Herta starts fresh

After four seasons with Team Rahal, one of the series' top teams, the 29-year-old returns with a new car.

By BRUCE LOWITT

© St. Petersburg Times, published February 18, 2000

It's rarely easy starting over. Going with a new team is one thing; a one-car team is another; a one-car team with a new car yet another.

Bryan Herta may well feel like he's driving this year's CART series uphill -- with the brake on.

After four years with Team Rahal -- finishing eighth twice, 11th and 12th in the CART standings -- Herta's contract was not renewed.

Whatever the reason for Rahal's decision, Herta was off one of the top CART teams. Last month the 29-year-old Valencia, Calif., resident signed a contract with Gerald Forsythe's McDonald's Racing Team.

"It's a business thing, a commercial thing, and a chemistry thing," Herta said of Rahal's decision. "I don't feel like I'm approaching the season with the idea of proving anything to Team Rahal. ...

"I have a lot of things to be excited about with this deal," not the least of which is being reunited with Steve Horne, president of Forsythe Racing, and Forsythe chief mechanic Steve Ragan. They teamed with Herta to win the 1993 Indy Lights championship for the Tasman Motorsports team.

"It's nice because it's not an unfamiliar place to me," Herta said in a telephone conference call. But he also said being on a one-car team is a disadvantage because there is no other driver with whom to compare the car's performance. "You can share data on a race weekend; one guy can go in one direction on the setup (of the car) and the other guy can go in the other direction. You have more options available to you, more chances to try things."

Herta will drive a Honda-powered Swift, the only American-built chassis used in CART's series. The team tested in January at Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey, Calif., where Herta managed his only two victories in six CART seasons, and at CART's spring training last week at Homestead.

"At the Homestead configuration, it seems the car has a very similar feel on the corners to what we had last year ... but until we really race it for the first time we won't know for sure," Herta said.

"Going in(to the season), the Swift is a question mark for everybody. With the way CART testing rules are, it's going to ... make it a little tougher for us than probably for most people because we're limited now to 12 preseason test days and I think like six during the season, where a two-car team would get a little more.

"But having said that, there's a certain advantage, too (to having a one-car team)," Herta said. "This is a very focused program, obviously, and the factory is working very specifically and very closely with the team to develop the car in a way that's probably unique in CART racing. ... As a driver you know you're getting 100 percent of (the team's) support, 100 percent of their attention. They've got all their eggs in one basket so they're going to make sure they do everything they can to give you the tools you need."

Turning Forsythe Racing into a two-car team isn't out of the question. Herta said when he began talks with Forsythe he thought he might come in as a second driver to Brazilian Tony Kanaan. Then Kanaan was released from his Forsythe contract to join another team.

For the time being, though, Herta said he will remain the sole driver. "You don't want to rush in and expand to a two-car team until you can at least feel like you've got your feet on the ground with the first car."

-- Times researcher Barbara Oliver contributed to this report.

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