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Friday, December 13, 2002
Tough day at the track
By Sarah Fisher
Special to ABC Sports Online
After testing last week, we unloaded with only the familiarity of the track. It had rained most of our test days and we never had the chance to experience a race condition track. When we started our two-day race weekend on Saturday, we were far back on the speed chart. The additional rubber that the other IRL cars had laid down added a gross push to what was minimal at the test when the track was green after the rain.
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SARAH FISHER |
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Car: No. 23
Team: Allegra/Dreyer and Reinbold
Hometown: Commercial Point, Ohio
IRL starts: 30
Best start: 1st (Kentucky, 8/11/02)
Best finish: 2nd (Homestead, 4/8/01)
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Unlike Kentucky, we had to regroup to get back in the top 10 on the time charts. We were able to pull it off before qualifying where we posted a ninth place starting position on the grid. Engineer Mark Weida and I have really developed an on-track relationship that allows us to gain huge advantages in short periods of time. This relationship saved the day.
But, in the process of just achieving speed during qualifying, we didn't get the chance to run in traffic with full tanks, which changes the car during the race. Warmup on race morning gave us a new problem as the air temperature was much hotter then Saturday's track conditions and provided even more understeer in the car. At least we were faced with the same problem of understeer that we'd been having the entire weekend and didn't have to chase the car both ways.
At the end of the session when we were running out of time to fine-tune the car in traffic, Crew Chief Dan Miller discovered a fairly large water leak out of the undertray. At this point, we stopped running and went back to the garage, where we discovered a faulty ceramic seal in the water pump. From there, we changed engines with only a few hours until it was time to grid the cars for the race. This was where our SmartBlade team showed their true colors by making a quick engine change to have no leak problems during the race.
The start of the race was great. We stayed in ninth for a long time as there was hardly any passing to be done -- as Gateway is a very narrow track with minimal places to pass. Lap 32 produced the first problem of the day as my in-car radio started to vibrate the volume control off and I could only hear faint words from my spotter and team. This made lap traffic and race knowledge frustrating, which was comparable to our radio failure at Indy. During this time, I was experiencing a loose car in Turns 1 and 4. However, the team could hear me and I called to have a signboard person put into place.
I missed one downshift around Lap 56 that caused the sharp metal tips between gears to shear off, which didn't allow the gears to mesh and prohibited the gearbox from shifting properly. That left me without any gears past fourth. Two laps later, we made a green flag pit stop for fiyr tires, fuel and one turn of front wing for the looseness of the car. Not too long after, at Lap 66, the voltage of our main battery dropped below operable and we were forced to make another pit stop to replace the battery and a different radio battery. This change got us to Lap 94 when the new battery once again went dead and we had to pit again. These problems were induced by a faulty alternator.
It was just not meant to be. The SmartBlade team did a wonderful job of trying to fix the car so that I could limp to the end but it didn't happen. It seemed inevitable but nobody gave up, which is a strong sign of close and successful teamwork.
Probably the hardest part of the day was watching my teammate Robbie Buhl. He had a tremendous run towards the front of the field as the race went on. I spent most of the remainder of the race in front of the TV on the pit wall being frustrated at the problems he was facing with traffic and also feeling nervous for him to do well.
To be honest, I am not a good watcher. Now I know how he felt at Nazareth when he watched me drive his car. This was the first weekend that I watched someone in the IRL and truly wanted them to win, and could understand the experiences they were facing on the track.
After this weekend, I am appreciative of the help a teammate can lend in your time of need. Robbie was there the whole time when we were behind the eight ball at St. Louis and helped reconfirm the difficulties we had and the changes we made.
Overall, both teams are not extremely happy with the results. We are both excited for Chicago on Sept. 8 (ABC, 1 p.m. ET). Both Robbie and I have had good experiences there and have a great gut feeling about the outcome of that race so stay tuned.
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