[1]

IRL Season 6

THE SONG REMAINS THE SAME

FILARSKI INTERVIEW HOW TO KEEP IDIOTS BUSY

SM

ASH

IN

G F

UN

The soldiers have changed , but as TCG and NHR go to battle the old guard must do what they do best. Again.

We s t r a p K a l v i n Filarski into a chair a n d to r tu r e a n d i n t e r r o g a t e h i m extensively. Well, no, not really.

We help those who jus t c a n ’ t h e l p themselves, so help us. Make sure to read page 7 as many times as needed.

[2]

SMASHING FUN

MAGAZINE

October 2009, Volume 1, IRL, Issue 1 DisclaimerW e d o n o t smash th ings nor have any fun. But we sure wish we did.

THE SONG REMAINS THE SAMEDespite a change in key personnel, Rick O’shea feels that it will still be a case of rinse and repeat in Indycars for now and beyond.

Thehistoryofmankind isahistoryof

domination. Large tracts of power areoften vested in the handsof the fewwhotoy with the rank and file as they see fit.

Entire civilizations were founded andnourished on this very principle, and itexists till date in global behemothspoliticalandapolitical.

Survivalofthefittest.Simple, cold, blunt. Even cruel. Cry

your lungsashoarseasyouwant,but this

phenomenon, perfected by mankind overmillennia,isnotgoingawayanytimesoon.Nosir,theonlywaytocorrectitistocrush

those in power and seize power yourself,thereby subjugatingyourselftothesystemandbecomingitspawn,apartofaviciouscycle.

CarpeDiembaby.And if humankind is in itself so

callous,canitssportsbefarbehind?

The answer to that, in case youhaven’tbeenfollowingthenewsatall, isabig resounding ‘niet’. Pick a sport, anysport, and I dare you to tell me it has a

level playing field. There will always besome better than the rest. Big dogs thatwill alwayspissinthe tallweedsandlaugh

attheChihuahuas.IneverlikedChihuahuas.Buteveryonelovesawinner.Andsoit

is with Indycars as well. Over time, andmany a battle, two teams have come totower over the rest. Titans in their ownright. Target Chip Ganassi and Newman

Haasracinghave come tobe synonymouswith the sport, and theirs is an assemblylineofgreatnesseveryoneinIRLaspiresto,

thetickettogreatpowah.And when one champion leaves,

another takes his place. Another puzzle

piecefallsinplace.

Same sight, different

faces. Some things just never

change.

Awesome Twosome!!Target Chip Ganassi and NewmanHaas Racing have made their namevirtually synonymous with thischampionship, and it wouldn’t bewrongtosaythatitisoneofthesetwoteamsthatwillproducethechampion.

The question is, who will step up totheplate?

[3]

Flawlessvictory.It’s been a revolving door at the top

two teams, and unless you’ve been livingunderarock,youknowwhatthesechanges

are. Nonetheless, the little box at thebottom of the page details these for you.Yes, wecanbe very kind that way. No, we

don’t donate to charities. Or charity casesforthatmatter.

The revolving door at TCGSo much has changed, and yet the

spineremainsthesame.Anywhichwayyoulook at it, Target Chip Ganassi andNewman Haas Racing are the undisputedgiants of the field, the rest of the field

aspiringtooccupy the same shelfspace asthem.Thebigreasonthese twoteamshavebeen so successful has not been the

machinery itself but the personnel at thebattlefront.InHollossi,HytesandAndrews,TCG had a triumvirate that was, to put it

lightly,theHolyTrinity.Nighunbeatableattheir best,these three keptthe Indycarflagflyinghigh.

Backed up ably by Samir Achrifi, who

wasasmanagersshouldbeandnever triedto hog the limelight, TCG has gone toachieve sustainedglory that everyone (and

yes, thatincludesNHR) can onlydreamofachieving. SowhenAchrifiwas forced intodisbandingthe team, his choice ofdrivers

would once be put to the test. While itseemed at one point that all three of hisstarswouldbeheadingoutthebigredfrontdoor, Hollossi had a change of heart that

saw him stick around, and Achrifi musthave been thrilled to have been able tohangon tohischampion driver. Hollossi’s

experiencemightprovepriceless.

A change in tackIn a departure fromhis

usualchoice,Achrifiinsteadc h o s e t o p i c k t w oprofessionals so adept at

dealingwith themedia thattheir verbosity sometimesdistracts from their iffy

trackrecordasdrivers.Nicholas Richardson

andScottMooremust have

undoubtedly been thrilledto receive the call fromtheDutchman,butassumethattheyaremere fillersatyour

ownrisk.ScottMoore,whenhe isn’t busy mucking up qualifying andtryingtogeta fewcheap laughs, isa racer

with surprisingly polished race craft.Abithit and miss, thisis hisbig chance. A topteamand a front‐runningrole ishis litmus

test.Hecantalkall right,butcanhedothewalk?

