Racing Diary

PPG Pace Cars at Homestead

by Jennifer Tumminelli

Margie Eatwell, the senior Pace Car Team member gave me a welcoming call and a bit of instruction about what we’d be doing for the weekend.

The next morning I caught up with the other new members Patty, Stacy and Joanne. We were introduced to the entire team and were escorted into one of the two shiny and beautiful PPG Pace Car Trailers. It was very nice inside. We had a long meeting and it was time to get settled into the cars.

Kenny Lowe, the team manager, told us to pick out a car to drive. What a selection! How could I choose from among the Lotus Esprit, Acura NSX, Toyota Supra, Mercedes V12 and BMW M3? The Lotus had just arrived the night before to the track as a new delivery for the Pace Car Team but the team is very strict with their safety regulations so they wouldn't allow any of us to drive the car until it was thoroughly inspected and approved by each of the Pace Car mechanics and Kenny, himself.

While the others were deciding which cars to pick I walked over to the Acura NSX and I started buckling myself in. As I was almost settled in Carl Haas (you know, of Newman/Haas) came over and said, "This car fits you!" His stogie was aimed at my face as he talked. He tapped on the driver’s door and said, "Have fun. I'll be watching you out there." Great. Just the kind of pressure I needed.

It was time to go out on track. I put the headset on and heard Margie give us instruction on our procedures. We were cleared to go and Margie started us out in formation at about 60mph. We gradually crept up the speed until we were at 100mph on the oval.

The Acura NSX that I was driving was incredible! I was increasing my speed around the oval and I didn't need to brake at all to settle the car. Some of the girls came in to ask questions, but I stayed out there the whole session.

This first session (like the first session at all the tracks) was for us to get settled into the cars. Once we got into the swing of things, we took the speeds up to 120-140mph.

The next day we took passengers with us, VIP’s of PPG and the other series sponsors. Mario Andretti and Scott Pruett would be sharing the track with us to take their sponsors around as well. I was out on the track for a couple of minutes by myself. All the other Pace Car Drivers were in the hot pits when I looked in my rear view mirror to see Mario on the track. He didn’t stay behind me for long, but it was a thrill to ‘race’ with him.

The next day I drove the Mercedes V12 and Scott Pruett shared the track with us. I took a crew from HBO Sports in one session. They had a lot of equipment so it took a few minutes to get them set up and secured.

All of the passengers had a great time and they were all smiles when they got out of the Pace Cars. It was fun to glance over and see the variety of expressions on the faces of my passengers while I was driving them around the track. From joy to terror was my estimation of what they were feeling.

We new Pace Car Team drivers were taken for a tour of the racing facility and introduced to some of the IndyCar drivers and team owners. I was pleased that everyone seemed to accept us as Pace Car Team members and we all had a great time.

My next event with PPG is Nazareth on April 24th. I still work for World Speed Motorsports so I will be attending every Indycar event as well as the KOOL / Toyota Atlantic racing season (except 3 conflicting dates: Nazareth, Ohio and Road America where I will do the PPG events).

This year I get to run the Celebrity Neon Challenge race at Road America. I’m really excited about that! The PPG Pace Car team is not participating (as in previous years) in the Long Beach Celebrity Neon race, so I’m glad we can race the little sedans in Wisconsin.

See you at the races!

--Jennifer

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