Brazilian Rookie Gains Confidence From Best Finish
Andre Ribeiro came up with not only his best showing as an Indy-car rookie, but also gave his Tasman Motorsports team and the Honda Indy V8 engine their best finishes of the season with his fourth place Sunday in the Texaco-Havoline 200 at Road America.
The Brazilian rookie, whose previous best was 11th on the mile oval at Nazareth, Pa., in April, said, “There were difficult battles all day long, particularly with (Bobby) Rahal and (Scott) Pruett. I tried to be very precise and avoid any mistakes, especially at the end when I was right behind Jimmy (Vasser) and Rahal.
“Now that we have finally finished with the leaders, both the team and I will have much more confidence the rest of the season,” added last year’s Firestone Indy Lights Rookie of the Year.
His teammate, Parker Johnstone, who has started just two races this season and eight in his Indy-car career, also had a career best by finishing 12th. That’s the final points-paying position in the 28-car field.
“I’m real pleased to finish our second race and get our first point of the year,’ he said. “For starting in midseason, the team has done an admirable job. It’s good to be racing, but it was a war out there on the track.”
Canadian charge
Jacques Villeneuve’s victory Sunday was yet another triumph for the small-but-quick Canadian Indy-car contingent.
Since Villeneuve earned his first Indy-car victory at Elkhart Lake last September, drivers from north of the U.S. border have won eight of the last 13 races.
That includes four by Villeneuve, three by Paul Tracy, who finished second on Sunday, and one by Scott Goodyear.
Emmo struggles
Emerson Fittipaldi, the 1989 PPG Cup champion and last year’s runner-up to Marlboro Team Penske teammate Al Unser Jr., is having a miserable 1995 season.
Fittipaldi finished a very quiet 15th in Sunday’s race and still has only two top-10 finishes - one of them a win at Nazareth, Pa. - to his credit this season.
Even the other top-10 finish, a third place at Phoenix, was tainted when he had to give up the lead to make a late pit stop for a splash of fuel.
“The car felt good and, unfortunately, we had a problem with our front left tire during our first pit stop which caused me to come back to the pits two more times - once to change the tire and a second time to recheck it,” Fittipaldi said.
“We also had a black flag violation for running over the air hose, so we had to pit again after the green (flag came out). All this put us back a lap and we never could make it up.
“It’s amazing. It seems that things that never happened in the last 10 years have all happened in the past three races. All we can do is move on to Toronto (next Sunday) and hope for some better luck there.”