OT: Why we need a new CART SIM!

taken from the qualifying for the California GP at Fontanna. CART De Ferran Sets World Record In Polewinning Run Gil de Ferran celebrates a much-needed pole position at Fontana Saturday. Fontana, Calif., Oct. 29 - Gil de Ferran claimed the pole position for the climactic race of the 2000 CART FedEx Championship in emphatic fashion by setting a new closed-course record lap of 241.428 mph in qualifying for tomorrow's Marlboro 500 Presented by Toyota. De Ferran's thrill ride not only eclipsed Mauricio Gugelmin's existing world record lap of 240.942 mph (set in qualifying for the 1997 Marlboro 500), more importantly, he comfortably edged Newman/Haas Racing's Michael Andretti and Christian Fittipaldi for the pole position and the single FedEx Championship point that goes with it. The pole point gives de Ferran 154 points on the season, six more than Adrian Fernandez and 20 more than Paul Tracy and Kenny Brack who qualified 14th, ninth and eighth, respectively. It also gives de Ferran 23 more than Roberto Moreno, who qualified nineteenth and was thus eliminated from contention for the CART title. "I'm very pleased to be here talking to you," said de Ferran in the post qualifying press conference. "It is very pleasing to have established a new record, but the most important thing is to have the extra point because you never know when you'll need it. It could buy us some extra cushion tomorrow. "Most of the credit goes to Marlboro Team Penske. A lot of work went into developing the car for this track. Honda brought a fantastic engine...they always surpass my expectations." Such was the combination of chassis, engine and (Firestone) tires, that de Ferran modestly confessed to having a fairly easy time of things. Easy enough, in fact, that he set his pole time on the first of his two allotted qualifying laps. Given that he was the final driver with a chance at pole, he backed-off the throttle and did not complete a second qualifying lap. "To be honest it was not too difficult," he said. "The car was not sliding, there was no understeer and I was sitting on the right rear tire a little bit. The car was spot on. I thought `there's no way I'm gonna lift!' As soon as I passed the (finish) line Roger (Penske) said `OK, you're done.'" Such was the superiority of de Ferran and his Honda/Reynard that he beat Andretti's Ford/Lola by a veritable country mile - .295 sec or 2.331 mph - for the pole. Although Andretti was disappointed to lose the top spot, it hardly came as a surprise to him. "The car was just OK," he said. "I was hoping to be a little bit quicker but I had too much understeer. I said after I qualified that if anyone else hits (the set-up) right, they would beat us - and I think Gil did." Fittipaldi was pleased with his run to third place on the grid, particularly because it resulted from a new approach he took to practice this weekend. "We figured out in Michigan that you don't learn anything driving in the tow just to set a fast time (in practice), so I tried to run alone and work on the car," he said. "I was slow in the morning practice because I was trying to run in clean air and not behind anyone so I could work on the car. It definitely helped because the car was good. I thought it would be good for 238 so to be honest, 239 is a bit of a surprise. But I'll take it." Helio Castroneves underlined the speed of the Marlboro Honda/Reynards by qualifying fourth-fastest at 239.011mph while Juan Montoya edged Jimmy Vasser for fifth in their swan songs for Target/Chip Ganassi Racing. Although theirs were the fastest Toyota-powered cars, monopolizing the third row of the grid was not the way either wanted to begin their final race with the team, particularly given the fact that Montoya had set the pace in practice yesterday. "I'm a bit disappointed since we were so fast yesterday," said Montoya. "There was a little push and the conditions were right but we just weren't in the same place as on Friday." "We didn't have a very good couple of days," said Vasser after bouncing between his primary and spare cars. "Juan's time was only .4mph better than mine, so I think 237 was about all we could do with this package. I was as trimmed out as I could be. I ran without a wicker bill and the only other thing we could have done was take the boat tail off. Juan did that and I tried it this morning and then Dario didn't like it." Dario Franchitti was a similarly disappointed seventh quickest, having seen a potential shot at the front two rows go by the boards when he lost fuel pressure on the KOOL Honda/Reynard midway through his final qualifying lap. "The first lap was pretty good, but I was getting more out of the car on the second lap," he said. "That lap was much better through Turns One and Two, good through Three and then we dropped all the fuel pressure coming out of Four. That cost a massive amount when you consider that even with the problem that was a 235 mph lap. It was good for 238 mph - at least." Brack was the quickest of de Ferran's championship rivals at 236.297mph, just edging Tracy for the fourth row. The twosome had decidedly different perspectives on their efforts, however. "That was the fastest we've run by ourselves all weekend," said the Swede, "so that was pretty good." "I don't know what happened," said the Canadian Tracy. "We had the wrong gears in the car at a critical time. Fourth was too short, then I shifted to fifth on the final warm-up lap and it was too long. There was no in-between. "We just didn't get the job done, so now we have to work on the set-up for the race and look for a way to win a million dollars and hope we get extremely lucky when it comes to the championship." At that, he at least had a better day than did the final two championship hopefuls - Fernandez and Moreno of Patrick Racing. Fernandez qualified a lackluster 14th and, as has become increasingly the case, was at a loss to explain his lack of pace in the Tecate/Quaker State Ford/Reynard. "We knew we didn't have the speed going into qualifying," he said. "I was expecting maybe 236 or 237. We knew we couldn't do a 239 but I was surprised we didn't have a little more speed. We have some drag on the car, but we don't know where it is. I was going flat-out, but we just didn't have the speed." Fernandez had a day at the beach compared to Moreno, however. The Brazilian's day began when he tangled with Max Papis in the very opening minutes of practice while just beginning to get up to speed. The shunt damaged the right front wheel of Moreno's Ford/Reynard and, after a few laps in the spare proved unproductive, the team opted to fix the damaged primary car for qualifying. However, the loss of track time proved crippling to Moreno's hopes for winning the pole (his best lap of the weekend had been 233.4mph on Friday) and he duly recorded a 231.672mph lap when it counted most. Although he was eliminated from the title chase, he was typically upbeat about his 2000 season. "Well, we didn't get it," he smiled. "Still I'm very glad to be in this position in the championship. We had a handicap because this is my first time here (at Fontana), and then the crash this morning hurt our chances. Our car was a little loose on the exits of the turns but it should be easy to fine-tune it for the race. "I'm so pleased with everything that's happened this year. It's been a crazy championship. Everyone but Gil has run into problems, but I'm very glad for the opportunity. I think we've made the most of it." Qualifying results from Fontana follow: 1) Gil de Ferran, No. 2 Marlboro Penske Honda/Reynard, 30.255sec/241.248mph 2) Michael Andretti, No. 6 Kmart/Texaco Ford/Lola, 30.550/239.097 3) Christian Fittipaldi, No. 11 Big Kmart Ford/Lola, 30.553/239.073 4) Helio Castroneves, No. 3 Marlboro Penske Honda/Reynard, 30.561/239.011 5) Juan Montoya, No. 1 Target/Ganassi Toyota/Lola, 30.731/237.688 6) Jimmy Vasser, No. 12 Target/Ganassi Toyota/Lola, 30.792/237.217 Two Honda's, Two Fords, Two Toyotas....and the pole is a record 241 mph! Even with a Cart patch in GP3, we're looking at what? 220? And that is with the High Drag Hanford Device.(Think of running the Hockenheim track with a 3 Element wing) The Power! -- dave henrie Free the ICR2 source code!

