September 26, 2001 -
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. - It has been a difficult season for Indy Racing League driver Sarah Fisher. Despite her career best finish (2nd) at Homestead earlier this year, her season is not going anywhere in the latter part of the 2001 campaign. I sat down with Sarah and did a report card with her:
KEVIN MA: Due to recent tragic events, the Chevy 500 at Texas Motor Speedway has been postponed until next week. What was your reaction on the events and how did they affect you on and off the track?
SARAH FISHER: To be quite honest, I really didn't feel like racing that weekend anyway. After all the events that happened -- Major League Baseball cancelled, NFL cancelled, and all sporting events that America loves cancelled, and yet we were still having our show, I just didn't feel like going (The IRL postponed the race eventually). When events like that happened, you gotta focus on what really important in lives, and people wouldn't consider racing that important.
KM: It has been a tough season since your second place finish at Homestead earlier this year. Can you tell us why things are not going forward after that?
SF: It's all about people. People working together to produce results and Walker Racing probably has one of the best cars that hits the track. They may not have big budget like Panther or Kelley have, but the equipment they have is very first class. You've got things to work with and you've got good materials to work with, so it all comes down to people. I think after Indy, the people that we have working on the team, none of us really worked together well and we didn't click. At Indy we had different people running the team, and my old engineer came in and kinda helped me to get thorough Indy to make a quick result. I think that really affected the bond between my current engineer, and it takes until now for us to get working together again.
KM: What happened in Kentucky? You had a good race in 2000 but you seemed to have a dismal time throughout the weekend this year.
SF: Yeah. I mean it's about people. When you work together with someone, and you believe in what they do, everything that they change on the car, you confidence level will go extremely high, and there is nothing on the racetrack is going to stop you. Or if you don't work well together with somebody, any changes they make, 9 of out 10 times things are not going to work, and you don't believe in them and your confidence level drops back. When your confidence level drops off, the rest of the team, engineers, everybody falls off the hill. We sat down, we had meetings, and we have to believe what we've got. Chicago, it was great. We started at the back but we were coming. We were 15th when the alternator went out and we've got our confidence back there. Unfortunately there is only one race left in the season, but it has been a tremendous learning experience for me because I never really had to deal with people before.
KM: I didn't have a chance to talk to you at Indy this year. How disappointing was it to exit the race early again this year.
SF: It was very disappointing and I am not going to deny it. It was the end of a very tough month. We had put a lot of progress into it and we were having a steady climb. It would have been a great race for us, I think. Fortunately now we don't do well on that (having teething problem) anymore, that's a thing in the past. We are looking into the future, trying to make everything better and keep working on it for next year.
KM: Any off track activities, such as personal appearances, affect your driving?
SF: No, it is not something you focus on each day, each hour of the day throughout May. You have to learn to focus you attention on different aspects of the race. Personal appearances, autograph sessions, sponsorship commitments, they all come along with it. There is no one driver out there that doesn't do any appearances in the month of May. You have to learn to adjust. I don't think there had any affect on race day.
KM: The Menard program, how did I come about this late in the season?
SF: It came about when we hired Tim Bumps. He was the major player of that. He came in and saw our entire program from the outside world. He saw the big picture -- he wasn't inside, blame on this little thing. He saw the entire picture and saw that there was an opportunity. Derrick (Walker) and I had been talking about doing something about our engine program, but we were thinking about next year. But with all the luck we had and with the confidence lost, we needed something to get us back on track and get us to get going again. That was one thing Tim wanted to do and Derrick wanted to go along with that.
KM: It is well known that the Menard engine is one of the most powerful Aurora out there in qualifying, but its shelf life seems to be very short. How do you and your team deal with this reliability issue?
SF: Menard engine is very strong. As far as the reliability goes, we haven't seen anything as far as the engine itself. Everything that Menard does has been a great success for us. The two weekends we had - St. Louis and Chicago, we didn't have a single problem. In Chicago, we had an alternator problem, but it wasn't a Menard part. As far as anything that Menard has done, we don't really have a problem with them. We have seen the reliability issue yet.
KM: Do you have the same engine that Jaques Lazier has?
SF: Absolutely yes. In fact, Menard treat all of their clients so neutral. We have the engine builder that builds Jaques, mine and Jeff Ward's engines. They build all three of them. [Jeff Ward has switched to Infiniti engine at Texas). The thing which is so different is the preparation that they put in into the car. They've been in the series for so long, they know some of the little tricks that we are finding out. It is just the fine-tuning that it counts.
