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Wednesday, September 5, 2001
Changing engines worked wonders
By Sarah Fisher
Special to ABC Sports Online
The IRL race week in St. Louis was a rather long one for me. I drove there on Tuesday afternoon for a Firestone clinic that night and had another one the next day.
|  | | Al Unser Jr. won his first race since April 2000 at Sunday's Gateway Indy 250. |
This was supposed to be my first week back at college, but I missed my classes because of my racing commitments. I'll be a little behind next week when I start back, but should be able to catch up with no problems.
We had our usual meeting at the track on Thursday, but in this particular meeting, we added a new element. We changed to Menard engine power beginning with the St. Louis race and we had a very good meeting with the Menard engine guys.
Later that afternoonI took a little time off and got to be a "tourist." We visited the St. Louis Gateway Arch, which was pretty neat, and then we had a team dinner that night.
I was ready to get to work on Friday, but our first practice session was rained out (which would become a theme for the weekend), and we only got a half hour of track time in for the entire day. Since we had tested at St. Louis earlier in the season, we had a good baseline to start from, and with the addition of the Menard engine, we ended up eighth on the speed charts for the day, so that was a good start for the weekend.
Rain on Saturday forced cancellation of the qualifying runs, so by IRL rules, the starting grid was set by virtue of the point standings. Since we are currently 15th in the points, we would be starting Sunday's race in 15th position.
Saturday evening, Derrick (Walker) and I went to a very nice dinner together, and I got to bed early.
On Sunday morning, I woke up and looked outside and was very happy to see that the skies were clear and sunny. When you have gotten yourself into "race mode" it's difficult to change that focus when you have a delay. Since our final practice was rained out the day before, we had a 30-minute warm-up at 9 a.m. We felt confident that we had a decent set-up for the race based on that run.
After practice, we had our usual drivers meeting and then I met with some Mead people who were there for the race. I also met and chatted with Jeffrey Geller, who won a contest in AutoWeek magazine last fall that was for CARA Charities. Jeffrey was the highest bidder to be an honorary Walker Racing pit crew member for the day.
The car wasn't perfect when we started the race, so we went down a couple of laps in a hurry, but my engineer Mike (Wright) kept working with me and we got the car dialed in for the second half of the race. I could race with and pass cars during this event, which is something I hadn't been able to do for quite some time.
Also, Derrick was my spotter for this race, and he does an excellent job as a spotter. Unfortunately he won't be at the final two IRL races, since our CART team has races during those times as well -- so I just want to say thanks to him for doing such a great job. He's the best!
Back to the race -- we were able to stay out of trouble and on track and ended up with an 11th place finish -- our best since the Pikes Peak race in June. We drove home that night from St. Louis and it was definitely nice to sleep in my own bed that night.
Next up on our IRL schedule is our first race at the 1.5-mile Chicagoland Speedway this weekend. We tested at this track, and I'm looking forward to this race, as we definitely hope to improve on our 11th place finish.
If you can't be at the Delphi Indy 200 in person, make sure to watch it on ABC at 4 p.m. ET this Sunday.
IRL driver Sarah Fisher drives the No. 15 Walker Racing/Kroger Special. She pens a diary for ABC Sports Online throughout the season.
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Al Unser Jr. takes advantage of his fuel and coasts to his second career IRL win.
ESPN's Jack Arute catches up with Al Unser Jr. following the victory.