In article <geMK5.25693$[email hidden]>, "Dave Henrie" <[email hidden]> writes:

Quoted text (9 lines)

>De Ferran Sets World Record In Polewinning Run > > > Gil de Ferran celebrates a much-needed pole position at Fontana Saturday. > >Fontana, Calif., Oct. 29 - Gil de Ferran claimed the pole position for the >climactic race of the 2000 CART FedEx Championship in emphatic fashion by >setting a new closed-course record lap of 241.428 mph in qualifying for >tomorrow's Marlboro 500 Presented by Toyota.

Holy cow...I thought they'd slowed these things DOWN...? Woowhee! Eldred -- Tiger Stadium R.I.P. 1912-1999 Homepage - http://www.umich.edu/~epickett GPL hcp. +49.67 Never argue with an idiot. He brings you down to his level, then beats you with experience... Remove SPAM-OFF to reply.

"Dave Henrie" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:geMK5.25693$[email hidden]... > taken from the qualifying for the California GP at Fontanna. > > > CART > > De Ferran Sets World Record In Polewinning Run I spent Friday and Saturday at Fontana, it was great being back out on pit road at a CART event. I still see CART, with it's mix of Superspeedways, short tracks, street courses and permanent road courses, to be the ultimate challange for a driver, team and manufacturer. Unfortunately the marketing department has not seen fit to properly capitalize on this diversity. Hopefully this will change with the appointment of Patrick Leahy to Director of Marketing. Send your emails to CART.com, maybe they will see that it's in their best interest to get out of this marketing agreement with Midway for CART electronic games. -- don New GPL Programs for the Converted Tracks: http://www.ianparker.co.uk/gpl/bapom/ You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say will be misquoted, then used against you.