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Season Wrap-Up
 The
2003 IRL Indy Car Series is in the record books. It was a very
challenging year for myself, my grandson and rookie driver A.J. Foyt
IV and Team Conseco.
A.J. IV entered this season as a rookie, a true rookie with no Indy
car driving experience. I knew it would be a big step up for him even
though he won the IRL Infiniti Pro Series championship last year.
Why? On average, the Indy cars run about 40 mph faster than the Pro
cars on tracks ranging in size from a mile to 2.5 miles like the
Speedway. The Indy car has 750 horsepower, almost double that of the
Pro car's 400 horsepower. The Indy car also has many more adjustments
available to make it handle properly...which means a lot more chances
for things to go wrong.
This year in the IRL, the competition was incredibly strong with the
new teams that joined the series this season. And that didn't make it
any easier on A.J. IV. But I also believe that you learn more from
driving against the best drivers so I think it was good for him.
This year both Dallara and G-Force introduced new chassis; the Toyota
engines were brand new to us as a team so we had some learning to do
too. Working with A.J. IV under the pressure of media attention, and
peer pressure, was tougher than any of us expected it to be. We had
good times and some not so good times but we worked through all that
and came out stronger in the end.
He spent the first half of the season testing his limits and the
limits of the Conseco car. More often than not, that meant hitting the
wall sometime during the weekend. Sometimes it was his fault and
sometimes it was our fault because we didn't prepare his car as good
as we should have.
By the time we left Richmond in late June, however, I knew A.J. IV had
turned a corner. After some problems in practice, we gave him a car
that he could race and that's what he did on the fast ¾-mile banked
oval. He started in the back but it wasn't long before he began
passing cars driven by former IRL champions. The race didn't end well
for us because A.J. IV crashed coming off turn two going for a
position. But it was the last time he crashed this season.
He began to realize that he cannot make up for what the car lacks.
When the car isn't handling, adjustments must be made. He also figured
out how to communicate better what he wanted in the car. And when we
weren't able to give him the car he needed, he drove it within its
limits rather than crashing.
But even when he did crash, he had a flair for the spectacular. People
still talk to me about his first qualifying run at Indy when he tried
to set a new qualifying record...driving backwards! Spinning in the
short chute between one and two, he drove the Conseco car backwards at
over 168 mph all the way through turn two and onto the backstretch! I
remember when I started driving Indy cars in 1958, I didn't go that
fast driving forward!
A.J. IV did pit stops for the first time in his career and he was
very, very good at that. He hit his marks consistently. I think he
might have stalled the engine only two or three times the whole
season, and in one race it was due to a gearbox problem.
At 19, A.J. IV has shown a tremendous ability to deal with pressure.
In case you don't know, I am not the easiest person to drive for.
Doubt that? Just ask anyone who has driven for me. I know I am harder
on my family than I am on strangers, probably because I expect so
much.
And I am expecting a lot next year. For one thing, A.J. IV won't be a
rookie. He knows what to expect from me, the car, Team Conseco, the
competition and the tracks.
I expect to do more testing in the off season. I am also going to make
some needed changes within Team Conseco, shifting some people around
to make us work better as a team.
In 2004, I expect that A.J. IV and Team Conseco will turn some heads
with their strong and consistent performances. And I don't think that
is expecting too much. |
