Race interview with Al Rosemeyer after Dover!

Well…here we are again Al. Seems like you continue to put your car to the front of the field week in and week out. I am sure that some of the Rookies would love to hear how you manage to do that…. Would you like to share some thoughts on it?

Sorry, that’s classified G-14 Super Top Secret. Even I don’t know how I do it, they won’t tell me. J Actually it’s kind of hard to say, I’ve learned so many things since I came to SORS but I think one of the most important things is that I learned to adapt. A lot of things can change during our races and experience has taught me how important it is to be ready for those changes. A big part of that is knowing what my car will do under all kinds of different conditions. Practicing running all over the race track, not just the “preferred” line, helps a lot when things get sticky in front of me. I just try to learn everything I can about my race car before the race, try different lines as the tires wear, take a chance and leave what I think is the best line and try some different things. It’s the only way to really know what I can or can’t do with the car before a racing situation teaches me the hard way. I’d say it pays to learn to adapt to whatever your race car and the race might throw at you before the race starts, chances are things won’t go just the way you plan. So other than that, a bunch of other stuff and a little luck, that’s all I do.

Before the race started, it seemed everyone was loose in practice. Were you surprised how some of the long green flag laps fell in there?

Oh yea, especially our first green run, wasn’t all that long but it was a lot more than I expected at the start. I was glad to see that, figured everybody must be trying real hard to keep it clean and that was a good sign we could be in for some great racing!

With only 19 laps to go, the yellow came out. Was track position more important to you than pitting? Or did you feel you still had a strong car with the tires you had?

Well the tires were in pretty good shape and all we had left behind the wall was stickers, I knew I’d never catch Bob if I had to scrub in new tires and make up the lost positions so when he stayed out I knew I had to just to stay with him. I’d been trying to get a run out of turn two, looked like the only place I had a chance to take the lead, but every time I did that I was getting to much wheelspin to get up beside Bob. That guy was fast and I had to use all the race track just to stay with him. I was a lot more worried about my gearbox, 3^rd was gone and I knew it’d be real easy to bust up 4^th gear on the restart. Sure, that would have taken me out of contention but I was more worried about causing Don, Gary, Billy and the rest right behind me to bunch up and get in trouble going into turn one. I figured if I could keep what was left of my transmission under me I had a chance to be close enough to Bob to take advantage of any mistake he might make. Bob Dionne isn’t one to make to many mistakes and he put on a great run all the way to the end. Congratulations to Bob on a great, hard fought win!

Thanks for your time Al, and congrats on your 2^nd place finish. Is there anyone you would like to thank?

I want to thank my sponsor, API, for their continued support of this #42 Chevrolet Monte Carlo and the SORS organization for this 2002 season. I’d also like to thank Billy Stratton for giving us a great place to race and all the time and effort that’s involved. Thanks to all The SORS East crew for some great racing! C’ya all at Pocono.