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Slouching Toward Nazareth

© Gary Presley

The CART series races at Nazareth Speedway this week. The teams head north to Pennsylvania early in the spring to battle the weather and the vagaries of one of the odder tracks in the list of venues covered by the fast open wheelers.

The Autochannel describes the track succinctly. "The modern-day Nazareth Speedway is unique. It is difficult to drive, has been called 'the world's fastest mile,' and has a mile-long warm up lane. The track's D-shaped layout even causes debate about how many turns it has. Competitors in every series featured at Nazareth Speedway would probably agree that the track is challenging. Although it does not bank more than six degrees, it has an elevation change of 34 feet, a downhill backstretch, an uphill frontstretch and officially, four turns."

Unlike Indy or road and street courses, Nazareth allows every fan in the house to view the entire track, a track lapped at some of the fastest speeds you'll see during the season. Let's hope the fannies fill the seats, for some press critics are speculating that reported attendance figures at Miami-Homestead were inflated. CART needs fans.

CART heads back to Nazareth with its defending champion - of the series and of the race - attempting to dig himself out of a hole blasted in his repeat-championship hopes by an engine failure at Homestead. In fact, Juan Montoya   won the 1999 race, and his Target-Chip Ganassi teammate, Jimmy Vasser, finished only eleventh last year, but he was the race winner in 1998.

For those of you keeping score in the game of corporate namemanship, the official name of the race is the 2000 BOSCH SPARK PLUG GRAND PRIX Presented by TOYOTA.

And what do we have here but a race and series champion riding a completely different engine-chassis combination? How many Toyota engineers, from Tokyo to trackside, do you reckon are sweating over this race?

Pushing an open wheeler to 200 mph in traffic on a closed-course mile makes the average guy shudder, but Seventhgear reports all competitors will be using a new rear wing for the first time at Nazareth. "The "Superspeedway" wing used at the 1999 Nazareth race created handling problems for the cars, making passing a challenge. However, CART has introduced the new Handford MKII wing package that will increase downforce and reduce the need to downshift on short ovals like Nazareth Speedway."

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