August 12, 2003

Last weekend’s Champ Car Grand Prix of Mid-Ohio was the first race run under a new race control system. As part of this restructuring, the chief steward’s job has been retired with former chief steward Chris Kneifel becoming race director and senior manager of technology, John Anderson, moving from pitlane into race control as one of CART’s four stewards. Anderson also joins Kneifel as a co-manager of driver meetings as well as becoming responsible for arbitrating any disputes from drivers and teams over officiating calls.

Comments Kneifel: “I feel that having John is a big help because he brings his experience with a team environment and in the pitlane which was the one base that really wasn’t covered. We had ex-drivers, we had Jim Swintal coming up through the ranks in communications and flagging, so we’ve added one more element in terms of perspective and it rounds us out very nicely.

“Now that we’ve made the change, the learning curve for us as we go forward is having those guys feel comfortable with their new way of doing business. There will always be collaboration among the stewards. It’s important to bounce things off other people.

“I’m really comfortable that it’s a positive move and I’ve always been a believer in putting a square peg in a square hole. I think this is something that will benefit all of us, myself included. You can’t be afraid of change.

“We do have a lot more resources available to us in race control. So we need to be able to effectively use those resources. There’s no reason we can’t continue to make progress. It’s a very exciting step.”

Kneifel says the rest of his responsibilities remain unchanged. “The position of race director is my weekend job,” Kneifel remarked. “Director of competition is my non-race weekend job. Those responsibilities don’t change. I’m still involved with getting the tracks ready, looking at future sites.”

John Anderson has more than 30 years experience in the sport as a mechanic and team manager, most recently with Team Green. Anderson joined Champ Car last winter to run pitlane operations and technical inspection and has now moved into a broader area of responsibility.

“It’s a big learning curve,” Anderson admits. “I’m obviously comfortable around the tech area and in the pitlane because those are the places I’ve been over the years.

"I was impressed with my first trip to race control last Friday. I think it should be mandatory for team managers and drivers to spend some time up there so they can to appreciate what goes on in race control and understand how some of the decisions are made and the environment they’re made in.”

Anderson says his first time in race control at Mid-Ohio opened his eyes to the demands placed on the race operations people and stewards.

“Everything happens so quickly that I’m amazed,” Anderson remarked. “There are three people looking at segment times so they know who’s on a quick lap, particularly in qualifying. You can see from the track maps who’s on the track where and any potential conflicts are called up very quickly and watched by certain people while other people are looking at other data.

“There are times when every car in the field is on the track. They’re all trying to put in a time in those last five or six minutes of qualifying and, boy oh boy, the potential for disaster is obviously great.”

Anderson is impressed with the bank of electronic information available in race control. “There’s a lot of information that the pitlane doesn’t have that’s available to race control,” Anderson observed. “I don’t think it’s fully understood how extensive the availability of that information is.

“It’s a very good team of people. The way it’s structured now I’d be hard-pushed until I spend some more time up there to see how you could improve with what’s going on.”

Kneifel explained the way race control now operates. “The race director never takes his eye off the ball,” Kneifel said. “You have your dedicated group of people that are running the race--clerk of the course, race directors and radio communicators and dispatchers.

“No matter what goes on in terms of situations being reviewed on the track, rule interpretations, whatever concerns the stewards--John Anderson, Beux Barfield, Tony Kester and Jim Swintal--they will review, although Jim wouldn’t be as involved in those situations because his attention is focused elsewhere being clerk of the course.

“These guys are now able to decipher information based on data and rulebook interpretation and focus their attention on these issues. We have resources they can check immediately and we’re not losing our focus in terms of what’s going on.

“It’s the stewards’ responsibility to make a determination, make any calls and penalties to be issued and let the race director know what their ruling is and that will be executed. That system is not a mirror image of what’s done in Formula 1 by the FIA code but it’s far closer to being aligned with F1 and the FIA code than it has been.”

“Chris has done a bloody good job,” says John Anderson. “I think he’s come in for a load of unwarranted criticism. We’re all going to make mistakes but I think with the staff he’s got up there they’re doing a bloody good job of it. As I say, I’m just trying to find my niche and how I can fit in and help.”

Anderson believes Kneifel may have given the drivers too much free reign to criticize proceedings in the drivers’ meetings.

“I want to try and help bring some sort of order if things do get out of shape as they have over the last couple of months,” Anderson said. “I think Chris has been trying to give the drivers a voice to contribute to what’s going on in their forum and bring up any problems they’ve had. But the drivers are competing in that room as well as on the track and you can pretty well script it--Bruno makes a comment and Paul feels he’s obliged to reply or add to it. Michel will be next in line and so it goes.

“I think what we’ve got to do is be more focused on what goes on in the meeting. It’s a meeting to discuss what’s going on at this race. There may be something to bring up from the week before or the week after, but that should be limited.

“If a guy’s got a problem with anything or any decision that’s been made, if they want to talk about some aspect of what’s going on, we now will go over to the Business Unit, sit down in a private room, not in the drivers’ meeting, and have a one-on-one and discuss what’s going on.

