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Written by:
David Phillips
Senior writer, RACER Magazine http://www.racer.com/speedtv
Senior writer, RACER Magazine http://www.racer.com/speedtv
05/20/2008 - 02:45 PM
Monterey, Calif.
De Ferran (left) and Pagenaud take a bow. (LAT photo) ยป More Photos
Meanwhile, an even more compelling story was unfolding in the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series’ RumBum.com 250 at Mazda Laguna Seca Raceway, where da Matta started his first automobile race since suffering near-fatal head injuries when he collected a deer while testing at Road America in 2006. The fact that da Matta survived the accident, let alone returned to perfect health, borders on the wondrous. That he was sharp enough – physically and mentally – to drive a 500hp Daytona Prototype is little less than a miracle.
Forget, for a moment, the awful head injuries da Matta suffered; consider that he also lost roughly 1/6 of his body weight during his extended stay in the hospital and the initial stages of his recovery, and it’s truly remarkable that, less than a year after his crash, he felt good enough to take the tests to gain medical clearance to return to motorsports competition. Da Matta did well in those tests, but his doctors advised him to give it another few months, wait until the fall for another round of tests – which he passed with flying colors.
In any case, Bob Stallings – owner of the GAINSCO/Stallings Pontiac Riley Jon Fogarty and Alex Gurney steered to the 2007 Rolex DP championship – had already spoken with da Matta about the first steps in a possible comeback; no commitments to racing, of course, but an open-ended offer of a no-pressure test, one that would enable da Matta to determine whether or not he wanted – or could – return to racing.
That test came at the new Eagles Canyon circuit near Dallas in late March, and all da Matta managed to do was establish a new track record. More important than setting a track record on a new club track was da Matta’s consistency and technical feedback, dissecting every aspect of the car’s performance to the nth degree.
“It was almost as if he was able to visualize how the tires were performing, how their profile was changing in every corner,” says Stallings, “and how he could take advantage of that to improve his lap times.”
All of which prompted Stallings to enter a second car at Laguna for da Matta and Jimmy Vasser who, in addition to serving as the team’s third driver in long-distance events, is da Matta’s close friend and former boss at what was then known as PKV Racing. With something of a pick-up crew and with little or no time to test beyond the two days da Matta spent in the Pontiac Riley in Texas, there was little danger of he and Vasser mounting a serious challenge for the win at Laguna Seca. But that was hardly the object of the exercise, anyway. Rather, Stallings & Co. were looking at the prospects for fielding a second car – if not for the latter half of the ’08 season, then in a full-tilt effort in ’09. A deal for sponsorship is in the offing and, in a perfect world, Stallings would be able to lure Vasser out of semi-retirement and pair him with a reborn da Matta . . . assuming the Brazilian was up to the rigor of a race weekend.
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