Don't mess with Texas?

The Texas track is very steeply banked, and its configuration has been a cause for worry among many Champ car drivers. At 24 degrees the banking is the steepest of any superspeedway used by CART, almost double the angle of the banking at the Michigan and California Speedways, and there are concerns the track will be too fast and will lack the room to manoeuvre.

When the Texas superspeedway was built four years ago, CART's now-retired chief steward Wally Dallenbach inspected the place and declared it wasn't fit for Champ cars. However, Tony George's rival IRL series has raced successfully at Texas and the lure of the huge Dallas-Ft Worth market has drawn CART to the track this year.

The only CART driver to have raced at TMS is Kenny Brack, who ran five IRL races here between 1997 and '99. Brack led the IRL race at Texas in 1999 until stopped by a failed wheel bearing.

The Swede is in his second CART season this year, driving a Lola-Ford for Bobby Rahal's team and he was very competitive in the two opening races at Monterrey, Mexico, and Long Beach. Brack was on the pole and led in Mexico before running into electronic and brake problems, then qualified and ran second in Long Beach until hitting gearbox trouble.

Brack is anxious to get some points on the board this weekend and score his first CART win. He's looking forward to the race and doesn't share the worries of many of his colleagues about racing on the high-banked Texas track.

"I could be wrong," Brack says, "but I feel there's not going to be any more problems than what we have at other oval tracks. We run 240 mph at Fontana. We'll run, 220 or 225 around Texas, maybe a little higher if you get a good tow.

"It's strange because it seems like all the drivers in CART have this apprehension about going there, but I don't feel that way. I feel it's going to be okay, and I look forward to it. It's going to be a racy track, which is something that CART needs. We need more shows like we have at Michigan and Fontana.

"I think Texas will provide us with enough racing room for manoeuvering and overtaking, which will be exciting for the fans, good for CART, and good for the drivers. But they have to understand that this is a track that's a little different from what we've been running before, which you have to consider every time you go to a new track. I don't see any problems at Texas that I don't see in Fontana or Michigan."

Brack says the steep banking means there are many different lines or grooves.

"I think the drivers will like Texas. It's a lot of fun running on the banking because you can take different lines. You can use multiple lines and grooves with lots of opportunities for overtaking. There are a couple of bumps on the track that may, or may not, upset the cars, but they've run open-wheeled cars at similar speeds that we're going to run with great success. It may be a little bit uncomfortable if the bumps are still there, but I don't think it should be too much of a problem."

The IRL's cars and engines have more downforce and less power than CART's equipment, so the Champ Cars won't be able to run as close as the IRL cars at Texas.

"I'm not sure that we're going to be able to run with a dozen cars all bunched up like the IRL had last year because we have different downforce rules," Brack says. "I expect the race to be similar to what I experienced in the IRL, except that we'll have two or three cars trying to dice with each other. I expect there to be a couple of lines around the track where you can run."

Brack says Sunday's 600 kilometre race will require a great deal of concentration and consideration.

"I think we have to approach a track like this a little differently from other places we've run," he concedes. "First of all, it's a smaller track than Michigan or Fontana where we do a lot of dicing. It's a 1.5-mile track with a high bank and a couple of doglegs on the front straightaway which look pretty easy from the outside. They're not really bad to drive when you're on your own, but when you've got two or three cars going side-by-side through there you have to think about it a little bit so that you leave each other enough room.

"It's really important that all the drivers think about how the track is laid out because there's going to be side-by-side racing through the doglegs, I'm pretty sure about that, so you have to make room for other drivers. That's not the place to block. I can tell you that right now.

"If it's anything like I project it to be, coming off (Turn) Four, coming off (Turn) Two, going into (Turn) One, and going into (Turn) Three, are all going to be possible to do overtaking manoeuvres. Obviously, you have to watch coming off the corners a little bit because when you come off the high banking you have to estimate what the car's going to do when you lose the banking."

The drivers will have plenty to occupy their minds on Sunday and however many fans turn out, they are sure to see more passing in one afternoon than a decade of Formula 1 spectating might yield. And yet the place is expected to be barely one-quarter full. TMS accomodates 200,000 people and fills every seat for its NASCAR races. The IRL pulls 50-60,000 for its races at the track and, sadly, CART's advance sales are no better, a little weaker in fact.

As the guy sitting behind me on the 'plane flying down to Dallas on Thursday said. "What kinda cars they running out there this weekend? Don't know anything about them. This is NASCAR country, man!"

I'm beginning to doubt if Champ car racing - torn and spoiled by a five-year-old civil war - will ever regain the respect it deserves. This weekend's race in Texas shapes up as a case study.