Likewise for NicholasRichardson,whohadanaverage seasonwithAndrettiGreen

RacingandthenasimilaroneforHVM.Butwhat he failedto doon track hemade upfor off it, and the result is his being

rewarded with a drive for Target ChipGanassi. This istruly the stuffdreams aremade off, and it is time for the ebullient

Aussie todohistalkingon track.Many saythattheNewmanHaasRacingteamhave abetter bunch of drivers, but make nomistake. This bunch, while short on any

realaccomplishmentson their C.V.,mightwell surprise a fewpeople on track in theseasonahead.

A modicum of balanceAfter a time spent under‐achievingas

driver, with some having tagged him aschampion material, Karan Karayi hasdecidedtoswaponejobfortheother athis

beloved Newman HaasRacing and fill thegapingvoidleftbyTomHartley’sdeparturefromtheteam.

It is no easy feat to replace thelegendary Briton, a superstar in his ownright. But pundits feel Karayi haswhat it

takes to do the job with great gusto. Histime at Ferrari demonstrated his nous forscoutingtalent and thereisnoreason whythis should change anytime soon at NHR.

Hisown exit and the flight ofUGKawasiemeanttwospotswere left tobe filled, andKarayiwasted no time in bringing inRyan

Carter and Kevin McGuire into the team.CoupledupwithAdamEckert,whois settobeginhisthirdyearwiththeteamasdriver,

the teamlooksaverywell‐balancedunitonpaper.

What’s new?First of all, Tom Hartley decided thatCampos was a better sounding namethan Newman (and who can blamehim?) and left for GP2. YuujiKawasiepinedforhisanime conventionsandisbusyminglingwithPikachu andDavidJundt somewhere. Scary combo, that.KaranKarayidecidedhehadenoughofnot deciding whether he wanted to

succeed or fail and instead took thesafe paycheque of manager at NHR.Wisechoice.EckertstaysonatNHR,asdoesAchriPiatChipGanassi.Inwhatisacoup,HollossistaysonatCGRandthemedia savvy of Nicholas Richardsonand Scott Moore make an entry. RyanCarter’s savoir faire and KevinMcguire’s all‐round ability completethelineupatNewmanHaas.

In...

• RyanCarter• KevinMcGuire• NicholasRichardson• Scott“Scottybear”Moore

What this meansOneofthese twowill keeponwinningand everyone will keep onwhining tothe FIA, who will reduce the cost ofReynardsonlyfornoonetobuyit.Epic.

Hollossi’s experience might prove

priceless.

[4]

The performance gap at the top is being

whittled away steadily, and it has come to the point

where you can only say a driver or two from the top

two teams is really a cut above.

Carter,forlongacclaimedasoneofthefinest role‐players in this series, hasneverreally received his just desserts and thischance at Newman Haas Racing is a big

opportunity for the charismatic Americanto showcase his full repertoire of skills.Expect RC to surprise many with his on‐

trackabilityontheway tobeingoneofthestarsoftheseason.

Dreyer and Reinbold have for all too

longbeen mired in themuck, but in theirranksexisted twoof the most under‐rateddrivers on the IRL grid, namely KevinMcGuire and KRRaj. And after a tortuous

time,KarayiplumpedforMcGuirewhowasadmittedlytakenabackatthisofferbutnotone he could refuse. HasKarayiunearthed

another Jundt?That isanansweronlyMcGcan offer. Butwe’d takewhatever oddsweget for theAmerican topickupa fewrace

winsthisyearintheveryleast.

Tiers of happinessTraditionally, IRL has been witnessto

unspoken echelons that exist within thepaddock. Undisputedly, TCG and NHRare

perched comfortablyat thehighest levelofthese stratas, but the gap aswe knowit isfast closing. Conquest, Luczo Dragon and

Panther Racing are but three teams that

manyarebankingonbreakingthroughandbeingthenextbigthingonthegrid.Steadyprogress and prudent stewardship fromthese teamscouldseethemgrowinstature

immeasurablyand ifhistoricalperformanceis anything to go by, the only way isforward.For a time, itseemedlikeAndretti

Greenmightwellbeuptheretoo.From a few seasons ago where there

wasnohopeonthehorizonfortheneutrals

(whichprecipitatedchangesfromtheFIAtocreate a greater spectacle for the payingpublic), things are just beginning to getmore interesting as closer racing and

multiple teams winning is becoming agreater reality, just likewateron themoonornerdslandinghotchickswayoutoftheir

league (I saw the latter happen onlyyesterday.Crazytimes.)

Would you really bank against Luczo

Dragon or Panther Racing getting theirbreakthroughvictoriesanytimesoon?WhataboutConquestlivinguptotheirnameandadding to that wins tally of theirs? The

performance gap at the top is beingwhittledaway steadily, and it hascome tothepointwhereyoucanonlysayadriveror

twofromthe top twoteams isreally a cutabovetherest.

