Heartbreak for Sellers

Feb 3, 2002
Palmerston North, New Zealand — Today just wasn’t Bryan Sellers’ day. The 19-year-old American needed just onepodium finish from either of the final two races to secure the New Zealand International Formula Ford Championship. But the fates simply were not on his side.

In the first event, Sellers passed pole-sitter Kenny Smith at the start and led the first four laps, but then was taken out by rival Nick Ross. In Race Two, after the Crawford Services team had battled against the odds to repair his badly damaged car, Sellers rose from the back of the grid to be in third place before a broken driveshaft forced his retirement just two laps shy of the checkered flag.

“All I needed was to finish, and there we were [in place to win the championship]. There was no problem at all, and then it just stopped. I had no drive whatsoever,” reflected Sellers after a sensational drive. “I gave it a go, but unfortunately it just wasn’t meant to be.”

Rival Fabian Coulthard, who was excluded from the last round at Pukekohe two weeks ago for running an illegal engine, profited from Sellers’ heartbreak to win both races and secure the championship.

Sellers’ teammate, A.J. Allmendinger, also was out of luck. He had worked his way impressively from ninth on the grid to third in the first race before being overtaken – with yellow caution flags waving — on the final lap. Justice, however, prevailed when Ross later was assessed a 15-second penalty, which elevated Allmendinger to a well-deserved podium result.

Later in the afternoon, after ceding third place to Sellers in the late stages, Allmendinger was left with nowhere to go when Sellers’ car suddenly broke. His car, too, suffered damage, although he battled back from a lurid moment on the grass, with his Van Diemen’s nose askew, to salvage a sixth-place finish.

“I’d have liked to have the day turn out a little better at the end,” said Allmendinger, “but overall it was a lot better than how the weekend started. My car was really working well in the second race and I was right with Coulthard and [Nelson] Hartley. I was so much faster than them through the corners, but they were still leaving me on the straightaways. As I say, it was disappointing how it all ended, but for how it started and how far back I was, it was good.”

“It’s sad it’s over,” said crew chief/engineer Andy Neale, himself a former winner in Formula Ford who has spent the last few years as a chief mechanic on one of 1997 Formula 1 World Champion Jacques Villeneuve’s British American Racing (BAR) F1 entries. “The boys have done a sensational job and they’ve been a pleasure to work with. Plus, I think they’ve learned a hell of a lot. Everybody here [in New Zealand] says they’ve livened up the series so much. Everyone’s really happy — except us, of course, but I guess you’ve got to take the knocks.

“The ironies are everywhere,” continued Neale. “As it turned out, the second race went two laps longer than it should’ve. There was a big accident on the first lap, so the officials red-flagged the race at the end of lap two and elected to start it over from scratch, which they’re quite entitled to do. But the sad thing is that Bryan’s car broke with just two laps remaining. At the end of the day we were just out of luck.”

Support for the Team USA Scholarship has been provided by CART, Steve and Christine Horne, The Craig Company, American Honda, Jimmy Vasser, Bryan Herta, Prappas Company, Klein Tools, Las Vegas Karting Center, Road Racing Drivers Club, Sparco USA, Skip Barber Racing, Jim Russell Racing Drivers School, Buttonwillow, Speedstar and RACER magazine.