©1998 SpeedCenter Internet Publishing, Inc., Photo © 1998, Mike Levitt
Gil de Ferran, runner-up in the 1997 PPG Cup pointstandings, Monday [Feb. 16] conducted a CART test of an experimentalrear wing — a potential way to reduce speeds on CART's fastest tracks— at the California Speedway. De Ferran's best lap with the wing was214 mph in his 1997-model Valvoline/Cummins Reynard-Honda on Goodyeartires, about 14 mph slower than what he was able to achieve earlier inthe day with the car in normal super speedway trim. Weather conditionsand an impending storm limited track time.
According to team owner Derrick Walker, the idea for the high-drag,low-downforce wing came from CART's rules committee, and was designed bySwift and built by Reynard Cars. Walker described the top portion of thewing as being similar to current designs but with a steep upward angle,with the underside having a flat profile with a 90-degree lip and plateson both ends.
"This [wing design] is a cooperative effort by the engineersrepresenting the various chassis manufacturers," said Walker. "This is apositive sign of what we're doing in CART and no other racing series inthe world is taking this approach or has an effective rules committee.It's good to see how everyone got behind this effort in trying somethingtotally different."
Kirk Russell, CART's vice president of competition, observed the testand said, "This wing did not do enough to drop the lap speeds to reachour goal. We learned it is possible to slow down the cars with more dragin this way, but one thing that does is work the engine a lot harder.This was the first of several steps and there are quite a few otherideas that may be tried before any decision can be made."
Walker, a rules committee member, said he will submit a report to thecommittee. The next step could be a recommendation to the owners tocontinue more development in this direction.
Prior to traveling to Fontana, de Ferran spent three days [Feb. 12-14]testing Goodyear tires on his 1998 Valvoline/Cummins Reynard at FirebirdRaceway, near Phoenix. He drove approximately 500 miles with a best laptime of 42.7 seconds.
Source: Walker Racing PR
