himself or for Foyt. “I feel better for me, he’s already won this four times,” Brack said.
After the post-race interviews, Brack received a long-distance telephone call of congratulations. It was from Sweden’s King Carl Gustav XVI, who is a racing fan, and Brack had just provided Sweden with its ultimate motorsports moment.
Brack said he had thought about winning the Indy 500 since he was a young man in Sweden. His attention to detail even included the traditional milk-drinking for the winner at Indy. “I’ve been practicing my milk-drinking all week,” he said.
Foyt confirmed that. “I’ve been eating breakfast with him every day, and we have cereal and milk,” Foyt said. “But I’m not going to say what else he eats.”
The “unmentionable” is yogurt. Foyt scrunched up his face in disgust at the thought of eating such a thing. It’s OK that Brack is from Sweden, and that he’s a road-racer, but yogurt? No way.
KNAPP CRASHES, RETURNS
One of the mysteries of the Indy 500 was the reappearance of Car 35, which had crashed before the midpoint of the race and appeared to be pretty wiped out. But there it was, late in the race, making a few more laps.
Steve Knapp, the Minnesota native transplanted to Wisconsin, fought some handling problems all day, but thought with one more pit stop worth of adjustments, his crew might get his race car set for a strong second-half.
Then he crashed on Lap 93. He came around Turn 1 and his rear-end came loose. Knapp caught it with an adroit move by snapping the steering wheel to the right. But the car bit too hard, and the rear end spun all the way around to the inside, sending him up into the wall in the chute between Turns 1 and 2.
“I was already concentrating on Turn 2 when I was instantly going backwards,” Knapp said. “I whipped the steering wheel around and I thought I caught it, but I had flat-spotted all four tires and I skidded right into the wall.”
While a wrecker towed his disabled car in, with its left-side tires and suspension parts all gone, Knapp made the mandatory trip to the medical center. Then he was interviewed on ABC-TV. “Then they wanted me back in the car,” said Knapp.
Amazingly, Knapp’s ISM Team crew had reassembled the car with spare suspension parts and wheels, and mounted new tires, and the car was driveable. Well, sort of.
“We didn’t get a chance to align it, but we wanted to gain a few spots in the finishing order,” said Knapp. “I went out there and I had to hold my hands at 12 and 6 on the steering wheel, but I got one spot back before they black-flagged me for not getting up to speed. I was aware of what was going on, and staying out of everybody’s way, and one more lap would have improved us by two more positions.”
Instead, he was credited with 104 laps, for 26th place.
FAREWELL TO ARIE
Arie Luyendyk, the popular veteran driver who was driving in his last career race, went out with a crash on the 118th lap, but he, too shrugged off sympathy. He took the blame for taking an unnecessary risk by trying to squeeze by on the inside of Tyce Carlson, and then, when Carlson didn’t realize he was trying to pass and started to cut down, Luyendyk had to hit the brakes so hard that he spun into the wall.
“It doesn’t matter how you go out,” said Luyendyk, a two-time winner of previous 500s. “If you get the breaks, you win. If you get enough breaks here, you could win four or five of these. I had the best car today. My car was so unbelievable it was the most fun at an Indy 500 I’ve ever had.
“But that’s what this race is all about, and that’s what makes this place so great.”
Brack captures Indy 500 on last lap
INDIANAPOLIS, IND.—
Kenny Brack was one of the primary challengers throughout Sunday’s Indianapolis 500, but in a racefull of unpredictable incidents it took the most unpredictable turnabout to send Brack speeding to the checkered flag in the 83rd running of the 500-mile classic.
Brack had battled pole-sitter Arie Luyendyk, Greg Ray and defending Indy winner Eddie Cheever through a race that shaped up as being fast and exciting to the finish. But after Luyendyk, Ray and Cheever were eliminated in a sudden and bizarre series of plot twists, Brack seemed a reluctant but certain runner-up to Robby Gordon at the end.
However, Gordon, who gambled along with his Team Menard crew, on having enough fuel to bring his car through the final 31 laps, ran out of fuel with one lap to go. As Gordon coasted into the pits after 199 laps, Brack sped past and led the last lap around the legendary 2.5-mile oval. A crowd of 350,000 celebrated the first Indy victory for Brack, and the first Indy victory as car-owner for A.J. Foyt, a four-time winner as a driver.
