1998 Penske Totally New Car

NOW AVAILABLE! — The Official Directory for CART Racing
1998 Penske Totally New Car
©1997 SpeedCenter Internet Publishing, Inc.
New Penske car charges up Tracy
By Norris Mcdonald
It was raining in southern California yesterday and Paul Tracy's voice onthe telephone from Los Angeles sounded about as gloomy as the weather.
He was not happy that it might interfere with this weekend's California 500,the final race of the 1997 CART Indy-car series for the PPG Cup. And he wasnot overly optimistic about winning the race in a car that was all butunbeatable this year on short ovals but a pig to drive on road courses andsuperspeedways.
He brightened considerably, however, when the subject turned to 1998, whichpromises to be a watershed year in the history of Penske Racing, hisemployer. The team will have a totally new race car to work with, and itwill be, in his words, make-or-break after several seasons of on-trackmediocrity.
After the 1994 campaign, when Tracy and his teammates, Al Unser Jr. andEmerson Fittipaldi, so dominated Indy-car racing that everybody else wasfighting for fourth place, Penske Racing's fortunes went pretty muchdownhill. The team missed qualifying for the Indianapolis 500 in 1995; lastyear and this — despite Tracy's three victories early this season — theteam's performance has been decidedly sub-par. That is all about to change.
"We needed a new designer," the 29-year-old Tracy said. "This is not to sayanything negative about Nigel Bennett, who has been designing the Penskerace car since 1987, but every year after that the car would really just bean update. It would be a variation on the theme, but the cars would justabout be the same. It always looked like the same car.
"Ninety-five per cent of a car's performance is already in the car when youget it. It's in the design. This means that if it won't go fast, there's nota lot you can do to fix a car, or change the way it handles, unless you goright back to the drawing board. This has been our problem the last fewyears. We've been stuck with an uncompetitive race car and we haven't beenable to do a lot with it."
So team owner Roger Penske went out and hired a young designer named JohnTravis, and Tracy, who was born in Scarborough, Ont., is elated.
"The whole philosophy has changed," Tracy said. "He's got his own ideas onaerodynamics, the shape of the wings, everything. The '98 car will looknothing like a Penske ever looked before. It will be brand new. Nothing thatis on this car [the Bennett '97] will be on the new car — shocks, springs,everything will be new."
Tracy acknowledged, however, that along with the sense of excitement comesapprehension of the unknown.
"It'll be a huge challenge," he said. "We will have no data by which to makecomparisons. We'll be starting from scratch. It'll be a lot like FormulaOne, where there are often big changes. If it works, it'll be great. If itdoesn't work, we could be in big trouble, and that's why I say it'll be amake or break year.
"I don't know what Roger has in mind, but if things don't pan out, therecould be really significant changes. Roger's name is on the car and it's hisreputation that's at stake. He feels the same about the racing team as hedoes about all his other businesses — he demands performance and he demandsexcellence and he demands results. Roger doesn't stand still, and if hedoesn't get what he wants he makes changes."
Tracy, who now lives in Phoenix, said the team expects to take possession ofthe new car at the end of November and that he and Unser will begin testingimmediately at Penske's new two-mile superspeedway in the L.A. suburb ofFontana, the site of Sunday's final CART race.
"There's a road course built in the infield here, so we can test on it aswell as the oval," he said. "And we'll go to Homestead too [south of Miami]because Roger has become a part owner of that track, so we'll use it aswell."
Tracy is also looking forward to the offseason for another reason: with itwill come closure on a painful period of his young life.
"My divorce [from his Toronto high-school sweetheart] should become final inabout a month," he said. "There's some deals that still have to be made,details to be worked out, but then it will be finished. I see my kidsregularly, though — in fact, I just had them [daughter Alysha and sonConrad] for a week, and it was over my son's birthday, so that was great.But it's pretty busy during the season, so that makes it hard, but I'll seethem more in the winter."
Meantime, Tracy hasn't entirely discounted his chances of winning thisweekend. He's currently fourth in the PPG Cup chase and a good finish couldmove him up to third in the championship, which he led for some of theseason.
"I think I have a good chance, but it's not as good as the peoplerunning on Firestones," he said. "Firestone hasreally stepped up their program, and that's given them an advantage. Butit's a long race [Tracy started 18th and finished fourth, a lap down, inthis year's U.S. 500 at Michigan International Speedway, on which theFontana speedway is patterned], so if I keep my nose clean I could be rightup there at the end."
Source: The Globe and Mail


