NEW TEAM GIVES HOT-AND-KOOL TRACY GREEN LIGHT
RICHARD BIEBRICH JR. Staff WriterSUN-SENTINEL
Paul Tracy looked KOOL.
Sunglasses hid his eyes, his blond hair was almost crew-cut short and that Bohemian goatee neatly trimmed.
"Man, he looks like a wrestler," somebody said as Tracy stood near the tail of the Team KOOL Green transporter, green and white jumpsuit opened to his waist, T-shirt covering a body that has benefited from hours of exercise.
Tracy looked relaxed.
His Honda-powered Reynard had been handling poorly in the morning, but the Green Team seemed to have found its way in the afternoon test.
"We got ourselves into trouble and we didn't panic or get frustrated or start swearing at the car," Tracy said later. "We went through it methodically and figured it out and we got it together in the end _ that's what we needed to do."
Perhaps he didn't panic, but Tracy got himself frustrated and began swearing at his car _ and other things _ near the middle of the 1997 season.
After a frustrating 1996, Tracy began 1997 with a second-place finish at the Marlboro Grand Prix of Miami. Three consecutive wins (Nazareth, Brazil and Madison, Ill.) from April 27 to May 24 had Tracy and Penske back on top.
The next win would be Penske's 100th as an owner, Tracy's 14th lifetime.
That wouldn't happen.
Leading the CART series points race, Tracy would miss the next race, at Detroit, because of back spasms, which led to vertigo. Though he would earn points in the next four races, Tracy's season began to spin out of control.
Contact with Parker Johnstone, whom Tracy would replace at Team Green, knocked Tracy's right rear suspension out of whack and dropped the Penske driver to 27th at Mid-Ohio.
That was followed by the Molson Indy of Toronto, where Tracy's diatribe at Roger Penske and the Marlboro Team signaled the end of their relationship.
"I would say that during some of the rough waters that we have had, both Paul and the team have had over the last seven years, I wasn't going to make a snap decision because of his _ maybe his comments at that time," Penske said.
But at season's end, Tracy was out of a job.
"When I reviewed the entire season and felt was in the best efforts of what was available to us to go forward, I thought that the move would be good for both of us," Penske said.
Barry Green was looking for two drivers, one to replace Johnstone and the other to be a young charger. At one point in 1997, it appeared Jimmy Vasser would leave the Target Chip Ganassi team to join Team Green. But Vasser, who assists Green at the Team KOOL Green Academy for young drivers, finished 1997 strong with a win at Laguna Seca and a second at Fontana. The chemistry between Vasser and 1997 champion Alex Zanardi being strong, Ganassi and Vasser mended the fence.
Green originally approached Penske to ask about the availability of Al Unser Jr. Instead, he would sign Tracy and pair him with Dario Franchitti.
"We got a driver in Paul [Tracy), who is one of the best on short ovals," Green said. "Paul's feedback will be important for Dario [Franchitti), who is fine-tuning his own approach to oval tracks. However, Dario's successful road course background, which he displayed so well in winning the pole at Toronto, definitely balances the equation between the two drivers."
Franchitti was the only rookie to win a pole in 1997 and finished tied for second with Gualter Salles in the Rookie of the Year chase to Patrick Carpentier.
Obviously a fast driver, Franchitti is also apparently a fast learner, outpacing Tracy during Spring Training at Homestead 209.400 mph to 208.245 mph.
A Scot of Italian heritage, Franchitti finished 20th in the points racing for Hogan. His resume reads a lot like Gil de Ferran's _ started in karts (won 20 championships over a seven-year career), moved to the Vauxhall Lotus series (winning the championship) and the Touring Car series.
His talent would also bring him to the attention of Jackie Stewart after winning the McLaren/Autosport Young Driver of the Year Award in 1991.
Homestead is something of a hometown race for the 24-year-old, who has residences in Indianapolis and Fort Lauderdale.
Tracy always has liked the Homestead track, too _ his qualifying speed of 198.590 mph is the track record _ but that was before the reconfiguration.
That record is likely to fall Sunday.
"The track record will be erased, but I'm not really concerned about that," Tracy said. "Our focus is really on the race itself. My three wins came on ovals last year, so I like our chances early in the season, with six of the first seven races on ovals."
They have the right chassis-engine-tire combination already. A Honda-powered Reynard chassis, shod on Firestones, has won the championship in 1996 and 1997.
"Tracy's desire to race at the front is very intense. So are his hopes for winning the championship," Green said. "Franchitti continues to impress me with his ability to communicate with our engineers. I firmly believe this is the right driver combination to work toward a championship."
MLB Rookie of the Year Award