Growing Pains Little Struggles After Record ‘95, But Time Remains To Salvage Season

In the bleaker moments of a down year, when a faulty oil pump ruins a week’s preparation in the first lap of an important Sunday, second thoughts begin to creep into Chad Little’s mind.

“At times I wish I could switch back to Fords,” Little was saying as he pointed for Saturday’s Busch Series race - the Carolina Pride/ Red Dog 250 - in Myrtle Beach, S.C.

But yearnings for Ford come only occasionally.

Little, in fact, appears as happy with his new connections - Pontiac, and his prime sponsor, John Deere - as week-to-week struggles allow.

A year ago, Little was on his way to a record season in Grand National racing, his last season in a Ford. Late in the year, when he was winning six races and a Busch Series-record $529,056, Pontiac came on with a new design, similar to the highly successful Chevrolet Monte Carlo.

Pontiac also dangled the promise of full factory backing for Little and the Mark Rypien Motorsports Team.

Little jumped.

Halfway into the season, the Grand Prix - his and five others with full factory support - still need work. The balance of down-force on the front and rear ends of the car isn’t right.

Still, Little isn’t fixing blame for a sluggish first half.

“Blaming Pontiac is a too-convenient scapegoat,” he said Monday.

“We’ve struggled and it’s more than just the nose of the car. Last year, we had all kinds of racing luck. This year, we’ve had practically none.”

There’s time to turn it around, with 13 Grand National events to run.

“I still think we’re good enough to put together a string of top 10 and top 5 finishes,” he said on the phone from his garage in Charlotte, N.C. “It’s not too late to win some races.”

Little, who grew up racing Fords in Spokane, has an added, unwritten advantage. The governing body of his sport, NASCAR, is anxious to keep Pontiac Motor Division in the fight. NASCAR has approved a new nose piece for the Pontiac Grand Prix in Winston Cup racing, a modification effective at this weekend’s Miller 400 at Michigan International.

The sport wants Pontiac - a distant third to Ford and Chevy - to succeed. The guess here is that Pontiac sheet metal will start making up ground as summer in the South grinds on.

Anyway, the decision to leave Ford was the next thing to a no-brainer. Pontiac’s offer was simply too good to refuse.

“We weren’t going to get full factory support from Ford,” Little said. “As we get ready to move back into a full Winston Cup schedule again, we need that.”

Busch Grand National is triple-A ball, Winston Cup the majors. The timetable Little announced here last fall - a move back to the bigs next year, with Pontiac and John Deere backing - is still on schedule, he said.

“The Pontiac racing body style has had success in the past,” he reasons. “They’re going to have it again. It’s a matter of getting the bugs worked out.”

For now, only fresh tires hide the car’s delicate imbalance of front and rear down force. When the rubber starts to wear, the driver can feel the car start to push. The tires lose grip, the corners get tougher to negotiate.

“Brand-new tires are a crutch,” Little said, “but you can’t win on brand-new tires. That’s why you see the Pontiacs qualifuying better than they race.”

Actually, Little has reason to believe his performance is better than results suggest.

“When you look at our finishes, you say terrible year,” he said, “but it’s not that simple. In Charlotte, we got into position where we could have had a top five and couldn’t catch a caution. At Daytona, a coil wire comes out. We pit for tires and a lug nut jams in the gun. Weird things like that didn’t happen last year.

“I’ve got 15 years left in this sport. I can’t get caught up in short-term thinking. You’ve got to believe in yourself and your team.”

So what would salvage the season?

“We need to win at least two races,” he said. “We need to click off some top 10s, like nine or 10, with maybe six or seven in the top 5. We need to finish strong.

“It’s getting better,” he added. “Some tracks with tight turns - Bristol, Dover, places like that - are a handful, but we’re headed in the right direction.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo