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The chief engineer for Patrick Racing, John Ward, has had a large hand in
the success enjoyed by driver Adrian Fernandez and Patrick Racing this
season. Currently second in the chase for the CART drivers' championship, a
mere five points behind leader Gil de Ferran, Fernandez heads to the
California Speedway this weekend for the Marlboro 500 where he looks to
defend his race title. A member of Patrick Racing since 1996, Ward not only
is in constant contact with Fernandez during the race, but also is
responsible for determining the set up of the #40 Tecate/Quaker State
Ford-Cosworth and managing the team's strategy during the race. Ward's
gamble on fuel strategy paid off in the most recent race in Australia where
Fernandez earned his second victory of the season. Ward, whose career in
racing spans nearly 30 years, reflects on the team's 2000 season thus far,
Fernandez's ability as a racer and strategist, the relationship between
Fernandez and his teammate, Roberto Moreno, and looks forward to this
weekend's Marlboro 500.
QUESTION:
JOHN WARD, WHAT KIND OF A SEASON HAS IT
BEEN FOR YOU AND PATRICK RACING?
John Ward: "It's actually been relatively difficult in
some ways. We started off running fairly strong but not finishing races, and
then we've sort of ended up the opposite of that here at the end. Although
we're running reasonably well, we're not qualifying very well, but we're
finishing all the races and that's kind of been the story of our season. I
think we're close to the top of the list in miles completed and laps
completed, so part of where we're at is due to the fact that we've been
finishing races. Adrian is a good racer - that's the big key there, he's
very good in the actual race. If we could get him a car that would qualify a
little bit further up (the grid) - do our job a little bit better that'll
help everything. Unfortunately, later in the season we haven't been able to
do that quite so well."
QUESTION:
LIKE YOU MENTIONED, ALTHOUGH ADRIAN HAS STRUGGLED AT TIMES TO QUALIFY WELL,
HE ALWAYS SEEMS TO HAVE A FAST RACE CAR. WHY IS THAT?
John Ward: "Well that's number
one - he's quite a good racer. He never gives up and is exceptional at race
strategy, so that's a big key. But some of our qualifying efforts look worse
than they are and we actually have a better car than it looks like. We have
a better 'race'car than it looks like, and we try and think about the race a
little bit, too. That's not an excuse for not qualifying well, but we do
seem to end up having a reasonable race car by Sunday afternoon in most
places."
QUESTION:
A BIG KEY TO THE SUCCESS YOU'VE ENJOYED THIS SEASON HAS BEEN YOUR
CONSISTENCY. YOU'VE MANAGED TO SCORE CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS IN 12 STRAIGHT
RACES AND IN 16 OF THE 19 EVENTS THUS FAR. WHAT HAS BEEN AN IMPORTANT
INGREDIENT TO THAT CONSISTENCY?
John Ward: "It's finishing - you have to be
mechanically reliable. And for the most part we have been, other than the
first few races of the year. I believe that Homestead and Long Beach were
two strong races we had where we qualified well and ran well but didn't
finish by luck of the draw. Over the last half of the year we've been
running reliably - almost completely reliably. I believe we dropped out in
Detroit, and that's maybe the only one. We've had phenomenal performance
from the engines and the transmissions, and the guys prepping the chassis
have done a terrific job. And that's a key - a big key."
QUESTION:
IT'S WELL KNOWN THROUGHOUT THE PADDOCK THAT BOTH ADRIAN AND TEAMMATE ROBERTO
MORENO ARE ABLE TO GET VERY GOOD FUEL MILEAGE DURING THE RACE. WITHOUT
GIVING ANYTHING AWAY, HOW ARE BOTH DRIVERS ABLE TO GET SUCH GOOD FUEL
MILEAGE WHEN THEY'RE RUNNING VIRTUALLY THE SAME EQUIPMENT AS OTHER DRIVERS
WITH AN EQUAL AMOUNT OF FUEL?
