INDY RACING: Opportunities head Hornish's way after clinching title
Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
September 25, 2001INDIANAPOLIS - When Sam Hornish Jr. clinched the Indy Racing Northern Light Series championship earlier this month, he had no idea it would lead to driving a different direction on Indianapolis Motor Speedway's famed frontstretch.
Hornish, 22, won the prestigious open-wheel title in just his second season on the circuit. The title will award him the Northern Light Cup and a $1 million bonus check, which he will receive Sunday night Oct. 7 at the Indy Racing League's award dinner.
What Hornish didn't realize were the other opportunities the Indy Racing championship would bring him.
The Defiance, Ohio native already has accepted an invitation to compete in the Porsche Pirelli Supercup races on Indianapolis Motor Speedway's 2.606-mile road course and hopes for an invitation to join the elite True Value IROC series in 2002.
"It means a lot to be picked to do something like that," said Hornish. "It's just an opportunity to get some seat time and have more opportunities to run in different kind of cars."
Hornish will drive the No. 1 Porsche AG 911 GT3 Cup car in the Porsche Pirelli Supercup races, which will be held Sept. 29-30 in conjunction with the SAP United States Grand Prix at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. "I'm not really expecting much, I just want to go out there and have fun," Hornish said. "I'm just excited to go do it. I want to see what I'm capable of. I only have 40 minutes of practice before qualifying, so we'll see what happens.
"I'm sure the car is a little bit heavier. I don't know what the horsepower is like on these cars."
Hornish hasn't raced competitively on a road course in two years, and he has never driven a Porsche factory car. He was scheduled to test one last week in Germany but was forced to cancel because of the terrorist attacks in the United States.
However, Hornish does have extensive road-racing experience in Toyota Atlantic, U.S. F2000 and World Karting Association events earlier in his career.
Formal invitations for the IROC series will be issued early next year, but Hornish has good reason to expect one. Every Indy Racing champion since the 1996-97 season has been invited to participate in the four-race series, which pairs 12 elite drivers from top racing organizations in identically prepared IROC cars.
"The IROC series is something I've been interested in for a long time," said Hornish. "And now to get invited to race in the Supercup, I take it as a compliment. I don't know. Sometimes I wonder why."
Hornish's statistics answer that question.
Driving the No. 4 Pennzoil Panther Dallara/Oldsmobile/ Firestone, Hornish recorded two victories and nine top-three finishes in 12 starts.
As the youngest champion of a major-league, open-wheel series in modern North American racing history, he also became the first driver in the six-year history of the Indy Racing Northern Light Series to clinch the championship before the final race of the season. The season-ending Chevy 500 at Texas Motor Speedway is scheduled for Oct. 6.
"I thought we were going to do well this year," said Hornish. "I wouldn't have anticipated that we would have won the championship. I thought I would have run in the top five, which probably would have gotten an invitation in the IROC series. We're going to take it in stride and have fun."
That fun starts this weekend when Hornish takes his first competitive laps around Indianapolis' road course. Although he hasn't competed on the circuit, he drove a Mercedes around it during a U.S. Grand Prix Media Day last year, but that doesn't exactly compare to racing around the clockwise course.
His biggest challenge may be to master driving the unfamiliar direction on the main stretch of the Speedway.
"I've done that before," Hornish said. "I've done it on purpose, and I've done it on accident."
Text provided by Paul Kelly
Editors Note: To view hundreds of hot racing photos and art, visit
The Racing Photo Museum and the
Visions of Speed Art Gallery.