The Indianapolis Star from Indianapolis, Indiana • Page 39

D10 SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2003 Sports THE INDIANAPOLIS STAR WWW.INDYSTAR.COM U.S. GRAND PRIX Qualifying format OK with most drivers PIT PASS Curt Cavin urge to wave in the two F-l races in Italy, too, because that's where Ferrari is based and worshipped. "I do it at places where I feel i the fans are very close to you," he said. Barrichello likes racing in In- because the rowdy Brazilian fans are easy to spot from the cockpit. "I joke with Juan Pablo (Montoya) that you can see the Brazilians and the Colombians because they stick together there," he said.

"They're all in the cheap (grandstands). They don't have the money to be in the good ones." Notes Da Matta was 12th in Friday's qualifying, but he had the quickest time in the circuit's second of three sections. Among those visiting the F-l paddock Friday were Indy Racing League drivers Gil de Ferran, Tomas Scheckter, Felipe Giaffone and Eddie Cheever along with NASCAR team owners Ray Evernham and Rick Hen-drick. Call Star reporter Curt Cavin at 1-317-444-6409 or e-mail Richards said the proposed format gives fans attending the event more value on the more popular days. Attendance throughout the series has decreased in 2003.

Richards said the number of in-season testing days allowed is open to negotiation. He predicts it will land around 30. But Ferrari, which has an annual budget that dwarfs most of its opponents, opposes such restrictions. Frank Williams said other F-l teams literally can't afford to back down. "Formula One cannot continue to carry on as it is spending what it does," he said.

The wave of appreciation Rubens Barrichello likely will raise his arm out of his Ferrari sometime on a warm-up lap Sunday and start waving. Don't be surprised. It's part of his routine while racing in the United States. The Brazilian said he does it to acknowledge the support he feels from the crowd. He does the same in Canada, which arguably has the most passionate race fans in the world, and in his home country.

Barrichello said he gets the chael Schumacher said. The only protester among the drivers is 32-year-old David Coulthard. Not coincidentally, the veteran McLaren driver has been out-qualified by Raikkonen, his 23-year-old teammate, in nine of 14 races this season. He blames it on the all-or-nothing mentality a driver must have. "It's more of a young man's approach," he said.

"It places less emphasis on experience." Said Ecclestone: "We're cheating our spectators, giving them a bad show. We used to have qualifying sessions that were full of action. These are rubbish." Today's qualifying session for the fourth U.S. Grand Prix begins at 1 p.m. Testing the limits F-l team principals met Friday to discuss the order of events at future race weekends, another step in their attempt to lower costs in the billion-dollar series.

At issue was the amount of in- Robert Scheer The Star Covered seating: Ken Perkins, John Pascavage and Saundra Tippins (left to right), from Kansas City, brave a rain shower at IMS. "You don't have that much time either," F-l newcomer Cris-tiano da Matta said. "You have to do everything real quick." BAR principal David Richards seeks four hours of Friday testing with the qualifying sessions on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. In addition to focusing the testing process, Ralf Schumacher not taking sides in championship jgggy C1 )rrp m- JUI jiQliC a Formula One is wrapping up its first season of qualifying one car at a time. The traditionalists despise it.

Series czar Bernie Ecclestone condemns it. Surprisingly, the drivers support it. For decades, starting lineups of grand prix races were based on the fastest lap in a free-for-all session. Since 1993 it has been determined by the best of each drivers' 12 laps. But the action had been reduced to the final 5 minutes and all of the attention was squarely on the front-runners.

In the new format, each driver gets a clean lap with his own spotlight. Therefore, everyone saw what Jarno Trulli did while posting the fastest time of the day Friday during U.S. Grand Prix qualifying at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. "I'm happy with it," Kimi Raikkonen said. "I'd keep it the same," Fernando Alonso said.

"It seems to have been good for the championship," Jacques Villeneuve said. "So if (it's) good for F-l, (it's good) for everybody." "Don't care, honestly," Mi- Rain Schumacher reminds fans: 'We race in the wet, From D1 finishing well in F-l. Today's qualifying will be at 1 p.m. "The only worry I have is that most of the Americans (will) probably stay home because they're not used to racing in the wet at Indianapolis," Michael Schumacher said. "So let me tell you: We race in the wet, too." Trulli has never won an F-l pole, much less a race, in his seven seasons with four different teams.