John Ward: "Since I've been at Patrick Racing, we've
actually practiced getting good fuel mileage. Once Adrian came to grips with
what it was - we all figured out what it took to get good mileage without
slowing us down - he basically continued to work on it. And Roberto has
picked all that up and done a terrific job of absorbing that information and
making good use of it as well. I mean, it's an art to get good fuel mileage
and still not go slow. As a matter of fact, with what we've found we can get
good mileage and still go reasonably quick, so it's just working at it. It
takes a lot of work and you have to devote some of your time to
accomplishing that, and Adrian has devoted a large amount of time to doing
that."
QUESTION:
LOOKING FORWARD TO THE RACE THIS WEEKEND, ARE YOU PLANNING ON DOING ANYTHING
SPECIAL IN YOUR PREPARATION OR ARE YOU APPROACHING IT AS YOU WOULD ANY OTHER
500-MILE RACE?
John Ward: "It's just like any other race to us. We'd like to win it and
that's our goal, but I think the points will take care of themselves. You
can get awfully confused trying to figure out all the scenarios that could
happen should this happen or that happen, but in the end if we just do what
we can do, which is win the race, then everything else will take care of
itself. If we win it, then we've done the most we can do, so we're
essentially just approaching it like any other race. We've got to do the
same job we've doing all year and not get too nervous about it or too keyed
up because it's just another race. There's a lot at stake and you can worry
about that, but it really doesn't do you any good. What does do you some
good is to do the same job you've been doing all year to try and win it."
QUESTION:
IT CERTAINLY SOUNDS LIKE YOU'RE NOT FEELING ANY EXTRA PRESSURE AND ARE
TRYING TO DOWNPLAY WHAT'S AT STAKE?
John Ward: "Well, yeah, you try and downplay it.
I'm sure everybody realizes what's at stake and realizes the fact that in
life you don't get too many opportunities like this one. Everybody realizes
that, but the trick is to not become consumed by worrying about what's going
to happen. In the end the only thing you have control over is what you do,
and essentially the key here is to just do the job we've always been doing
and do the best we can to try and win the race. I'm sure Adrian approaches
it the same way. That's all we can do. We can't control anything else. We
can't control anybody else on the track or any of the conditions we're going
to race in -we can only influence what's going to happen to us, so we've
just got to concentrate on that. And that's what we do anyway, so it's
really no different than any other race for us, this just happens to be the
last race of the season. There've been 19 races before this and we've done
the same things at all of them, so I guess we'll just continue to do what
got us here."
QUESTION:
WERE YOU SOMEWHAT SURPRISED TO BE IN THIS POSITION HEADING TO FONTANA
CONSIDERING HOW THE FIRST TWO DAYS WENT FOR YOU IN AUSTRALIA?
John Ward: "Well, I think
the whole season has been somewhat of a surprise in that the last two or
three years we've become used to somebody running off into the distance
points-wise and sort of dominating the championship race. This year,
obviously, has been nothing like that at all. I think when Jimmy Vasser won
in 1996 it was a little more like this season. I don't know what's normal or
abnormal, but yeah, it's a little surprising. We got the most that we could
in Surfer's (Paradise), and we had said all along that we really needed to
win a couple of races to do well in the championship, not even thinking
about winning it, but just doing well. We had to keep going fast because it
was so close that five or 10 points could drop you back four or five places,
so you really had to keep focused here. We ended up coming out of Australia
with 20 points and fortunately for us, but unfortunately for them, (Paul)
Tracy, (Gil) de Ferran, Michael (Andretti) - a lot of the guys who were
right in there didn't get anything, so they must be terribly disappointed.
So, yeah, we're fortunate and somewhat surprised."
QUESTION:
ADRIAN AND ROBERTO SEEM TO SPEND A LOT OF TIME DEBRIEFING WITH EACH OTHER ON
PIT ROAD FOLLOWING SESSIONS, SHARING WHAT WORKED AND WHAT DIDN'T WORK. HOW
MUCH HAS BOTH ADRIAN AND ROBERTO MEANT TO EACH OTHER'S SUCCESS THIS SEASON?
