Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Chassis switch may give Hearn edge in ‘00

Friday, June 18, 1999 | 10:24 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand's motor sports notebook appears Friday. His golf notebook appears Wednesday. Reach him at bh@lasvegassun.com or 259-4089.

Just once, Richie Hearn would like to start a CART FedEx Championship Series season on an even footing with his peers, rather than playing catch-up.

In past seasons, Hearn has gotten off to slow starts because of delays in the delivery of engines, chassis and sponsorship.

This year, Hearn is in the midst of a switch from a Swift to a Reynard chassis on his Budweiser-sponsored Della Penna Motorsports Toyota.

By going back to the Toyota/Reynard combination, the Henderson resident said he hopes he will be ahead of the game -- or at least on the same page -- when the 2000 CART season opens.

"We've always made changes each year, (and) I'm just as guilty of making those changes as John (Della Penna) is, but it's always a group decision on changing chassis or engines or whatever," Hearn said. "I'm really happy with the Toyota engine, but the car just disappointed us so we really had to go back to what was working for everybody else and take that out of the equation.

"This year, we'll be trying to catch up but on one side of it, we'll be getting our first car for the year 2000 in late November, so we'll be able to test in December, which is the earliest we've ever started. Things are starting to catch up for us so hopefully we'll be able to test early and have everything set to go for the first race next year."

Hearn tested his new package last week at the road course at Mid-Ohio and hopes what he learned there will help him in Sunday's Budweiser/G.I. Joe's 200 on the road course at Portland International Raceway.

"We tested at Mid-Ohio right after Milwaukee and it was our first time on the road course and we had a lot of little things to work out," Hearn said. "But I think it gave us a good base setup for Portland.

"There's no doubt we're going to be a little bit behind probably most of the year but hopefully we'll catch up a little bit each race and just keep moving up. It's a tough thing to do for your operation, to change like this, but it was the right thing to do for us, for the long-term future for our team."

With four straight road-course races coming up on the CART schedule, it would appear to be the perfect time to make such a change, as chassis setups tend to be less of a factor on road courses than ovals. But that, too, is changing, Hearn said.

"It's a little less important -- it used to be even less but it's gotten so competitive now, all the drivers are so good, that you need every little thing you can get out of that car," Hearn said. "On the road courses now, a couple of tenths (of a second in qualifying) is five or six spots on the grid.

"It's becoming more and more that everything has to be just right in order to qualify well. On the ovals, if you don't have a good handling car, it doesn't matter who you are, you're not going to finish well. On a road course, it would just make your day long, but you can still muscle it around the track."

Hearn enters Sunday's race 21st in points and is coming off a 21st place finish in the Miller Lite 225 at The Milwaukee Mile. After recording eight top-10 finishes last season, his best showing this season is a 10th at Twin Ring Motegi in Japan.

* NASCAR: When Chris Powell took over as general manager of Las Vegas Motor Speedway, he insisted the Speedway would be "fan friendly." Although Powell has made some positive changes at the track since taking over in January, the decision to cram 10,000 extra bodies into the same amount of seats goes against Powell's initial promise.

The Speedway announced this week that it will reduce the amount of space allotted to each fan on the bench seats from 20 inches to "an industry standard" 18 inches, according to Powell. That, in turn, will generate an additional $1 million or so into the Speedway Motorsports Inc. coffers.

Perhaps SMI will use the additional money to improve traffic flow into and out of the facility during its Winston Cup weekend and truly make the Speedway fan friendly.

* CART: Count Las Vegas resident Jimmy Vasser among the drivers who are hoping CART can work out a deal to race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

"I think it would be great," Vasser said of a Las Vegas CART race. "I'd get to sleep in my own bed and come to the race track; that would be the first time ever for me to be able to do that."

Vasser predicted, even with CART's superspeedway wing designed to slow down the cars, that speeds at the 1.5-mile oval would be in excess of 230 mph. ...

Mauricio Gugelmin became the first CART driver to take a spin on the new road course in Hawaii -- site of the all-star Hawaiian Super Prix pay-per-view event in November.

Gugelmin got his Reynard/Mercedes up to 190 mph in last weekend's test on the 1.67-mile temporary road course.

"I'm very satisfied with the surface, particularly in terms of how smooth it is," he said. "It's even smoother than some of our permanent road courses. The circuit is also quite wide in places, which allows people to be fairly creative in their driving lines.

"Normally, there is good passing when the drivers spend a lot of time under braking."

* IRL: Steve Fried, the Energizer Motorsports crew member who was injured in a pit-road accident during the Indianapolis 500, was released from an Indianapolis hospital this week.

Fried, who worked on driver Robby McGehee's team, was more seriously injured than originally believed. Fried broke his skull, right eye socket, jaw, left shoulder, several ribs and bones in his ear when he was hit by Jimmy Kite's car during a pit stop.

Medical workers said Fried, who also sustained brain and lung injuries, was not breathing when they reached him on pit road and his heart stopped en route to the hospital. ...

Henderson resident Sam Schmidt vaulted from 26th to 16th in the point standings with his third-place finish in last weekend's Longhorn 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.

"This definitely helps in all areas: financial, morale and not having to repair the car," Schmidt said. "We made a couple of mistakes, but I'm happy with third."

Schmidt had posted finishes of 27th, 9th and 30th in his first three starts this season.

* BACKMARKERS: The Derek Daly Performance Driving Academy at Las Vegas Motor Speedway is offering Nevada residents a 15 percent discount on all classes during July and August. Class prices range from $475 to $2,895. Call 643-2126 or check the Academy's web site at www.derekdaly.com for additional information. ...

Damon Hill, who won the Formula One title in 1996 for the Williams team, has announced he will retire at the end of the season. Hill, 38, has won 22 Grand Prix races -- the last almost 10 months ago in the Belgian Grand Prix for his present Jordan team. This season, he failed to finish four of the first six races and crashed out in last week's Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal. ...

Late Model Sportsman, Limited Late Models, Grand American Modifieds, Legends and Bandoleros will be featured Saturday night in NASCAR Winston Racing Series action at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway 3/8-mile paved oval. Spectator gates open at 4 p.m., with trophy dashes set for 7:45. Main events are slated to start at 8:15.

archive