Bob Jennings

"I got a brand new car. And I like to drive real hard. I got a brand new car. And I'm feeling good so far.

Take her on the highway for a little spin. I want to see the kind of shape she's in. And I got a brand new star. Jack her up baby, go on, open the hood. I want to check if her oil smells good. Mmmm - smells like caviar.

Give her some stick. Push her too far. Right to the brink.

Hear the motor running. Yeah, she's right in sync. Tell me if she's thirsty. Would she like a drink. And I'm stopping at this bar.

Slinky like a panther. You can hear her purr. Touch her on the seat. Go on. Feel the fur. And I got a brand new star.

Feel the juice. Foot to the floor. Take some abuse.

I got a brand new car. And I drive her in the dark. And I got a brand new car. I think I'll stop and park."

"Brand New Car" from the 1994 cd "Voodoo Lounge" Virgin Benelux B.V, as written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards and recorded by The Rolling Stones.

I got a brand new car - great stuff. Mick, Keith and the boys are even older than me, but they can still crank out rock and roll better than anyone else going right now. 

Maybe someday, when you go to Bob Jennings' World O' Racing, there will be a sound track while you access content on "BJWOR." Judging from the e-mail, it seems like the most popular offering to date on this website is the piece I wrote more than six years ago about Bill Vukovich. Wouldn't it be something if you accessed the piece on Vuky and music from the McGuire Sisters, Doris Day, the Four Lads or whoever was popular in 1955, came from the speakers on your computer? Well, maybe that isn't such a good idea after all.

The Indy Racing League has some brand new cars and some brand new teams and some brand new drivers and a brand new season.

I love the IRL! I'm so excited about the new season. You can have your CART street parade in St. Petersburg. You can have your "Great American Race" at Daytona. I'll take the Indy cars flying around an oval within inches of one another at 200 mph any day. For me, the race at Homestead-Miami Speedway is the true start to the 2003 racing season and Tony George is a genius.

The big question I have is how can the Indy Racing League top its 2002 season? 

CART fans (and Robin Miller) be damned, you can live in your little cocoon and tell yourself that farce  you saw Sunday at St. Petersburg is good. You can fool yourself and tell your buddies and yourself how great the 2002 CART season was. But I say it's crap! CART is a foolish little series that has shrunk to the point, it's nothing more than a laughable support platform for Formula One. CART is crap!

If a real talent emerges from this 2003 CART season, that driver will either be swallowed up by Formula One, switch to the IRL or if he's driving for Newman Haas, he may try to remain in CART - if indeed there is a CART season in 2004. Hey CART fans, if you want to see what your favorites are doing this year, look at the tables below with IRL testing speeds at Fontana, Phoenix and Miami and the practice and qualifying speeds this weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Back to the Indy Racing League in 2002 for now though. What a classic it was. Look at the margins of victory in each of the fifteen races comprising the 2002 IRL season.

Man, those IRL guys did some racing in 2002! Eight of fifteen races were decided by less than one second. Can you believe that! The three closest races in Indy car history, be it AAA, USAC, CART or the Indy Racing League, were part of the 2002 schedule. As far as I'm concerned, Indy car racing has never been better than it was in the IRL last season. For that matter, in my opinion, there has never been any better racing anywhere in the history of motor sport than what they had in 2002 in the IRL series.   

When I write Indy car racing has never been better than it was in the IRL last season, I'm considering my earliest years when Tony Bettenhausen, the "Tinley Park Express" was my idol, racing against greats like Sam Hanks, Jimmy Bryan, Rodger Ward and Jim Rathmann in the mid to late 1950s and then against A.J. Foyt, Jim Hurtibise and Parnelli Jones at the start of the 1960s. Those were the days when A.J. Watson built those front engined Offy powered beauties to race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway that have become the objects of so much romance over the years.

I'm also referring to Indy car racing's "golden era" in the mid sixties, when Jim Clark and Colin Chapman brought the Lotus - Fords to Indianapolis and turned the world of racing upside down. I'm including all those seasons when I loved Big Al Unser, the Johnny Lightning cars, Jim Hall's First National City Lola and the Pennzoil Chaparral too. I definitely prefer Indy car racing IRL style 2002 over the 1980s and early 1990s when Roger Penske rode herd over the competition like no one before or since.

