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SPEEDtv.com’s “All-Oops Team”
Written by: SPEED Staff
SPEEDtv.com   
04/08/2009
Charlotte, NC
 
Last week we took a look into the drivers and riders that SPEEDtv.com's online editors and TV hosts deserved inclusion in the 'All-Demoralizing Team," and this week, we look at the lighter side of motorsports by honoring the "All-Oops Team." Enjoy our ode the accident-prone and just plain unlucky.

Genre: Formula One
By: Bob Varsha, SPEED Host

It's a slam dunk, if not altogether easy, to nominate Andrea de Cesaris as F1's representative on the all-time list of racers separated from immortality only by their ability. Andrea’s charter membership to the ‘All-Oops’ club comes not from a singular event, but rather, his committed work across the years to deliver his own special brand of fumbling performances.
With more visits to gravel traps than podiums, Italy's Andrea de Cesaris soon earned the nickname "de Crasheris", says SPEED F1 host, Bob Varsha. (LAT) » More Photos

"de Crasheris," as he was known during his long 213-race career, just seemed to run out of talent when it was most needed to seal the deal and win. A world karting champion, de Cesaris drove capable cars, helped by a close relationship with Marlboro Italy. He ran for eight different teams over 15 seasons, some of them more than once, and he could be reasonably quick.

But there's a reason his record shows a slim 59 career points scored, for an average of just 0.28 per start. That will happen when you start 213 grands prix, but finish just 71 of them. By comparison, Lewis Hamilton currently has the highest points-to-start ratio in history at 5.914.

Something always happened to poor Andrea just when things were looking up. He graduated from Formula 2 in 1981 with Ron Dennis's McLaren International team (the Marlboro thing again), but lost the drive after a season liberally sprinkled with accidents.

He came back the next year driving a factory Alfa-Romeo and took his only career pole at the USGP in Long Beach, but he was passed quickly by Niki Lauda's McLaren, and in his haste to stay with the Rat, de Cesaris, ahem, crashed. After a succession of drives in Minardis, Rials and Scuderia Italia Dallaras, de Cesaris was the surprise choice (or not, given the sponsorship situation) to drive for Eddie Jordan's new team in 1991.
Poor Andrea. Luck was never on his side. (LAT) » More Photos

Come the Belgian GP at Spa, with teammate Bertrand Gachot otherwise engaged in a London jail for hosing a cabbie with pepper spray, Eddie Jordan found another paying driver, and de Cesaris achieved the distinction history will most likely remember him for, as Michael Schumacher's first teammate in F1.

Michael's car failed on the grid, but Andrea drove his well, running second to Ayrton Senna and pressuring the Brazilian when the proverbial cartoon anvil fell from the sky: the Jordan's engine overheated and failed with just three laps to go. The podium would
have raised his career total to six.

Not that it matters, but poor Andrea also suffered from a facial tic that caused him to blink involuntarily, hard and often. Whether it affected his driving his driving is not known…

Genre: Sprint Cars
By: Jim Chiappelli, SPEED News Director

The way I figure it, Tyler Walker owes Jason Meyers $75,000.
Six-time winner in the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series, Tyler Walker. (LAT) » More Photos

Walker, 29, still has that swagger as he strolls from his trailer and climbs into a sprint car. Mainly focusing his efforts on the West coast where he grew up, the Californian competes in the Golden State Challenge Series, in which he won Saturday at Antioch Speedway. Last month he flirted with the World of Outlaws, posting a fourth place finish at Thunderbowl Raceway in Tulare.

His rapid rise in racing and devil-may-care attitude shadows him to this day.

He was winning features in the 410 sprint car ranks as a teenager, when the “young gun” phenomenon was more of a novelty. Fresh out of his teens, he was primed for NASCAR, but solid rides never materialized.

The death knell came when he was found to be in violation of NASCAR’s substance abuse policy.

Call it an unfulfilled career.

Thus, the six-time winner in the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series and seven-time victor with the All-Star Circuit of Champions returned to his roots.

That is where the debt to Meyers, another California product, comes into play.
Walker's time in the spotlight dimmed sooner than it should have. (LAT) » More Photos

Rewind to the 48th Knoxville Nationals last August. Meyers had a comfortable lead over second-place Donny Schatz with 23 of 30 laps completed in the $150,000 to-win A-feature event, far and away the most prestigious checkered flag in sprint car racing. While running mid-pack, Walker lost an engine and apparently his brakes, slowly coasting to a stop on the inside of the frontstretch, just beyond the turn four pit entrance, bringing out the caution.

Able to close the gap under yellow, Schatz passed Meyers a few laps later to collect his third straight trophy at Iowa’s Marion County Fairgrounds.

A disappointed runner-up Meyers was fuming when I interviewed him after the race, as he wondered aloud why Walker did not pull off the track to allow the event to stay green. Meyers collected his thoughts, then took solace in his $75,000 share of the purse, saying, “I’ve heard you have to finish second here (at Knoxville) before you can win.”

Walker’s incompetence in that moment cost Jason 75-grand, but might have provided the incentive that could propel Meyers to a Nationals crown a few months from now.

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