|
Rookie Diary: Arie, the New Teammate |
|
|
|
July 14. Starting with the June 11, Texas Pro race, Wade’s new
teammate has been Arie Luyendyk Jr. With Al Unser III having left
the Menards Infiniti Pro Series for the Toyota Atlantic Series, after
the Futaba Freedom 100 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the Brian
Stewart Racing number 3 car had an empty seat. Who would be
Wade’s teammate now?  Photo Credit: Harv Sweezie, BSR
It just so happened that at Indianapolis the cards got shuffled a
second time. Luyendyk had his first IndyCar ride lined up in the
number 98 CURB/Agajanian/Beck Motorsports car. He passed his
IndyCar and IMS rookie test, and qualified for the 500 on the last
day. He ended up on the bubble, however. Just a few minutes
before the 6:00 pm bewitching hour Felipe Giaffone came out on the
track in an A. J. Foyt Racing car and bumped Arie out of the
race. No longer with an IndyCar ride Arie wanted to
come back to the Pro Series. It now appears that he has his wish
and a ride with Brian Stewart Racing for the rest of the season.
Arie’s first race with BSR was the Liberty Challenge race on the IMS
road course on the F1 weekend. When he joined his new team, Arie
brought his chemistry set with him. His friendly, at ease,
outgoing personality allowed him to slip, oh so smoothly, into the
Brian Stewart Racing Team. And in an instant, he and Wade were
good friends.
First appearances suggest that Arie will be a great teammate for
Wade. He brings truly outstanding Pro Series experience with him
and a great attitude. Arie holds the Series record for number of
races, 35, and is first in the record book in terms of top five
finishes, 18. He is tied for first in terms of second place
finishes, 5. Add to this, being third in terms of races led, 7,
and tied for fifth in most laps led, 145. Arie has also been a
pole sitter three times. Luyendyk ended up second in the 2002 Pro
Series points and third in last years standings.
Born in the Netherlands, young Arie Jr. moved his family to Scottsdale,
AZ, when he was two years old. He started karting when he
was eleven and after four years moved into SCCA Formula Ford 1600 and
European Formula Ford 1800 racing. In that 1998 to 2001 period
Arie’s racing also included American Action Race Trucks, Skip Barber
Formula Dodge, North American Formula Ford 2000, SCCA F2000, and U.S.
F2000. Along the way he won the SCCA F2000 SoPAC National
Championship. 
Of course, Arie Jr. also has had his own personal driving coach through the years, his father, the two time Indy 500 winner.
Arie ran two races earlier this season for the Automatic Fire
Sprinklers team, recording a fourth place finish at Phoenix and a fifth
place at St. Petersburg. He did not run in the season opener at
Homestead-Miami or in the Futaba Freedom 100 at the IMS.
The two key crew people dedicated to Arie’s BSR car are two New
Zealanders, the legendary Mo Larsen, who is the Chief Mechanic, and his
daughter Teena, who is the Mechanic. They compliment Dave
Metcalf, who is the Chief Mechanic on Wade’s number 33 car, and Harv
Sweezie who is the Mechanic. Doug Hoy is the Team Manager
for both Wade and Arie, and Doug Zister is the Team’s Chief
Engineer. Both Teena and Dave are former race car drivers of
significant accomplishment. They know well how to communicate
with another driver.
With Arie being the new driver of the red and black Brian Stewart
Racing number 3, the car has a new name, the Mobley Special.
Behind the car name are Joe and Trish Mobley, two wonderful
Californians, whose friendship and racing relationship with Brian
Stewart goes back over many years.