Was the 2002 Indy Racing League racing last season even better than any of those other periods I have referred to? Perhaps I'm forgetting how I felt during earlier times but if so, it's only because the IRL put on so much excellent racing in 2002.   

As I wrote on this website a few months ago, I had four distinct favorite memories from last season. 

"I have four favorite memories from the 2002 racing season. One was watching Tomas Scheckter dominate the "Indianapolis 500" until he crashed on lap 173. Another was the Jeff Ward - Al Unser Jr. fight to the finish at Texas Motor Speedway in June, combined with Little Al's overhaul of Helio Castroneves for the lead a few laps from the finish. A third memory was Scheckter's charge from twelfth place to win at Michigan International Speedway in July. However the memory which I cherish most from the season just past came during the final 20 laps of the "Delphi Indy 300" at Chicagoland Speedway on September 8."

My focus during the 2002 season was on Al Unser Jr. and Tomas Scheckter and both drivers furnished some classic moments and some big disappointments. However I had fun watching both guys do their thing. 

If Scheckter hadn't pushed into the fourth turn wall at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on May 26, nobody would've touched him and there wouldn't have been any controversy over whether Helio Castroneves or Paul Tracy won the 86th "Indianapolis 500." Tomas was winning at Texas in June before his Red Bull Team Cheever Dallara - Infiniti lost a clutch. The South African was leading in Kansas too, before he crashed near the end of the race. 

It was apparent from his Indy Racing League debut in pre season testing that Tomas Scheckter was as fast as anyone in the series. In all, he led five of the twelve IRL events he started. It was also apparent Scheckter was as wild as anyone to come to Indy car racing in years. Tomas was like a combination of Jim Hurtibise, Nigel Mansell and Tony Stewart as he flew around the ovals on the IRL schedule in the metallic blue Red Bull Infiniti number 52. But the son of 1979 World Champion Jody Scheckter also crashed out of half of those twelve IRL races.    

Everything came together for Scheckter at Michigan International Speedway on the last Sunday in July however. Tomas was near perfect in his dominance and none of the obstacles thrown in his path could keep him from winning that day.

I was disappointed when Scheckter abandoned the Red Bull car 52 after the IRL race at Kentucky Speedway, but by that time Al Unser Jr. was scrapping harder to win than he had since 1995 and the two time "Indianapolis 500" winner became the object of my attention. Little Al failed in his bid to win a third career IRL event last season. However in his quest for victory, Unser showed he still had as much speed and desire as he had in his best days with Rick Galles or Roger Penske and he made me very proud again to be his fan. 

Even more than the excitement I felt watching Tomas Scheckter race in last season's Indy Racing League competition, the most rewarding thing for me personally was seeing Al Unser Jr. race again like he meant it. Going into the 2002 season, I was very skeptical about Little Al's future and painfully aware it was a "make or break" season for Junior. However the "redhead" responded to the challenge so well that even his problems with authorities in Indianapolis in early July and his having to miss races in Nashville and Michigan did not dim the competitive fires burning inside.    

Perhaps the biggest story of the 2002 IRL season was the move from CART by Roger Penske's team. A lot of the so called "experts" were giving the "Indianapolis 500," the series title and most of the races to the Marlboro Team Penske duo of Helio Castroneves and Gil de Ferran, especially since the pair of Brazilians swept first and second place in the 2001 "Indianapolis 500." 

But those pundits forgot about Sam Hornish. It was apparent from the time the checkered flag was waved at Hornish at the finish of the 2002 Indy Racing League opener last March at Homestead-Miami Speedway that Sam had something special going in the Pennzoil Panther Dallara - Chevrolet.

