Gearbox problem ends Fernandez' debut early.

Crash.Net, March, 2004

Adrian Fernandez's fast-paced learning curve in the Indy Racing League came to an early end as a gearbox problem ruined his Copper World 200 debut.

The Mexican, who first drove the #5 Quaker State/Telmex/Tecate Panoz/G-Force-Honda in Friday's practice session after a late switch from the rival Champ Car World Series, made a mistake while downshifting prior to the start of the race which, in turn, broke the gearbox. The team immediately returned to the garage, but would have been unable to make the necessary repairs in time to return Fernandez to the race track.

"Obviously, we are not happy about what happened, but that's racing," Fernandez sighed, "This was a big part of not being familiar with the car. I made a mistake on the downshift prior to the start of the...

Read the full article with a Free Trial at MyWire.

Premium Content Partnership | MyWire provides an in-depth online archive library of reference works.