Fisher Staying Upbeat Despite Tough First Week At Indy
By Dick Mittman
indy500.com
Monday, May 12, 2003

Sarah Fisher has qualified for her fourth Indianapolis 500. And she's only 22.

That would be plenty of reason to celebrate, but she isn't popping any champagne corks this week. She knows now it's time to win a race in the IRL IndyCar™ Series.

"I don't know about Indy," she said. "Indy this year is going to be very difficult, very competitive. Certainly, that's our goal. I'd be very happy to come away with a top-10 finish.

"After that, we've got to win one. We've got the team, we've got the people, we've got the capabilities. We don't have all the pieces. I don't have a spare car yet, and we're still struggling on the financial end of it, testing and so forth.

"But certainly even with those elements lacking, compared to a lot of teams, I think that we have the drive and determination to make it happen."

Fisher certainly has been competitive since joining the series at the end of the 1999 season. She became the first woman driver in North America to win an open-wheel-racing pole when she captured the MBNA Pole for the Belterra Casino Indy 300 last August at Kentucky Speedway. Also, she drove to fourth place at Nazareth Speedway in April 2002 and was leading the Michigan Indy 400 in July 2002 at Michigan Speedway with 10 laps to go.

However, being a contender in the 87th Indianapolis 500 on May 25 will be a serious challenge. She qualified her Dreyer & Reinbold Dallara/Chevrolet/Firestone car 24th and last on Pole Day May 11 with an average speed of 224.170 mph. There still are nine spots to be filled in the 33-car starting lineup during Bump Day qualifying Sunday so her position seems fairly secure.

Last May, she qualified at 229.439 mph, the fastest ever for a woman, for ninth on the grid. But both she and teammate Robbie Buhl have struggled to get sufficient horsepower out of their Chevrolet engines this month. Buhl qualified 22nd in the No. 24 Purex/Aventis/Dreyer & Reinbold Dallara/Chevrolet/Firestone, .299 of mph faster than Fisher. Buhl qualified second last year.

"It was pretty much the best that we could produce," Fisher said. "We're as fast as that car was going to go.

"Oh, well, we'll go on and be happy about the efforts that we put in this week and try to have a really, really good race car."

Fisher still is looking for a good finish at Indy. She was involved in accidents in her first two races, finishing 31st both times. She finished 24th last year, running four laps down at the finish.

"The frustrations from this week are kind of high," she said. "We (also Buhl) and I were pole contenders last year. We had really fast race cars; we were up front. So this week was certainly a struggle mentally and emotionally, but we've been able to keep things light."

During the week, she convinced her crew to appear before a television camera making a commercial for a supposed new sponsor. The mechanics wore boxer shorts featuring popular children's TV character "SpongeBob SquarePants" and recited lines for the camera, only to find it was a big spoof by Fisher. The crew all chased her around the garage area, all in fun.

In another bright spot, AOL Broadband has stepped forward as a sponsor for Fisher's car for Indy. Dreyer & Reinbold still seeks primary sponsorship for Fisher's car.

"Once Indy is over, hopefully we'll have them interested enough to do something for the rest of the season," she said of AOL Broadband.

Dreyer & Reinbold and Fisher have a new firm working to put together a sponsorship program for the future. She said it is working on assembling the right kind of program and is getting close to bringing something to fruition.

Fans have voted Fisher, a native of Commercial Point, Ohio, as the most popular driver in the IndyCar Series the past two seasons. Her autograph sessions lines always are long.

"I'm just down-to-earth," she said. "Anybody can walk up off the street and talk to me. I'm going to keep it that way. There's no reason to change that personality.

"And to be the most popular driver year after year, I can only attribute that to being able to talk to anyone and to be able to associate myself and familiarize myself with anyone."

Despite her friendly nature off the track, former short-track star Fisher refuses to back down to anyone, including the top open-wheel ,oval-track racers in the world, when she's behind the wheel.

"I'm good friends with Al Unser Jr.," Fisher said. "And when I was racing sprint cars, I raced against Steve Kinser, Dave Blaney and Sammy Swindell, and those are big household names where I come from.

"So racing against those guys was almost as intimidating as against the people who are going to be in the (Indy) field this year. It's not an intimidation factor, just merely another car you have to beat."


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