PRUETT: Triple Stint, 9.2

Le Mans / ALMS

PRUETT: Triple Stint, 9.2

Your Best And Worst Paddock Interaction Stories, Feelin’ Kinda’ ‘88, Driftin' Dan, and IndyCar Team Owners, Call This Man...STAT!

Marshall Pruett | Posted September 02, 2009 Oakland, CA

The dominance is the same so far when comparing the 1988 F1 and 2009 IndyCar Series. Will Ganassi and Penske finish 2009 having lost just one race, or will a new team take one of the two final races? (LAT)

Hi gang – it has been a busy couple of weeks, so this Triple Stint covers a lot of new and old ground. There’s too much to pack into this one, so look for another edition in a few days.

Email me with your thoughts, questions and opinions.

Good Weekend For Our Columnists

SPEEDtv.com's columnists had a great weekend collectively. From ChicagoLand to Montreal to Mosport, it would be hard to top their results:

IndyCar: Ryan Briscoe, 1st.
Indy Lights: J.R. Hildebrand. 1st and claimed 2009 championship.
Atlantics: Jonathan Summerton, 1st.
ALMS: David Brabham, 1st
Grand-Am: Romain Dumas and Timo Bernhard, 2nd.
Star Mazda: Conor Daly, 2nd.

The one I feel bad for is Marino Franchitti. He and teammate Butch Leitzinger were close to their second win of the year when their Mazda powerplant expired with just 15 minutes left to go. Ouch.

Feelin’ Kinda’ ‘88

Of the few smart things I did in 1988, one of them was to tape the entire season of F1 races. I was a huge Senna and McLaren fan back in the day and watched with complete delight as the red-and white Marlboro-liveried MP-4/4-Hondas steamrolled the competition, taking 15 of the 16 race wins.

The only thing stopping them from making a clean sweep was the combination of a rather sleepy Jean-Louis Schlesser and an over-aggressive Ayrton Senna at Monza’s first chicane. Gerhard Berger went on to score a victory for Ferrari that day in front of the home crowd.

I’ve been re-watching these ’88 F1 video tapes lately and they’ve reminded me a lot of the 2009 IndyCar Series (minus the sleepy interloper) as the red-and-white cars of Penske and Ganassi have combined to take 14 of the 15 race wins, with Justin Wilson and Dale Coyne Racing being the only outsider to break their domination.

With Penske and Ganassi being in a different league on the ovals, it’s not out of the question for them to go 16 for 17 this year.

For the rest of the teams that would like to score a ‘W’ before the season ends, I’m sure it wouldn’t take much to get Schlesser to dust off his helmet…

Driftin' Dan

Dan Wheldon loves driving anything…open-wheel…sportscar…and drifting?

Chris Forsberg and Dan Wheldon. Will they sample each other's ride in the off-season? (FormulaD)

“Dorifto Dan” connected with fellow NOS-sponsored driver Chris Forsberg in the FormulaD paddock at Infineon last month, and while he didn’t get a chance to spend time at right angles in Forsberg’s V-8-powered Nissan 350Z. Once the IndyCar season winds down, all that could change, Wheldon says.

“We’ve definitely had some conversations about setting it up where I could drive Chris’ car and try some drifting. Those guys are talented and it’s really entertaining to watch in person. If you’re drifting in an IndyCar it’s never really a good thing! I know driving the NOS car is something I would enjoy, and it’s always good fun when you’re fortunate enough to get the opportunity to drive a racecar from a different discipline. A few years ago I competed in the Race of Champions and was able to try to rally, and that was fun as well. We’ve had the same conversations with Dale (Earnhardt) Jr. about swapping out our National Guard cars for a test, but we’ve all got busy schedules and it’s always difficult to pull off, but hopefully that’s something we can work out. The off-season in IndyCar is really long, and I’m not the type of person that can go too long outside of a racecar.”

For Forsberg, he’s a rare character. Unlike most of the other FormulaD competitors, he comes to the sport with an empty resume. The Doylestown, PA-native is leading the 2009 FD standings with one round to go, and if he winds up with the title, he’ll be looking to expand his reach beyond FormulaD.

After Justin Wilson used some of his drifting skills at the hairpin in Sonoma, Wheldon would have a hard time matching his countryman's display of sideways driving. (FormulaD)

“I have no other motorsports experience other than drifting, but after watching the precision driving and the abilities of the IndyCar drivers -- to have control their cars at such high rates of speed – it’s really fascinating. Karting seems to be an easy transition for most drivers to get that type of experience and I would love to get more seat time behind a kart and expand my skills. I don’t know if Dan’s ready to put me in the National Guard car quite yet…but I’m up for the swap if he is!”

To my surprise, I learned another British IndyCar driver has some ties to drifting.

