Gidley, Rice Impress During PacWest Indy Lights Test

Nov 14, 1997
Sebring, Fla. – The final phase of the 1997 Valvoline Team USA Scholarship program took place last week as Buddy Rice joined 1995 Scholarship winner Memo Gidley and newly crowned Barber Dodge Pro Series Champion Derek Hill in a two-day test aboard the PacWest Racing Group’s Indy Lights Lola T97/20 at Sebring, Fla.
“They all did a very good job,” reported PacWest Indy Lights Team Manager Paul “Ziggy” Harcus. “Buddy and Memo shared one car for the two days, and Derek had the other car to himself. Derek ended up being the quickest but that wasn’t what we were looking for. We just wanted to give them a taste for what Indy Lights is all about.

“Memo was very impressive, thoroughly professional in the way he conducted himself and gave us some excellent feedback. Buddy was less experienced and was suitably conservative. He knew he wasn’t there to try to set the world on fire.”

Rice, 21, had recently returned from a four-week stay in England during which he and fellow 1997 Scholarship winner Matt Sielsky secured a fifth-place finish for Team USA in the Formula Opel Nations Cup. Rice also tested a Formula 3000 car for Redman & Bright Racing, while Sielsky previously had impressed Team KOOL Green during a run in its Indy Lights car at Gingerman Raceway, Mich.

“It was interesting to compare the Indy Lights to the F3000,” said Rice. “The weight distribution is noticeably different. The bigger engine in the Indy Lights car allows it to roll a lot more than the F3000. Also the steering is much heavier in the Lights car. The power delivery of the two engines is quite different. The [Indy Lights] Buick is really torquey on the bottom whereas the Zytek engine in the F3000 pulls strongly all the way through the power range.”

“It felt great,” added Gidley, who finished second to LynxtRacing teammate Alex Barron in the 1997 KOOL Toyota Atlantic Championship and won the concurrent four-race Player’s Challenge title in his rookie campaign. “The Lights car has a lot more power than I’m used to. It was a tremendous experience. I learned a lot from working with [race engineer] Roberto [Trevisan], Ziggy and the guys. We made a lot of changes to the car and really made some progress. I really want to thank everyone involved in the Team USA Scholarship for making this happen.”

The third 1997 Scholarship winner, Paul Edwards, also has been testing busily within the past week, setting the fastest times during outings with two different Formula Renault Sport teams. In addition, Edwards, 19, has qualified for the final phase of the Team Green Academy program to be held at the Derek Daly SpeedCentre at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in early December.