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October 7th, 2008

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Two against the world

American and Czech drivers race for the colors in Brno Grand Prix

By Dave Faries
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
October 10th, 2007 issue

COURTESY PHOTO

Buddy Rice of team USA

Adam MaršÁl

Erik Janiš of team Czech Republic

A1 Grand Prix of the Czech Republic

Masaryk Circuit, Brno
(D1 Highway, exit 182)
Tickets: 250550 Kč (free entry Friday)
Friday, Oct. 12: Practice
Saturday, Oct. 13: Qualifying
Sunday, Oct. 14: Sprint race 11 a.m., Feature race 3 p.m.

The moment Erik Janiš first buckled himself into an A1 race car, it felt like a different world.

“It was amazing,” he says of his first laps in one of the 550-horsepower, open-wheel beasts. Coming from the smaller car ranks, the young Czech driver had never operated anything so responsive. “The speed and acceleration, the braking — it’s a great feeling.”

American Buddy Rice had just finished the 2007 IndyCar campaign when he climbed into an A1 machine for the first time.

“They’re not at all the same,” he says of the two different classes of race vehicles. “You have to slide [the A1] around the corners.”

Both drivers will represent their countries in a field of 22 teams this weekend at the Masaryk race track in Brno. It’s the second stop in an eight-month World Cup competition being held on tracks in Europe, Asia, Australia, South Africa and Central America. The cars are all identical, except for national colors. Along with traditional racing powers such as the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom, there will be drivers from India, Pakistan, China, Lebanon and Malaysia.

Rice and Janiš are rookies on the A1 Grand Prix circuit, though both have plenty of experience behind the wheel.

Janiš, 20, won on the European karting circuit and ran FIA GT 3. In the A1 race, he is filling in for Tomáš Enge and brother Jarek, both of whom are recovering from injuries.

Rice, 31, captured the Indianapolis 500 — the greatest spectacle in racing — in 2004, an experience he still finds difficult to put into words.

“You grow up watching Foyt and Unser and Rutherford,” Rice says, naming some of the immortals cast onto the famed Borg-Warner cup. “Your face is on that trophy.”

Still, the A1 race offers some new opportunities.

“As a racecar driver, you don’t get to represent your country,” Rice points out. “You drive against people from different countries all the time, but there are no Olympics.” A1 allows both drivers and fans to back their own national colors.

“In a normal series, you drive for yourself,” Janiš notes. Flinging the Czech Republic’s car around race tracks adds a new level of pressure, particularly in the Brno race. “But,” he continues, “you just have to think about your driving and concentrate on the race.”

And the competition is expected to be fierce.

“These are tracks I’ve never seen and it’s a strong field,” Rice acknowledges. The likes of Narain Karthikeyan, Alex Yoong and Ralph Firman run on the circuit — all Formula 1 veterans likely to pounce on anyone who misses a corner by even the smallest fraction. In the season opener at Zandvoort in the Netherlands, a slow pit stop dropped Rice and team USA to 13th position, last car on the lead lap and well behind race winner Oliver Jarvis of the United Kingdom.

“You can’t have any mistakes in this series,” Rice says.

Each weekend features two events, a short white-knuckle sprint from a rolling start and the more traditional race covering a greater distance — 45 laps at Zandvoort. In the 12-lap sprint, won by South Africa, team USA couldn’t find the right setup for wet conditions and finished last.

The bigger A1 teams do not benefit from technical or financial advantage. In fact, the rules allow each country only 10 crew members, and all cars must adhere to the same, strict specifications. This emphasis on equality is designed to put everything back in the hands of the driver, his or her team and their ability to make proper adjustments.

“Finding the right setup is important because every team is very quick,” Janiš says.

But he and Rice, with limited time to learn the quirks of their cars and the tracks, must ramp up quickly in order to compete. Janiš struggled in the first race at Zandvoort, but earned a championship point by finishing 10th in the feature event after a controversial incident with the Canadian car.

Both expect better results this weekend.

“The Holland track is more like a road course — it’s difficult to pass,” Rice explains. “Brno is more wide and flowing. It ought to be a different race.”

For Janiš, it’s a course he knows well.

“That could be an advantage,” he says. “But we’ll see.”

Dave Faries can be reached at dfaries@praguepost.com

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