©1998 SpeedCenter Internet Publishing, Inc.
by Dave Gallegos
It was time for a final tune-up before Spring Training, as the Forsythe,Newman-Haas, Penske, and Tasman teams came to a cool, slightly dampLaguna Seca for some road course testing on a track that features manydifferent types of corners and a lot of run-off room (as a result of FIMrequirements for hosting GP and World Superbike races).
At the last test here in December, the paddock was closed because of thePenske team's desire for secrecy concerning their new chassis and motor. However, this test resembled a more relaxed mid-season test sessionbecause they allowed fans into the pits, even though all teamsrestricted photography of their new equipment to some extent. I wouldlike to state how much I appreciate that the CART teams allow fans intothe pits on (some) test days. This is an organization that treats itsmost fervent fans well. And what other sport allows fans to stand rightnext to the team and listen-in as they practice?
Tuesday, January 20
After a couple of the drivers did a reconnaissance lap in street cars tosee if the track was dry enough, the race cars came out around 10:30 am. The temp was in the mid to upper 50s but got colder later in the day.The track was slightly damp, but it dried up by around noon. Iimmediately went to the Penske pit where I snapped a couple of shots asAl Unser Jr. pulled the '98 Penske out of the pits, then rolled to astop as the engine promptly died. As they pushed the car back to thepit, the guy who appeared to be in charge told me they didn't wantphotos taken of the car. As a result, I never went back to the Penskepit, although I should have later, to try to find out why they werehaving so many problems.
Three times they opened the engine cover, tweaked on something for a fewminutes, then tried another launch. But each time, the engine wouldn'tstay on or would run strangely. At one point, Unser took off and itsounded like the engine wasn't firing on all cylinders: "Wa - wa - wa -wa." He made it over the Turn 1 crest and killed the engine. I wasnear the Forsythe pit, and Greg Moore, who was standing nearby, startedmocking the sound of the Penske's engine, saying "Wa - wa - wa - wa" andlaughing. I thought that was ironic, considering that they share thesame engine and engine-management system, and considering the luck Moorehad last year with the Mercedes. My guess is that they were havingproblems with the electronics, but whatever it was, Penske was plaguedwith the gremlins and Forsythe was not. So that pretty much sums upPenske's day. Lots of down time, very few hot laps.
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| Unser Jr. stretches the legs of his new car - shiny wheels, but unpainted wings. |
Both Tasman and Newman-Haas had normal days, as Tony Kanaan andChristian Fittipaldi would go out for several laps, come in for tiresand consultation, then go out again. Tasman was running a '98 Reynardwith the new Honda motor. I got a few shots of the top of the motor,but the team later told someone else not to take photos with the enginecover off, and they started covering the engine with a drape when I camearound. Newman-Haas and Forsythe also said "no photos with the enginecover off." Newman-Haas ran what appeared to be the new '98 Swift,painted in black with Fittipaldi's name on it. Both teams went back tothe paddock around 2:00pm, Tasman wrapped up for the day, but Fittipaldiwent back out in the late afternoon.
I spent most of my time near the Forsythe pits, and this is where Igathered the most interesting information. Carpentier drove Moore's '97car and engine for both days. In one of his first few laps, he came outof the Turn 11 hairpin and got the car sideways. But instead of theviolent snap that you normally see, it was a slow, sweet powerslide madepossible by the damp conditions. At around noon Carpentier got out ofthe car, and after the debriefing, started to walk to the paddock. Iasked him how it was going, and he stopped and talked to me for a fewminutes. Carpentier was very friendly and told me that he was doing1:11s, then he pointed towards the Newman-Haas pit and said they weredoing 1:10s. He said if it were a race weekend the times would be lowerbecause of all the rubber laid down by all the cars. It occurred to methat the heavy rain that had been falling for the last few weeksprobably cleaned up the track. He told me the '98 Reynard was a coupleof tenths quicker than the '97. Carpentier spent a lot of time in heavydiscussion with his engineer, Lee Dykstra. Moore often came by tocompare notes. I detected no rivalry between the drivers; Moore wasvery supportive of the new guy.
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| Greg Moore checking email? Lots of new lights in this dash |
Moore had an interesting day. In the morning he spun out at thecorkscrew exit. I can't remember if he was towed in or got a pushstart. Later, he came to a stop at the Turn 5 exit and had to be towedin (maybe Forsythe did have some gremlins). In the afternoon he had anincident somewhere but got a push start and came in under his own power.
