For the normal CART fan, life exists for race weekends. You wake up very early race morning (if you were able to sleep at all), drive to the track, and find yourself listening to the whine of the engines and the smell of methanol. You walk around the paddock/garage area taking in as many of the sights as you can. You see crews frantically working on their race cars - trying to find that extra ounce of speed to take their driver to the front. You see sponsors hosting elaborate luncheons (and wonder how to get yourself invited). You get a few autographs and hope to have your picture taken with your favorite driver. Then, you have the thrill of watching an exciting race. And, as quickly as it starts, your day is over. As you are walking back to your car, you wonder when and how you are going to get your next racing "fix." Does that sound or feel familiar?

Well, I found a way to get that "fix." Do what I and about 500 other CART fans did on June 29 and 30, 1999. We attended the CART Open Testing Session at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio. Twelve CART teams and fifteen drivers took part in the testing sessions, which included Target/Chip Ganassi drivers Jimmy Vasser and Cleveland race winner Juan Montoya; Player's Forsythe Racing driver's Greg Moore and Patrick Carpentier; Team Rahal driver Bryan Herta; Team Kool Green's Dario Franchitti; Hogan Racing's Helio Castro-Neves; Forsythe/McDonald's Championship Racing's driver Tony Kanaan; Walker Racing's Memo Gidley; All American Racing driver Gualter Salles; Pac West driver Mauricio Gugelmin; Newman/Haas Racing's driver Christian Fittipaldi; Della Penna Motorsports's Richie Hearn; and Patrick Racing's Adrian Fernandez. Also driving for Patrick Racing was J.J. Lehto, former Team Hogan driver, stepping in for existing driver PJ Jones for the two days of testing.

Testing sessions are completely different from race weekends. Teams and drivers are a lot less hurried. There is no rushing around to get to sponsor luncheons or team meetings. It gives the fans the perfect opportunity to see the teams, cars and drivers up close. And, the drivers are more than willing to spend time with the fans, signing countless autographs and posing for numerous photographs. These are opportunities that race weekends can't provide - the chance to get up close.

Testing sessions provide teams with the opportunity to not only prepare for upcoming races, but to try different set ups. It can be a very long and tedious process - but very beneficial if they are able to find an extra tenth of a mile per hour. That extra tenth could be the difference between first and last on the grid (especially in a series as competitive as CART). Cars will be on the track for several laps, and then they are either taken to their pit or back to their garages for further evaluation. And, this happens over and over and over again.

One of the neat things about the laid back atmosphere at a testing session is that it also gives fans a chance to talk to each other. I met two really nice guys out on the track from Cleveland. Of course, we talked about CART and IMG's decision to drop the Cleveland race from the 2000 CART schedule and replace it with an IRL race. It definitely was the talk of the paddock area on Tuesday amongst fans and teams alike, and is not a popular decision amongst the fans and teams in attendance. Funny, CART and IMG didn't ask the fans what we thought about their decision...did they? After all - aren't we the ones buying tickets?

One highlight of the two-day session was the appearance of Bobby Rahal with a new "toy" - a 1966 Ford GT 40 vintage race car. Bobby told the crowd that gathered that the car had been previously owned by drivers David Hobbs and Brian Redmond and raced in LeMans (where it placed third). Bobby plans to race this car in vintage car races both in the U.S. and Europe. He took the car out on the track and ran about 5 laps - and came back to the garage to a huge crowd of fans and other drivers alike. Dario Franchitti had a racing magazine in hand that had the same type of car for sale (and the asking price was more than $1 million). Patrick Carpentier asked to borrow the keys for a test drive!! It was obvious that Bobby was excited about the car. But for me - it was great to see Rahal back in a race car with the Miller Lite driving suit on....!!

One observation that I had concerned Patrick Racing and their attempts to develop their road course program with J.J. Lehto in the Visteon car. It must have been a company field trip (or a get out of the office free day) - as every engineer from Visteon must have been at Mid-Ohio (as I counted upwards of 30 people at one time in their pit box - and that doesn't even include the Visteon crew). However, judging from the timing sheets, J.J. was never able to find a lot of speed in the Swift chassis, as his speeds during the two-day session were well below the other teams testing.

Also, noticeably missing from the top of the timing sheets was Bryan Herta. While Bryan has probably spent more time testing at Mid-Ohio than any of the other teams present, you do have to wonder why Bryan wasn't running faster times. Hopefully Bryan and Team Rahal can find the speed they need to be a factor at the race in August.

If you ever have the opportunity to take advantage of a testing session - by all means - run as fast as you can to the track. You will have a great experience - one completely different from a race weekend. You will gain a greater understanding of what goes into putting a competitive CART team on the track. It is well worth your time and effort. It was for me.