BONUS CHAPTER: Jeff Gordon's mid-season report.
It was, indeed, too good to be true.
When he first stepped into his Pennzoil Lola-Chevy at Ontario for his first Indycar race, Jeff Gordon couldn't believe it. The meticulous preparations alongside the legendary Jim Hall, the media following he got for his debut, getting to share the grid with the Andrettis, Unsers and Rahals of this world...Plus, debuting in his home state thanks to mother nature's tricks. It's as if hollywood wrote the script for his first Indycar season!
And in the beginning, it was a hell of a script. Scoring points in his first ever race, then a top 5 finish at Phoenix, and then, Long Beach. The legendary street race was the theater of Jeff's wildest dreams coming to life. Navigating Shoreline drive, the entire crowd behind him, battling John andretti and Bobby Rahal, and scoring a podium in only his 3rd race...
And then, Indianapolis. That is where he realised that he made it. Touching the brick, seeing the pit, the sold put crowd, racing with Dale Earnhardt... it has been a crazy first 5 months for Jeff, and he got a bit overwhelmed, what with him starting in 17th and being a bit wobbly in the early goings of his first Indy 500. Jim Hall, sensing the nervousness in his protege's driving, took it to himself and walked down to the Pennzoil car during its first pit stop, telling Jeff directly to his face that he ain't gonna last long if he keeps driving like a chicken.
This bit of tough love hurt Jeff's ego, but it is exactly what he needed. After that pit stop, Jeff calmed his nerves and got going, entering his zone and flying up to the top 8, where he would engage with Dale and Little Al for 7th place until the end of the race.
Sweat covered Jeff's face once he removed his helmet at the end of the race. The first person he saw was Jim Hall and the crew, who congratulated him, then it was Dale. As he shook hands with the NASCAR star, he couldn't help but praise Dale.
"It's incredible, sir." Jeff said. "You're, like, my idol. It's a honor to race against you!"
"Name's Dale, not sir." Dale said, prompting laughter from everyone. "You're pretty damn good, kid. I saw you racin' for Bill Davis in the Busch series. If ya want, i can call Richard so he can give you a car for some cup races when you're free."
"Depends on if Jim wants it." Jeff said.
"He's GM. There ain't gonna be any trouble." Dale said with a smile.
The following week-end, at Milwaukee, would become a rude awakening, however. The car wasn't up to snuff, and Gordon started in 14th place. The car wasn't fast enough, but Jeff still managed to take advantage of attrition and a judicious pit stop call by Hall to finish 9th.
Watkins Glen was where the troubles really started. The crew simply couldn't set up the car right, and Jeff would start in a meager 16th place before retiring to mechanical issues suffered from hitting the wall at turn three. Portland was better, for Jeff managed to qualify 7th and battled with Mario Andretti and Paul Tracy for 4th, but alas, an engine failure on lap 44 ended his hopes of a good result.
New Hampshire was a unique week-end for Jeff. During the week-end, he met Richard Childress, Dale Earnhardt's car owner, and managed to sign a part-time deal to drive RCR's part-time 31 car, starting at Talladega at the end of the month. In the New Hampshire Indycar race, Jeff started 10th, and was pretty quick, battling with Mario and Scotf Goodyear for 4th. Sadly, Jeff was a bit too brave, an attempted an ill-fated three-wide pass into turn one, which ended in a big crash taking out all three men. Mario wasn't shy with his words: "that kid's talented, no doubt, but if i was Jim Hall, i would have a word with him."
Indeed. Jim wasn't too happy about Jeff's manoeuvre. Jeff tried as he might to convince Jim that he could've made the pass, but Jim wanted none of it. He made Jeff work with the mechanics on setting up the car for the next races.
In Toronto, Jeff qualified 11th and had an okay race. While he fought for points for most of the race, a hit in the wall on the esses clipped Jeff's front wing, costing him precious time and dropping him down to 14th, his final position.
July 25th. The mythical Talladega superspeedway hosts its traditional 500 mile race, one of the big 4 races on the NASCAR calendar along with Daytona, Darlington and Charlotte. As usual, it was an astonishingly hot Alabama day, with the sun planting itself onto the asphalt of the 2.6 mile oval, ready to welcome the NASCAR winston cup stars of today and, for the first time ever, Jeff Gordon, driving the 31 car of Richard Childress as Dale Earnhardt's teammate.
Goign back to his busch series roots, Jeff used the experience he gained in that series in 1991 to qualify for the event, albeit deep in the middle of the pack. In the race, he admittedly was a bit overwhelmed to go back to pack racing, but eventually, his racing instincts kicked in, and Jeff would make his way through the pack, eventually ending in a respectable 15th place as his teammate Dale won the race.
Jeff in the 31 car during qualifying
Next week was traveling back to Michigan to work on the car some more for the Michigan 500. Jeff grew a liking to tuning the car alongside Jim and the crew, which ended up paying off, as he qualified 8th at Brooklyn. In the race, Jeff proved to be very fast and competitive, battling with the top 6 regulary throughout the race and even running as high as third. After the last pit stops, he ended up defending 6th place against the Molson Lola of John Andretti and the Galmer of Al Unser Jr in memorable scraps. One moment in particular saw Gordon and Little al almost making contact as Jeff sneaked into 6th place.
After the race, Little Al came up to Jim Hall's pits to meet the man himself.
"Hey, Al." Jim said.
"I got something to say." Al said.
"I'd love to sign you for next year, but only if we get the Honda engines." Jim joked.
"Nah, it's about the kid. He's hit everything but the pace car, this year." Al said. "Maybe you should talk to him about taking it easy a little."
"Come on, Al, you know damn well that we go hard or go home in this sport." Jim said as Jeff arrived to the pits.
"Hey, Al." Jeff said. "Sorry about earlier."
Al simply smiled at the yougnster as he calmed down.
"It's alright, kid. I would've done the same in your shoes." Little al said as he gave a friendly hug and left.
"What was that about?" Jeff asked.
"Oh, you know, the usual bitching about your driving and you not being a pushover." Jim said with a cheeky grin. "Don't worry, kid. this time, you did well."
"Yeah. That crash in Loudon is just a memory now." Jeff said. "By the way, have you heard about Honda?" Jeff asked.
"Indeed." Jim answered. "We are in discussion with them. Though, if i'm honest, we're gonna be a longshot. Especially with what they told me..."
"What did they tell you?" Jeff asked, curious.
Jim grabbed him by the shoulder and dragged him along for a walk, ushering to him information that made Jeff double take.
To be Continued...
