UNFAIR FIGHT FOR FORMER CHAMPS

By Mike Harris

Champ Car’s demise has team trying to catch up

Penske Racing and Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing have been among the best teams in the history of American open-wheel racing.

Thanks to the recent unification of the sport’s two competing circuits, the two juggernauts will be competitors once again.

Roger Penske’s team has won 134 races, including 14 Indianapolis 500s, and 12 national championships over the past 40 years. Newman/Haas/Lanigan — co-owned for most of its history by Carl Haas and Paul Newman, and now Mike Lanigan — has 105 victories and eight titles in its 25 years of open-wheel competition.

Penske, a co-founder of the CART series, which later became the Champ Car World Series, took his team to the rival Indy Racing League’s IndyCar Series full-time in 2002, leaving what is now Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing as the only powerhouse in Champ Car.

The renewed rivalry won’t be a fair fight for a while, though, following the recent demise of Champ Car.

Looking ahead to the season-opener March 29 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Newman/Haas/Lanigan general manager Brian Lisles is trying to be realistic about his team’s chances.

“We’ll be lucky if we finish on the lead lap,” Lisles said. “I’ll be happy just to do the race and not scare the drivers.”

For a team used to being on top, that’s not a very pleasant outlook.

“No, but it’s just the way it’s been dealt to us,” Lisles noted, philosophically. “We don’t have any option.”

When IRL founder Tony George first made the offer over the winter of free Honda engines, free Dallara chassis and incentive pay for Champ Car teams that would make the move to the IRL, it sounded like a great opportunity.

Unfortunately, the teams accepting the offer have all taken delivery of their new race cars within the past three weeks, with the season-opener looming only weeks away. And getting the cars isn’t necessarily enough.

Less than one week ago, Lisles lamented the fact that needed parts and pieces for the new Dallaras were “still in Europe, some on airplanes, some in North Carolina.”

Time ran out on Newman/Haas/Lanigan, which couldn’t get its cars prepared in time to take part in this week’s special two-day test for former Champ Car teams on the road course at Sebring, Fla.

“It is a big disappointment for the team and an enormous setback because we will be losing valuable track time that will be difficult to recover,” Lisles said.

Other teams that were expected to take part in the Sebring test included Conquest Racing, Dale Coyne Racing, HVM Racing and KV Racing Technology.

Jimmy Vasser, a former CART champion and now co-owner of the KV team, said, “We haven’t had a lot of time to prepare, but the entire team has worked flat out, around the clock, seven days a week just to get prepared for this first test at Sebring.

“This is a huge undertaking and while we are still behind some of the established teams, everything that can be done to this point, has been done and I just want to say how proud I am of the entire team.”

Missing the first test is a big setback for Newman/Haas/Lanigan drivers Justin Wilson and Graham Rahal, too.

“I was looking forward to trying out the Dallara for the first time and making some progress on our 2008 season,” Wilson said. “[The team] said right from the start that they will not put out a car that is not up to their usual high standard of preparation. It is reassuring for me to know that I will have a reliable car, especially given the commitment necessary to compete on some of these high-speed tracks.”

Will Power, moving from Walker Racing, which won’t compete in the IRL this season, to KV, will be at Sebring, along with new teammate Oriol Servia.

“All credit has to go to the crew guys because it is an absolutely outstanding effort to be able to get two cars together in such a short space of time,” Power said. “The test is going to be all about shaking the car down, learning what the Dallara is like to drive, how it reacts to certain things and, for me personally, I will be working hard at getting to know all the team at KV Racing Technology.

“I think I owe them all a dinner already because they have put in some serious hours to get these cars ready in time for this test.”

Both tests are important to the IRL newcomers because the Homestead race will be followed one week later by the road race at St. Petersburg, Fla.

But Homestead will be a particularly difficult test for some of the IRL drivers, who have never raced on an oval.

Enrique Bernoldi, a former Formula One driver and newcomer to American racing, will drive in 2008 for Conquest, and all the tracks in the IndyCar Series will be new to him, as well as with the Dallara-Honda.

“At the beginning, we will have to learn a lot because it is a new car for the team and for me, and especially to race on ovals, which I never did,” the Brazilian said. “But it will be interesting. I’m very motivated and I think we will do a good job. ... Everybody’s target is to learn quickly and be competitive through the season.”

Penske driver Helio Castroneves, a two-time Indy 500 winner and one of the favorites to win the 2008 championship, said he welcomes the new competition.

“These guys will have a hard time at first, but (Newman/Haas/Lanigan) is a championship team,” Castroneves said. “It won’t take them long to find out what it takes to be competitive. And they aren’t the only good team with good drivers coming here.

“It’s going to be fun.”

The fun for the new IRL teams may be a while coming. Right now, it’s all work.