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©1999 SpeedCenter Publishing
By DAN PROUDFOOT - Toronto Sun This time around, he goes into his home-town race sore all over after crashing Saturday morning while testing at CART's fastest track, California Speedway at Fontana, Calif. "The engine broke just as I entered Turn 1," Moore said of his latest grief. "We crashed at about 210 miles per hour. It destroyed the engine, transmission, the whole car." In three Molson Indy Vancouvers since Moore moved up to the FedEx Championship from Indy Lights, he has yet to finish a race. He only can hope that misfortune going into the Vancouver weekend may mean he's overdue for a turn in fortunes. "It's mostly my back and my neck," Moore said of his immediate concern. "I'm getting a lot of massage and treatment to get it taken care of." The 24-year-old from suburban Maple Ridge was considered a championship contender going into this season. Winning the first race at Homestead, Fla., reinforced that impression, and Moore actually led in championship points through the first three races. But as Juan Montoya has become CART's golden boy, with six wins in 15 races, Moore has been dogged by failures beyond his control. He hasn't finished four of the past seven races as his Player's/Forsythe Reynard Mercedes has qualified for CAA membership with exhaust, cooling system, transmission and turbo woes. "In the past every once in a while we've had something go wrong," he said. "This year it has been ... a lot more than we wanted, that's for sure." Team Penske announced Aug. 6 it had signed Moore for the 2000 season, along with Gil de Ferran. Would he have considered this move, he was asked yesterday, if he had been in the running for the championship when his contract with Player's/Forsythe expired? "The past two years for sure we have been in position to challenge for the championship until the second half of the season," Moore said. "We've got to that level, but for some reason can't get past that level. "Is it my fault, or the team's fault, what is it, we're not really sure. So I think the change is best for me, and also for the team. They're going to find out, was it me that was part of the problem, or was the problem the team itself." Motivating himself and the team is not a concern, Moore said, even as their time together winds down with only five races remaining. The possibility of overtaking Montoya isn't talked about, not with Moore trailing by 75 points, but winning remains a goal. "Obviously the first goal is just to finish the race, we haven't finished Vancouver yet," he said. "We finished third in Detroit, which I think was a good result. If we could do something similar here it'd be pretty good. "Mercedes has a couple of new parts they're introducing this weekend, they could hit something just perfectly and all of a sudden race day comes and you're the best out there. "You have to think that way. If you're going in with a defeatist attitude you've already lost." |
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