Race No. 2

Budweiser 500
Twin Ring Motegi — Motegi, Japan
March 26-28, 1998

©1998 SpeedCenter

Adrian Fernandez openly admits that he doesn’t like sushi, but it wasn’t the raw fish many other drivers enjoyed at Motegi that made him feel sick and weak. He had been feeling ill for several days before the race, prompting him to get some help from CART Director of Medical Affairs, Dr. Steve Olvey. After a successful warmup session, Fernandez felt confident again and ran a smart race for 500km, keeping his Patrick Racing prepared Reynard/Ford near the lead of the race at all times. With five laps to go, he fought off a late charge by Al Unser Jr. Unser Jr. showed his best performance since 1996.

Early in the race, it seemed as if Jimmy Vasser and Michael Andretti would have something to say about the outcome, but both drivers dropped back due to costly mistakes. Andretti’s crew miscalculated his fuel load, costing him several laps after a very slow return to the pits without engine power. Vasser stayed with the leaders until his car’s engine stalled during the last pit stop. It took almost one minute to complete the stop and get the engine refired.

Gil de Ferran finished third, benefiting from Vasser’s pit problems. He was among several drivers to lead a few laps in a race that saw just 3 yellow flags over a 500km distance.

Bobby Rahal, who said his car ran "on rails" in turn one and two ended a very promising performance with a spectacular crash when his right front wheel bearing seized, sending his car off these "rails" straight against the outside retaining wall at the exit of turn 2. The car flipped when it got sideways at high speed, slid across the track and made contact with the inside wall, with the car still on its side. While the accident looked very frightening, Rahal escaped uninjured.

This final caution of the race left the leaders with a five-lap dash to the finish. Al Unser Jr. tried what he called his only chance to pass Fernandez going into turn 1 right after the green came out. Fernandez hugged the inside line, while Unser lacked momentum to complete a pass on the outside. After this attempt, Fernandez extended his lead over Unser before taking the checkered flag.

Further back in the pack was some late race contact sport to be witnessed: Tracy and Moore traded positions twice and even made contact once while fighting over fourth place.

This win marks the first win on an oval for Fernandez and the second win of his career. His first win came in Toronto in 1996, a race overshadowed by the tragic deaths of Jeff Krosnoff and a race marshal Gary Avrin. At Motegi, Fernandez can finally celebrate a win the way most drivers enjoy their first victory.

Although not on top of the podium, Al Unser Jr. felt like a winner. The race was his first since the 1996 season in which he led some laps. But it was mostly the way he was able to charge through the field from a midfield grid position to the lead, which explains his post race exuberance. The new Penske chassis seems to be a very competitive design, something that can’t be said about the previous two models.

Andre Ribeiro also ran well, but had trouble early in the race when slight contact forced him to stop under green and replace his car’s nose cone. Penske is the team to watch – it seems like they just need to relearn how to win races to be dangerous. Al Unser used to be the "King of Long Beach" – if the new car is as good on street courses as it is on medium sized ovals, he may just be able to again live up to that title when CART returns there next week.

While Tony Kanaan impressed with fast practice speeds and a solid sixth place finish, giving him the lead in Rookie of the Year points, PacWest drivers Blundell and Gugelmin would rather want to forget the weekend. They were running well behind their 1997 performance level. Their gamble to use last season’s chassis and engine until the ’98 Mercedes was totally debugged seems to have backfired, given that Greg Moore is now tied for the points lead driving exactly the package Pacwest thought wouldn’t be ready for prime time. Long Beach may be a track where detailed setup information from 1997 combined with the 1997 package may give them some of the speed back they were lacking at the two new tracks that kicked off the 1998 FedEx Championship Series.

The Lola driven by Arnd Meier showed dramatic progress since Homestead, showing that every mile they get with the car is needed to learn the limits of it. Meier practiced faster than Jones, Barron and Matsushita, and finished in a respectable 15^th position, 6 laps down, which is less than half the number of laps he lost at Homestead in a shorter race. Long Beach will be a tough test for the car: Meier never drove there before, and road track testing of the Lola was very minimal so far.

Elsewhere in the paddock the mood must be brightening, too: Team Kool Green has two cars in the top ten at Motegi. Dario Franchitti finished 8^th, his best CART finish ever, and Paul Tracy even got to lead a few laps. The team seems to be learning how to work together quickly.

Department Most Impressive Performance: Gualter Salles returned to CART, filling in for the injured Dennis Vitolo. He didn't waste much time and put the #34 Payton-Coyne machine on the starting grid in front of Michael Andretti, and finished the race in 12^th place. So far Payton-Cyone had been unable to put together a decent car for Michel Jourdain, and Dennis Vitolo didn't finish at Homestead due to his broken finger. Still, the ride is currently only a one-off for the Brazilian. Vitolo is expected back at the wheel of #34 in Long Beach.

And what happened to the champion? Alex Zanardi had a good racecar in the first half of the race, but in lap 119 he touched the wall in turn 2, damaging his suspension that then broke in turn 3, sending his car into the wall. Next week he will try to defend his win at Long Beach in ‘97. Given his road and street course record, he should be able to collect some points he missed at Motegi. Rumors at the track mention that this may be the last CART season for Zanardi who may be headed to Formula One when his contract with Chip Ganassi expires. Can he bag another title before he heads to the grooved tires?

Some words about the track and the event at Motegi: The drivers loved the smooth pavement, and the 55,000 fans saw a good, although not extremely exciting oval race. It is possible that the wide track is responsible for the many clean [and unexciting] passes. Traffic is what usually makes ovals exciting for the audience, but with the amount of space available at Motegi, the type of moves the crowd gets excited about at tracks like Milwaukee’s Mile just don’t happen. However – the cars were fast, a lot faster than Formula One cars that come to Japan. It definitely was CART’s style of racing they got to see: noise, speed, pit action, parity of many cars, and even some yellow flag laps. With room for expansion at the track, it will be interesting to watch the 1999 turnout at the then possibly expanded track.