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Sonoma
By A.J. Foyt
 The
return of open wheel racing to Sears Point Raceway (now Infineon Raceway) in
Sonoma, California went pretty well for my ABC Supply Racing team.
The track hadn't changed much since 1970 when I ran it in practice in the USAC
Championship cars. The facility itself has been modernized quite a bit but the
track itself was the same. I didn't race because I left early when my daughter
Terry had been thrown from a horse on my ranch and was seriously injured (she
recovered). But I do remember that it was a tricky, narrow course to drive.
 This
weekend there were several firsts for us that made it an even better performance
than it appears on the surface. It was our first time working with road racer
Jeff Bucknum as well as using the Dallara chassis on a road course, plus it was
our team's first visit to the twisty 2.3-mile course. And it was our first time
without A.J. Foyt IV in the No. 14 since he began driving Indy cars in 2003.
That was different for everybody.
With all of those firsts, it was an accomplishment to come out of that race with
a tenth place finish, especially in light of the competitors who didn't,
including the pole winner whose impatience cost him a shot at the win. But he
wasn't the only one who let impatience override good judgment.
 Fortunately
for us, our driver showed patience throughout the weekend. I thought Jeff did a
great job in the ABC Supply Chevrolet. He has a lot of racing experience at
Infineon in other types of cars (but none as powerful as an Indy car). However,
he had tested a Honda-powered Dallara there in mid-April with the Dreyer &
Reinbold team. He was a real plus in the cockpit because he knew the track so
well.
Jeff was easy to work with and he read the car very well. When I made a change,
good or bad, he felt it, no matter how minor the change was. He knew what he
wanted and his feedback was clear even though he'd had only 30 laps at Infineon
in the open test in April.
Lucky for us, Jeff felt that the car was pretty good right off the truck. As he
got up to speed, he said that the car had a push from the middle of the corner
out which we didn't get rid of entirely. If we had, I think his finish would
have been even better.
He qualified 17th and admitted that he was conservative in his one-lap run
because we made some changes before qualifying, he wasn't entirely sure how
those changes would work. He said afterwards that he wished he had pushed it a
little more.
In the final practice he was 15th quick and said that the car was so comfortable
that he could drive it all day. And he did.
The race was only his second ever IndyCar race, his first was the Indy 500. He
had started at Twin Ring Motegi in Japan but never got through the first lap. At
Indy he ran 150 laps before getting caught up in the mess that followed Danica
Patrick's spin. So other than the Formula One test driver Giorgio Pantano who
Chip Ganassi hired (and tested with at Infineon last week), Bucknum was a real
rookie.
He did a great job of keeping the car on track even when he got punted from
behind in the hairpin by one driver. Later on, another car, coming back from an
off-track excursion, ran into Jeff nearly knocking him out of the competition.
He showed the patience that so many others lacked. My grandson watched the race
from the hill and was able to see a lot of the mistakes that others made and I
think he was able to learn from that.
I know A.J. IV enjoyed himself more watching than he would have if he'd been in
the car. It would have been a tough assignment coming to this track cold-turkey
when everyone else tested here. And it's a pretty tricky course, so finding the
proper line, shifting and braking points all takes time, seat-time.
I have to admit, I'm not a big fan of road racing, especially where the cars get
strung out and there isn't much passing. I don't even like that on oval tracks
but it seems to happen more on the road courses. I think it's fun for the driver
because he can recover from his mistakes and still come home with a good finish.
It's very different from the ovals where there is so little room for error, and
the consequences of an error are usually big.
We're looking forward to going to Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Illinois which
is less than two hours from ABC Supply Company's headquarters in Beloit,
Wisconsin. They will have a lot of people there as guests and we don't want to
disappoint them. The race will be televised live on ABC-TV starting at 1:30
eastern time.
Before I go, I want to extend our sympathy from everyone at A.J. Foyt Racing to
the families who lost so much in the terrible hurricane that hit the Gulf coast
over the weekend. It's been an incredible series of events for everyone in that
area and I doubt we even know the full impact yet. It is overwhelming to say the
least. Sportswriters like to talk about the courage of race drivers but the real
courage is being shown on the news this week, from the refugees who have lost
everything to the rescuers who are putting their lives on the line to save
whoever they can.
We are looking into ways that we can help too. In fact, I'm sure everyone in
America is trying to figure out the best way they can help their fellow
citizens. That's one of the things that make America so great, the generosity of
her people. After all, how can we who have so much, do any less? |
