Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Vasser set to make ‘test’ run at Fontana

Friday, March 22, 2002 | 9:18 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. He can be reached at bh@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4089.

Jimmy Vasser returns this weekend to California Speedway in Fontana, but little will be familiar to the Las Vegas resident who won the Marlboro 500 CART race there in 1998.

Although the track will be the same as he has raced on the past five seasons in CART, Vasser will be taking a new car and a new team to the Yamaha Indy 400 Indy Racing League event on Sunday.

Vasser, the 1996 CART champion, will use the race as a 400-mile test session for the Dallara/Chevrolet entry that team owners Bobby Rahal and David Letterman will enter in this year's Indianapolis 500.

"We have come to Fontana basically for one reason -- to test our new car," Vasser said of the No. 19 Miller Lite-sponsored car. "The Miller Lite crew is very experienced with the (CART) cars, but not as much with the IRL cars, so we need to learn as much as possible heading into Indy.

"We can learn about the chassis, the engine and the aerodynamics in testing but we want to learn in race conditions, too."

Besides his victory at Fontana in 1998, Vasser posted a second-place finish in the inaugural CART race at the 2-mile oval in 1997 and qualified second in both 1997 and 1998. He added a fifth-place finish in 1999.

Although California Speedway is more steeply banked then Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Vasser said his team would gain valuable information from Sunday's race that can be applied to the Indy 500.

"Fontana is a little different than Indy with the higher banking of the track and the drafting is much more prevalent than Indy," Vasser said. "But this program with the Miller Lite team is just as important to me as the Shell program in CART.

"To win the Indy 500 would be the ultimate for me as a driver; that's why we want to test at the Fontana (IRL) race. We realize that going to Indy and running a different chassis and engine than what we run in CART is no easy undertaking. That is why any track time we can get is valuable. Any success we have at Fontana is simply an added bonus to our ultimate goal of preparing for the Indy 500."

Sunday's Yamaha Indy 400 will mark the third IRL start for Vasser, who competed in the Indy 500 in 2001 and 2000 for Chip Ganassi Racing.

Lazzaro suffered a small compression fracture of the T-5 vertebrae in an accident last weekend at Phoenix and was not cleared to drive by IRL doctors. Lazarro is expected to be out two to four weeks.

"I'm happy to be in the car this weekend," Hearn said. "You hate to have it happen this way, but I just want to race. I do wish Anthony a speedy recovery.

"I have to thank Sam for the opportunity. He had lots of qualified drivers to select from and I'm happy he chose me. It helped having run with him last year with pretty good results as well as my experience here at this track."

Hearn ran two races for Schmidt -- also a Henderson resident -- last season and posted a pair of top 10s, including a best finish of sixth at Chicagoland Speedway. Hearn made three starts at California Speedway while driving in the CART series.

Busch will be driving a Ford owned and prepared by Noah Yoder Racing of Hicksville, Ohio, in the 20-race series. Busch's plans to run the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series this season with Roush Racing were derailed over the winter when NASCAR raised the minimum age to 18 for all its competitors.

Sunday's WJ Plemons Investments 200 will be televised at 2 p.m. (PT) on TNN (Cox Cable channel 29).

"Physically, I feel like I'm in good enough shape right now that I could handle it," Stewart said. "It's my favorite place to race at anyway. If I'm going to go somewhere a little bit banged up I'd rather go to my favorite place; to me, that's comfortable."

It will mark the first time in nearly a decade that SCORE has included classes for motorcycles and ATVs in one of its U.S. races.

The inaugural off-road race near Black Mountain in Henderson will be held July 14 and will consist of seven laps over a 35-mile course.

The "Bullring Bombers" is a new stock-car division in which the engines and all car components must be stock with absolutely no modifications.

Last year, Ricky Carmichael became the first rider to repeat as champion of the U.S. Open -- billed as the world's richest motorcycle race because of its $300,000 purse.