Carpentier breaks from extreme sports

Friday, July 14, 2000 | 9:50 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand's motor sports notebook appears Friday. Reach him at bh@lasvegassun.com or259-4089.

Patrick Carpentier's competitiveness has resulted in four top-five finishes in six starts and moved him into the top 10 in the CART FedEx Championship Series standings despite missing three races.

That same competitive nature also was the reason the Las Vegas resident was forced to sit out three races with a broken wrist.

Although Carpentier has claimed that he broke his wrist during a fall in his Summerlin home, published accounts attribute the injury to a mountain biking accident.

Whatever the cause of the injury, which sidelined the Player's Forsythe Racing Reynard/Ford driver for races in Long Beach, Calif., Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Japan, Carpentier said he has rededicated himself to auto racing.

"It's the first time that I couldn't race," Carpentier said of the injury. "I had to watch the car. It made me grow up, made me appreciate what I was doing.

"You know, I used to do motocross, jet skiing -- all sorts of sports -- besides racing. Every sport I was doing was almost working towards being a champion in that sport (and) maybe not paying enough attention to what I was doing in CART. I stopped doing all of that."

Carpentier said he has limited his extracurricular sporting activities to the more sedate sport of golf.

"I just play golf once in a while, but I'm not going crazy about it -- it's just to relax," he said. "Maybe I come into the race weekend more rested. I can tell the engineers and talk to the guys a little bit more about what the car's doing.

"I'm more focused and I'm working mentally a lot more on what the car's doing and things. I think I came back stronger than when I left. I'm more decided on what I want to do."

Although he is 10th in the CART points standings going into Sunday's Molson Indy in Toronto, Carpentier trails front-runner Roberto Moreno by only 43 points with 11 races remaining. Carpentier isn't ruling out a run for the championship and insists he can still attain his preseason goal of making this his breakout season.

"I'd like to finish top five ... it was the objective of the team, to improve the team (and) finish in the top five," said Carpentier, who finished 13th in the championship last season.

"I think our chances to be in top three or five in the championship are still very good because my car seems to finish a lot of races."

As does Moreno's car, Carpentier was quick to note.

"Roberto is going to be hard to beat; (he) was one guy in the series that I was hoping was not going to take the lead of that championship," Carpentier said. "I'm not sure he's going to win all the races ... but I'm sure he's going to be up there all the time. It's going to take a long time to get close to his points."

* NASCAR: Veteran crew chief Fred Graves has left his position with Las Vegas-based Orleans Racing and driver Brendan Gaughan to head the Hot Wheels Racing Pontiac team of NASCAR Winston Cup driver Kyle Petty.

Despite losing Graves, Gaughan will attempt to qualify for the NASCAR Busch Series race at Pikes Peak International Raceway on July 22. ...

On the second and final day of testing for Chevrolet and Pontiac drivers Wednesday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Joe Nemechek surpassed the Winston Cup track record by almost 2 mph as his Oakwood Homes Chevrolet was clocked at 181.206 mph.

Jeff Gordon set the official track record of 179.612 mph when he won the pole for last year's Brickyard 400. Three other drivers, 1995 Brickyard 400 winner Dale Earnhardt (180.253), his Richard Childress Racing teammate Mike Skinner (179.698) and Ken Schrader (179.634) all posted speeds faster than the track record Wednesday.

* CART: Las Vegas resident Paul Tracy, who has slipped from the lead to fifth in the CART standings in the past two races, said he hopes to get back on track at his "hometown" race.

Tracy, a native of Ontario, Canada, will be competing in Sunday's Molson Indy in Toronto -- a race he won in 1993 and posted a second-place finish last year.

"No matter how many times I've been racing in Toronto, I still get that special feeling knowing that I'm back home seeing a lot of familiar faces and meeting with Canadian racing fans," Tracy said.

"One of the highlights, of course, was winning there in 1993. And then last year was almost like a dream year for Team KOOL Green in Toronto, with (teammate) Dario (Franchitti) and I pulling off a one-two finish.

"Despite the problems we've run into lately, we still have a very positive attitude that things are going to turn around soon; Toronto would be the ideal place to start."...

CART announced this week the additions of races at Texas Motor Speedway (May 6), Germany (Sept. 15) and Britain (Sept. 22) to the 2001 schedule. CART will stage 22 races next season.

* IRL: Al Unser Jr. will be returning to his roots in Saturday night's Midas 500 Classic at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

"Atlanta holds a special place in my heart, because my first Indy-car race with Galles Racing was in 1983 at Atlanta Motor Speedway," Unser said. "The track was completely different back then, but it still holds some great memories for me.

"We started dead last and finished sixth, and that was the beginning of everything for me with my career in Indy cars. I had raced one race in 1982 at Riverside (Calif.), but 1983 was my real start because it was with Galles, and it was my first full season."

Unser, who won the Vegas Indy 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway back in April, is seventh in the IRL standings, but trails front-running Eddie Cheever Jr. by only 41 points with three races remaining. ...

Two-time USAC National Midget Champion Stevie Reeves will return to the IRL for the first time in two years and drive for Logan Racing this weekend. ... Jeff Andretti's debut for Walker Racing has been delayed until the opening race of the 2001 season, the team announced this week.

* NHRA: Tony Schumacher, driver of the Exide Batteries Top Fuel dragster, has earned two victories in six final round appearances this season as he marches toward a second consecutive NHRA Winston Top Fuel championship.

Standing in Schumacher's way is two-time champ Gary Scelzi, driver of the Team Winston dragster. Scelzi has claimed five victories in five finals and holds a 95-point advantage over Schumacher going into this weekend's Mopar Parts Mile-High Nationals at Bandimere Speedway, near Denver.

Schumacher said he expects the points lead to bounce back and forth before being decided at the NHRA Finals in Pomona, Calif. Until then, his strategy is to gain every point possible.

"That's the whole point of the game," Schumacher said. "At the end, you want to have the Winston points lead. We're going to battle. We have said it from the beginning: Every single point counts."

* BACKMARKERS: Construction crews have begun excavation work in preparation for permanent restrooms and concession facilities at The Bullring at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The 130-foot long building is scheduled to be completed in September. ...

Dick Cobb moved past Chuck Trickle in the LVMS Late Model standings as well as the Sunbelt Region of the NASCAR Weekly Racing Series. Cobb earned the $1,000 Gatorade Front Runner Award for the Sunbelt Region. ...

The half-mile dirt oval at LVMS will host IMCA Late Models, IMCA Modifieds, Legends and Thunder Stox Saturday night. Gates open at 6 p.m. and heat races begin at 7:30. ... The National Electric Drag Racing Association (NEDRA) will join the Summit Racing E.T. Bracket Series and Super Quick division Saturday night at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Gates open at 5 p.m. and eliminations begin at 8. ...

Mark Weber and George Stratton finished second and third, respectively, last weekend in the Gold Cup -- hydroplane racing's version of the Super Bowl. Weber and Stratton drive for the Las Vegas-based team owned by Kim Gregory. After four races in the Budweiser Unlimited Hydroplane Series, Weber is second and Stratton third in points.

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