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Friday, March 9
Swede finished fifth in rookie year
Associated Press
MONTERREY, Mexico -- Kenny Brack figures he might have a slight advantage over his CART rivals Sunday in the season-opening Tecate Telmex Grand Prix.
|  | | Kenny Brack, who grew up racing on road courses in Europe, adapted to CART quickly in 2000. |
"It's back to a new track for me," said last year's top rookie, who had never driven on most of the tracks on last year's 20-race schedule.
Everything will be new for Brack and the rest of the drivers on Friday, when they take to the 2.1-mile permanent road course built in the downtown Fundidora Park on ground once occupied by Latin America's first steel mill. Promoters have said the race, expected to draw about 60,000 spectators, was a sellout within hours of the tickets going on sale.
"It's new for everyone, and I like that idea," the Swede said. "It's the same for everybody, and the Friday practice will be important to all the teams."
For the first time in CART's 22-year history, the first day on road and street circuits will be practice only. Qualifying this year will be restricted to a 30-minute round on Saturday.
"That puts a lot of pressure on drivers and teams," Brack said. "Now you have one short qualifying session to determine your starting spot. So you have to get your chassis working well almost immediately."
That's something that Brack did very well after joining Team Rahal at the start of the 2000 season.
The former Indianapolis 500 winner and champion of the rival Indy Racing League made a quick transition to CART, which has more than half it's races on road or street circuits.
"I think Kenny proved his abilities, especially on the road circuits," said team owner and three-time series champion Bobby Rahal. "When I talked to Kenny about driving our car in 1999, he said he was anxious to return to the roads. I think he showed his previous racing background."
Brack grew up on the road courses of Europe, and was a test driver in Formula One before heading to the United States.
"We knew about him on the ovals. Now we know about him on the roads," Rahal said. "The only thing I can say for 2001 is look out for Brack."
Brack and teammate Max Papis will have an adjustment to make, with the team switching to a Lola chassis after working with Reynards for the past five years.
"I'm impressed with the new Ford engine, and the Lola is a strong car," Brack said. "We were able to get the Lola up to speed very quickly on the ovals.
"It took us a little longer to adjust to the road circuits. But our engineering staff is very experienced, and I'm confident we'll have a contending car on the roads right from the beginning of the season."
In his impressive first year in CART, Brack led the series with nine top-five finishes, collected points in 15 of the 20 races and finished fifth in laps led with 151. The only thing he didn't do was win a race.
"That was a little frustrating," Brack said. "I wanted to win a race or two, and we were in position several times last year but came up short. My goal this year is to win races."
It won't be easy in the ultracompetitive series that had 11 different winners last season.
Among the drivers to beat in Mexico will be defending series champion Gil de Ferran, runner-up Adrian Fernandez, CART's all-time leading race winner Michael Andretti, young chargers Christian Fittipaldi, Cristiano da Matta and Dario Franchitti, and perennial contenders Jimmy Vasser and Paul Tracy.
Two-time series champion Alex Zanardi also returns to CART competition after one year in Formula One and a year away from racing. Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories
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