©1999 SpeedCenter Publishing and Earl Ma
No reproduction of any kind without explicit permission
By Earl Ma, with photos by the author
The state holiday known as Kamehameha Day commemorates the legend of King Kamehameha I (also known as Kamehameha the Great), the powerful warrior who founded the Hawaiian kingdom in the early 19th century, unifying what had been a political and military arena riddled with factionalism and conflict. In 1871, Kamehameha V decreed June 11 as an annual day of celebration set aside in his grandfather's honor. As a result, modern-day residents of Hawaii enjoy a three-day weekend mainland folks do not, throw big parades in Honolulu and elsewhere, and festoon statues of Kamehameha the Great with numerous leis.
This year, Kamehameha Day took on much added significance, as a powerful warrior with a lead foot swooped down from the heavens and the following day became the first man in history to ever drive a Champ car at speed in the Hawaiian Islands, and the first to break in the Kalaeloa Airport circuit at Barbers Point Naval Air Station, where CART's inaugural Hawaiian Super Prix will take place November 13. In doing so, Mauricio Gugelmin went a long way towards neutralizing the factionalism and conflict generated by naysayers convinced from the beginning that the race will not happen.
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Plans from the beginning called for PacWest bringing the #18 car and not Gugelmin's #17 to Hawaii for this test but without a driver specified; Blundell's Gateway testing injuries and subsequent convalescence made the driver choice academic.
Besides Gugelmin, PacWest brought over a skeleton crew consisting of Race Operations VP John Anderson and three mechanics. According to Anderson, "we faced a few challenges before we actually came over, and the biggest one was fighting off the guys back at the workshop to see who was or wasn't gonna make it here! There were a lot of envious faces when we announced what we were gonna do."
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"I can tell you guys that I'm really satisfied with the surface, which was the main purpose for us to come here in terms of how smooth it is. Normally it's very difficult for us to get a surface straight away, being so closed as it is, and I don't think we'll have do do much work to really have the best event here."
Gugelmin praised the open design of the airport circuit. "What we're trying to do here is actually make every turn an opportunity to pass. Normally you have good passing when you spend a lot of time braking. Therefore you have to come from high speed to low speed, and you're gonna have I think three very good examples here, which would be the end of the (front) straightaway, the chicane on the back straightaway, also (the missing chicane)...the only place that probably you'll have to be a little more creative is the double right hander on the end of the back straight - it's wide enough and you can do different lines, so you're not gonna have such a heavy braking point. But you're certainly gonna have three to four good places to pass here, and that's what we're trying to do - not just create the richest race but also the most interesting race for the fans to watch."
Any changes he would make to the circuit would be minor ones. "Maybe extend the chicane in the back a little bit to create a short chute between the two, and that's it. It's pretty much done - it's not gotta take much work." Sight lines for drivers on a flat course like this should also pose little problem: "Even today, with just cones around, I wasn't getting lost out there, so it's pretty easy."
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Gugelmin's first trip to Hawaii came as a vacation on Oahu, en route from Japan to Australia towards the end of the 1989 F1 season. "I think the whole scenario of Hawaii - you're used to seeing on TV a lot about Hawaii and how nice it is, and the surfing and all that. So before I went to Hawaii, it's almost like I knew already how it was. And personally, I like the ocean a lot, and I like the view of nice waves and all that, so for me, just being there with the view that you can get, with the mountains and the oceans - it's the best tourist attraction you can have."
But this particular trip amounted to business only, with Gugelmin flying in Friday afternoon and returning to the mainland immediately following the test. "I only had a look at Waikiki Beach, just to see how that was, but I think at the end of the year I'll spend more time here."
That doesn't mean he didn't get to enjoy the scenery this time, though. "I'm an ocean fan, so just to look at the ocean at the end of the straightaway - I think some people will be making mistakes on their braking points!"
In regards to complaints made by some series sponsors and suppliers over the logistical and financial problems posed by adding this race to the schedule, Gugelmin finds them overblown. "Certainly among the drivers, everybody wants this race to happen, because it is nice to have a Super Prix in the end of a season when everybody has done the year - to get the chance for another big event. And for sure, it has the potential to be the biggest event ever, and if they carry on having it every year, it's gonna be something that can supercede races in the past like Indianapolis and things like this.
"It's a different kind of race, and it is nice to have a shootout with two heats (similar to the Macau Grand Prix F3 classic, which he won in 1985). There is a lot of money involved, which will make all the mechanics and drivers very motivated to put on a good show, so I disagree. I think it's one of the best things we could have."
Is this race something CART should have done a long time ago - develop a marquee race in lieu of the Indy 500? "I think they've been trying (since) a long time ago to establish something like this," Gugelmin says. "But it's hard to find a perfect location and perfect time and weather to do something like this, and I think they just found it!"
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Along those lines, the 1985 British F3 champ and F1 veteran from Leyton House/March and Jordan frowns on CART's apparent decision barring drivers not currently in the series from competing in the Super Prix. "I think (having drivers from outside CART) could build the event. I don't know what the organizers are gonna decide to do - depends on what they think with schedules. I think it's far enough in the year that everyone's gonna be free to have a go. So I can see some drivers with some experience in ChampCar that are in Formula 1 that may have some interest in coming."
Finally, the $5 million question - what would Gugelmin do with his share of the first place prize money? "Well, I'd probably start by not going home the right way through L.A. I'd probably go the other way around so it takes longer to get home and spend some of the money! I feel that certainly we'd enjoy it a lot. It would be a major income boost, anyway.
"I'd also like to say that I hope this will set an example for the whole world how a race should be run and how prize money should be paid!"
In the meantime, the #18 car will sit on display in HSP's Honolulu office. As General Manager Phil Heard likes to point out, Gugelmin's first CART win came in his last race as General Manager of the Molson Indy Vancouver, so perhaps all of this might pave the way to Big Mo's second CART win - and what a king-sized one that would be.