“Also, 30 minutes after the race if someone or several drivers are involved in an on-track incident and they’re required to give an explanation that will happen over in that unit. You don’t do these things with an iron fist but by the same token there’s got to be order and there’s got to be some semblance of organization to discuss specifics in their own arena for Chris and the stewards to discuss any problems with the drivers away from the drivers’ meeting.”

Anderson thinks the correct moves were made in stopping and restarting the race at Road America. “You’ll get so many guys who will say that was the right decision and so many who will say it wasn’t the right decision,” Anderson remarked. “You’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t. But the decision was made and that was it. You live by it, right or wrong. We’re all experts after the fact but we’ve just got to go on with the information they’ve got on hand at that particular moment.”

Kneifel says the back side of the circuit was a particular concern. “Visibility on the first red flag was a key issue,” Kneifel noted. “On the second red when the rain really picked up a lot we had the combination of standing water and visibility. There are places at Road America where the rain dissipates better than others. The one critical area is from the kink after the Carousel down to Canada Corner. The trees make a canopy over the track there and it limits the capability of the water to evaporate.”

Anderson says there are a sequence of events that will take place if a race is red-flagged--what you can do, what you can’t do, where you park.

“The officials are assigned two cars each," he explains. "If they come in the pitlane in order they’ll stay there. If they need the assistance of any volunteer observers they’ll be called in when the dust settles. If there’s an extended red flag there’s a contingency plan for that--what they can check, what they can’t, restarting, warming-up engines.”

Some drivers complained that they weren’t allowed to change their set-ups to suit the conditions for the Road America restart. “As far as I’m concerned that’s the luck of the draw,” Anderson declared. “Being on a team for so many years, you make the decision. It’s your best guess. You obviously use everything at your disposal--if you’ve got a satellite picture of what’s going on or some sort of crystal ball to look in to see what the weather’s going to do, you make that decision individually.

“We had a situation at Elkhart Lake a few years ago where there was water running across the track, that caused some major dramas. We’ve got to run in the wet. Otherwise, why have wet tires? If you’re not going to run in the wet, take that expense out of the picture. It’s something that the drivers in the past have always had to deal with.

“Tag’s team made a big change in set-up. They thought it was going to rain and made a major change to the car to a wet set-up. They were the last ones to grid. If it had dried-out they would have been in big trouble, but as it turned out they had a very good finish.

“During a red flag when the cars come back into the pits if they could make infinite adjustments it would be total chaos. So the deal is no adjustments, safety is the prime concern. If it’s an extended red and they want to warm-up we’ll let them check, not adjust, tire pressures, so there’s no dropping pressures.

“We’ll have an observer go with them to each tire as the guy checks them because I don’t want to see a guy go out there with a puncture. The sensor won’t tell us there’s a puncture until it turns a wheel so I think it’s necessary. If they do find a puncture and change it, they’ve got to go to the back of the grid to take the green. If they had a puncture on the track when the track went green they’d be a long way further behind than if they had gone to the back under a red situation.

“So there are certain things we will allow them to do--batteries for instance. Battery life when these cars aren’t running is short so that’s a concession we’ve got to make. But we need to be able to accompany the guys doing that to see that nothing else is done and the playing field is level.”

Kneifel says the situation with a crowded track in qualifying is difficult for everyone to manage, teams as well as Champ Car officials.

“The thing that makes it tricky is not just finding a clear lap but finding a clear lap when your tires are ready which is your fourth, fifth or sixth lap, depending on the circuit,” Kneifel observed. “You’ve got to come out of the pits staggered from other cars. You might be looking real good on lap two or lap three but by the time you’re ready to cut your fast lap you’ve got another guy coming out of the pits in front or you. It doesn’t take much. All you have to do is lose a little bit on your exit from a turn and you’ve lost your lap.”

Kneifel says single-car qualifying will likely be adopted for this year’s two remaining street circuit races. “There is no perfect system, even single-car qualifying,” Kneifel pointed out. “We are taking more than a serious look at single-car qualifying for both Denver and Miami. I think that’s something we should be able to accomplish but it’s not easy because we’ve got to find time in the schedule. But it will be the same for everybody in terms of what you’ve got to deal with.”

Kneifel believes it would be a good idea to legalize tire warmers for the 2004 season. “With the format we’ve got now tire warmers would help immensely because it would take away the two or three lap build-up to get up to speed. It would probably save a lap or two so it would help us out a bunch. It’s something we might consider for the future.”

Anderson is confident that Champ Car’s race control group will evolve into a standard-setting organization. “I think we’ve got a bloody good team assembled,” Anderson said. “There are good people in the right spots.”

Kneifel says everyone in his team is happy with the most recent changes. “When we laid the whole plan out to everybody, including John Lopes and Lee Dykstra, there were literally high-fives between us,” Kneifel said. “I think it surprised ‘Ando’ a little bit that everybody was that keen and that speaks volumes for the type of group we’ve assembled. Everyone truly supports each other and at the end of the day that’s what building a good team is all about.”