When Gordon coasted into the pits, yielding first place, Foyt radioed Brack and said: “Bring it home, you’ve won it.”
“As a matter of fact, I thought the race was over when he said that, even though I didn’t see any checkered flag,” said Brack, after taking the traditional few gulps of milk in Victory Circle.
Jeff Ward wound up second, with Billy Boat third and Gordon, who returned to the track after getting a splash of fuel, was fourth. Rookie Robby McGehee was fifth, after starting 27th, and Robbie Buhl was sixth. That made it a particularly memorable day for Foyt, who not only owned the Brack car, but also the cars of Boat and Buhl, giving him all three cars among the top six.
The Indy Racing League was formed to give U.S. circle-track racers a place to aspire to, instead of allowing road-racers, and particularly foreign road-racers, to dominate at Indianapolis. The fact that Brack is a road-racer from Sweden, who won the IRL season championship last year, was an irony that wasn’t lost on Foyt, who proved at age 63 that switching from driver to owner hasn’t caused him to lose his ability to captivate a roomful of people.
“Everybody laughed when I brought a foreigner here,” said Foyt. “But I got his papers changed and made him move to Texas.”
That makes it OK, then. “I got as much thrill out of this as winning myself,” Foyt added, sharing the post-race interview podium with Brack. “But this is his day — talk to him.”
With that, a questioner in the interview room started to ask Brack a question. “Let me finish,” Foyt interrupted, then went on to explain how he had gone 10 years between his third and fourth victories as a driver. “But I waited 22 years before winning as an owner.”
Gordon, who spun out and crashed after only 11 laps in the rival Motorola 300 CART race in St. Louis on Saturday, almost made up for that misfortune in the biggest possible way. Both he and car-owner John Menard knew they were gambling on reaching the finish, and Menard said he told Gordon not to worry about fuel, that there was enough.
“It’s frustrating, but what are you going to do?” said Gordon. “My fuel meter said we were getting 2 miles to the gallon, and it indicated we had 2.3 gallons left, coming out of Turn 4 on the next-to-last lap.”
The race started badly, with Eliseo Salazar crashing after eight laps. Most of the drivers decided to make an early pit stop during that yellow-flag clean-up period, and the scene turned chaotic. Johnny Unser came in he found he had no brakes, and a moment later, rookie Jeret Schroeder and Jimmy Kite collided on pit lane. Kite, who was leaving his pit, suddenly found his car veering into McGehee’s pit, striking Steve Fried, a McGehee crewman from Mentor, Ohio. Fried was the day’s only serious casualty; he was taken to Methodist Hospital where he was reported in critical condition with head and chest injuries.
Luyendyk, competing in his only race of 1999 and having announced he would retire after the race, had to contend with Team Menard’s Greg Ray and Brack from the start, but, except for fluctuations during pit-stop exchanges, Luyendyk was in command until Ray passed him after 45 laps. Brack then passed both of them for the lead and the three were joined by Sam Schmidt, until he crashed on Lap 62, and then by Scott Goodyear, who stayed a close fourth while the top three put on a dazzling show.
At the 100-lap midpoint of the race, Cheever had moved up to challenge Luyendyk, Ray and Brack, just as Goodyear’s engine expired in Turn 2. There were all indications of a scintillating four-car duel through the second 100 laps, but then things got strange for the leaders.
On the 118th lap, Luyendyk, leading the chain, tried to pass tail-ender Tyce Carlson on the inside at Turn 3. Luyendyk stuck the nose of his car up next to Carlson’s left rear, but Carlson, who later said his radio was out and he hadn’t been informed that the leaders were right on him, started to pull down to the inside groove for the turn. Luyendyk slammed on his brakes, and the sudden move caused him to spin out, and his day — and his career — wound up against the wall.
“I feel stupid,” said Luyendyk. “I should have known better than to try to go underneath that car. I had the best car here, and it gave me so much confidence, and that was part of my demise. Maybe I got greedy and tried to get more. When I slammed on the brakes, it upset the car and made me spin out.”
Ray, Cheever and Brack were 1-2-3, and all the leaders made their usual dash for the pits on the yellow caused by Luyendyk’s crash. But when Ray pulled out of the Menard’s pit, his right front struck the left rear of Mark Dismore’s car, which was just entering the next pit. The impact wiped out the wings and front suspension on Ray’s car, costing Menard one of his contenders.