John Ward:
"Everything we have is shared. This team truly works as a team, so there's
nothing that's held in secret from the other team. Ed Nathman is Roberto's
engineer, and we sit together in the office and debrief the drivers in the
same room after each session. It's normal for conversation to take place
between the drivers and the engineers, sharing information to try and come
to a rationale for what happened and maybe a plan for what to do next. I
really don't know how other teams work and I'm sure they're all different to
some extent, but I know that at Patrick Racing the 'books are open,' so to
speak."
QUESTION:
THAT WOULD EXPLAIN WHY BOTH DRIVERS ARE WITHIN 22 POINTS OF LEADING THE
POINTS CHAMPIONSHIP WITH ONE RACE REMAINING?
John Ward: "Roberto brought quite a bit to
the team, and he's very young for his age. He's got that youthful enthusiasm
and he really brought a spark and new ideas and new energy to the team.
Adrian or any driver deep down inside wants a teammate that pushes them
hard, and at times you would question whether Adrian was pushing Roberto or
Roberto was pushing Adrian, and it was very close all year long between the
two guys. It created sort of a 'healthy tension' within the team and makes
each of them strive to be better than they are right now. Sometimes if you
can see that your teammate has done this, it makes you think, 'well, by
golly, I ought to be able to do that, too.' It's been quite good and I think
it's been beneficial, and as you say, it's been very, very close. I think
it's a shame that either driver has to end up behind the other one because
they've both helped each other and respect each other as drivers."
QUESTION:
ADRIAN HAS BEEN VERY SUCCESSFUL IN 500-MILE RACES. THE DEFENDING CHAMPION IN
THIS WEEKEND'S RACE, HE HAS ALSO POSTED THREE STRAIGHT TOP-FOUR FINISHES AT
THE CALIFORNIA SPEEDWAY IN ADDITION TO RUNNING WELL AT MICHIGAN. IS THERE
SOMETHING YOU SEE THAT MAKES HIM SO SUCCESSFUL IN 500-MILE RACES?
John Ward: "Hmmm, I
don't know exactly what that would be. He really likes that sort of track as
much as any driver can like a place like Fontana or Michigan. My take on
Adrian after working with him for so many years is that he likes ... the
faster the better. He likes Elkhart Lake for instance. Heck, not only likes
it - he loves Elkhart Lake, and that's a fast road course, so I think that
sort of thing just suits him to a 'T' in a way. I think the fact that he's
such a good racer and a strategist as a racer that these 500-milers end up
being strategy-type races. He's able to think on his feet and you can have a
conversation with him while he's out there (on the track) and you know he's
thinking clearly about the strategy. He'll ask you a question about
something, 'what can we do from here?' He's always thinking about saving a
pit stop or whatever happens to be what we're trying to achieve, so I think
it's a combination of all those things. But he's very quick on those types
of tracks anyway - they just suit his style, and then you combine that with
his race strategy, I guess. I just hope that's not going to be bad luck for
us this weekend (laughter)."
QUESTION:
IT SOUNDS LIKE HE'S SIMILAR TO A 'PLAYER/COACH' IN BASKETBALL, AND IS A REAL
STUDENT OF RACING. HE DOESN'T JUST GO OUT ON THE TRACK AND DO WHAT YOU TELL
HIM TO DO, BUT IS INVOLVED IN THE DECISION-MAKING PROCESS?
John Ward: "Absolutely, he
knows intimately what's going on. We typically have a meeting before the
race with (team owner) Pat Patrick, (general manager) Jim McGee and the
drivers and engineers for both cars where we'll discuss the strategies and
how they might evolve during the race, so it's not a one-man thing by any
means. There's a bit of a plan involved for as much as you can plan for the
future. Although I realize that no one really knows the future, you can
think about what might happen and play out various scenarios to try and
understand the best decision you can make to give you the best chance of
success. The whole thing is not a one-man or a two-man thing, it's a whole
team involved from Pat Patrick on down trying to achieve this goal, so
there's lot of discussion about strategy. Pat Patrick loves that part of the
business - he enjoys that aspect. I think he likes to play poker."
