Looking back on Ganassi’s first IndyCar championship, 30 years on
Vasser and Chip Ganassi celebrate their first championships. Getty Images
After the title was clinched, did it feel like a one-off, or did it feel like the start of sustained success for the team?
Julian Robertson: You never know… but I didn’t consider it was possible for any team to win four championships in a row. I’m not sure it had ever been done before. Of course Alex Zanardi was brilliant – although I felt Jimmy drove better in ’97 and ’98 than he did in his championship year, but it didn’t fall right for him.
Even though we were very competitive, I never felt like our advantage was huge. It’s interesting that IndyCar has never had Balance of Performance yet back then, there were multiple engine manufacturers, tire suppliers and chassis manufacturers who came up with pretty similar outcomes, performance-wise. They’d all have different strengths at different tracks. So we were never confident that we had everyone covered, so the four championships in four years was really special.
Chip had just laid the foundations of a great team, and that’s when I thought, ‘Yeah, we could go a long way.’
Two titles went to Zanardi, one to his replacement Juan Pablo Montoya. With hindsight, what are your thoughts about that 1997-99 period when you scored several race wins but couldn’t retake the championship?
Jimmy Vasser: My form definitely fluctuated. There were times when I just wasn’t as quick as my teammates. In my defense, I’d say I had pretty strong teammates! After my championship, Zanardi just killed everyone in ’97 and I got a bunch of podiums but only one win. That was annoying because I should have got at least one more, but when Greg Moore’s engine blew at Fontana with 10 laps to go, I assumed there was going to be a yellow – it was all fire and brimstone! – so I backed off, but the caution never came and Mark Blundell got around me. Still, I got third in the championship.
Then in 1998, I regained some momentum, but I had a driving style that was harder on fuel mileage and harder on tires, and I think Firestone had made their tires slightly softer that year, so that hurt me. But I was responsible for our testing on the short ovals where we’d sucked before, and I’m proud because we improved there and I won Nazareth and Milwaukee, and then got my Fontana win at the end of the year.
Maybe I should have worked harder to adapt when I saw my form going up and down. I was kinda nowhere in that first year when Montoya arrived in ’99. Then I got better in our second year together, 2000, when Chip switched to Lola and Toyota and all the teams were running Firestones.
I don’t know, man, I wish I could have explained my form. But I’ll always be grateful to Chip for the opportunity, and that my best year coincided with Ganassi hitting its stride in ’96. It was an exciting time. And fulfilling.
- The original version of this story appears in the current issue of RACER Magazine, No. 339, The Technology Issue. CLICK HERE for more details of the issue.
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