That left Cheever in the lead, but on the Lap 125 restart, Brack vaulted past Cheever for the lead. Cheever seemed to be slowing, as Ward also got past him, and on lap 140 the reason became clear, when Cheever’s engine blew.
With 40 laps to go, Brack led Ward, with Gordon back in seventh place. Gordon stopped for fuel on Lap 169, just as Dismore hit the wall. All the leaders pitted with 27 laps to go, giving them enough fuel to finish. But as Brack and Ward rushed out of the pits, their duel was suddenly for second place, because Gordon had stayed out on the track and inherited the lead. The gamble to try to go for it was worth it, leaving his challengers to only hope he couldn’t make it 31 laps.
They were right, but only because the fuel pickup wouldn’t deliver the last two gallons to Gordon’s Aurora engine.
Dylan, Simon play it cool by the lake
At the end of Saturday night’s superlative Bayfront concert, Bob Dylan and his band just sort of faded away into the foggy night, but the musical impact of the concert Dylan shared with Paul Simon will not soon fade from the memories of 20,000 enthralled spectators.
In fact, that made Dylan’s version of “Not Fade Away” the perfect encore ending. Dylan and his tightly organized band hammered out an upbeat, pounding version of the Buddy Holly song Dylan listened to as a teenager, and which since has undergone famous deliveries by the Rolling Stones and Grateful Dead.
Some hopeful fans kept applauding for another encore when Dylan and his band left the stage, but the majority seemed to have been satiated, after nearly five solid hours of captivating music, an elbow-to-elbow standing-room crowd, which sloshed through the rain-muddied grass, or fell over each other, or stepped gingerly across the treacherous boulders that prevented those with too many trips to the beer stand from stumbling into the bay. On the other side of those rocks, dozens of boats of all shapes and sizes bobbed on the rockin’, rollin’ ocean until dark, when police and the Coast Guard shooed them away.
There might be 20,000 different opinions of the highlights, there were so many. Had the majority of fans been in place by 6:30, they would have been further dazzled by the BoDeans, a concert favorite and certainly a most-impressive opening act. But most of the huge throng was still lined up outside, curling back down the street from the park entrance, around the bayside of the DECC, and across the bridge toward Canal Park, during that opening 40-minute set.
Simon, wearing denim jeans and a baseball cap, came out next and ran through a chronology that included only a few classics from his Simon and Garfunkel days, such as his opening “Bridge Over Troubled Waters,” and more traced his recent affinity for African and Caribbean-style beats with a backup ensemble that included a saxophone, trumpet and trombone to augment the keyboard, drums and guitars.
“Graceland” was a crowd-favorite, as was “Mrs. Robinson” — with its legendary “where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?” line, which has taken on added significance with the recent death of the former New York Yankee great — and “Slip-Sliding Away.” Simon finished the three-song encore to his 1-hour, 10-minute set with “Still Crazy After All These Years,” but the best was yet to come.
After thanking the receptive crowd, Simon said what a treat it was for him to play with Bob Dylan in Dylan’s hometown, and with that Dylan strolled on stage to join him, and the two sang a stirring version of “Sounds of Silence,” which may have had weird harmony for Simon and Garfunkel purists, but never has had such a riveting earthiness.
With that, the two served up a quick two-song medley of Johnny Cash’s “I Walk the Line” and the Bluegrass classic “Blue Moon of Kentucky,” which the crowd ate up. But they saved their best for last, with a sensational rendition of Dylan’s “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door,” which became extra special when, during one chorus, Simon segued into his own “Mother and Child Reunion,” and then brought it back, without missing a beat. Then, after the last chorus repeated “knock, knock, knockin’ on heaven’s door,” Simon let Dylan sing those words while he alternated with “I hear you knockin’ but you can’t come in.”
That one ended their duo set and gave the crowd a long break to arm-wrestle their way to the concessions and the portable rest rooms as the fog rolled in, but it seemed almost to keep a respectful distance from the city’s famous native son. The spectators were armed with umbrellas and rain ponchos, but the fog moved around to cloak the hillside, and even the top of the Aerial Bridge.
Dylan was outstanding in his first-ever hometown concert last October at the DECC, but he was much more personable, even jovial, as if he really enjoyed himself, this time. His second number was “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Allright,” heavily driven by three acoustic guitars, an upright bass and drums, and Dylan slowed the tempo at the finish, then played his harmonica, which induced spontaneous rhythmic clapping in the crowd.