Castroneves salvaged a second consecutive Indianapolis victory albeit a controversial result to say the least. The happy little "Spider Man" also won the season's second event at Phoenix. de Ferran had a pair of strong wins at Pikes Peak International Raceway and Gateway International Raceway. Gil also had almost certain wins taken away from him at Nazareth by Scott Sharp, at Richmond by Sam Hornish and at Nashville by Alex Barron. Obviously Marlboro Team Penske made its presence felt in its first full season of Indy Racing League competition. Neither Castroneves, nor de Ferran, nor Roger Penske, for that matter, had enough to deprive Sam Hornish and his yellow clad Pennzoil Panther crew from a second IRL championship however.    

There's no doubt in my mind that Sam Hornish is the supreme driving talent in the IRL at this time. It's hard to even guess how much racing success lies ahead for the 23 year old youngster from Defiance, Ohio. Hornish has had problems coming to grips with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway but on every other type of venue where the Indy Racing League competes, Sam is the master at crafting a race. So it's only a matter of time before Hornish figures out how to run "Indy." It's also only a matter of time before the two time IRL champion races for Roger Penske in my opinion.  

Another interesting aspect of the 2002 Indy Racing League season is that six drivers got their first career IRL wins. Jeff Ward, Gil de Ferran, Airton Dare, Alex Barron, Tomas Scheckter and Felipe Giaffone all tasted IRL victory for the first time in 2002. 

In a season of growth and promise for the Indy Racing League, perhaps the biggest negative for me from 2002 was the departure of Nissan from IRL competition. The Nissan people invested so much into producing the Infiniti Indy car powerplant with only three IRL victories to show for the time and money invested. What is especially sad is how far the Infiniti Indy V8 package had come. In 2002, the Infiniti was the engine to have if you wanted to go fast at Indianapolis, California, Michigan, Texas, Kansas, Kentucky and Chicagoland, where speeds exceed 200 miles per hour.

The most exciting image from the 2002 Indy car season for me was Tomas Scheckter racing away from the field in the 86th "Indianapolis 500" in the Infiniti powered Red Bull Dallara. I will miss that image this season. The Red Bull cars were the most distinctive looking race cars in last year's version of the IRL. I wish Infiniti would've hung around this year to do battle with newcomers Toyota and Honda, along with Nissan's traditional 2002 IRL competitor Chevrolet. It would have made things all that much better. 

entry "Toyota Indy 300" at Homestead-Miami Speedway March 2, 2003 

combined practice sessions Test in the West California Speedway - February 4, 2003

 combined practice sessions Test in the West Phoenix International Raceway February 7, 2003

combined practice sessions Test in the West Phoenix International Raceway February 8, 2003

combined practice sessions Homestead Open Test Homestead-Miami Speedway February 17, 2003

combined practice sessions Homestead Open Test Homestead-Miami Speedway February 18, 2003

combined practice sessions "Toyota Indy 300" Homestead-Miami Speedway February 28, 2003 

practice session "Toyota Indy 300" Homestead-Miami Speedway March 1, 2003

qualifying results "Toyota Indy 300" Homestead-Miami Speedway March 1, 2003

So much for the 2002 Indy Racing League season. Twenty one cars take the green flag tomorrow to start the eighth campaign for Tony George's series. There are so many new players in the IRL this season and the story lines surrounding this year's competition are almost too numerous to count. 

Toyota and Honda have come to race Chevrolet for Indy car supremacy. Chip Ganassi has moved his open wheel program from CART and the red and white Target cars will race exclusively in the IRL in 2003. Michael Andretti purchased Barry Green's CART team and will lead the Honda entry into the series. Like Chip Ganassi, Mo Nunn split his time between CART and IRL programs in 2002, but the Englishman will focus on the Indy Racing League this time. Even Bobby Rahal has decided he'd rather switch than fight. Rahal is still running CART this season with Mexican money (and CART itself) paying the bills. However the heavy talent on Bobby's team is working on the IRL project.

With the exodus from CART of all but a couple major open wheel teams (Newman Haas and Jerry Forsythe's Players operation), a strong group of driving talent, that includes Michael Andretti, Kenny Brack, Dario Franchitti, Tony Kanaan and Scott Dixon, has come over to do battle with IRL regulars Sam Hornish, Helio Castroneves, Gil de Ferran, Al Unser Jr., Scott Sharp, Tomas Scheckter, Felipe Giaffone, Robbie Buhl and Sarah Fisher.

