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 Thursday, April 12, 2001
Gregoire flying high
By Marc Connolly
ABC Sports Online
Stephan Gregoire will deal with now-requisite runway delays, a horrid cheese omelet and that bald guy next to him saying how he knew the NASDAQ was a bad fad before everyone else when he flies from Indianapolis to Miami for Sunday's Infiniti Grand Prix of Miami (ABC, 2 p.m. ET). Like everyone else on the plane who doesn't wear a perma-grin and a gold-buttoned navy blue blazer, he can think of better ways to spend his time than dealing with airlines.
|  | | Stephan Gregoire speeds down the track last month during the Pennzoil Copper World Indy 200 at the Phoenix International Raceway. |
Fortunately for Gregoire, he'll soon be travelling by a different means when he criss-crosses the nation to race his Indy car. No, he won't be sitting in a private jet sipping champagne and watching DVDs. That's for racers with last names like Schumacher and Hakkinen. Instead, he'll be in a cockpit of a single-engine plane doing exactly what he does when strapped into his new Dallara/Oldsmobile Roush/Firestone: fly solo.
"I'm working on my IFR license and I'm just about to be finished," said Gregoire from his Indianapolis home while babysitting his nearly 6-month old daughter Eliza. "I have to stay home too many times right now because the conditions always have to be great (for someone with only a private pilot's license). When I have my instrument license, I can go through the clouds and fly on top. It allows you to do so much more and have more freedom for trips.
"That's the goal -- to fly to races."
One might think that a speed freak like a racecar driver would have always had a fascination with planes, especially fighter jets. But for Gregoire, nothing could have been further from the truth. Just over three years ago a friend of the Frenchman from Vittel's took him for a ride over the Indiana countryside.
"I thought flying an airplane would be boring because you never feel the speed up in the air," said Gregoire, who will start his 43rd IRL race in Miami. "I didn't have a lot of respect for flying I guess."
That quickly changed when his friend, Greg Mullett, gave him a quick glimpse of what it was like to navigate the friendly skies somewhere over Muncie, Ind.
"I got to fly the plane a little bit," recounted Gregoire with the same sort of amazement one would expect he'd show when describing his first emergence from the cockpit. "It was a Cessna 182. Greg flies big jets now, but he used to be an instructor. So he immediately said he'd make an exception if I was interested in lessons, and I was right away."
In the midst of a hectic IRL schedule over the last two years, Gregoire piled up the hours to become a licensed private pilot. Shortly after completing the necessary 50 hours by taking a final solo test from Indianapolis to Champaign, Ill., then to Evansville, Ind., and back to Indy, he realized that his latest infatuation could eventually simplify his life.
"It was a hobby at first for me," said Gregoire. "Then, it became something that was also very useful for me and something that could make my life easier. It's not like buying a boat. You don't get anywhere with a boat. With an airplane, the possibilities are endless."
Forget for a moment that Gregoire is the driver of the now infamous "?" car that circled the desert track in Phoenix a few weeks ago. (His name will be printed on the side of the car this weekend until a title sponsor is found.) The shrewdest deal for the diminutive oval stalwart was one that linked his two passions, and in the process, saved him a good portion of his prize winnings.
"I made a deal with Mooney Aircrafts, which are known to be the fastest single-engine planes around," said Gregoire. "They've been making planes for over 50 years. You can see (their decal) on my race car."
|  | | Stephan Gregoire gets his first look at his new Ovation 2 he bought from the Mooney Aircraft Corporation. |
It enabled him to purchase a brand new Ovation 2 from Mooney.
"They gave me a very good deal," joked Gregoire. "It was a trade-off, since I gave them the right to be on my car and on my uniform and they can use me for public relations purposes. I'm going to their Air Show (EAA Sun 'n Fun) right after Homestead and then a well-known show (EAA AirVenture) in OshKosh, Wis., in July. It's a great opportunity for me.
"And I've been training on my Mooney the last three months."
Gregoire estimates that he'll have his IFR license sometime between now and early May in the IRL layoff before the Indy 500. Once he passes that, he will no longer stay grounded when the visibility is less than three miles in the day and five miles at night. Though he mentions flying to races as being one of the most exciting adventures of his life, what he looks forward to most by acquiring his license is something that could only come straight out of a guy whose life is always on the line when he goes to work.
"What I can't wait to do is to be able to find the runway at the last moment," said Gregoire, who hit the runway every other day between races. "That would be fascinating and very challenging. There is no margin for error and you can't forget anything."
That sounds like the same creed for another endeavor, doesn't it?
"Yes, it's much like racing since it takes a lot of concentration," he said. "The flying is probably helping me race cars. As far as concentration, it's raising my attention level. I know it aids me.
"I thought it would be easy, but there are so many things to learn in regards to technique, regulations, the weather and everything. I'm learning every day. The more I fly, the more I like it."
And the more he hates the fact that he has to spend one more pre-race dealing with the airlines.
Marc Connolly is a senior writer for ABC Sports Online.
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