Conference oass::racers

    Davey Jones who was injured in a practice crash was still in Serious,
    but Stable condition. He has neck injuries, and sufferred a concussion
    when he crashed on Thursday. He was awake, but weak and had a lack of
    feeling on his left side.
    
    Jeff Ward took his place in the Galles entry.
    

    Eddie Cheever won his first Indy car race on Saturday at Walt Disney
    World Speedway in a rain shortened event.
    
    Is Tony Stewart that good a driver to run a way from the fields like he
    does, or is the Menard prepared cars that good? If Menards equipment
    held up over the last year and a half, Stewart would probably have won
    every race. 
    
    Mark   
    
    

RE: .8

I think that what happens is that Tony Stewart literally pushes the 
car to the breaking point.  This is certainly what happened at NHIS 
last summer.  I watched the whole race from the infield fence midway 
on the back stretch.  I was watching Tony Stewart lap the field 
repeatedly and wondering just what lap he'd break the engine on.  
Sure enough, it happened right in front of me.  And whatever the team 
may have told the press, that was NOT an electrical problem.  
Electrical problems don't make the kind of noise that I heard as 
Stewart limped around 3 and 4 and into the pits, backfiring all the 
way.

I think Mr. Stewart is of the Andretti "drive it until it breaks and 
hope the checkered flag comes first" school.  That philosophy is why 
Mario only won one Indy 500 and why Michael has yet to win one, 
despite having big leads lots of times.  Tony Stewart needs to 
concentrate on finishing races; the only lap he has to lead is the 
last one.

--PSW

    I read this past week that the Molson Vancouver  CART race is in
    jeopardy because of condo's being built near or on the site of the 
    race. 
    
    I guess a decision is due in March if the race will be moved. Too bad,
    I always thought the Vancouver race was one of the most popular on the
    circut.
    
    

    Not to exciting of a race this past weekend in Homestead.
    
    Michael Andretti drove a fine race as did Paul Tracy. Too bad their was
    a mixup on the laps and which cars were on the lead lap and which ones
    were not. It may have been a more exciting finish.
    
    I did hear before and much more talk after the race that the drivers
    did not like the track, or the use of speedway wings. I've even heard
    that they may re-do the track for next year making it more of an oval
    than the 4 corners like Indianapolis. I wonder what Ralph Sanchez
    thinks about that?
    
    I found it ironic that Michael drove a Reynard to a victory in it's
    first race, and now he's done the same with the Swift.
    
    Next CART race will be in Australia, while the IRL heads to Phoenix
    later this month.

    Re: last
    
    Sanchez is trying to hit up the City of Homestead for the $6-11 million
    it'll cost to round off the corners.
    
    George

The real impetus behind rounding off the corners is coming from 
NASCAR, who have made it a precondition to consideration of Homestead 
as a future Winston Cup venue.  CART has said it will not be sorry to 
see the square corners go.

--PSW

    Interesting race this weekend. Way too many errors by drivers, and
    Lil Al's crew. Bet he was mad when his tire came off after exiting the
    pits!!!
    
    What was Paul Tracy thinking when he went went too deep on Meier? Given
    the number of bone-head moves Tracy pulled I wonder if the officials
    will be talking to him....
    
    jim

For that matter, what was Meier thinking of taking a line through that chicane 
that couldn't possibly succeed?

--PSW

    	
    	What was up with the double white flag in Australia??
    
    							Scott.
    

CART rules call for the race to be either N laps or 2 hours, whichever comes 
first.  What with all those caution periods, the stewards took the decision to 
make it a 2-hour race, that is, the checkered flag flies the next time the 
leader crosses the start/finish after the 2 hours is up.  The tricky part for 
the starter is when to wave the white flag.  If the leader crosses with, say, 30 
seconds to go until the 2-hour limit, it's clear you wave the white flag.  In 
the actual event, Pruett crossed the start/finish line with about 1 minute 40 
seconds to go.  The starter looked at the recent lap times and decided the 2 
hours would be up before he came around again and so he waved the white flag.  
It turned out Pruett finished the lap just before the 2 hours expired and so the 
race wasn't over yet and the white flag had to fly a second time.

--PSW

    Parker Johnstone has a good run. Any idea why Michael had two cut tires
    on the left(?) rear? Glad to see carnage was kept to a minimum....
    
    jim
    

1 - Arie Luyendyk
2 - Scott Goodyear
3 - Jeff Ward (rookie)
4 - Buddy lazier
5 - Tony Stewart

more to come later...

Dave

    Let's just say arie was "slightly confused" during the last lap.
    MadMike

    Does anyone have a tape of yesterday's "race" I could borrow?  Will
    return it promptly.  Set the VCR up but never remembered to change the
    station on the cable box.  Dummy!!
    
    Thanks,
    	Barb Platt
    	dtn 244 6369
    
    

    So, Luyendyk wins the Indy 500 with a DIGITAL logo prominantly
    displayed on the car.  I saw it many times during the race.
    This would be a perfect time for the Company to spend some
    advertising money, say in the USA Today.  Do I think it will
    happen, NOT!  What a waste.............
    
    Gone racin
    Gaffer

    We need to sponsor the IRL pace car..... Camera is on that more than
    the race cars.....
    
    "Just say NO" to IRL
    
    jim
    

    <--Ok..I was wondering when somebody would start on this subject so I
    guess I'll throw my 2 cents in. During the race I blurted out that this
    was more like a Indy Rookie League (IRL). Didn't think about much at
    the time but I'm sure I wasn't alone with that comment. The whole
    race was unbelievably sloppy from start to finish and including all
    those blundering pit stops.
    
    I am wicked surprised I haven't seen any comments on Kinser. Damn this
    guy must be responsible for 6 cars dropping  out all by himself. This
    guy must never come back. The most blatant was when he ran right up that
    guy's a** on the restart and never even bothered to slow down or move
    left or right.
    
    In the end a few rookies did pretty well. I just hope with the rules
    changing back next year we truly do end up with the best and fastest
    33 which included CART and some F1 drivers.
    

    RPM2night addressed the restarts last night.  Apparentlyl USAC had told
    everyone they were to maintain a slow pace (to bunch the field up) and
    not restart until they saw the green coming out of 4.  In past years,
    the leaders have actually restarted on the backstretch or going into
    turn 3, then by the time they got around in front of everyone,they were
    all spread out again.  This time there was an inconsistant application
    of what USAC wanted; Kinser still could have done better in that one
    incident.  Then, there's the last lap where the lights don't change. 
    The whole show was sloppy.