In some ways, it's unfortunate the Indy Racing League has taken on a look not unlike that seen in CART a few seasons ago. Judging from last Sunday's CART race at St. Petersburg and the personality surrounding the IRL race in South Florida, it's almost like CART and the IRL have switched identities. That is probably to be expected although I sincerely hope Tony George's series doesn't lose the dynamics which have attracted me so strongly to the IRL in its first seven years.

I don't like it that Buddy Lazier will be missing from tomorrow's race in Miami. Lazier has appeared in all but one race since the Indy Racing League began competition at Walt Disney World in January 1996. Ron Hemelgarn claims that most of the pieces are in place and the purple Hemelgarn car will return to action in the next IRL race at Phoenix International Raceway. I fervently hope Hemelgarn's plans come to fruition because it won't seem like the Indy Racing League without Buddy Lazier.

Another charter member of the IRL, Eddie Cheever, will also be missing from tomorrow's 2003 season opener but for the 1998 "Indianapolis 500," it's a personal choice as he wants to focus on running the Red Bull cars from the pits during the early races this spring.   

Greg Ray, the 1999 Indy Racing League champion, will be at Phoenix with a new team in which he has some ownership. But long time IRL competitors Jeff Ward, Billy Boat and Airton Dare are on the sidelines without rides. Ward was being linked to the Calkins family Bradley Motorsports team but now I read that deal has gone sour. Boat was rumored to be merging his IRL team with the Hemelgarn operation but I guess that's over for now. Even Airton Dare, one of the brightest talents to come into the IRL over the past few seasons, is forced to watch while Shigeaki Hattori takes his place on A.J. Foyt's team with support from Toyota and Japanese money. Also missing from the Miami race will be Alex Barron and Richie Hearn, both regular competitors during the 2002 IRL season. Barron's absence is especially surprising considering how strong Alex ran last year. 

Honda has elected to work with former CART teams Andretti Green Racing and Team Rahal along with a new IRL team put together by Adrian Fernandez and former Formula One driver Aguri Suzuki. The new operation being put together by Greg Ray will also use Honda power.

Toyota has mixed its 2003 entry with former CART champions Marlboro Team Penske and Target Chip Ganassi Racing along with traditional IRL operations at Kelley Racing and A.J. Foyt Enterprises and Mo Nunn's two car entry.

Chevrolet's lineup is made up exclusively of "old line" Indy Racing League competitors led by series champion Pennzoil Panther Racing. Other IRL veteran teams, Team Menard, Red Bull Cheever Racing and Dreyer & Reinbold Racing also carry the Chevy "bow tie" on the engine covers on their cars.       

The Indy Racing League switches engines and cars every three seasons. This season brings the third generation of IRL spec racing machines. Most of the pre race stories in the media have centered on the new engine packages from Japanese auto giants Toyota and Honda. There are also new chassis designs from traditional vendors G Force and Dallara. 

The photos I've seen of the new Dallara and G Force excite me. These are wild looking race cars, with a more modern appearance than anything else in racing, including Formula One cars. The Dallara has a low frontal silhouette that gives the appearance of a pencil on four wheels, a "needle nose rocket." The G Force, now called the Panoz G Force, also has a small frontal area although a bit less pronounced than the Dallara, but the side pods on the car are sculptured high and swoopy. It won't be difficult to distinguish the two designs.

It's too bad the third IRL chassis, the MK Falcon, won't be racing at Miami. The Falcon, which is produced by former Ford Motor Company racing manager Michael Kranefuss and Kenny Anderson, features a raised nose piece similar to the standard design for contemporary F1 cars. I hope the new Falcon chassis turns up on the race track soon because it will make the visual experience of watching Indy car racing even more interesting.

