Pikes Peak
By A.J. Foyt
I knew that the race at Pikes Peak International Raceway was going to be one of
our toughest in what is turning out to be a pretty tough season. And it was.
Pikes Peak is a difficult track to get around and the higher altitude means less
overall downforce on the car because the air is thinner. We couldn't get to test
there with A.J. IV which was bad because he struggled at Phoenix, the other
one-mile oval, earlier this season. The Foyt Racing team hasn't really run
strong there since we won with Kenny Brack in 1998. And, to make things worse,
it was the first of five two-day shows which meant less track time.
I wasn't real optimistic but then A.J. IV ran pretty good in the Conseco Dallara
in the first practice session. When both groups of cars had run, he was 15th out
of 22 cars.
 Jaques
Lazier had some fuel system problems at the start of his practice session
(different from the bug that got us at Texas). He had to go in the second group
of cars but he was very happy with the chassis and he figured a change in
gearing would make the car perfect. He wound up 14th overall but we knew what we
had to do to improve. Things were looking pretty good.
It was in the second session that A.J. IV got a little lost when the track
changed from cool to hot and it became slick. We began chasing the track, the
car and then our tails. All in all, it was frustrating for him and me.
Jaques was happy with the gear change. Because of the shortness of time, we
focused on race set-up so his practice time didn't look as good since others
were in qualifying trim in that session. He ended up 15th overall; A.J. IV was
22nd.
Qualifying rained out so we went by combined practice speeds. Jaques started
15th and A.J. IV started 21st because he had a better time from the morning
session.
Race morning, more fuel system bugs wiped out any hope of final practice for
Jaques and that really hurt us because his feedback would have been helpful.
I put on a set-up that I thought would work but it didn't. Once the race got
underway, A.J. IV began losing time fairly quickly because the car was so loose.
Once he got lapped, he couldn't stay in the racing groove, and because of the
set-up, his tires picked up the rubber marbles quicker than most. When I called
him in for his first pitstop on lap 22, his tires had lots of rubber build-up on
them.
We put new tires on, adjusted the set-up and watched him skate around for
another eight laps until we could get him back to the pits to park it. The
changes I needed to make to the Conseco car were too involved to be done on pit
lane. A.J. IV said later he was coming in on his own anyway. He'd had enough.
Jaques ran pretty good until he went to pass Sam Hornish. Jaques got out of the
groove, picked up some of those rubber marbles and the car went loose. He was
skating and hanging on for all he was worth. We pitted him too, made some
changes, but again, it wasn't enough to correct the problems even for a driver
of his experience. We parked him too.
A.J. IV went up to Jaques and told him, "You're my hero. You held onto it for 50
more laps than I did."
Jaques said the car was "evil loose." I'm just glad we rolled two cars back on
the transporters.
Things went better for my Infiniti Pro Series team with Ed Carpenter. Fourth was
the key number this weekend. Ed qualified fourth, finished fourth and moved to
fourth in the series' standings.
In qualifying, he lost power coming down for the white flag (he had been fast
enough to get the pole). We found out that he was low on fuel, which shouldn't
have happened. For the race, we changed the fuel regulator and that seemed to
fix that problem.
I made some changes to the car to make it have less downforce because Ed felt
the car was too stable and it was slowing him down. The changes might have
worked but the wind picked up a lot and Ed really needed that downforce. He
experimented with taking different lines and found something he could deal with.
Then as the wind died down late in the race, he began picking up speed and was
closing in on second and third place.
It must have been the calm before the storm though, because it started to rain
and the 100-lap race was stopped at 87 laps. Aaron Fike won it.
This week we head to Richmond, Va. to test with A.J. IV on Thursday. Richmond
International Raceway is a banked three-quarter mile track which is very fast.
How fast?
They run a race lap there in 17 seconds for a speed over 158 mph. Last year, the
pole speed was 168 mph (16 seconds flat!). We race there in 11 days and I'm glad
A.J. IV can get some time on the track before then. It's a two-day show too, so
practice time will be limited. The good news is that it's a night race so we
shouldn't have to worry about it becoming hot and slick. But the action is fast
and furious. Heck, in the open IRL test there last month Helio Castroneves
managed to flip his race car after he rode over Tony Kanaan's wheel. Luckily, no
one was hurt but that track is definitely an attention getter--even for the
veterans.
On Friday, we go to Kentucky Speedway for the open IRL test there. At least A.J.
IV has run that track in his Infiniti Pro Series car. In fact, he won there, so
he should have some good memories.
Hopefully he'll come out of there Friday with some more. |
