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Formula 2000, Page 2

Uploaded 3/31/99

Most of the drivers at Phoenix were in '99 Van Diemen chassis.The front wing seems pretty sophisticated to me. Notice the secondary wings on top of the main plane. That's got to produce more downforce with less drag than the simpler wings. The driver of this car is Rolando Quintanilla of Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. He is the son of Roberto Quintanilla, owner of a Mexican transport company and a veteran race driver.

A rear view of the Van Dieman reveals a more complicated diffuser with strakes that are supposed to prevent air leaking in under the sides from disturbing the central flow.

The Van Diemen front suspension is pushrod/bellcrank/coilovers with forward links to a cockpit-adjustable, torsion anti-roll bar. The shocks are Penske. The remote reservoir is mounted inside the tub. I wonder if they're driver adjustable from that location.

Rolando sits talking to a mechanic. He looks like he's 15 years old and talks like he's 30. Rolando is actually 18 years old and a sophomore at Pepperdine Univ. in the Los Angeles area. "I have a double major, international business and political science," he told me. "You need to be educated to succeed in anything. The focus I need in school helps my driving too. It helps my concentration.

"I drove a '98 Van Diemen in a partial season last year. That was just to learn the tracks and get the team going, form the relationships. This year we want to go for the championship. I hope to drive a Formula Atlantic in the last three races of that series at the end of the season. We hope we can form a Mexican ladder team competing in each level of racing right up to CART. Players has helped a lot of Canadian drivers and we'd like to do that for Mexican drivers. We have some good sponsors: Quaker State, Telmex, Tecate, Alpha Liesures, and Tranportas Quintanilla. Adrian Fernandez (CART driver for Patrick Racing) knows what we are doing and he's very suppportive."

Victor Hertfielder is the team manager. "I've worked for Roberto for 10 years. Rolando is a very good driver. He can feel the car and tell me what it's doing. He just got started as a driver. He did some karts but not much. He really never drove a race car until two years ago."

Rolando had the best lap time in the two practice sessions I saw. He qualified in the second starting spot behind Marc-Antoine Camirand of Trois-Rivieres, Quebec.

This is the tiny interview room at PIR and that's Rolando on the left answering questions after the F2000 qualifying session. The pole qualifier, Marc-Antoine Camirand is in the middle. Mark Dismore, son of the veteran open-wheel driver of the same name, is on the right. He's a rookie in this series and qualified third.

Camirand led the race on Sunday from start to finish for his first win in F2000. Rolando spun but didn't hit anything finishing eighth. Dismore earned a fifth place finish.

These kids are all good athletes and accomplished drivers although barely out of high school. This is the future of American open-wheel racing.