QUESTION:
WELL IT APPEARS THAT MORE GAMBLES HAVE PAID OFF THAN HAVE NOT PAID OFF THIS
SEASON?
John Ward: "So far. But we've had some that didn't pay off - they just don't
say too much about those (laughter)."
QUESTION:
ALTHOUGH IT'S EARLY, HAVE YOU ANY THOUGHTS ON WHAT KIND OF STRATEGY YOU PLAN
TO EMPLOY IN THE RACE THIS WEEKEND?
John Ward: "We did a test there a couple of weeks
ago and developed our Fontana set up, which last year was okay but not
great. Speed-wise we were okay, not great. I think towards the end of the
race, specifically the last segment, we actually got the set up pretty close
by manipulating the tire pressures and the wings and such. But we thought we
needed a little bit better chassis than we had before, so we ran a two-day
test with Adrian and Roberto and we think we've improved it. We did a fair
bit of work out there, so hopefully we've got a better set up going into the
weekend. And that's about the only strategy you can have at this point.
We've just got to make sure we get ourselves as good a race car as we can
get, and Adrian has a pretty good feel for what a good race car is. The
driver needs to have a feel for that to know, 'yeah, that's a good race
car,' or 'this car's going to have trouble later in the race,' and he's
pretty good at picking that out. So probably our primary focus is going to
be getting a good car for the race because you can obviously win this race
from the front of the field or the back of the field - it doesn't really
matter."
QUESTION:
SOMETIMES DRIVERS WILL NOT QUALIFY WELL, BUT REMAIN CONFIDENT THAT THEY'LL
HAVE A GOOD CAR FOR THE RACE?
John Ward: "To some extent on a road course, a qualifying
car and a race car are not necessarily the same - they're not going to feel
the same. But that's true to a much greater extent on an oval track.
Whatever you qualify with on an oval you'd better not try and race with it -
you need to have something a little different for the long race. Ovals are
particularly that way, and Adrian's got a good feel for that."
QUESTION:
LOOKING TO THIS WEEKEND, WHAT THINGS CONCERN YOU ABOUT A 500-MILE RACE SUCH
AS THIS?
John Ward: "Reliability - we want to be able to run all day. If we can run all
day, we think we'll be okay. That's our number one concern, and is probably
everyone else's concern. Five hundred miles is an endurance race for us - we
don't do it but twice a year. And getting a good race set up - that's
probably number two. The thing I can influence the most is being helpful in
getting a good race set up for the car."
QUESTION:
AND, OF COURSE, THERE IS THE ELEMENT OF 'LOTTERY.' YOU CAN BE RUNNING ALL BY
YOURSELF AND SUDDENLY GET CAUGHT UP IN ANOTHER INCIDENT AND YOUR DAY IS
OVER?
John Ward: "Oh yeah. That can certainly happen and there's many, many things can
happen in a 500. In almost any race you can say that, but in a 500 there's
probably going to be more stories about things that happened. Hopefully,
we'll just have a nice, clean race like we've had in the past, run all day
and see where we end up at the end. Hopefully, it'll be good enough."
QUESTION:
WHAT WOULD WINNING A CHAMPIONSHIP MEAN TO YOU, TO PATRICK RACING AND TO
ADRIAN?
John Ward: "Pat Patrick has won them before, but there's a lot of guys on the
team that haven't, so it would be a huge milestone in anybody's career in
racing - to be involved with a championship-winning team. For a driver, it's
kind of a seal of approval. Anytime you're introduced from that day forward
you're going to be introduced as a champion. It's probably like winning the
Indianapolis 500. It's one of those things that's a milestone - a mark on
your career that you put a bullet-point next to and say that's one thing
that he's done. So I think it would be huge - it would be a big thing for
Adrian, that's for sure, and it would be huge for the rest of us on the
team. We don't get too much out of it monetarily, but we get the
satisfaction and the enjoyment of being involved, and Adrian's going to get
that part of it too, if we do it. But we don't want to get our hopes up. We
don't even want to think about it (laughter)."
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