He said his advantage Friday was a familiarity with the track. Renault is one of four teams that opted at the start of the season to forgo some testing sessions for a two-hour practice on the first morning of the 16 race weekends. The Italian made it pay off. He led the test session and turned a track-record lap of 1 minute, 9.566 seconds in qualifying. But Trulli expects the championship-leading Ferrari, Williams and McLaren cars to close quickly.

They didn't get much practice when the track was dry Friday. When they qualified, most of the surface rubber was washed away. "They can improve more and better than us," Trulli said. Trulli, who had the fastest car in the slower sections of the circuit, is confident that he can start close to the front because the new Michelin front tires are better than the previous version in the colder conditions. The change occurred earlier this month in Italy.

"If we get 20 degrees more than today (from the track temperature), Michelin is going to be even more competitive," he said. Despite Friday's intermittent rain, there were many examples of Michelin teams challenging the once-superior Bridgestones. Mark Webber put his Jaguar in the third spot with Ralf Schumacher fourth for Williams. Montoya, the other Williams driver, was nearly four-tenths of a second quicker than Michael Schumacher, whom he trails in the standings by three points. Nine drivers bested the previous track record, set last year by Michael Schumacher.

"I wasn't the quickest today," Montoya said, "but I am in front of my main rivals and this is the most important thing." Raikkonen, the only other driver with a legitimate chance to win the championship, was ninth on Friday's speed chart. "The circuit got quicker when people went out later," he said. "But we'll see tomorrow." Michael Schumacher was the first to make a qualification run Friday. By the time the flurry of fast cars ended, he was eighth. "After the rain this morning, the circuit got very dirty so the lap times got faster with every car that put rubber down," said Schumacher, who is pursuing his record-setting sixth career championship.

The seven drivers at the bottom of Friday's action will be happy for a second chance today. They got caught in a qualifying downpour, forcing them to creep around the track as much as 10 seconds behind Trulli. Call Star reporter Curt Cavin at 1-317-444-6409. Matt Krygor The Star Looking for help: Despite having a Formula 3000 season title on his resume, Justin Wilson had to raise $2 million to get a chance to drive for the Minardi Formula One team. Driver hopes his stock in F-l will rise in value He doesn't want to get in middle of battle between his brother and his teammate.

By Steve Ballard steve.ballardindystar.com With his brother and his teammate battling for the Formula One drivers' championship, Ralf Schumacher figures the best way to avoid being caught in the middle is to be in front of them. The German driver succeeded Friday with the fourth-fastest lap in the initial qualifying session for the U.S. Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Williams-BMW teammate Juan Pablo Montoya is one spot behind him and Schumacher's older brother, Michael, is another three spots back going into the final round of qualifying today. Asked which driver he would be more inclined to help, Ralf Schumacher said his only goal in Sunday's race is to help himself.

"Juan never needed my help to get to this point anyway," he said. "If I am in position to win the race, I will certainly try." "Juan Montoya) never needed help to this anyway." Ralf on his za, Italy. He was held out after experiencing headaches from a crash in testing at Monza. Schumacher said he felt fine Friday and his car was only a few minor adjustments away from being in tiptop shape. Without the intermittent showers that disrupted preparations in practice, he said his Williams would have been faster than the Renault of Jarno Trulli, who had the day's fastest lap.

"I'm pretty happy with the a way I felt. That shouldn't be a problem," he said. "It showed up" 1 today that we had the best cats but we didn't get the best out of it. "I had a bit of a problem with understeer and braked too late in turn one. It's a shame because I missed the (fastest time Friday) by doing that.

But it's looking good for (today)." scnumacner professes to like Indy's 2.6-mile road course but has not had much 1 success on it. An engine failure left him 15th last year, which, was an improvement on his 20th- and 16th-: place finishes the previous two years. Two of his six career wins have come this season. He is trying to hang onto fourth place in the drivers' standings and help Williams hold off Fer- rari in the constructor points. "I believe we have the strongest package, no doubt about it," Schumacher said.

"It's going to be a very tough race for Ferrari they want to win." Call Star reporter Steve Ballard at i 1-317-444-6184. Wilson finds 900 investors willing to bank on his success (Pablo my to get point season testing teams can do. This year, teams could exchange a test for an extra two hours on the Friday of race weekends. But only four of the 10 teams opted for that Jaguar, Jordan, Renault and Minardi and they have found the morning conditions to be unlike those in afternoon qualifying. make sure everything was legal and guarantee Wilson couldn't be held personally responsible for the debt.