Yes, it is a wonderful time to be a

neutral,forlaurelscannotberestedon.

Cream of the cropWhich makes i t a l l the more

imperative for the bigguns tofire. A wisesage once said that when the going gets

tough, the tough getgoing. I read that onthe internet,soitmustbetrue.Regardless,there is no reason why it shouldn’t be

business as usual for the big dogs. Thechange in personnel should be completelyseamless and it becomes hard to see a

reasonwhy thingsshould change anytimesoon.Thebestteamshavesomeofthebestdriversandmachineryattheirdisposal,anditisforthemtouptheirgameandrespond

to the advancements made by the rest ofthegrid,stamptheirauthority,sotospeak.

And drivers of the calibre of Hollossi

and Eckert, both proven race winners,should belickingtheirchopsas theseasonloomslarge.Carter,Richardson,Mooreand

McGuire all have reason to be optimisticandtheycanuseeverybitofpositivitytheycangetbecausetheyaregoingtobeinforafightthisseason.

Butthat’swhatyougetwhenyoupaintabigtargetonyourback.Canthisbulletbedodged? SF

Star Watch

For obvious reasons, Attilla

Hollossi kicks off the season as the

overwhelming favorite. But Adam

Eckert won’t be far behind in the

punters stakes after a solid showing

last season.

Expect Valter Ferreira, Randall

Ruggles, Ryan Carter, Scott Moore

and Jef Beyens to be the surprise

packages, with Bobby Freese one to

keep an eye on. Is this the season

Biggs comes to the party? The

immensely promising youngster

seems set to deliver.

Catch the season on a computer

screen near you soon! SF

[5]

“Ah,goodtoseeyou.Ithoughtyou’dnevermakeit!”

The tone is cheery, the smile sincere, but I sense a hintofirritation making its way through to me. Kalvin Filarski is notbest pleasedby my tardinessandmost ofushave seen that

means business in the way he’s going about trying towhip Penske into shape after a season ofmediocrityandchronicunder‐performance.

Youcangetasenseofjusthowhands‐onheisby

the fact hedispensedwith thewelcomingcommitteeentirely and came to greet me at the gate personally,looking dapper indeed in a white and red Penske team

shirt.Ihavetogetmyselfoneofthose...mustremindmyself...“...and that trophy over there is fromour last race win in

Indycars,whichissofarbackIdon’tevenrememberit anymore.

Howlonghasitbeensincethen?”

Itrytocoverupfor the factthatIhadsomehowdrifted off(again) by givingan answer that would be deep, involved, wellthoughtout,empathetic.Quick,I’mrunningoutoftimehere...

“Toolong.”

Iwait. TheMannodshishead slowly inagreement andI breathe a silent, long sigh of relief. I mustconcentratemore.Themandoesn’tsufferfools.

And why would he?After beingupstaged by a 2manConquestteamlastseason,headshadtoroll.I put the question forward gingerly, all the while

gettingtheroyal,guidedfactorytour.“In allhonesty, it wasapersonnel issue. Scott hadgrown

weary ofthePenskechassisholdinghimback,whichworeonhimastheseasonwenton.AntonioandDondecidedthattheywanted

to take racestrategiesintotheir own hands throughout the firstpartoftheseasontheirpoorjudgementintyreselectioncostus

How do you explain it? They have the moneybags lying around, expertise that sees everyone turn to them year after year and only the top two teams have more resources than them. So what ails Penske? Chris Mass meets the man behind the outfit and comes back wiser.

FILARSKI KUOTED KANDIDLY ON SF MAG ON THE SEASON ON UPGRADES ON HOPING

S m a s h i n g

Fun? What a

daft name for

a r a c i n g

magazine!

This season is a make our break for us. We're either going to charge up the g r i d o r f a l l further behind.

W e ' r e g o n n a

throw all the

money we have at

the car and see

wh a t w e c a n

come up with.

We’re hop ing

that with the

extra budget we

would be able to

close the gap to

TCG and NHL.

“I’m

n o t g o i n g t o

waste my time on

another rebuilding

season.”

THE LITTLE BIG TEAM

[6]

dearly when their tyres repeatedly fell offdown the stretch in many races. Thebreakingpoint waswhenDon andAntoniodecidedthey would use the soft compound

tyres at an oval superspeedway and that’swhen I firedtherace engineersand re‐tookcontrol of my team. Antonio was able to

right the shipandwe cameclose totaking3rd place back, but Scott wasn’t able tocarry hisweight andthe weight of Don as

well.That’swhereitallwentwrong.”

