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 Friday, March 16, 2001
Team Galles has a French twist
By Marc Connolly
ABC Sports Online
It's late February in Albuquerque, N.M., and a meticulously fit 26-year-old athlete lines up for another 100-yard dash. There are no competitors in sight. Just the ticks of a stopwatch and the incessant barking of a personal trainer. Quad-killing sprints and lung-blasting 200- and 300-yard runs are carried out along the cold, lonely track some 5,300 feet above sea level for hours on end like something out of a Bob Kersee fantasy camp.
For 10 days in a row, Didier Andre goes through this grueling routine. He's a professional athlete all right, but one that makes his living on an entirely different type of oval track than that of Marion Jones or Maurice Green. And in a sport where the miles logged don't show up on your Adidas kicks.
|  | | Didier Andre of France is one of four rookies making their Indy Racing debut in Phoenix on Sunday. |
He's a rookie driver in the Indy Racing Northern Light Series.
The question you're asking yourself is easy: "What gives?"
"Even back when I was 12 years old when I started doing Go-Karts at a high level, I realized that being in good shape is part of the deal and the responsibility of the driver," says Andre, a native of Leon, France. "It's also for mental training by pushing the limit of my body in the same way I push the limit of my car. It's a physically and mentally demanding sport. There is no time to be tired or to even spend a minute thinking about being tired when you're driving, or else you will hurt the team."
As the third man of a team that includes two of the biggest names the sport has even known in Unser and Mears (Al Unser Jr. and fellow rookie Casey Mears), Andre is going all out to ensure that he won't be the reason why Galles Racing doesn't win the circuit's championship this season.
When he signed on with Galles in January after four seasons in the States competing in two different Indy Lights Series (Firestone and Dayton), Andre showed his eagerness to become a diligent student of Indy Racing right away. Though he loved living in gearhead-friendly Indianapolis, he picked up and moved to New Mexico to have a home base just down the road from Little Al and the Galles braintrust.
"They never asked me to move to New Mexico, I just took it upon myself and told them I was going to move there as soon as I signed on," says Andre, who also drove in 24 Hours of LeMans last year with Team ORECA/Chrysler. "For one, I wanted to discover a new state. And it's important for me to stay close to the team. I'm able to work more closely with everyone being here. I like to have good contacts with people."
The season-opening race this Sunday at the Pennzoil Copper World Indy 200 in Phoenix (ABC, 4 p.m. ET) culminates three months of Andre's utilization of his newest teammate and neighbor in the Cactus State.
"I'm lucky to have someone like Al on my side with all that experience," says the talkative Frenchman, who swims, bikes and plays soccer and tennis all during a week's time. "I discovered that in our first day of practice together. The biggest thing was how Al looks at races, how it's him, Casey and me, not just Al Unser Jr. We all have to work together to bring a championship back to New Mexico."
Andre relishes his role as a great unknown coming into this season. Though he has his sights on winning a few races on his own to help Galles' cause and challenging for Rookie of the Year honors, his main goal has been to act as the bread soaking up all the oil his new mentors can nourish him with.
"Every day I learn something new," says Andre. "Having Rick (Galles) and Al here makes it like school for me. I'm the student and I am constantly learning. Their names are pretty big in Europe and France too. So I knew before getting here that being with Galles and these guys who know how to win races is going to be very good for me."
Unlike most of his competitors who grew up in the U.S., Andre has required such a crash-course in oval racing.
"In Europe, there are hardly any ovals," says Andre, who started racing Go-Karts at the age of 12 after being a standout soccer player in his youth. "They are going to build some now, but I only discovered them four years ago."
As should be the case for any racing fan abroad, his first taste of what existed outside of the world of Formula One tracks came at the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway when he attended the Indy 500.
"When I went there in 1997, all I could say was 'Wow.' To see all the people there and the energy they have, plus the fabulous racing that went on, it was incredible," says Andre, who will get his chance to qualify for the world's most famous race in May. "You can watch it anywhere in the world, but you have to go there to experience it. You can't realize the feeling you get as a driver to be there until you look around and realize that you are standing on the famous track."
It was at that point when he knew his future wasn't necessarily going to be in F-1 or CART.
"I loved driving on them plus I wanted to race at the highest level possible, and the Northern Light Series was available for me, so I was excited to go for it," says Andre, who will drive as the No. 32 car this season.
It's been a pleasant surprise for Andre thus far as he's found a feeling of camaraderie among his competitors that doesn't exist in France.
"Everyone is nicer to each other," says Andre. "There's more of a feeling that we're all in this together. It's like a big family that moves around the country. There are good relations between everybody since everyone spends so much time around each other going from race to race. It's very difficult to find that in Europe."
He may change his mind after he gets bumped for the first several times at the "Desert Mile" on Sunday. But as is his personality, Andre is carefree going into his debut.
"I'm not nervous at all. I'm actually pretty confident because of how well everything has gone with our team and how testing has gone," he says, speaking of the team's positive testing in Miami two weeks ago. "I also have no pressure on me at all. I know my abilities and what I can do."
Marc Connolly is a senior writer for ABC Sports Online.
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 RPM 2Night takes a look at Al Unser Jr. and his Galles Racing teammates.
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