Moore’s death still haunts Carpentier

Thursday, Feb. 10, 2000 | 9:34 a.m.

HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- After an extended period away from racing this winter, during which he devoted much of his time to working out in Las Vegas, Patrick Carpentier finally thought he had put the death of teammate Greg Moore behind him.

But as the 28-year-old Carpentier drove into the Homestead-Miami Speedway this week for CART's annual "spring training," memories of Moore came flooding back.

"Coming here, it's sad," Carpentier said. "You certainly wish that Greg would be here for the new season, but that's life, that's racing."

Carpentier, who moved to Summerlin last summer, takes comfort in the fact that, after a somewhat contentious beginning, he and Moore finally became good friends midway through last season. Moore died from injuries suffered in a crash during the season-ending race at California Speedway on Oct. 31.

"With Greg, it took a long time, it took a year and a half (to become friends)," Carpentier said. "We're both very competitive; we didn't give each other a lot of chances on the race track.

"Early on, we didn't talk to each other very much but as we went along more and more, it was pretty fun at the end. At the end, we respected each other a lot more."

It wasn't until the race in Toronto last July that Carpentier said he and Moore finally connected. After qualifying within two positions of each other, Carpentier and Moore sat down with the Player's Forsythe Racing team and went over the telemetry from their qualifying session.

"We looked at the computer, where you compare laps with your teammate's," Carpentier recalled. "They have a graph that shows where you lost time and where you gained time (on the track). Our graph was a straight line; there was no place on the race track where we were separated by more than 2 mph.

"We kind of laughed and I think I got more respect after that. We had a lot of fun toward the end of the season, he played a lot of practical jokes on me that were pretty funny and we went to dinner a lot and stuff like that."

After Moore's death, Carpentier said it took him two months before he felt he was ready to get back behind the wheel of his Reynard/Ford Cosworth.

"It was pretty difficult at first," he said. "I took a break from racing for quite a while and I didn't go back to the car until the end of December. I just let it fade away a little bit."

Now, Carpentier is the number-one driver for Player's Forsythe Racing, teaming with rookie Alexandre Tagliani. Carpentier said he relishes the opportunity to be the team's top driver.

"Some people come and say, 'Do you think it's going to be hard?' " he said. "I think it's much harder to have the pressure of knowing you don't necessarily always have the best material (as a No. 2 driver).

"I know I'm going to get the best, the team is going to give me the best they have. For sure, it's more pressure, but I always function better like that. I think it's good for me because it makes me push myself to get the best of myself."

SPRING FLINGS: In Wednesday's first open test session, Team Rahal drivers Kenny Brack (206.044 mph) and Max Papis (204.176 mph) posted the two top speeds, followed by Carpentier's 203.462 lap. ...

Among the local drivers in the series, Paul Tracy had the eighth-fastest lap at 201.701, Jimmy Vasser was ninth fastest at 201.056 and Richie Hearn was 18th at 196.148. Twenty-five drivers took part in the test. ...

Team Kool Green driver Dario Franchitti suffered three non-displaced fractures of the left hip and pelvis, and multiple small contusions of the brain in a crash in turn three late in Wednesday's session. Franchitti will not have to undergo surgery for any of the injuries and should be released from Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami by Saturday, according to a team spokeswoman. Dr. Steve Olvey, CART's director of medical affairs, said Franchitti's status for the March 26 season opener at Homestead-Miami Speedway will be determined on a week-to-week basis. ...

Marlboro Team Penske owner Roger Penske made it official Wednesday: He won't be fielding cars in the Indianapolis 500 this May. Penske said he will, instead, devote his full attention to his drivers, Gil de Ferran and Helio Castro-Neves, in the CART series. ...

Reigning series champion Juan Montoya, Las Vegas resident Paul Tracy, Dario Franchitti, Max Papis and Michael Andretti were named to the inaugural 1999 CART All-Star team. The late Greg Moore was added to the team as an honorary member. ...

J. Kirk Russell, CART's vice-president of competition, has been named chief steward of the FedEx Championship Series. Russell replaces Wally Dallenbach, who retired after 18 years as CART's chief steward. ...

Sylvester Stallone announced Wednesday that he will begin filming a movie this summer using the CART FedEx Championship Series as a backdrop. The film, tentatively titled "Champs," was written by Stallone and is scheduled to be released in 2001. Stallone said he has not yet cast the movie, but is interested in Leonardo DiCaprio for the lead role as a rookie driver.