Race No. 10
Medic Drug Grand Prix
Cleveland, OH
June 30, 1996
De Ferran Wins At Cleveland
Pit Stop Strategy Pays Off
By Jim DeFord
©1996 SpeedCenter Internet Publishing, Inc.
| CLEVELAND (June 30, 1996) - In a race dominated by pit stop strategy, the HallRacing Team made the right decisions at the right time and held off a late-racedash by Alex Zanardi to win the Medic Drug Grand Prix of Cleveland. "I know it was a moment when he was going to try to overtake me," said de Ferran."I came up on slower traffic and gave up some momentum. I gave him the outsideline ... deep ... deep and to his credit he tried to take it. I just concentratedmy best and tried not to make a mistake." Zanardi pressured de Ferran for the last two laps of the race. Gil was running"full lean" on the fuel mixture to make it to the end of the race and the gamblepaid off. Jim Hall was asked how much fuel was left in the car, "I think I could have hadit for a cocktail. It wasn’t much." Even though it was pretty much obvious that Zanardi was faster than de Ferran, hecould not make the pass stick when Gil was slowed by Johannson.
Al Unser Jr. gets the hard-charger award for this race after starting 16th andfinishing 4th, cutting Vasser's lead to a mere 3 points. Vasser has 102 points,Unser is second with 98 and de Ferran now occupies 3rd with 92 points. Vasser has produced only a handful of points since the U.S. 500 and had anabsolute horrible race today. "This was just a bad race all around," said Vasser. "We wanted to make it atwo-stop race instead of a three-stop, but I made a mistake. I went just a littlewide and got off-line In the switch-back (Turns 3 and 4) and caught two cones(actually three) on the exit of the corner. I’m not sure why (the cones) werethere, but one ended up in my radiator, and the other on the front wing. theengine started to get a little hot and I had to come in." Greg Moore picked his way through the field and finished on the podium in 3rdplace and moves up the 6th place in the points. "This says a lot for our crew," Moore said. "They did a great job. We planned atwo-stop race; we thought some other guys might have to do three. We just didn’thave enough for Gil and Alex today." Regarding the incident with Eddie Lawson and Parker Johnstone, Eddie was nothappy at all with Parker's move on the inside of turn 1; a move very similar tothe one that took out de Ferran and Pruett in 1995. "Well, I’m not real happy right now," Eddie groaned. "We picked up a couple ofspots at the start of the race and the car was running great. It’s just too badthat this had to happen. Parker and I were in the middle of Turn 1, and he hit mefrom behind and knocked my front wheel off when he attempted to pass. It’s justnot necessary to do that. With all the power the Honda has, he could have pickeda better spot to try that. I’m just really sorry for the team, I felt that wecould have walked away with a top 10 finish." But, Parker basically called it a race incident. "It was one of those things," Parker said. "Unfortunately, I was stuck in a lineof cars where I was only marginally faster. Eddie (Lawson) and I were fightingfor territory. I thought Eddie left the inside open a bit so I got inside, but heturned down into the apex. I got hard on the brakes, but we hit. I’m sorry for myteam and all the Motorola people who came out here this weekend." Michael Andretti led much of the race, due to out-of-sequence pitstops. Asequence that would bite him late in the race before going out with drive linefailure. "Considering where we started and the way we battled ourselves back," Andrettisaid, "it’s a real shame not to finish this race on the podium. We had at least athird, who knows what else we could have done. It was a really tough race to comehome with nothing. Something in the drive train went. Every time I hit it, thecar went sideways. As I came off of turn one, it just went." "We were right there despite being out of pit sequence. For some reason, all ofthe fuel didn’t go in on my first stop. My team decided to make two short stopsso that I would have fresh tires and hopefully catch a yellow. I didn’t know Iwas out of sequence until they told me to come in the third time. It wasdefinitely a tough race. We really needed the points to stay in the top-three andmake up some ground on Jimmy. Dropping to fifth puts more pressure on us forToronto." So, what had started out to look like a hands-down championship for Jimmy Vasser,now goes to Toronto with the points battle really tightening up among the topthree. |
"I tried, I think I could (pass de Ferran)," Zanardi commented. "I was obviouslyquicker than Gil at the end, but he’s obviously very strong and very tough tobeat. He left me an opening, and I tried to take it. (To de Ferran) I’m happy foryou, but a little bit disappointed for me."