The hands, they’re all over the place.Filarski is gesticulating wildly and oh‐s0animatedly, the signof a man deeply and

passionately involved with his team. Thefrustration when he’s discussing thisseason past is obvious, and he has every

right tobe annoyed. Conquest, with their2‐man setup, had no business beatingPenske andyettheydidsowithoutmuch

ado.3mayjustbeanunluckynumber.“Comehere,youhavetoseethis,it’sa

sneakpeekforyouguys,butonlybecauseIlikeyou.Whatmagazinedidyousayyou’re

fromagain?”I point to the press card and say

“SmashingFun.”

“Rightttttt...what a daft name for aracingmagazine.”

“Tell me about it...it was apparently

picked out by the retarded love child ofParisHiltonandKevinFederline.”

Our laughter pinged off the walls asFilarski led me onwards and deeper into

thefactory.Whatwasithewantedtoshowme?

Oh,sweetlordinheaven...

“Impressive, ain’t it? It’s not thecustomer Penske chassis we supplyeveryonetoo.Godisin thedetailsboy. This

hereisanoval‐specPenskechassisdesignedin‐housebythemthere geniuses. I can’t letyou take a closer peek at it, but believeme...it’srealllllgood.”

But ofcourse,boyswillbe boys. Andthe sight of shiny carstomy eyes are likeholding a red rag to a bull. An open

invitation. I inquire and search out everylast nuggetofinformation I canget, like athirstymanthat’sfinallyfoundtheoasisof

knowledge.

Ican’thelpbutnoticethe littleblink‐and‐you‐miss‐itHondabadge onthe side. TheJapanesesuppliers,oneofmyfavorites,areoften ignored and I run a hand over it,

deeply happy inside. I’m no Manga‐man,but I do likeHonda. Kalvin observesandgoes on to explain the reason for the

synergy.

“We felt that the one thing we wereSUPPOSED to do very well with the old

chassis was kick ass on the road coursesand street circuits and that just neverhappened. But every once in a while wewouldpulloutagoodresultontheovalsso

we figured maybe there's some potentialthere,andwedecidedwe shouldtweakourchassisconfiguration totryandexploitour

few successes. 3rdplace is still our target,

you know, and we’re hoping that with theextrabudgetwewould be able to close thegap to TCG and NHL. But for now, we’regoingtohavetokeepworkingtotakeback

3rdplacefirst.”Assured logic, and I can’t fault it.

There’s a certain steeliness to his words

that almost jarsme for a secondbefore Icatch myself. Penske are done muckingaround. This here is serious stuff, the

heavyartillerybeingrolledoutforaperiodofconsolidation.Enoughgroundhasbeenlost,andPesnkerealisethere isa futuretobe builttowards. Theboat isabout tosail

and they’re a bit late, but it’s better latethannever.

Speaking of which, I’m a bit late to

stopFilarskiashepeersovermyshoulder.

“If I may correct that last note, lastyear wassupposed tobe our buildingyear.Wehadadecentracepackageandwehadasolid lead driver in Scott; a driver we

expectedtopickupsomeoftheslackleftbyRyanCarterinDonandahotshotrookieinAntonio.Wewereplanningtousewhatwe

had and save some money and use it tobuildanewchassisorpay for someenginedevelopment,butwechasedourtailsforthe

first halfoftheseason andIkeptyellingatthe boys for making stupid decisions. I’mnot going to waste my time on anotherrebuildingseason;we'rejust gonnagofor it

all right here. We're gonna throw all themoney we have left over at the car afterpayingoff everythingelse andseewhat we

cancomeupwith.”Everything?Thewholekitchensink?“That’sright.”

Wow.That’seitherincrediblybraveorincredibly stupid. For Penske’s sake, Ihope it’s the former. I like Penske and Ihope they do well. But in recent years,

theyseemtohave foundanextra gearont r ack , and i t ’ s the r eve r se gea runfortunately. I didn’t even know they

hadit.Clearly,neitherdidFilarski.“Yeah,it’sbeenaroughtime.Ifwekeep

upthis streakofdisappointingseasonswe

may have to downsize our operations tojust 2cars,andifweget to that point,wewill be pursuing experienced drivers whocanbeconsistentandwhowill scorepoints

weekinandweekout.Wehavespentquitea bit of time scoutingRyan Croft, and wehave big hopes for him for future seasons.

Unfortunately the last 2 young guns wewent with, DonandAntonio,didn’texactlywow us like we had originally hoped.

Antoniohimselfdidjustenoughtokeephisjobhereforatleastthiscomingseason.”

The hours just fly by, and before Iknow it I am politely escorted to the car

waiting outside in brightPenske livery asmy time here is done. I had my doubtsbefore cominghere, Ihave to admit. This

was Kalvin’s first interview since foreverandIdoubtedthiswouldgowell.

But it did.And youknowwhat? If he

showsthesametouch,somightPenske. SF