rabbit
02-18-06, 09:16 AM
http://www.speedtv.com/commentary/22106/
Ahhhhhh, 2007. It is when the Champ Car World Series as we have come to know it these past five or six years will change. Banished to the show car circuits and museums will be the faithful Lola B2K/00. In its stead will come a fleet of Panoz DP01s; as in brand-spanking new, undeveloped, Panoz DP01s.
And that’s the crux of the matter in the eyes of Legge, Kalkhoven and company. A fundamental tenet of any scientific endeavor – and racing, of course, likes to consider itself a science – is that you never introduce more than one variable or unknown quantity into an equation at a time, the better to understand the effects of that variable or unknown. Better to add one turn of wing, for example, do a few laps and assess its effect on performance than adding a turn of wing, a few of clicks of rebound, stiffer springs and lower tire pressures and then try to figure out why the car is better or worse than before.
In Legge’s case, she has an opportunity to learn the Champ Car ropes with a decidedly known quantity – the Lola B2K/00 – in the coming season. Were she to spend another in Formula Atlantic, whatever she gained experience-wise could well be offset by the fact that she would make her Champ Car debut in a year when everyone – most especially the race teams’ mechanics and engineers – were starting from square one with the DP01. And mixing two steep learning curves together is to be avoided.
“When it comes to the ’07 car, we’ve got an advantage that all of the teams have the same car on the same date,” says Kalkhoven. “But there will also be a steep learning curve in engineering. And we decided the best thing to do is to use (’06) as a transition year with the known quantity of the car and give Katherine a chance to understand the aspects of racing without having to worry too much about the engineering off the car.”
Ahhhhhh, 2007. It is when the Champ Car World Series as we have come to know it these past five or six years will change. Banished to the show car circuits and museums will be the faithful Lola B2K/00. In its stead will come a fleet of Panoz DP01s; as in brand-spanking new, undeveloped, Panoz DP01s.
And that’s the crux of the matter in the eyes of Legge, Kalkhoven and company. A fundamental tenet of any scientific endeavor – and racing, of course, likes to consider itself a science – is that you never introduce more than one variable or unknown quantity into an equation at a time, the better to understand the effects of that variable or unknown. Better to add one turn of wing, for example, do a few laps and assess its effect on performance than adding a turn of wing, a few of clicks of rebound, stiffer springs and lower tire pressures and then try to figure out why the car is better or worse than before.
In Legge’s case, she has an opportunity to learn the Champ Car ropes with a decidedly known quantity – the Lola B2K/00 – in the coming season. Were she to spend another in Formula Atlantic, whatever she gained experience-wise could well be offset by the fact that she would make her Champ Car debut in a year when everyone – most especially the race teams’ mechanics and engineers – were starting from square one with the DP01. And mixing two steep learning curves together is to be avoided.
“When it comes to the ’07 car, we’ve got an advantage that all of the teams have the same car on the same date,” says Kalkhoven. “But there will also be a steep learning curve in engineering. And we decided the best thing to do is to use (’06) as a transition year with the known quantity of the car and give Katherine a chance to understand the aspects of racing without having to worry too much about the engineering off the car.”