From: Michael Powell 
 
2004 INDIANAPOLIS 500 MEDIA TOUR NOTEBOOK
 
Scheckter wants to finish Indy job; Taylor climbs to IndyCar Series with
friends
 
INDIANAPOLIS, Thursday, March 25, 2004 # Tomas Scheckter looks at his switch
to Panther Racing for his third Indianapolis 500 as another chance for Victory
Lane.
 
#I look at it as another #500,## Scheckter said March 25 at the Panther shop
during the 2004 Indianapolis 500 Media Tour. #I#ve led it the two times I#ve
entered it. I look at it as the possibility of drinking some milk.#
 
His first two trips to Indy were with Red Bull Team Cheever and Target Chip
Ganassi Racing in 2002 and 2003, respectively.
 
#Here it#s a little more race-oriented, and they#re not concerned so much
about being on top of the time charts every day,# Scheckter said of Panther,
which won the IndyCar(R) Series championship in 2001 and 2002.
 
And he#s moved.
 
#I#ve had an apartment here since I#ve been racing over here,# Scheckter said,
#but I#ve lived in the offseason in Miami. I just bought a house in Geist (an
Indianapolis area), so now I#m a Hoosier.#
 
***
 
Climbing the ladder: Mark Taylor#s move from the Menards Infiniti Pro SeriesTM
to the IndyCar Series for his first Indianapolis 500 hasn#t been alone.
 
Engineer Brent Harvey and subassemblies/gearbox man Kevin Conley have moved
with him. The crew chief for the car is Eric Haverson, who served as the crew
chief for Paul Tracy#s car in 2002 for Team Green and was a mechanic on Jacques
Villeneuve#s winning car in 1995.
 
#I enjoy it,# Haverson said of his new assignment to form a crew around
Taylor. #You get a chance to get some fresh ideas. It#s fun to watch a team
jell with some really talented people. Indianapolis holds a soft spot in my
heart, for sure. It#s certainly the pinnacle for open-wheel racing in the
United States.#
 
The continuity of Harvey has helped him, Taylor said.
 
#We had a great rapport last year, and that helps,# Taylor said. #That
relationship is crucial for any driver in the IndyCar Series.#
 
***
 
Third Panther car up in air: John Barnes, chief executive officer of Pennzoil
Panther Racing, was noncommittal about adding a third car to the team#s stable
for the #500.#
 
#I don#t know,# he said. #We#ll make an announcement here soon. We have #til
the 31st to decide that.#
 
Panther has eight Dallara chassis in its shop, Barnes said. Six are updated to
current specs, with the others in the process.
 
***
 
Nanny#s place in history: Jamie Nanny, co-owner and chief mechanic for Access
Motorsports, has a unique distinction in Indy Racing League history.
 
As a crewman for Treadway Racing in the fall of 1996, he was the first ever to
fire the engine on a G Force IRL car at a racetrack, for Arie Luyendyk at
Phoenix.
 
#That#ll never change,# Nanny said with a laugh March 25.
 
#A lot of it was a blur. We#d worked so many long hard hours to get to that
test. We#d been waiting on parts. It wasn#t the most complete race car, but it
was functional.#
 
Now, a little more than seven years later, he#s in a key position for the
Access team with co-owner/driver Greg Ray and co-owner Ted Bitting.
 
#I got myself into a position to be a chief mechanic on a small team,# Nanny
said. #It#s been a true education working with Greg over the past 12 months. We
stay in our own roles and know each other#s strengths and weaknesses. My
biggest part of the deal is more of a managerial ownership role. Greg is the
one who#s kept us going.
 
#With Greg, one of his strongest points is his passion, his unwillingness to
quit. He has great driver feedback, good racing savvy, and he#s a very deeply
competitive-natured person.#
 
Ray is equally supportive of Nanny.
 
#For me, seeing Jamie Nanny in the last year go from being a crew chief to a
bona fide leader and someone I can converse with and sound ideas off of # it#s
very rewarding.#
 
***
 
Successful transformation: 1999 Indy Racing League champion Greg Ray has made
the transformation from driver to co-owner/driver.
 
#I#m crystal-clear on both of those topics so I don#t have to explain it to
myself,# Ray said. #I#m trying to carry the ball forward in the boardroom and
behind the steering wheel. You see such a monumental quest in front of us, then
you work real hard, then you look back and see how far you pushed the bar.
 
#While we want all the things the big teams have, we don#t want to change our
small team approach. We are the smallest, littlest, newest team out there, and
we should be their (the IRL#s) poster child.
 
#(When I came to the series), a good engineer and driver even without
resources could make a car go quick. Now, with wind tunnel and sim data, that
part has moved quantitatively. We#re surrounded by teams that are all on the
edge. We#re in much deeper water on a competitive basis. The difference between
first and 10th is not much.#
 
He was asked about speeds and IRL rules to slow the cars.
 
#If they hadn#t taken away everything they#ve taken away over the last few
years, we#d be lapping Indianapolis at 250 miles an hour,# 2000 Indianapolis
500 MBNA Pole winner Ray said.
 
Ray is in workaholic mode these days.
 
On March 24, he worked in his office in Texas until 6 p.m., went to the soccer
practice of his son Winston, 11, then returned to his office until 2 a.m. At 7
a.m. Thursday, he was on a flight to Indy for the media tour.
 
***
 
Kart winners: In the TAG Heuer Karting Challenge on March 24 at Fastimes
Indoor Karting Center in Indianapolis, the team of Alex Barron, James Burnes of
Intake Weekly and Dave Kallman of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel captured the
40-minute endurance race.
 
In a 10-minute dash among media representatives, Jeremy Winters of Sports
Pedia won, followed by Steve Watson of Westside Community News and Bill
Cremering of the #Racing Roundup Show.#
 
___ Internet Rex 2.29
 


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