In the early afternoon Moore was sitting in his car in the pit, and hisengineer(?) was standing in front of the car, talking into his headset.He told Moore not to worry about the slow lap times. He said the tireswere taking 10-15 laps to get up to temperature, but Moore often tookfewer laps than that at a time. The engineer then mentioned to someoneelse that maybe they should get tire warmers to save time and money. Heproceeded to tell Moore how every time he came in, the tires would cooloff and he would have to warm them up again when he went back out. Itsounded to me like the guy was talking to Moore like he was a rookie; Iassume that Moore has tested under these cool conditions before. All inall, after seeing the drivers talk to their engineers and each other, Iwould say that Forsythe provides a "nurturing" environment for thedrivers.
Once when Moore left the pits and was taking his first lap, I heard theguy at the laptop say that the oil was up to temperature, then a fewmoments later he said "he's spinning the shit out of the rear tires!".I knew this kind of data was recorded by the data acquisition system,but I had no idea the data was available in real time. Once whenCarpentier came in, during discussion the guy at the laptop studied themonitor then said to the engineer, "ask him if he took a differentline." You can't hide anything from these guys! If you are drivinginconsistently, they'll know it.
Over the course of the day, I believe the Forsythe team took the mostlaps and had the least amount of down time.
Wednesday, January 21
The track was dry and the cars were already on the track by the time Igot there at 10:00 am. The sun came out for parts of the day and warmedthings up. I'm sure the lap times came down. At one point I heard acar at Turn 11, then suddenly I heard the revs go way up and I saw ahuge cloud of tire smoke. By the time the smoke cleared, I saw Moore'scar facing backward at the Turn 11 exit. Either Moore had a heavy caseof oversteer and had the composure to wheel it all the way around toavoid hitting the inside wall, or there was a malfunction, which Ithought I heard the pit guys discussing. A case of the gremlins or ofleadfoot? Later in the day I was looking over Moore's left shoulder inthe pits and noticed the incredible dashboard and steering wheel. Thedash consisted of two red LED displays and I believe a row of singleLEDs. The steering wheel was flat on top and had a long row of LEDsalong the top, and a "spoke" from the hub to the top of the steeringwheel housed a multi-line LCD display.
I asked a guy in the Newman-Haas pit if this was the new car, and afterhesitating a moment, he said "Yeah."
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| Christian Fittipaldi tire testing with his new Swift chassis |
I was in the pits until 12:30 pm and the Penske car still hadn't comeout for the day. I was talking with another photographer who was theonly guy there who looked like a "pro" with his Nikon N90 with a f2.8zoom and external flash (f2.8 means "big"). A Laguna Seca employee cameup to us and said "the powers that be would like all unofficialphotographers to leave the pits." Kicked out! Someone was suspiciousof one or both of us. The only possibilities are the Tasman pit, whichstarted looking at me funny after a while (maybe I'm just paranoid), orPenske, which was probably getting ready to pull their car out for thefirst time. I had to go pick up the previous day's slides in Montereyanyway, so I took off, and when I got back at 2:00 pm I spent the restof the day taking pictures around the track.
Although Goodyear was supplying both Penske and Newman-Haas, theGoodyear guys were mostly at the Penske pits, but I rarely saw Unser doenough laps at a time to test the longevity of the tire compounds.
I saw Unser take some hot laps. It looked to me like he had someundersteer coming out of Turns 2 and 8. Later in the afternoon he cameout and looked like he was going reasonably fast, but Kanaan easilycaught up to him, passed him, and pulled away. A couple of laps laterthe Penske died, and with the track red-flagged (which is always thecase in testing when a car stalls or goes off-track), the Penske wastowed back to the pits in the wrong direction, so I have a shot of thePenske sitting the wrong direction in the pits.
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| Rookie Kanaan in the for Tasman unusual #21 car. |
By the time I left at 4:30 pm, Newman-Haas, Penske and Tasman were allstill taking hot laps. About three times I saw Moore come out for onelap but immediately go back to the pits.
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| Moore tooling through the woods | Shiny paint on the new Swift |
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| Engine going wa - wa - wa? |
