CART’s bad boy still steamed over suspension

Jeff Shain

Thursday, Feb. 11, 1999 | 10:29 a.m.

HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- Paul Tracy doesn't know yet where he'll be for CART's season-opening race next month in South Florida.

Because he won't be allowed to drive, he wouldn't mind staying away.

"I'd rather be somewhere else, test somewhere else," said Tracy, banned from the Grand Prix of Miami as a penalty for overaggressive driving last season. "I'll probably have to be here for the sponsors, but it won't be the most comfortable position."

Tracy's one-race suspension is the first handed down by CART, the end result of a series of run-ins last season which tagged him as the bad boy of the FedEx circuit.

"It's going to be tough to deal with, tough to swallow," he said.

It's a fate to which the Canadian driver apparently has resigned himself. Still, kicked back on a folding chair in the relaxed atmosphere of the Team Green garage, there's a glimpse of the hard-headedness that seems to be at the crux of his troubles.

He knows it might be better to let the issue die quietly, serve the suspension and move on. But he's still upset with the way chief steward Wally Dallenbach handled matters. The opening's there, so he takes a shot.

"I agree that CART should penalize guys when they do something wrong," Tracy said. "But it's frustrating to be penalized two weeks after a race, then have to serve it five months later."

Tracy was cited for unjustifiable risk and unsportsmanlike conduct in a collision with Michael Andretti during CART's Oct. 18 race in Australia. But the penalty wasn't handed down until Oct. 30, just before initial practice for the season-ending Marlboro 500 in Fontana, Calif.

"You need to be more consistent and more prompt," Tracy said. "An umpire can't call a strike after the game's over. You've got to have a set time. Not two weeks later."

Dallenbach said he hoped to send a message by pushing the suspension into 1999.

"I wanted him to carry the penalty with him all winter long," Dallenbach said. "Paul, especially in 1998, but the previous couple of years as well, was involved in too many incidents of unnecessarily rough driving."

Dallenbach placed Tracy on probation for unjustifiable risk after he made contact with Christian Fittipaldi in the Detroit race on June 7. While on probation, Tracy was fined $20,000 and barred from final qualifying in Portland, Ore., for an accident with Michel Jourdain Jr. during provisional qualifying on June 19.

Tracy's probation ended after five events, but he later was fined $5,000 for a scuffle with team owner Barry Green in the pits. Both were upset after Tracy collided with teammate Dario Franchitti during the race on Oct. 4 in Houston.

"It was a difficult 1998," Tracy said.

Tracy struggled mightily last season, finishing 13th in the driver standings with just 61 points. His best finishes were fifths in Japan, Nazareth, Pa., and Lexington, Ohio.

Some of his frustration can be linked to a rough transition from Team Penske to Green's Reynard-Hondas. The marked difference in the way the cars handled was a surprise.

"At times, I was guilty of trying to apply a Penske setup on the Reynard, which set us back in qualifying," he said. "We learned the hard way."

Now, Tracy starts with the disadvantage of missing the opener. In the long run, though, he doesn't think it will have much of an effect.

"I've just got to consider it a bad day at the office," he said. "We have to focus on being consistent.

"We've got 19 races. If you can score fifth or better each time, and win some along the way, you've got 200 points. That's usually good enough to win a championship."

That will take some aggressive driving, which leaves one unanswered question. Will Tracy be a marked man?

"I can give him a clean slate, but it's up to him what to do with it," Dallenbach said. Tracy vows to tread lightly.

"I'll try not to be" on Dallenbach's bad side, he said. "I say hello to Wally every time I see him."