Meira not tired of finishing second, but he’d like a win
WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — Despite driving last year for underfunded Panther Racing, Vitor Meira nearly won the Indy Grand Prix at Watkins Glen International, eventually settling for second behind winner Scott Dixon.
Being a runner-up isn’t getting monotonous for Meira, though, even though he’s finished second seven times in 68 IRL races without a win.
“I’m not tired of finishing second,” Meira said Saturday after qualifying eighth for the Watkins Glen Grand Prix. “I’m tired of not being able to have a perfect weekend. We’ve just got to put a weekend together. It’s not a matter of if, it’s when. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be here.”
Scott Dixon, second in IndyCar Series points behind Dario Franchitti, has four runner-up finishes this season, so he can identify with Meira’s struggles.
“Vitor is very fast,” said Dixon, who has won both IRL races at The Glen and qualified second for Sunday’s race. “He’s had a lot of second-place finishes. It’s not a nice situation. You get so close to winning and some races you think you should have. It’s going to come, but it’s been a long time.”
“Every time a driver finishes second or third and is always in the top five, it proves that he’s definitely a decent driver,” said Helio Castroneves, who captured his third straight pole here Saturday. “Unfortunately, it depends on where he is, the team, and what opportunity he has. No question, the talent is there. I just hope it does not happen here.”
Balancing act
Sarah Fisher is in a unique spot in the world of auto racing — she’s trying to balance her return to the IndyCar Series with her personal life, which centers on planning her marriage in September to Andy O’Gara, who just happens to be her crew chief.
“It’s getting better as the year goes on, but we definitely take our work home,” said Fisher, racing again full-time for the first time in four years. “Some of it we shouldn’t, and we’re learning not to. We’ve made it work. We’re both very passionate about racing. We grew up in racing families, so we know the importance of it when you get here.”
On Friday during a break in practice at Watkins Glen International, while O’Gara was trying to figure out how he could improve Fisher’s No. 5 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Honda, a helicopter flew past carrying Indy Pro Series rookie Richard Heistand to a nearby hospital. He had suffered a mild concussion and bruised chest in a scary-looking crash.
Neither O’Gara nor Fisher was aware of the crash, but they know firsthand about the danger in the sport.
“He is the only guy I ever hit,” Fisher said, smiling as she recalled an accident during a pit stop at Fontana in 2003. “He was fine. I fractured a vertebrae at Nazareth two weeks before that, so I had some extra Vicodin to give him.”
And O’Gara occasionally gets his fix behind the wheel. On Friday night at nearby Black Rock Speedway, he won a 10-lap race between Indy Racing League crew members in 600cc modified midget cars. O’Gara notched the victory when leader Didier Francesia of Target Chip Ganassi Racing lifted as he crossed the finish line with one lap remaining, thinking the race was over.
Animal kingdom
Dixon was flying around Watkins Glen International during qualifying for Sunday’s Watkins Glen Grand Prix when he met up with a couple of gulls who had made an ill-timed landing on the track.
“Going through the Bus Stop, there were two birds just sitting there,” Dixon said Saturday after qualifying second.
“I just missed them with the right front tire and then I think collected them with the wing. I saw them try to take off.” Dixon said. “When I came in there was blood and feathers all over the car,” Dixon said.
Dixon joins two other drivers who recently experienced the fauna of New York’s Schuyler County up close and personal.
In 1999, Dale Jarrett hit a woodchuck during qualifying for a NASCAR race and qualified ninth. And two years ago Max Angelelli “vaporized” a woodchuck that ran onto the course along the back stretch in the dark. The Italian driver’s Pontiac Riley hit it head-on with three laps to go in the 66-lap Rolex Sports Car Series race, damaging the front end of his Daytona Prototype.
Vintage
Hamish Somerville bested two-time Indy 500 winner Arie Luyendyk in a vintage race Saturday, his second straight victory at Watkins Glen in an event featuring Formula One cars that competed on the road course when it was home to the U.S. Grand Prix. Driving a 1979 Williams FW07B, Somerville averaged 111.490 mph and beat Luyendyk, who was piloting a 1978 Wolf WR-6, by 23.5 seconds.