“I did it once back in England when I was driving for Jaguar in F1,” Justin Wilson told me. “They had a drift car -- I can't remember what it was called – some XKR-R – which wasn't really set up for drifting! They had a competition going on at Silverstone and all different people there with different road cars. Some setup for drifting, some not. And people just went out and played. And that's when it kind of first started to come across the UK. Jaguar just gave me this car…we had a bit of fun, but it was more of a race car. It's a little snappy as opposed to a nice, fluid drift car.

Wilson could hold the distinction of being the only F1 driver-turned drifter-turned IndyCar driver, and given the opportunity, he wouldn’t mind giving it another go. Next time, he’d want a serious machine to drive.

“Yeah, that Jag was fun; we did a run through a couple of corners at Silverstone, but I’d want a proper car next time. It was more like I was fighting an ill-handling GT car than actually getting to grips with a well-balanced drift car.”

Wilson pulled off an impromptu drifting session at the final corner at Sonoma when an aggressive pass attempt left his Z-Line Designs IndyCar in a lurid broadslide. Bad Ass quickly gathered it up and left a haze of Firestone rubber hanging in the air. And how did he rate his Infineon performance?

“It was average...I could have done more tire smoke but it's always a trade-off between style and speed. We’ll see what the judges think of me next time!”

FormulaD – you guys taking notes?

IndyCar Team Owners, Call This Man...STAT!

Under-employment has been a major problem for IndyCar drivers in 2009, but sportscar drivers have also been affected. Allan McNish, arguably the best sportscar driver of his generation, has found himself with just three races to occupy his time in 2009. Barring an announcement from Audi about a full-time return to the ALMS in 2010, next season could look a lot like the current one for the Scot.

There are a number of good unemployed IndyCar for hire, but few have the same credentials or competitive fire as Allan McNish. (LAT)

So what should he do with all the free time?

For a man that makes a living driving a car that has more horsepower, torque, downforce and yards more technology than a Dallara-Honda, he’d be a perfect candidate for an IndyCar seat in 2010.

“Well, he’s tested in ChampCars and IndyCars on a number of occasions,” said fellow Scot, Dario Franchitti. “I think in the road courses or street courses it would be typical McNish: right up there. I think he would be dynamite. It would be hard for everyone. He’s kind of like a little terrier, he's hard to beat, he’s very aggressive. I think on the ovals he’d struggle to begin with just because of the experience level and figuring out what he has to do. But it would be fun…fun to have McNish there. He's definitely not doing much. He's doing a lot of PR, he's definitely doing a lot of PR…”

Franchitti’s shared the track with McNish more than once in the ALMS, and couldn’t help but laugh when recalling his efforts to lap his friend’s heavy LMP1 car on the tight confines of a street course.

“The last time we raced was on the track was at Long Beach in the P2 car and I was trying to put his Audi a lap down. I wore out the flasher button because I saw it was him in the car. If I could have caught up to him, I’d probably try to send him…but that was just because it was my boy McNish…but I wouldn't have fancied hitting that big old Panzer in our LMP2 Acura. Talk about hitting an immovable object.”

Dario balked at my suggestion the wee Scot would give Danica Patrick a run for being the most compact driver in the IndyCar Series.

“No, no, no. He's not as light as DP. Especially, as he gets older he’s putting weight on too. He’ll kill me for that one…”

AGR's elder statesman, Tony Kanaan, thinks McNish could be another tough driver to face, provided he wants to make the transition back to open-wheel.

“Allan, I remember back in the day he was a huge promise in F1. With the Audi, I mean, and no disrespect to the other drivers there that I’m friends with, but when Audi needs to put someone in to make a difference, they put in Allan.

200+mph...650hp...1200lb-ft of torque...double the downforce...ten times the technology...McNish would bring an interesting mix of speed and experience to an IndyCar team needing to make a step forward. (LAT)

“In the ALMS, you look at what he did at Road Atlanta last year where he crashed in the warm-up and then came back from two laps down to win. Then what he did this year at Sebring against Franck in the Peugeot. It’s crazy. The thing is though, I don’t know if he wants to do this. He isn’t old, but he’s not a young kid either. If he wanted to commit to IndyCars, well then yes, I think…if we we’re going to throw out a name of someone to come here, he’d do really well, for sure. It’s all about desire. He’d be a tough one to have around here.”

Kanaan admits that while he’d be intrigued to see how McNish would fare against the big names in IndyCar racing, he’s not sure if having two drivers with Scottish accents would be easy for people to follow.

“Personally, I can’t understand a thing when they’re talking together…I think we’ll keep Dario for now and then evaluate adding McNish later…”

And what does McNish think of this adding-IndyCar-to-my-schedule-in-2010 conjecture?

“Well, I certainly have the time…”

Page 1 of 2