Papis emerging from long slump

Mike Harris

Thursday, July 5, 2001 | 6:15 a.m.

A surprise victory is the best way for a driver supposedly in trouble to save his job.

Max Papis might not be certain about his future, but winning two weeks ago in Portland, Ore., didn't hurt his prospects of staying with Team Rahal after this season.

"I don't listen to gossip," the charismatic Italian said of talk on the CART circuit that he was on his way out. "I listen to what my team says. There has never been any rumor on the team."

After replacing three-time series champion Bobby Rahal in the team's key seat after the 1998 season, the former sports car star ace made an immediate impact. He had two seconds among 11 top-five finishes, and wound up fifth in the series standings in 1999.

Papis won the 2000 season-opener in Homestead, Fla. for the team co-owned by Rahal and TV personality David Letterman, and was considered a sure bet to contend for the championship.

Instead, new teammate Kenny Brack, signed out of the rival Indy Racing League, moved into the spotlight. Papis struggled to three top-five finishes and 14th in the points.

"It's easy to say he's been outshone by Kenny in races because he has," said Scott Roembke, who oversees the team for Rahal. "But it's been circumstances, situations. We've never been down on Max."

In fact, Roembke strongly denies that Papis was in any kind of trouble with the team despite his struggles over the past year.

"We didn't start those rumors," he said. "If anybody had bothered to call me or talk to me before the Portland race, I would have told them Max has been our guy.

"We've been committed to him and have thought right along that we'd turn things around."

Still, it caught everyone on Team Rahal by surprise when Papis didn't do so well last year,

"We made some big changes in our engineering department and within our organization, and it affected Max and his guys more than we realized," Roembke said. "That relationship with his engineers and other people on his team is now pretty well established. I think the way he has driven this year, even before Portland, is an indication of that."

Although the results hadn't shown it until that rainy Sunday in Portland, Papis has been among the fastest drivers in most practice sessions this season. While Brack, the top rookie in 2000, has the first two victories of his CART career and is leading in points, Papis is just trying for some consistency and is 12th in points.

"First of all, there is nothing magic in auto racing," said the 31-year-old Papis. "There is only hard work and being conscious of your own weakness and of your own abilities. That goes from the marketing to the mechanics to the engineer to the driver to the people that work every day on the team."

In Portland, everything finally just came together - a satisfying day for Papis and his team.

"I was able to get a good package in my hand, use it the best and to prove that Max is there all the time," Papis said.

He doesn't believe numbers always tell the story.

"Sometimes you cannot see with a number related to my performance what I can do because sometimes I only finish 10th, 11th," he explained. "But I fight in Detroit to get 11th or I fight in Milwaukee to get a few points, the same way I fight for a win in Portland."