		NOW AVAILABLE! — The Official Directory for CART Racing

		1998 Penske Totally New Car ©1997 SpeedCenter Internet Publishing, Inc. New Penske car charges up Tracy By Norris Mcdonald It was raining in southern California yesterday and Paul Tracy's voice onthe telephone from Los Angeles sounded about as gloomy as the weather. He was not happy that it might interfere with this weekend's California 500,the final race of the 1997 CART Indy-car series for the PPG Cup. And he wasnot overly optimistic about winning the race in a car that was all butunbeatable this year on short ovals but a pig to drive on road courses andsuperspeedways. He brightened considerably, however, when the subject turned to 1998, whichpromises to be a watershed year in the history of Penske Racing, hisemployer. The team will have a totally new race car to work with, and itwill be, in his words, make-or-break after several seasons of on-trackmediocrity. After the 1994 campaign, when Tracy and his teammates, Al Unser Jr. andEmerson Fittipaldi, so dominated Indy-car racing that everybody else wasfighting for fourth place, Penske Racing's fortunes went pretty muchdownhill. The team missed qualifying for the Indianapolis 500 in 1995; lastyear and this — despite Tracy's three victories early this season — theteam's performance has been decidedly sub-par. That is all about to change. "We needed a new designer," the 29-year-old Tracy said. "This is not to sayanything negative about Nigel Bennett, who has been designing the Penskerace car since 1987, but every year after that the car would really just bean update. It would be a variation on the theme, but the cars would justabout be the same. It always looked like the same car. "Ninety-five per cent of a car's performance is already in the car when youget it. It's in the design. This means that if it won't go fast, there's nota lot you can do to fix a car, or change the way it handles, unless you goright back to the drawing board. This has been our problem the last fewyears. We've been stuck with an uncompetitive race car and we haven't beenable to do a lot with it." So team owner Roger Penske went out and hired a young designer named JohnTravis, and Tracy, who was born in Scarborough, Ont., is elated. "The whole philosophy has changed," Tracy said. "He's got his own ideas onaerodynamics, the shape of the wings, everything. The '98 car will looknothing like a Penske ever looked before. It will be brand new. Nothing thatis on this car [the Bennett '97] will be on the new car — shocks, springs,everything will be new." Tracy acknowledged, however, that along with the sense of excitement comesapprehension of the unknown. "It'll be a huge challenge," he said. "We will have no data by which to makecomparisons. We'll be starting from scratch. It'll be a lot like FormulaOne, where there are often big changes. If it works, it'll be great. If itdoesn't work, we could be in big trouble, and that's why I say it'll be amake or break year. "I don't know what Roger has in mind, but if things don't pan out, therecould be really significant changes. Roger's name is on the car and it's hisreputation that's at stake. He feels the same about the racing team as hedoes about all his other businesses — he demands performance and he demandsexcellence and he demands results. Roger doesn't stand still, and if hedoesn't get what he wants he makes changes." Tracy, who now lives in Phoenix, said the team expects to take possession ofthe new car at the end of November and that he and Unser will begin testingimmediately at Penske's new two-mile superspeedway in the L.A. suburb ofFontana, the site of Sunday's final CART race. "There's a road course built in the infield here, so we can test on it aswell as the oval," he said. "And we'll go to Homestead too [south of Miami]because Roger has become a part owner of that track, so we'll use it aswell." Tracy is also looking forward to the offseason for another reason: with itwill come closure on a painful period of his young life. "My divorce [from his Toronto high-school sweetheart] should become final inabout a month," he said. "There's some deals that still have to be made,details to be worked out, but then it will be finished. I see my kidsregularly, though — in fact, I just had them [daughter Alysha and sonConrad] for a week, and it was over my son's birthday, so that was great.But it's pretty busy during the season, so that makes it hard, but I'll seethem more in the winter." Meantime, Tracy hasn't entirely discounted his chances of winning thisweekend. He's currently fourth in the PPG Cup chase and a good finish couldmove him up to third in the championship, which he led for some of theseason. "I think I have a good chance, but it's not as good as the peoplerunning on Firestones," he said. "Firestone hasreally stepped up their program, and that's given them an advantage. Butit's a long race [Tracy started 18th and finished fourth, a lap down, inthis year's U.S. 500 at Michigan International Speedway, on which theFontana speedway is patterned], so if I keep my nose clean I could be rightup there at the end." Source: The Globe and Mail