CART: Barron Hits an All-American Homer
22 December 1997
1997 KOOL/Toyota Atlantic Champion Alex Barron Signs With Dan Gurneys All- American Racers... F2000 Standout Buddy Rice Signs to Partner a Returning Memo Gidley for 1998 Atlantic Season... Lynx Junior Team Driver Sara Senske Will Run Full Season in Star Formula Mazda Championship...With the announcement that 1997 KOOL/Toyota Atlantic Champion Alex Barron has signed to run the 1998 FedEx Championship Series for Dan Gurneys All-American Racers, Lynx Racing is living every racing teams dream... two for two and batting 1.000 with three rising star home run hitters on deck.
Barron, with victories in five of 12 Atlantic races in 1997, won both Rookie of the Year and the series championship, becoming the second driver in the past two years to have won the Toyota Atlantic Championship with Lynx Racing and then move up to CART. Patrick Carpentier won the 1996 Atlantic Championship driving for Lynx, winning nine of 12 races, eight of them in a row from the pole. He went on to win the CART Rookie of the Year award driving for Alumax/Bettenhausen in 1997 and has signed to race for Players/Forsythe in 1998.
Were happy for the success that Alex and Patrick are enjoying, but were not surprised, says Lynx Racing co-owner Peggy Haas. This is a team full of extremely talented people dedicated to helping young champions realize their potential, and we knew right from the start that Alex and Patrick had the right stuff to make it to the top. And the three other young drivers now in the Lynx program, Memo Gidley, Buddy Rice and Sara Senske, all hold the same promise.
Barrons seat on the Lynx Racing KOOL/Toyota Atlantic team will be taken by Buddy Rice, 21, of Phoenix, Arizona. Rice drove for Lynx Racings Lynx/DSTP junior team in the U.S. F2000 Championship during 1997, scoring one win, two poles and four podium finishes. He also won the Valvoline/Team USA Scholarship and raced in the Nations Cup event in England.
Being with Lynx/DSTP in F2000 and now moving up with Lynx to Atlantic makes me eel good about the future, says Rice. Steve Cameron is the team manager and driving coach for both Lynx/DSTP in F2000 and Lynx in Atlantic, and Jim Griffith is the engineer for both teams, so we all already talk the same language and share the same philosophy about winning. Everybody in Atlantic gets all-new cars in 1998, so were all starting from square one, but with a team this good, Im confident that theyll give me a car capable of winning races.
Returning to the Lynx Atlantic team is Memo Gidley, 27, of Novato, California, who won two Atlantic races with the team in 1997 and finished second in the series championship. With victories at Toronto and Vancouver, he also won the hotly-contested Players Challenge for drivers scoring the most points during the four Canadian rounds of the 12-race series.
What I learned this year was how to optimize the resources available to me on any given weekend, says Gidley. Finding the perfect setup in the short amount of practice time available at a race is impossible, and driving harder in a car thats not working properly only makes you go slower. So you have to figure out how to work within the team environment, work with the data and work with the engineer to optimize whats available. And thats what Im taking into next season, the ability to get the best out of the team, the car and myself.
Sara Senske, 19, of Kennewick, Washington, is the youngest member of the Lynx Racing team, but shes been racing karts since age 7 and won her first race at 8. She ran the final six races of the Star Formula Mazda Championship for the team, starting on the pole at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway in her first-ever oval track race. She will run a full 13-race Formula Mazda season in 1998 in a Lynx-sponsored car fielded by one of the best teams in the series, Kent Stacys S3 Racing.
The people at Lynx and S3 treat me like a driver, not like a girl, says Senske. Thats important if Im going to learn everything I need to achieve my dream of running in the Indy 500 and opening the door for other women to get into auto racing. Ive been racing all my life, but it wasnt until I started with Lynx Racing that I really understood how big a challenge Id set for myself. But Im confident that, with the help of my team, my talent, my family and my faith, I will become the champion I know I can be.
Lynx Racing, now entering its sixth year of operation, is a scholarship organization owned by Peggy Haas and Jackie Doty. The teams mission is to seek out young racing drivers with championship potential and provide them with the physical, mental and spiritual resources and training to make the jump to the top levels of motorsport. Drivers are chosen for the program according to a wide variety of factors including: speed, attitude, willingness to learn, media presence, personal presentation and an unshakable faith in their own talent along with a total dedication to becoming a top professional driver.
Auto racing is as much a mental sport as a physical one, says team co-owner Jackie Doty. What makes Lynx Racing different from other driver development programs is that we pay as much attention to their mental and spiritual development as we do their on track and mechanical skills. A good driver in a fast car can win a race, but that driver will never become a true champion until their mind is clear and their purpose is focused.
Lynx Racing also has the added advantage of Team Manager/Driving Coach Steve Cameron, a vastly-experienced driver who is every bit as fast as the young stars with whom he works. The ability to turn a faster lap, in the same car, than any young hotshoe brimming with self-confidence puts them in a receptive mood for the detailed lessons in suspension setup, racecraft and strategy that forms a major part of every test day and race weekend.
Its a useful situation in terms of getting as much education across as quickly as possible, and it really keeps me on my toes because I have to be as fast as these kids or they wont take me seriously, says the 37 year-old Cameron. Somewhere in the process, there comes a point where the pupil exceeds the teacher, and thats exactly the goal Lynx Racing has in mind every time we sign a hot young driver. Its a good system, but its a little hard on the egos involved; theirs when they first get here and find that some old guy is faster in the car than they are, and then on mine when they get it figured out and start beating me.
Gidley and Rice get their 12-race 1998 KOOL/Toyota Atlantic Championship season under way at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach on April 4, while the first race in Sara Senskes 13-event/11-weekend (two weekends have two races) Star Formula Mazda Championship takes place at the Thunderhill track in Northern California on February 21-22.
