©1998 SpeedCenter Internet Publishing, Inc.
By Peter Burke
Last week Davis Racing visited Firebird International Raceway in Arizona to shake down the '98 Lola they hope to race this season. A few days after the test, Arnd Meier told SpeedCenter that the car "feels pretty good, but is still not fast enough." The main problem the team is facing now is the lack of testing time, having decided to race the Lola so late in the off-season.
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| Davis Racing crew members pushing off Arnd Meier for another test run |
Meier did not have an opportunity to run the Davis-owned 1997 Reynard at the same testing session for comparison purposes. He does expect to be able to do such a comparison at the race in Homestead, where the team will have both cars available.
When asked about how it felt working with Davis Racing, Meier was very pleased and praised the good climate within the team. He did not want to sound too optimistic about the new season at this time, mostly because of the need to enter the first three races without having had any real testing opportunity except for the short shakedown at Firebird. After Long Beach, the team will get a badly needed break to do some in-depth testing in order to find out if the Lola is truly the competitive package the team needs to run.
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| The '97 Lola - winglets in front of rear wheels remind of the Swift, while the rear wing looks like a Reynard. Nothing radically new here |
The team will need to work extra hard, because with only one car and one driver it is difficult to develop a new chassis. Their backup will be the old Reynard - a proven car but possibly not fast enough against the competition who will be mostly in well tested new cars.
If the team elects to stick with Lola, we will really have to wait to the second half of the season before grading Lola'slatest design. Meier did not know if Lola would actively join htem at the trach and provide strong engineering support for the team. Given this team is their sole representative in CART, one can only assume that Lola will recognize that their future in CART more or less hinges on the Davis Racing effort, and that they will take steps to support the team as much as they can.We will follow the story of Lola's last chassis in CARTclosely throughout the '98 season. For now it does look like the Lola will be struggling right from the beginning of the new season.
