Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 15, 1995 TAG: 9503150071
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KNIGHT-RIDDER/TRIBUNE
DATELINE: DARLINGTON, S. C. LENGTH: Medium
Irvan crashed again, tagging the wall in turn 1 on his 29th full-speed lap of the day. But the overall performance was strong evidence of Irvan's desire to return.
``I'm just trying to find out if I can run again,'' Irvan said before his turn 1 crash, in which he was not injured, just before the track closed at 5 p.m. ``I'm real pleased with how I did.''
With several of his peers watching with lumps in their throats, Irvan, 36, took part in the open test session at Darlington Raceway leading to the TranSouth 500 on March 26.
Irvan isn't entered in the season's fifth Winston Cup race and might not be an entrant anywhere this year. But Tuesday's performance on the 1.366-mile, egg-shaped Darlington track, generally rated NASCAR's toughest, was a miraculous step forward.
On Aug. 20, Irvan suffered critical injuries to the brain and both lungs when he wrecked at Michigan International Speedway while practicing. He beat the odds to survive and vowed to return to racing.
Tuesday, Irvan was back on the track, driving a Grand National-division Ford he owns.
He clocked an unofficial fast lap of 30.07 seconds, or 163.538 mph. The Darlington record for Grand National cars powered by V-6 engines is 30.540 seconds, or 161.022 mph, set last September by Randy LaJoie before the track was repaved.
``I haven't forgotten anything,'' Irvan said. ``It felt really good out there.''
Still, there were concerns. Irvan, his vision gradually improving, had some himself.
``I was nervous about my depth perception,'' he said. ``I still have to wear a patch over my left eye, which is causing problems with double vision. But depth perception didn't hinder me any alone on the track.
``Next, I need to test myself running with other cars.''
Irvan, a winner of 12 major races including the Daytona 500, was clearly ecstatic before the late accident.
``The thing I need to do now is get the skills polished back up,'' he said. ``I want to come back like I was before.
``I know people are asking, `Why do you have to come back?' Racing is all I've done all my life.
``It'd be like telling a jogger who is physically fit that he can't run any more. And I am physically fit. I work out every day and I'm in the best shape of my life.
``The only thing that hasn't healed is my left eye, and the doctors never have told me for sure my eye is going to get better. But they think it's improving. I undergo another examination in about two months.''
NASCAR has told Irvan he must get a medical release to race from his primary doctor and pass NASCAR's physical before he is allowed to compete again.
``I was so excited about getting to run at Darlington I didn't sleep much last night,'' Irvan said. ``When the alarm went off at 5 a.m. this morning my wife, Kim, didn't have to say, 'Ernie, get up!'
``It was exciting getting the car ready at the shop to come down here, same as it always was before.''
Mark Martin, Irvan's best friend among the drivers, was present to test his team's Winston Cup Fords. He shook down Irvan's car to give Irvan a baseline speed. Martin ran a lap of 30.80 seconds.
As Irvan waited for a few adjustments to be made before he went on the track, his father, Vic, approached and embraced his son with a long, firm hug around the shoulders. The elder Irvan said nothing, letting the embrace transmit the message to the son he almost lost.
Vic Irvan, his eyes moistening, turned to a friend and said, ``It's an emotional time.''
Then, Ernie Irvan was on the track. After a slow warmup lap he punched the throttle and went around in 30.50 seconds.
More changes in the chassis setup were made and out he went again.
Robert Yates, owner of the Winston Cup team that fielded Fords for Irvan, clicked his stopwatch.
It showed the sensational lap of 30.07 seconds.
``As time has gone by we've had a couple of hurdles for Ernie to jump,'' said Yates, who hired Dale Jarrett to drive this season in place of Irvan. ``This is another one. He just cleared it with plenty of room to spare.
``We knew he had the will to do it. Now, a lot of other racing people have seen him do it.''
That, it seems, was the intent.
``We asked Ernie if he wanted to run the first time privately, just in case. He was adamant against that,'' Yates said.
``He said, `I want to do it publicly at Darlington in a low snout car that doesn't work good.' That's the way he is. If anybody can ever do it, come back from almost losing their life, Ernie will be the one.''
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB