CART teams and guests fed like royalty

Make Harris

Thursday, Sept. 14, 2000 | 1:34 a.m.

The roar of 900-horsepower engines washed over rows of tent-covered pavilions filled with diners, a reminder that this was a race track - not a four-star restaurant.

They'd never have known it from the presentation or the menus, though.

"It's a gourmet restaurant on wheels," said chef Dave Horner, a graduate of the New England Culinary Institute who runs the chow line for Gerald Forsythe's CART racing team.

Horner is among those who on a given weekend day will serve grilled strips of beef, hand rolled sushi, herb roasted guinea hen, roasted free-range chicken, almond crusted halibut, a variety of salads, and all manner of fancy desserts and more.

All of it is served on linen tablecloths with fine china and flatware.

The bounty is created by a phalanx of chefs picked from among the best in America to be part of CART's traveling circus, keeping the wealthy team owners who hired them and guests full and happy.

At each venue during the season, the chefs use mobile kitchens the equal of some top restaurants.

Horner's setup includes a fully stocked bar, a machine that turns out espresso and cappuccino, and some of the most succulent delicacies to be found in the paddock.

Horner's staff also includes Joseph McCarthy and Jim Sleep, who turn out meals fit for royalty.

"We probably serve an average of maybe 800 people during a race weekend," Horner said. "That includes breakfast and lunch each day, and sometimes a special dinner on Friday or Saturday night.

"It's like opening up a restaurant every weekend."

The menus are generally based on what is available, and known to be special, locally.

"It changes by what looks best when you get there," Horner said.

Last weekend, in Monterey, Calif., that included lots of seafood.

"Halibut, salmon, bay scallops and crab," Horner said. "We do our shopping when we arrive. We go to the fresh produce places and see what they have. We do a lot with seasonal stuff."

This weekend, at Gateway International Raceway, in Madison, Ill., it's Midwestern fare, including beef, pork ribs and barbecued chicken.

Overseeing the spectacular buffet at Forsythe's motorhome are Ann and Mike Murphy, the couple who 28 years ago started what is now an open-wheel tradition of hospitality. They were working for Firestone in Formula One.

"After Ann and I got married, they asked Ann if she would like to come along to the races," her husband said with a grin. "In 1972, we made sandwiches for the Firestone people and their customers."

Ann remembers it well.

"Colin Chapman, who owned the Lotus team, believed if the team was well fed, it would function better, so he hired us to cater lunch," she said. "Nobody else was doing it."

The motorhomes got bigger and the idea caught on in the United States after Mario Andretti, who had driven for Lotus, asked the Murphys to move their base to CART in 1983.

Mike's brother, Peter, and wife his wife, Mary-Lin, joined the tour several years later, and increasingly teams began to hop on board the hospitality train. Now, even the team with the smallest budget in the Champ Car series considers it necessary to have a hospitality area.

"Just because you're bigger doesn't mean you're better," Mike Murphy said. "You can have a small elegant setup, too."

Bruce McCaw, who owns the PacWest Motorsports Group, works out of a motorhome modestly called "The Summit," which is large enough to house several private offices and meeting rooms.

The adjoining hospitality area set up at each venue is among the biggest in the paddock. But McCaw insists it's not a contest.

"We try and do a really good job, but I don't view it as an active competition," McCaw said. "Different organizations have different needs. What somebody may do for one group, may not work at all for somebody else's sponsors."

McCaw said they don't always have to spend a lot of money on the food they serve.

"We've tried to go with healthier food," he said. "Healthy food doesn't cost any more. Beer and hot dogs aren't necessarily in keeping with today's lifestyles."