Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: De Ferran’s first win of year helps lift dark cloud

Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2001 | 8:58 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. Reach him at bh@lasvegassun.com or 259-4089.

Gil de Ferran put it best when he said CART was racing "under a dark cloud" during its two-week stint in Europe.

First, the CART community was stranded on another continent when it learned the United States had been the victim of a horrific act of terrorism. Four days later, popular two-time series champion Alex Zanardi lost both of his legs in an accident during the race in Germany.

That cloud began to lift last Saturday when the defending CART champion earned his first victory of the season, in the Rockingham 500 in England, and moved into second place in the series standings, six points behind Kenny Brack. But de Ferran wasn't able to breathe a sigh of relief until he returned to his Fort Lauderdale, Fla., home on Sunday.

"It was a very, very difficult two weeks there for us," de Ferran said of CART's first venture to Europe. "We regard (America) as our home. My wife was meant to join me in the U.K. with my kids (but) she was unable to make the trip.

"Certainly, the worst thing during these times is uncertainty; you don't know what's going to happen next. You don't want to be far away. It was very difficult to remain focused and to know exactly what action to take."

Saturday's race in England was one of CART's most exciting of the year -- with de Ferran passing Brack for the win in the final corner of the final lap -- and set up what should prove to be an equally exciting championship battle in the final four races.

Three of the final four races -- Houston, Laguna Seca and Australia -- will be conducted on road courses, which should be an advantage to de Ferran. While Brack has scored the majority of his points on ovals (116 of his 147 points), de Ferran has scored 95 of his 141 points on road circuits.

But de Ferran downplayed any perceived advantage in the next three races.

"We certainly haven't been running particularly well on the ovals this year," de Ferran said. "It was nice to win a race (on an oval) where we were having a lot of difficulty getting it all together. That, to me from a championship standpoint, was an extreme positive.

"Looking forward to Houston and Laguna and Australia, I will be disappointed if I was off the pace. But then again, I think Kenny will be strong, too. I'm not so sure we hold that much of an upper hand going to the next three races here."

After a week off, the CART FedEx Championship Series resumes Sunday, Oct. 7 with the Grand Prix of Houston.

* U.S. GRAND PRIX: The Formula One World Championship returns to Indianapolis this weekend with its 2001 championship already wrapped up.

Michael Schumacher clinched the title three races ago in Hungary and then became the winningest driver in F1 history by capturing the Belgian Grand Prix earlier this month.

Although he initially was reluctant to race this week in the U.S. after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in this country, Schumacher said he hopes the second U.S. Grand Prix will provide a positive distraction for the American public.

"I very much hope that we can deliver a little moral support and maybe some distraction to the Americans," Schumacher said. "We want to give them some courage and to help them overcome their despair."

Sunday's SAP United States Grand Prix will be televised live by ABC beginning at 10:30 a.m. (PDT).

Herbert had been scheduled to drive for Heritage Motorsports in the Sept. 16 IRL season finale at Texas Motor Speedway, but that race was postponed until Oct. 6 due to the terrorist attacks on the East Coast. Herbert is committed to drive for Champion Racing that day in the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta.