September, 2000 -
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – Walker racing is one of the smaller teams this year in CART series, as well as its entry of the rival series IRL. Located about 15 minutes from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, NYPost.com visited the Walker race shop after practice day for the United States Grand Prix.
It is hard to see why Derrick Walker's team should be considered as a small team, especially with its achievements over the recent years. Before moving to Team Penske this year, Gil de Ferran enjoyed a successful run, including last year's win at Portland. Drivers such as Robby Gordon, Christian Fittipaldi, Memo Gidley, Scott Goodyear also enjoyed their times with the Indianapolis-based team. This year without the valuable Valvoline sponsorship, Walker Racing has ex-Formula One driver Shinji Nakano as the sole Walker entry in the series, and he finished a career-best 8th recently at Houston.
However, the prize of Walker's IRL operation is Sarah Fisher. Fisher just turned 20 on Oct. 4 and she took third at Belterra Resort 300 in Kentucky, her best in her rookie season. Her presence in this year's Indianapolis 500 created such media atttention that even CART champion Juan Montoya couldn't match her until he won the 500.
It was a slow day at Walker Racing on Sept. 22 because it was an off weekend for CART and the IRL season finale at Texas won't take place until Oct. 15. There were two cars on display on the Walker Racing front entrance – Scott Goodyear's 1991 and Gil de Ferran's 1999 cars.
Fisher, in her street clothes, was signing autographs in her office for her sponsors and fans. Her office was very neat and she also had her mini notebook hooked up online, perhaps answering some of her fan mails.
There was a strong reminder to anyone who followed this year's Indianapolis 500, where both female drivers, Fisher and Lyn St. James, crashed together on early laps. When asked if the conflicts have been sorted out between them, Sarah's answer is "No, not really."
Fisher further explained the differences between her and St. James. "I think we have different approaches on racing, and I don't think girls should be treated differently on and off the track," said Sarah, "I still have an empty sidepod on my car, it doesn't mean because I am a girl I would get sponsorships right away."
Throughout her rookie season, Fisher has become a target for her veteran competitors, including St. James, Eliseo Salazer and Billy Boat. However, Fisher has never taken it personally and it probably helped her to learn on the track. When asked if her frustration has boiled over, especially her reaction after crashing with Billy Boat in Atlanta and various bad luck in between Indy and Kentucky, Fisher admitted it was frustrating but yet, she learned from every mistake she made and learned how to prevent them from happening again in the future. To her, it is just part of the learning process, and her experience has helped her be patient behind the wheel and gained her a well-deserved podium finish in Kentucky. However, she felt she would have a chance to win that day because Buddy Lazier had a broken gearbox right after he took the checkered flag and she was catching up to second place finisher Scott Goodyear rapidly.
Fisher will stay two more years in the IRL series as planned and after that, she might think of moving to another series, perhaps CART or even Formula One. "Depending on which series is better, I will choose the better one. I would like to try CART because I had experience in road courses with go-karts. However, I am not sure if I can fit in the environment of Formula One, but it is nice to think about it."
Fisher certainly has the what it takes to be a successful racecar driver. However, there is another side of her, which is more like a typical teenage girl from next door. When asked if she tasted the champagne on the podium in Kentucky, she replied, "I couldn't even open my bottle." Of course, Fisher was 19 at the time and surely she doesn't want to be an under-aged drinker.
The relationship between Derrick Walker and Sarah Fisher is more like father-and-daughter at the shop. Walker is best known as Fisher's spotter during the race, but based on the dialogue between them, I can feel there is a strong bond there.
Lately, there are many rumors circling the Walker stable. Derrick's office is located on second floor, inside his office he had all his previous Walker Racing model cars on display. Walker admitted Nakano is most likely to leave the team to partner Adrian Fernandez next year with Ganassi's Tom Anderson. He is talking to Jimmy Vasser regarding a ride next year to replace Nakano but at the same time, he is also in talk to have sponsorships next year, This years, most of the sponsors came from Nakano including avex group and Alpine. As long as he can find sponsor to support the team, he should be able to land ex-CART champion Vasser with Honda power once again.
According to Walker, he will have his own entry once again next year, not with ex-Formula One team Zakspeed. Futuremore, when asked if he is in talk with Jaguar's Johnny Herbert, Walker replied, "I've never met Mr. Herbert." -- an interesting answer to me. In that case, Walker is likely not going to switch back to Ford but stay with Honda next year. Recently rumors also suggested that Alex Zanardi is interested in partnering Vasser once again and if that is going to happen, that would be with Walker Racing.
When asked the latest chaos with CART, Walker suggested that ex-CART CEO Andrew Craig had done nothing wrong. "It is certain that Andrew couldn't take us to the next level." Walker suggested that for CART, the series need to have a "dictator" to take charge, perhaps someone like Formula One's Bernie Eccelstone, and not necessary to have a racing background. When asked about Bobby Rahal leaving his interim CART CEO job for Jaguar F-1 operation, Walker suggested that if he knew Rahal is going to do that, he would not vote in the middle of the 2000 season in Detroit. However, he agreed it is a good opportunities for Rahal and jokingly said he would take the job if Jaguar asked him.
Speaking of Formula One, Walker agreed that F-1 at Indy it is a good venue especially he had previous involvements with that category with Eccelstone at Brabham.
It is going to be interesting to see if Derrick Walker comes up with sponsorships to pick up Jimmy Vasser to drive next year, with or without Alex Zanardi as teammate. From the impression Vasser gave to the public in Houston, it is certain that both Vasser and Zanardi are in close contact regarding next year and it is logical for them to drive for Honda because of their success in 1996 to 1998.
Perhaps Derrick should talk to department stores such as Wal-Mart?
