Handford Device Testing a Michigan ©1998 SpeedCenter Internet Publishing, Inc. Cars 10 mph slower than last year Photos by Mike Levitt / Sutton USA The new Handford Device,adopted by CART to help reduce the speeds of its ChampCars at superspeedway events, received its most extensivetest to date last week at Michigan Speedway. Seven FedEx Championship Series drivers participated inthree days of testing on the two-mile oval in preparation forthe July 26 U.S. 500 Presented by Toyota at Michigan, wherethe Handford Device will be utilized for the first time. Designed by Mark Handford of Swift Engineering, the deviceis a wing-like aerodynamic piece fitted to the rear of the carwhich creates drag and reduces downforce. Drivers whotested the piece at Michigan last weekend included MichaelAndretti (Kmart/Texaco/Havoline Swift Ford), Al Unser Jr.(Marlboro Penske Mercedes), Paul Tracy (KOOL ReynardHonda), Gil de Ferran (Valvoline/Cummins Special ReynardHonda), Dario Franchitti (KOOL Reynard Honda), AndreRibeiro (Marlboro Penske Mercedes) and Arnd Meier(Hasseröder/J.A.G. Lola Ford). Unofficially, Andretti's lap of 224 miles per hour was thefastest of the three-day test. Though variable weatherconditions make across-the-board comparisons inconsistent,Andretti's unofficial speed was approximately nine miles perhour slower than Scott Pruett's (Visteon Reynard Ford)pole-winning speed of 233.857 mph last year and more than10 mph slower than the track record of 234.665 mph set byJimmy Vasser in 1996. "I think it's a great way to slow the cars down," Andretti saidduring the test. "It sounds like an easy thing to do, but it's not,and I think that right now this is probably the best solution. Thewing basically takes downforce off and creates drag down thestraightaways. It seems to be working. The cars are a littlemore unstable - you have to drive the car a little more - but it[the device] is slowing us down." "There are several different ways of slowing the cars down,"said Unser Jr., "but the Handford wing has become the bestoption because you haven't put [so much] wing in the car tothe point where anybody can drive it and run 215 ... 218...220 miles per hour. We didn't want to do it [reduce speeds]with horsepower, because that involved a lot of enginedevelopment that would have cost a lot of money for theengine manufacturers. The Handford wing gives us the best ofboth worlds. It slows the cars by creating more drag on thestraightaways, but you don't have so much grip in the cornersthat you're running pedal to the metal. We're still running wideopen, but we had to work to get to wide open. "It still leaves the driver in the car, and it slows us down, so theHandford wing was a great move by CART." "I think you had to do something to slow the cars down,"Franchitti said. "To be running 240 [miles per hour, MauricioGugelmin's pole winning speed at California Speedway lastyear] is fine until you hit something. Something had to be donewith the speed. Time will tell how they go in traffic and howwell we can race with them [the devices]. All in all, somethinghad to be done, and this seems a good solution." "If you compare how much quicker we'd have been going hadwe never done anything [to reduce speeds] to where we areright now, we've probably taken a huge chunk of speed out,"said Derrick Walker, owner of the car de Ferran campaigns inthe FedEx Championship Series. "The real problem is notactually going fast. Our drivers can drive these cars at thosespeeds. The problem is if something goes wrong and you hitthe wall. For every mile-an-hour more in speed, the impact isfour times harder, and there's only so much you can do insidethese cars to protect the drivers. So we've always had a needto contain speeds, and this [the Handford Device] is aresponse to that." Source: CART News Service

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