Each investor is promised a 200 percent return if and this is a very large if Wilson can make a living in racing. After the debt is paid, shareholders can collect a dividend, but equally possible is they will wind up with nothing. Wilson vows not to let that happen. "Next year I'm hoping to start paying them back," he said. "As soon as I start earning money, it will go to them.

Obviously, I want to pay it off as soon as possible." Wilson has no assurances of a job next season with Jaguar, which fired Antonio Pizzonia before the German Grand Prix on Aug. 3. Wilson has failed to finish any of his three races with Jaguar, which managing director David Pitchforth so far has accepted as the team's fault. But with Australian Mark Webber showing the relative competitiveness of the Jaguar he has eight top-10 finishes and 17 points this season and was third in provisional qualifying Friday Wilson's future with the team could hinge on what he does this weekend and again in two weeks in the season finale at Suzuka, Japan. Pitchforth said he will wait until then to make a determination.

"It's a case of all hands on deck and all eyes focusing on what we need to do for the remainder of the season," he said. Wilson admitted it was I -A iT-ir" -t nift f'inifc i- -A ir" iAn -t Schumacher teammate His brother would expect no less. "He works for Williams, not me," Michael Schumacher, the five-time champion said. Despite the changing weather conditions Friday, Ralf Schumacher was just glad to be back in his car after missing the previous race two weeks ago in Mon- By Steve Ballard steve.ballardindystar.com If Justin Wilson makes it big as a Formula One driver, 900 believers in his ability will cash in with him. The 25-year-old Brit was offered a job with the underfunded Minardi team this year, but it came with one very large string attached.

To get the ride, he had to come up with $2 million. With nothing to sell but himself, Wilson and his manager, Jonathan Palmer, came up with the unprecedented idea of turning the driver into a public company and selling stock shares. Two months after the shares went on sale in England last spring, 900 investors had pledged the necessary funds. Wilson started 11 races for Minardi and despite limited results, he showed enough to warrant a look from mid-level Jaguar Racing. He'll make his fourth start in a Jaguar-Cos-worth in Sunday's U.S.

Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He was 18th among the 20 entries in first-round qualifying Friday as he was caught in the rain that began midway through the sessioa The idea of selling shares was an offshoot of Palmer borrowing money to fund his own racing career several years ago. "We just took it one step further," Wilson said. Raising the money turned out to be relatively easy after the British media picked up on the story. The hard part was completing all the necessary documents.

They wanted to IllSp Justin Wilson has not finished In any of the three races he's driven for Jaguar Racing. A frustrating that his credentials, which include the 2001 FIA Formula 3000 championship, meant little without $2 million to back them up. It also was a bit demeaning to have to pass the hat to raise that $2 million. "But you do what it takes to get you there," he said, "and it's quite a nice feeling to know you've got 900 people supporting you. Not just friends, but people who actually were willing to pay from their own pockets.

There's a risk in what they're doing." Now that he is with a team that' has potential, Wilson knows it's imperative that he shows his own. But if he isn't invited back by Jaguar, that doesn't necessarily mean he and his 900 faithful are out of luck. "I know the score," said Wilson, who at 6-3 is unusually tall for an F-l driver. "All I can do is keep working at it." Wilson said coming down Indy's long front straightaway in front of the grandstands has the feel of racing inside a stadium and is unlike anything else on the circuit. Perhaps that bodes well for him and he'll manage a result unlike any he has experienced thus far.

He certainly needs it if his stock is to start rising. Call Star reporter Steve Ballard at 1-317-444-6184. rffi ift jjrflh rti liriHii Ai it 1 v. Matt The Star Moving along: Juan Pablo Montoya motors his Williams-BMW car around the IMS course. He was fourth fastest on Friday.

USAC event at IRP postponed until today The USAC Mopar Indy Twin 25s Midget event scheduled for Indianapolis Raceway Park on Friday was postponed because of rain until today. Practice begins at 4 p.m., followed by qualifying at 5:10 p.m. and the first feature at 7:15 p.m. A $50,000 cash bonus has been posted for any driver who can sweep both 25-lap features, with the winner of the first feature starting last in the second. All tickets will be honored for tonight's race.

Refunds are not being issued. "It's quite a nice feeling to know you've got 900 people supporting you. Not just friends, but people who actually were willing to pay from their own pockets. There's a risk in what they're doing." Jaguar driver Justin Wilson mini rtjifti iff-ii A. jT- "ft irfhi A i1 f-.