“Masters of War” had the properly stark grimness, and “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” was slow, with a whining steel guitar that made Dylan’s off-cadence delivery close to what would happen if Bob Dylan did rap music. “Tangled Up in Blue” was also different from the norm, heavy on acoustic/country sound, and ended with Dylan, in his short, white-trimmed black western jacket, cavorting around the stage as he concluded with another inspired harmonica solo.
Midway through his 1:20 set, Dylan even spoke to the audience. “Y’know, I was born up on the hill there,” he said, gesturing toward the fog-shrouded hillside, as the crowd roared. “Glad to see it’s still there. My first girlfriend was from here; she was so conceited, I used to call her ‘Mimi.’ ”
With that, he was off again, electrically-backed, by then, with an up-tempo “Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again.” A couple songs later, he sang “Highway 61 Revisited,” to the delight of the crowd, which knew when he walked off that he would be back for an encore.
It was around 11 p.m. when he opened the encore by launching into “Like a Rolling Stone,” with it’s great line, “when you ain’t got nothin’ you got nothin’ to lose.” The band switched back to acoustic guitars for “Blowin’ In the Wind,” which had a long instrumental lead-in. Then it was the finale, which was electric, in more ways than one. “Not Fade Away” may have caught the crowd by surprise, but it was celebrated heartily by the crowd, even as Dylan and his band did walk off and fade away.
Nobody could remember any event in the history of Duluth or any Up North vicinity that drew 20,000 spectators, particularly when they had to pay at least $42 per ticket, and hear the usual summertime weather forecast for Duluth: temperatures in the 70s and 80s, but with the usual disclaimer, “cooler by the lake.” Even that was prophetic, because on that magical Saturday night, Dylan, along with Paul Simon, the BoDeans, 20,000 adoring fans, amid the ever-present outdoor elements, it has never been cooler by the lake.
Formula 1 show special, but only to zealots
Formula 1 racing making its long-overdue return to the United States next year for a September date at the revised road course inside the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, so it seemed like a good idea to check out the Canadian Grand Prix to get a first-hand handle on what is in store for U.S. motorsports fans.
My older son, Jack, planned to drive with me to Montreal for the 31st running of Canada’s Grand Prix a week ago, and I had obtained the last room at an obscure but very nice little hotel where I used to stay during some Stanley Cup final trips. The jacked-rate for race weekend was $265 per night, with a two-week nonrefundable guarantee. We took it.
Only one problem. Formula 1 racing is conducted by Bernie Ecclestone, almost as a private and very exclusive club. Credentials are given out as though race officials were giving up their firstborn. I have covered two such events in past years — the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, and the last Canadian Grand Prix in which the late Ayrton Senna competed. This time, the three-page stipulations state requests must be submitted at least three weeks prior to an event, and must be mailed to Geneva, Switzerland. It took just long enough for the mail to go from Duluth to Geneva that the request apparently arrived a day late, so even though postmarked before the three-week stipulation, the request was denied. We learned of that 10 days before the race, already inside the hotel’s two-week nonrefundable rule for race weekend. So we went for it, and I figured it would be neat to observe the race amid the grassroots fans.
Every seat at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, on the Isle Notre Dame in midstream of the St. Lawrence River, had been sold out for six weeks, but on my previous trip, I learned that one of the best vantage point was a general admission section just outside the eastern tip of the 13-turn, 2.7-mile track. After approximately 100 calls with busy signals, I got through to the Montreal organization’s ticket office two days before departure, Two general admission tickets? “No problem,” said the friendly woman. Only $79 apiece, for the three days.
Welcome to the world of Formula 1.
Formula 1 cars and drivers are the best in the world, and the most expensive. The race itself reflects the extremely high cost: Air Canada jumped at the chance to spend $25 million for a five-year sponsorship deal.
The ongoing feud between CART and the Indy Racing League is partly because CART cars are definitely more costly than the IRL’s spec-racing cars, but CART race expenses are nothing compared to the outrageous expense of Formula 1 cars, where teams either have their own chassis builders and buy engines, such as the Williams or McLaren teams, or they have full factory missions, such as Ferrari, and build everything themselves including exotic engines. The chance for low-budget racing is the best reason for the IRL to exist, but there also is an unmistakable mystique about the no-limit expense of the ultimate racing.
