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Friday, August 24
Cheever: Steering the name of the game
By Eddie Cheever Jr.
Special to ESPN.com
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This weekend's Indy Racing event at Gateway International Raceway marks the first time that we've gone to St. Louis, and it is a very, very particular racing track. There really are no other tracks that we race on that are similar to Gateway.
There are no tracks with straightaways as long and corners as tight as you see at Gateway. The straightaways are incredibly long and it's a very difficult oval because you have to decelerate so much. Every time you decelerate, you're dramatically affecting the aerodynamic balance of the car.
Turns 1 and 2 are very, very slow. Down the back straightaway, Turns 3 and 4 are totally different types of corners than 1 and 2. At Indianapolis, for example, both sides of the track are fairly similar. At Gateway, however, the two ends of the circuit are very different.
The drivers will probably apply more steering in St. Louis than we do at any other oval we race on. I'm mentioning that because the most dangerous thing a driver can do on an oval is put too much steering in. When you put too much steering in a car when you're going so fast, the car becomes very sensitive once you reach a certain threshold. Unfortunately, the next item on the agenda after you put in too much steering is a crash.
Here, you find yourself putting a lot of steering in and having to slow down a lot on the entry to Turn 1. You probably have to downshift, which is very rare on an oval. You can downshift one gear if you want, then try to get the engine to accelerate. You have a little bit of banking in the corner to help you.
In Turn 2, you start to lose some banking, and when you shoot off the corner, you have to be very careful of the wall on exit because normally you will have picked up a lot of push by that point.
At Gateway, your engine revs are low, so the engine does not play a particularly important part in how the car handles. At a lot of circuits, like Indy or Phoenix, the engine torque is a very important factor in how the car handles. At Gateway, it doesn't make much difference because you are down under 9000 rpm. Our Infiniti 35A engine was designed to run at its optimum between 10, 200 and 10,700 rpm so we are totally out of our maximum power range.
Next it's down the long back straightaway heading into Turn 3. It's the fastest corner on the track and you're very close to flat - not taking your foot off the throttle -- with a new set of tires. When you can take a corner flat, the aerodynamic balance of the car does not change. You don't get a car that has too much push on entry or one that is too loose on exit, or vice versa. Your goal is always to take a corner flat. It helps the car handle better and of course it's faster at full throttle.
There's a big bump right after you turn into Turn 3 that upsets the car and you have to get your shock absorbers to work properly over that. Approaching Turn 4, the car gets a little bit loose. You have to be careful of the wall when you're exiting the corner because you tend to pick up a bit of push on exit.
At Gateway, you want to balance the car with the least amount of downforce in order to be quick on the very long straightaways, and the key is going to be carrying as much speed as you can -- without losing your balance -- into Turn 1. That's going to be our biggest challenge.
During the race, the question will be whether you can outbrake somebody on the inside, carry the car in deeper, and just focus on the pass because inevitably the corner will be finished. You have to just shuffle through and hope not to collect the other driver or car.
Since this is our first time racing at Gateway, I might just give Kenny Brack a call and see what the trick is around here.
IRL driver Eddie Cheever Jr. owns and drives the No. 51 Cheever Indy Racing Infiniti car. He will be providing a diary to ESPN.com throughout the season. Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories
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