Regarding visual appearances, I love it when new race cars are introduced and I can get a close look at the new shapes and sizes offered by the designers. That's something you don't get in NASCAR anymore because each body style, be it Ford Taurus, Chevy Monte Carlo, Dodge Intrepid or Pontiac  Grand Prix is really nothing more than a slab of sheet metal contoured to fit a standardized Winston Cup template. CART runs the same chassis configuration that was first introduced in 1990. Formula One cars are exotic but the basic layout of an F1 car has remained essentially the same since the raised nose came into prominence in 1994 and 1995.

These third generation Indy Racing League machines are the wildest thing I've seen since the ground effects chassis was introduced in the late 1970s. The new cars look more like missiles than contemporary rear engine open wheel racing cars. I can't wait to get to the pits at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to take a closer look and shoot photos.  

So who is going to be fast and who isn't during the 2002 Indy Racing League season?

I have included the competitive stats available so far, in this piece, for your examination. What this information reveals is the Toyota and Honda engines have more horsepower than the new Chevy V8. Even General Motors acknowledges they are behind their Japanese competitors at the moment, although Sam Hornish's qualifying run today at Miami has to make Joe Negri and his staff feel a bit better about the prospects for Chevy powered teams.    

The thing that has surprised me more than anything else during the pre season has been the speed of the new IRL Honda V8. Honda didn't announce their intention to enter the Indy Racing League until a few days before the 86th "Indianapolis 500." I anticipated Honda would be playing catch up at the first race of the new season. But two Honda powered Dallaras from the Andretti Green stable, with Tony Kanaan and Michael Andretti driving, sit on the front row of the starting grid for tomorrow's race. The people at Ilmor Engineering who created the new Honda powerplant have apparently done their job well.

So how do the Dallaras and G Forces stack up? Thursday night, Tomas Scheckter was a guest on a new weekly radio program presented by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network. Scheckter told Mike King he expected the G Force to be at its best on the faster banked ovals. Speeds at California Speedway, during the annual IRL "Test in the West," seem to confirm what Tomas told King. Scheckter said the G Force has less drag but also less down force than the Dallara. So that will be something else to pay attention to in the opening races this season. 

So we have Toyotas, Hondas and Chevrolets sitting in the rear of exotic, new "needle nose rockets" from Dallara and G Force. We have a group of invaders from CART coming over to race the people who have carried the Indy Racing League banner in the first seven years of Tony George's series. We also have another A.J. Foyt racing Indy cars as 18 year old Anthony Foyt IV becomes the youngest driver to ever race in the IRL.

Here is an early prediction, perhaps a bit bold, but what the hell? I'll go out on a limb. Gil de Ferran is my selection to win the 2003 Indy Racing League championship to go with his 2000 and 2001 CART titles. That brings up the question of how my two favorites Al Unser Jr. and Tomas Scheckter will do this year. 

I'm eager to see how Tomas Scheckter fares in his second Indy car season, this time carrying the hopes of Toyota and Chip Ganassi's Target operation. I hope time hasn't tempered the South African's spirit and that he's as fast and wild in 2003 as he was in 2002, at the wheel of the Red Bull Cheever Dallara - Infiniti.

I'm also keeping my fingers crossed that the fire from last year is still burning in Al Unser Jr.'s belly. Certainly his race performances in 2002 raised Little Al's stature but people are still watching Junior closely to see if he can still win.  

The Indy Racing League has expanded its marketing efforts in attempt to build on the momentum in popularity that began to show in recent seasons at some of the tracks. However in past year's, the most disappointing crowds were those at the races preceding the "Indianapolis 500."  Whenever I watch an IRL race on TV, the first thing I look for is how many people are in the grandstands. Sometimes I am pleased with what I see but there are also times when I'm disappointed.

Perhaps you noticed all the empty seats at last Sunday's Winston Cup race at North Carolina Motor Speedway in Rockingham. That had to be the smallest crowd for a Cup race in years. The economy stinks and people are hurting for money. So that adds another problem for Tony George's staff to resolve as they seek to build the popularity of the IRL. There was a decent crowd of 35,000 to 40,000 people at the CART opener in St. Petersburg last Sunday. Can the IRL beat that crowd tomorrow at Homestead-Miami Speedway?

But it's almost time to stop speculating about what's going to happen for 2003 in the Indy Racing League. It's almost time to go racing.