Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Tagliani looks forward to driving for new team

Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2003 | 9:31 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.

Alex Tagliani has yet to turn a competitive lap with his new CART Champ Car team, Rocketsports Racing, but the Las Vegas resident already is feeling he has found a home with team owner Paul Gentilozzi.

"I met him in Las Vegas -- we had our first meeting there -- and it was the first time I had the chance to talk with the team owner about shocks, about springs, ride heights," Tagliani said of the three-time Trans-Am Series champion turned team owner.

"I was very impressed and it was a very special feeling to be able to talk about cars with the team owner that you know was going to be the one to make the call for you to get into the car."

Tagliani, who drove the past three CART seasons for Player's/Forsythe Racing, also connected with Gentilozzi on a more personal level -- something he said was lacking with former team owner Gerald Forsythe.

"I was going into the hotel the other night and I was very sick and Paul just said, 'Okay, wait for me here; I am going to go and pick up some medicine.' He walked away and went to the pharmacy and got me some medicine.

"It's bad to say, but I don't think Gerry Forsythe ever did that for me and it's something that shows his personality and how close he is to his driver and how close he is to his crew. For a driver, it's a good feeling to start a season like that."

Although Rocketsports Racing is a first-year team, Tagliani said he doesn't expect to see a lot of the problems that normally are associated with them.

"It's a first-year team but there are a lot of people (here) that have CART experience," Tagliani said. "They have worked on CART teams previously and the engineer that is going to work for the team was working for the last four years at Penske, so there is a great deal of experience there. We have the tools, the equipment, we have cars -- everything is competitive.

"I don't think we are right now the top team in CART because we don't have any base. We are going to have to find those bases but we have everything to find them and as soon as we can put our finger on a good setup and everything that we need, the ingredients to be competitive, we are going to remain competitive very consistently."

Vasser told the Daytona Beach News-Journal that he would share the No. 30 Keystone Light Dodge with Steadman Marlin this season and would attempt to qualify for the Busch race in Daytona on Feb. 15.

"I see myself racing in NASCAR in the future and this is the first step getting experience and meeting people and getting out there to do some racing," Vasser told the paper. "I spent some time in Charlotte last week and we're moving the program along."

Vasser tested the car for the first time Tuesday in Daytona and turned in the top speed (184.158 mph) among the 20 drivers who took part in the two-day session. Vasser's lap was faster than Mike Wallace's top speed (184.053) during Winston Cup testing at Daytona earlier this month.

Vasser, the 1996 CART champion, also plans to run the full Champ Car Series this season. An announcement is expected this week that he will join rookie Ryan Hunter-Reay as the drivers for Stefan Johansson's new American Spirit Team Johansson, which will debut this season.

Schumacher blamed the morning accident on a track that had become slick overnight. His car sustained only minor damage, according to track officials.