KM: The Kroger program seemed to be very unstable throughout the year, and recently your team had announced the ending of the relationship. Was it the economy issue or your performance issue?
SF: I really don't know. It was a complete shock to me. Kroger has done such a good job this year. The promotional value that they got out of it is 3.x million dollars through exposures. As far as I knew they were happy, they were ready to go. I made plenty of visits to Proctor & Gamble in Cincinnati, they were all gung-ho and real excited. And then one day I got an e-mail from Derrick saying there is no more Kroger. Maybe it's the economy, I don't know. We did a lot of fun things together; it is a shame that we can't continue our relationship.
KM: I supposed to do a complete report card with you but since the Chevy 500 has been postponed, the season is not over yet. In any case, how do you rate your season so far?
SF: Horrible season. I definitely think that sophomore bad luck exists. [laughter]. Jacques Villeneuve faced it, Jenson Button faced it.
KM: I faced it.
SF: It's tough, it's very tough. Sophomore year is very tough. Sam Hornish and his team work very hard, they got a good roll and they kept it going, my hats off to them. But, it has been a horrible and we've got only one race left.
KM: Putting that aside. What are your ups and downs this season?
SF: The up would be Homestead, because we were on our own. It was just my engineer and I. Derrick wasn't there, my chief engineer wasn't there. We had to hammer down and the car was perfect and everything was right. It looked like we are going to have a great season, a kick ass season …
KM: Should I put that up?
SF: [laughter] I don't care. I think it all started fallen during the month of May because like I said, we had different people in place, it wasn't the same organization, it changed. Ever since then it was a decline. I think Chicago was another up, even though we are out of the race before that. We were coming. We passed six cars in 20 laps and so, setting people up until the alternator failed. We are ready for Texas now, I have confidence in Mike (Wright) and the team and they've got confidence in me. We are ready to roll but unfortunately we have only one race to prove it.
KM: Looking forward, you sound very confident about the Texas race. Do you think you have a chance to beat Sam Hornish and Buddy Lazier there?
SF: It's going to be tough, but with the program we've got now, it is accomplishable. I am just as good of a driver as they are and my team is as good as they are. We can do it, but it's going to be hard though.
KM: Now sophomore year is almost over. What are you plans for your junior year?
SF: Thank god! Junior year, I am confident that I will be with Derrick Walker. I think if we keep consistency within our team, we'll be killer. We've gained a lot of experience and a lot of people don't realize, but when we have a downfall year like this year, we've learned a lot. If you don't, you are a moron. I think that everyone in this team is smart, I think everything that we've learned, and we can attribute to have a great season. And everybody has had a good season, and they are not learning that much. With everything that we've learned and all our preparation, we are going to have a great season next year.
KM: There were rumors (not from me) about IRL racing in Europe or even on a road course, what's your view on that?
SF: I've got my passport, but that doesn't mean I want to go [laughter]! I think the IRL really needs to stay American and I think they are going to do it. There are opportunities for them to go out there but I think they really focus on staying in America and keeping it as an American series.
KM: I have one question that you don't have to answer that. Billy Roe, is he a moving chicane or what?
SF: A moving chicane?! Every driver that's good has had years of experience. I raced for 16 years, and everybody in the series has tons of experience. Billy Roe is a little bit different. He doesn't have the experience we have and he just jumps right into something that's unbelievably hard to accomplish in the IRL. It is hard to beat it, it really is. I wouldn't consider him a moving pylon, but I'd consider him a challenge when driving around him.
KM: Okay …
KM: IRL and F-1, what are the differences? Are you interested in F-1 yourself?
SF: Interested in F-1? Hell yeah! F-1 blows my mind. I am so excited to be able to get into the pits and garage this year (at the U.S. Grand Prix). The technology that I think they have is unbelievable, and I never got a chance to get close to the F-1 cars before so I really don't know. In fact, racing midgets and sprint cars, you think those are really advanced. Then you jump into an Indy Car then I said, "Oh my god, what do I do?" [laughter]. F-1 is so much further advance. The step from a midget to an Indy Car is like 2, and the step from an Indy Car to F-1 is like 20. I'd love to run a F-1, but unfortunately I don't have the experience to it.
