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GILBERTO MAKES IT TWO IN A ROW IN THE MEXICAN F3
by CAJAL

The second race of the Montana International F3 Grand Prix took place
this weekend (!3/14 April, 1996) in the city of San Luis Potosi,
located some 350 Km. north of Mexico City, and famous for its cajeta (a
caramel-like dessert) and tunas (the fruit of the nopal cactus which
you can see in the Mexican flag). The circuit is called Tangamanga II
because there was an earlier Tangamanga I and it's considered a speed
circuit, 2.3 km. long. The first surprise came Saturday morning when
the second driver for the Mexlub team, Brazilian Paolo Carcasci, did
not appear and his place was taken, for this race only, by local driver
Peregrino Guerrero. It seems Paolo decided to bet his future on the
Indy Lights championship and just faxed his resignation Friday night.
"Like the maids, he didn't even say goodbye" would be the comment of
a source close to the team, although maybe Brazilian maids don't say
goodbye, mine (Mexican 100%) are usually better educated (and a few have
been from San Luis). So the first, and only, qualifying run took place
that day, everybody on Goodyear racing rubber which is a co-sponsor of
the championship, and Gilberto (Beto) Jimenez, from the Montana Team,
shone to capture the pole in 1' 9" and 256 thousandths, followed by his
teammate Oswaldo Negri 6 tenths behind. Next came Argentinian Waldemar
Coronas of Mexlub missing the 1'9" by 15 thousandths, and defending
champ Derek Higgins (Quaker State/GO) 3 hundredths behind. Homero
Richards (Corona Beer/Lozano Racing) was fifth with 1'10" .374 and Rod
MacLeod (Quaker State/Go) rounded the top six less than a tenth behind.
By the way, both Gilberto and Oswaldo broke the lap record held by
Derek since 1995 in 1'9".972 while the Irishman couldn't do it, and it
seems that the Quaker State Team will have carburettors instead of fuel
injection for the race in Monterrey, like Montana and Mexlub, or the
championship might be lost for them before long (they have won the last
3 years in a row, twice with Carlos Guerrero and last year with Derek).

Sunday was sunny and after the Reynard Formula race won by Yamil Rached
(Pennzoil), followed by Jose Antonio Ramos (Schwarz Racing) and Luis
Diaz (Quaker State), Gilberto did rise and shine. He made a good start
for the 45 lap race but Derek made an even better one to take second
place in a manouvre which could have eliminated half the field. Oswaldo
followed and Waldemar retired at the end of the first lap with engine
trouble. Homero Richards pressured Oswaldo which in turn hounded Derek
which in turn snapped at the heels of Gilberto, showing his intention of
passing several times but Beto kept his cool for six laps. At the start
of the seventh Derek did the slingshot and run side to side with Beto,
their cars touched with neither giving way and Oswaldo trid to pick
them both but touched Derek and was out of the race. Derek was given a
stop and go and lost his chance to win. Beto just held his place and at
times it looked as if he was playing with the rest of the field although
it was later said that he had severe overheating problems due to some
debris picked in the radiators and that was the reason for him slowing
at times. Rod took up the chase with Homero and they fought hard for
more than 10 laps, Homero braking the official lap record in lap 13 with
1'9".820, but this fight was broken when he was forced to retire with
electrical problems in the car after 20 laps. Rod then tried to catch
Beto but couldn't make inroads because Beto was well informed by his pit
crew and speeded-up when necessary.

Fight for third place was ferocious between Allen Berg (Coca-Cola/Sentra)
and local driver Alex Villasana (Canel's Bubblegum) but somehow a
mistake in the finish line timing beam (I never heard this one before)
which didn't count one of his laps made the officials think he was
one lap behind and they showed him the blue flag repeatedly, which he
ignored, and were about to blackflag him when he obeyed, but his team
did protest and every manual chartkeeper knewthey were right. Since
Alex was not going to be blueflagged, the mistake was made by the
timing equipment and the race between them was tight till the end, the
stewards decided to award third place to both drivers, even though they
were separated by 2 tenths of a second, and that's how they went to the
rostrum. Fifth place was Luis F. Perea (Perea Racing) and sixth was
Derek after a second stop. Seventh and last driver to complete the race
was Horacio Richards (brother of Homero) running under the Mundet soda
pop banners. The championship stands with Gilberto leading it with
40 points, followed by Rod with 21, Oswaldo 15 and Derek 14. By the
way, overheard by this writer was the news that the 1992 champion of
the Mexican F3 Cesar T. Jimenez (Beto's brother), will soon be married.
Congratulations to him!