As it turned out, the Canadian Grand Prix — in 90-degree heat for the third straight day — was by far the most competitive event of the season. Mika Hakkinen, the defending World Champion from Finland, won the race in a McLaren-Mercedes, with Italian Giancarlo Fisichella a surprising second in a Benetton, Ireland’s Eddie Irvine third in a Ferrari, Germany’s Ralf Schumacher fourth in a Williams, England’s Johnny Herbert fifth in a Stewart-Ford, Brazilian Pedro Diniz sixth in a Sauber, and Scotland’s Coulthard seventh in the second McLaren. The closest thing to a U.S. driver, other than former Indy 500 winner Villeneuve, was Italian Alex Zanardi, who dominated the CART series for two years but also banged a wall in his Williams and has yet to finish a Grand Prix race in a season of learning how to deal with an uncompetitive car.
Early race leader Michael Schumacher crashed his Ferrari into the Turn 13 wall on the 30th lap, the same spot where former World Champions Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve also ended their luckless seasons with one-car crashes. Heinz-Harald Frantzen was running an impressive second until three laps remained, then his right
front brake seized and he crashed, meaning the last couple of laps were run single-file behind the pace car, securing what was already going to be a clearcut victory for series points leader Hakkinen.
We learned of those happenings not at the track, but long after the race, by watching highlights back at the hotel on television, and by reading the Montreal Gazette’s front-page story, supplemented by three separate special sections of coverage.
At the track, we found out how the unpriveleged race fans live. On race morning, we took the Metro to the island plenty early, arriving in the midst of a record 104,069 fans. I would estimate 100,000 of us were on the same elbow-to-elbow logjam on the Metro, and the vast majority had paid a lot more than $79 for one of those advance seats. But we had scouted out the track during qualifying on Saturday, located my favorite spot outside the west tip of the track, where a couple of little grassy knolls and fence-lining vantage points were located, and so we walked briskly, about two miles, to get there. At the end of the paved walkway, however, a barrier was set up, and a pleasant security guard said: “Sorry, you need a special pass to go there.”
Sure enough, on race day only, the only good vantage point for general admission types was excluded from access. And the only indication of the blockade came at the end of the long trek. We walked all the way back to the Casino hairpin at the extreme east end of the track, and found a spot by a guardrail. It was only about 10 feet from the track itself, and even though you could only see about 50 yards of the track between the back of a grandstand and a giant Air Canada sign, we figured the cars would be visible, close-up, as they braked hard for the hairpin.
We were wrong. The cars sped past that point, still traveling at about 150 miles per hour, and all we saw were flashes of color. Part of the high-budget sellout to sponsors is that Formula 1 cars carry only tiny numbers, sometimes not noticeable unless parked. Certainly not at 150 mph, and not from 10 feet away, to say nothing of 100 yards.
We watched about five laps from there, then set out to improve our view. We found four or five other vantage points along walkways, all crammed with people like ourselves, straining to get a glimpse of these colorful racers as they screamed past, their high-revving engines exceeding the threshold of pain unless you were wearing earplugs, which I was.
We wound up outside the back side of the course, amid a group of amiable but equally helpless fans, for the last 20 laps. On an impromptu survey, nobody in that vicinity, in either English or French, could guess at how many of the following string of racers were on the same lap as Hakkinen.
As Hakkinen went by, waving to the crowd after the victory, we were already in full flight for the mile-long walk back to the Metro. I have never witnessed so many people funneling into such a tight passageway and only the fact that all were amiable made the whole procedure amazingly efficient.
Afterward, things had slowed down in the huge and stylish city, which had been jammed all weekend with special events downtown. We found a quiet restaurant in the old part of Montreal, and after a few more miles of walking and more Metro riding, we were ready the next morning for the 25-hour, straight-through, drive home.
Was it worth the incredible expense, and the gruelling drive? Race fans used to sitting in the stands at Proctor, or Superior, where you can see the entire event, would be astonished at how incredibly brief any actual race glimpses are at a Formula 1 race. Watching stunningly fashionable people in one of the world’s greatest cities, was spectacular,though, and the sounds and flashes of color were breathtaking, whether in practice, qualifying, warm-ups, or during the race.
As for the race-watching itself, it was torturous, and it became evident that in the big-time, corporate world of Formula 1, the actual race fans have been greatly taken for granted. Would we go back? I’m almost ashamed to admit that, yes, we’d go back in a minute. Or, at least, in 25 hours.
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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