Race No. 1
Marlboro Grand Prix of Miami
Metro-Dade Homestead Motorsports Complex — Homestead, Florida
March 19-21, 1999
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Young Guns
CART's new dominators
By Greg Spotts
© 1999 SpeedCenter
A posse of five young drivers rode into Miami, drew their pistols, and took noprisoners at the opening race of the Fedex Championship series this weekend.Twenty-three year old Greg Moore qualified on the pole, led the most laps andand rolled into victory lane, making off with the maximum bounty of 22championship points. Rounding out his gang of twenty-five-and-unders wereHelio Castro-Neves, Dario Franchitti, Cristiano da Matta and Juan Montoya, andtogether they sent a message that there's a new sheriff in CART-town.
A few days ago, the entry list for the 1999 season appeared to be light onstars, bearing the names of only three previous champions: Michael Andretti(who won the PPG cup '91), Al Unser Jr ('90 and '94) and Jimmy Vasser ('96).The newly wide-open series began with a bang Saturday, when a group ofdetermined young men took five of the top eight slots on the starting grid.
In the first big news of the qualifying session, twenty-three year old HelioCastro-Neves demolished expectations by guiding his Mercedes-powered Lola to a215 mile an hour lap. Helio roared with delight over the in-car radio as hiscrew relayed his time of 25.082 seconds, more than six tenths of a secondquicker than his fastest time in the morning practice. Helio's hot lap earnedhim fourth position on the grid, ahead of all but three of the fourteenReynard-Firestone cars that had dominated Spring Training at the same trackjust one month ago.
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| Veterans like Gugelmin are feeling the heat: fast young drivers like Tony Kanaan are moving to the front of CART |
The rookie with the biggest shoes to fill was twenty-three year old JuanMontoya, who was acquired in a pseudo-trade when the Williams Formula One teamhired Alex Zanardi away from Target Ganassi Racing, who promptly replaced thechampion with Williams test driver Montoya. With the help of Zanardi's oldrace engineer Mo Nunn, Montoya qualified eighth, one slot ahead of teammateJimmy Vasser, who won the inaugural Homestead event in '96.
As always, strategy, miscues, mechanical failures, and old-fashioned racingluck played a part in the fortunes of each of the five young gun on Sunday.Greg Moore ran a mistake free-race with two quick pit stops and a fuelconservation strategy that saw his low-fuel light wink on as the white flagflew. In post-race interviews, Moore attributed his victory to second-placefinisher Michael Andretti losing four valuable seconds on lap 85, when thethirty-six year old in his sixteenth season made the rookie mistake ofstalling his car in the pit.
Castro-Neves avoided the pits altogether during the yellow-flagged lap 85,taking over the lead and logging the fastest lap of the race thus far on lap95. Castro-Neves pursued a similar track position strategy last year at LongBeach, where he subsequently overshot a turn and gave away the lead. Thistime his fuel strategy was not allowed to come to fruition due to anelectrical problem that sidelined him twelve laps from the finish. Helio'sstrong performance over the weekend surprised many who doubted the potentialof a one-car Lola team that lacks major sponsorship.
Dario Franchitti thrilled the fans by jetting from eighth to third place inthe last thirty laps, running the fastest lap of the race on lap 149. Hischarge looked impressive from the grandstands, but in retrospect he was makingup for a strategic error by Team Green. Whereas every other car in the leadgroup elected to run a two-stop fuel conservation strategy in the last thirdof the race, Team Green played it conservative when Franchitti followed theout-of-sequence leaders Castro-Neves and deFerran into the pits on lap 114.Had Franchitti stayed out, he likely would have won the race.
Cristiano da Matta was running strong all afternoon between sixth and tenthplace, until a late tire problem necessitated an extra pit stop and droppedhim to fourteenth at the finish. Da Matta's top-ten qualifying effort,competitive lap times and trouble-free engine performance gave the folks atToyota a lot to cheer about, as their chronic horsepower deficit may now be athing of the past.
Zanardi's replacement, Juan Pablo Montoya, also ran fast all day and finishedtenth. The rookie would have finished even better if he hadn't jumped the gunon his first career pit exit and knocked over his right front tire man; themistake cost Montoya eight seconds on lap 62.
Consider this: Moore's posse of three "veterans" and two rookies qualifiedfirst, fourth, sixth, seventh, and eighth, and finished first, third, tenth,fourteenth and seventeenth. Not bad for five drivers who have a combinedtotal of six seasons under their belt. Expect this fast group of twenty-five-and-unders to be joined soon by last year's rookie of the year Tony Kanaan,and perhaps a bit later by talented but underfunded Michel Jourdain Jr. who willneed all the testing he can get to sort out the Lola chassis.There's a youth movement underway in CART, and everyone over thirty better bewatching their mirrors at the next race in Motegi Japan.