DRIVERS FEEL NEED TO REDUCE SPEED.

Byline: Mike Harris Associated Press 

Race drivers will go as fast as their cars and conditions allow. They don't have to enjoy it.

Last week, in the inaugural Marlboro 500 at the new California Speedway in Fontana, the speeds were high enough to make even the fastest of the drivers nervous.

The quiet, contained Mauricio Gugelmin became the first driver to unofficially surpass 240 mph and, the next day, the first to officially qualify above that impressive and frightening number, turning a lap at 240.942.

The 27-car field was the fastest in auto racing history, averaging more than 233 mph.

``Inside the car at those speeds, you're on a different planet,'' the fast Brazilian said. ``The vibration and the way you're approaching the corners is just something else. ... You have to try not to turn the wheel. You just turn your head and let the car follow your head. But you have to be careful because you don't want the back end to break away. Everything is very minute, very precise.''

Also very dangerous.

Arie Luyendyk drove in the California race as a replacement for series champion Alex Zanardi, who came away with a mild concussion after two terrifying crashes during the opening day of practice.

Luyendyk, a two-time Indianapolis 500 winner, also wound up with a concussion in a crash that illustrated clearly the need to slow the cars on the 2-mile, banked oval.

An in-car camera shot showed a clear track ahead of Luyendyk one moment and, an instant later, the spinning car of rookie Arnd Meier dead ahead. The ensuing collision sent Luyendyk's car ricocheting into the concrete wall, where Meier's car collected him again. It all happened at well over 200 mph.

It was the kind of crash that has everyone holding their breath until they know the driver is OK. In this case, the news was good as Luyendyk, knocked out momentarily, regained his senses moments later and had no other injuries.

``We were lucky on that one,'' said Andrew Craig, president and CEO of CART. ``We know something has to be done about the speeds. The drivers, the team owners and the sanctioning body are all aware we have to work together to slow them down in the proper way.''

Gugelmin agreed.

``No matter what anyone says, it is too fast,'' he said. ``When I drive at a track like this, I clean everything from my mind, glue my foot to the floor and steer it, but it is too fast.''

Jimmy Vasser, the 1996 series champion and runner-up on Sunday to winner Mark Blundell, said the Championship Drivers Association had been discussing ways of slowing the 900-horsepower cars on the big tracks even before Fontana opened.

``This is just the last straw,'' Vasser said. ``We want to slow the cars down by maybe 20 mph on this track and maybe 15 mph at Michigan. We'd like to get the lap speeds down below 220. Maybe even a little slower.''

Hiro Matsushita, a driver and owner of Swift, a California company that makes race cars that compete in CART, said: ``It's very simple; we have to reduce horsepower.

``Just continuing to modify the aerodynamics is nonsense. The engineers and aerodynamicists can overcome that. We need a restrictor on the turbocharger. That's a simple way to slow them down, and easy to check.

``We have to reduce horsepower for the superspeedways,'' Matsushita said. ``For us, the drivers, 220 is fast enough, even 210. The 240s are crazy.''

Actually, other than Luyendyk's frightening crash, the few wrecks in Sunday's race were relatively minor. But that didn't fool anyone.

``You can't believe how many close calls there were out there,'' Blundell said. ``Riding alongside someone, or being just ahead or just behind, was all right. But overtaking was an eye-opener. You'd catch a slower car so fast, it was hard to believe, and you didn't know if they saw you when you were going past. It was nerve-racking.''

After record speeds over 237 at Indianapolis two years ago, the rival Indy Racing League adopted a new engine formula and all-new chassis and managed to slow the speeds by about 15 mph.

CART doesn't want to go to that extreme, but something must be done. The series now has the winter months to find a way to slow the cars next season at Michigan and the California track.

``You can bet our rules and technical committees will be working on it very hard,'' Craig said. ``It's obvious something needs to be done.''

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

PHOTO (1) LUYENDYK

(2) Mauricio Gugelmin turned in the fastest laps in CART history this past weekend, qualifying at over 240 mph.

Associated Press