We talked with Arie during the Liberty Challenge weekend. We
asked him about his disappointment at the Indy 500. He said, “We
came into it so late and really only had basically a day and a half to
put the thing into the show. So it wasn’t really done
properly. We’ll just try to do a better job next year of raising
money so we can be in a better situation.”  Left, Brian Stewart, right, Joe Mobley
Arie did go on to say, in terms of what it was like running in traffic
with the Indy cars, that the limited time did not allow him to do that
during practice. “I was always by myself. I didn’t get that
experience, and that’s probably a good thing that I didn’t race because
I didn’t have that experience to run in traffic.” Not one to give
up on his goal, Arie added, “I’ll let you know when I find out.”
Regarding his first race with BSR at Texas, where he qualified seventh
and finished tenth, he explained, “It was the worst start and finish I
ever had at Texas so the car didn’t really do what I wanted it to do
so. It was a lack time for preparation with the team. I got
in the car really late. I did kind of an OK qualifying, but the
car kind of went backwards in the race. So we’ll try to work on
that and get it back to where I like it for the next big track
[Nashville].
And then there was the Liberty Challenge road race on F1 weekend.
Although the other Pro drivers, including Wade, had practiced on the
IMS road course in April, Arie had not. With the FIA F1 cars, and
Porsche and BMW teams taking up a lot of track time the two times
allotted to the Pro cars both went for a combined time race qualifying.
“We didn’t have any time on the track and we went the wrong way on the
set up for the qualifying and really suffered. So it was not very
good.” He qualified eight and finished sixth.
In spite of these three disappointing situations in a row Arie he still
had a very positive outlook for his future with BSR. ““It was a
great opportunity for me to join Brian Stewart Racing, so we’ll see if
we can make the best of it….It’s a good team and Brian puts together a
good car. This year they’ve really stepped it up with Wade and
now they really have two good drivers in Wade and me. So I think
we can really put together some good finishes for Brian and hopefully
get some wins soon.”
In 2004 Arie did seven races for Sam Schmidt Motorsports, before moving
over to AFS Racing. Those races for Sam included three front row
starts and two podium finishes [a second and a third] by Arie.
On this subject Arie reflected that, “Sam’s team has been really strong
[this year] but they are inconsistent and they’ve shown that. And
that’s one thing that’s helping out Wade in the championship because
they are not consistently finishing up front. They are finishing
up front as a team, but it’s always one of their different
drivers. So if we can take advantage of their inconsistency and
finish well every race then that will be a benefit for us.” 
Did he and Wade get a chance at Texas to work on drafting
together? “Yah, we did a little bit of drafting together in
the practices and it worked out well. I’m sure that we’ll be a
good asset together for the rest of the year.”
Wade’s comment about having Arie as his new teammate was, “Arie is
great and really cool to hang out with. We get along really well
and have a lot of fun. So there is absolutely no conflict between
us at all. We know we’ve got slightly different goals and
slightly different situations, so I think we compliment each other well
and we get on famously. He definitely fits in well.”
In Arie’s first race for BSR, Texas, Wade was quick to defend Arie’s
results, and remarked that Arie got little practice before having to
qualify and that there wasn’t really time to get his car set up
properly to fit him well. Al Unser is only 5’ 8” and 140 lbs.
while Arie is 6’ 2” and 180. Also Wade made the point that Arie
had a bad restart that cost him some places.
Wade agrees that he and Arie working on the track together have a
better chance against the three Schmidt drivers than going it alone
against them.
While we were talking with Wade after the last race, the IMS Liberty
Challenge, Arie, came up from behind Wade, ruffled his hair,
congratulated him, and headed out of the track. Arie’s hands were
empty. Apparently he left his chemistry set in the Brian Stewart
Racing trailer so that it would always be there!
Wade wants to win the Pro Series Championship. Arie wants to get
back to the Indianapolis 500, qualify and stay qualified. They
both had their testing time at Nashville a couple of weeks ago, and are
ready to go this weekend. Together they look like a pair of
teammates made for each other.
For more on each driver check out Wade at: www.cunninghammotorsport.com and Arie at www.arieluyendyk.com
|
Number of comments (0) - Add your comments to this article: |
IPS Archive