Here is the text of Adrian Fernandez's interview with SPEEDtv.com. The link is http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/article/alms-video-adrian-fernandez-the-long-interview/
In our first "Long Interview" we profiled sportscar racing veteran David Brabham -- this time, I sat down with a man of equal tenure, but whose career-to-date has been most closely associated with Indycars.
Spend a few minutes with Adrian Fernandez and five things quickly become apparent. First, he's incredibly driven. He'd be deserving of any top drive in the American Le Mans Series on his merits as a pilot alone, but for Fernandez, the best way to ensure his future as a driver is to have his own racing team. The pressures and work involved in being an owner/driver is significantly greater than what a regular driver endures.
Second, his passion for racing and seeking the next challenge -- a pole position, a win, or a championship is what keeps pushing him forward in this business. He's been racing for more than two decades, yet shows no sign of slowing down on or off track. Fernandez blitzed Le Mans last year -- his first time at the French circuit, taking pole, finishing second, and if there had been any doubts before he set foot on the biggest of international sportscar stages, walked away having proved a major point: at forty two years old, Adrian Fernandez can still take on the best drivers in the world and leave them wanting for speed. Turning forty three this Sunday, April 20th, expect Fernandez to celebrate many more birthdays as a serious threat at every circuit he visits.
Third, he's a complex man -- you have to be in order to own a team, to run that team, to find sponsors, to manage those sponsors and the heavy promotional responsibilities that come with them, and on the weekends, to switch mental gears back and forth from owner to racing driver without making any compromises. Gil de Ferran, Adrian's new Acura stablemate, would be well advised to pick Fernandez's brain on the art of being an owner/driver!
Fourth, he's a family man. His own family is one that's very close and dear to him, but I'm talking about the family that works under the Fernandez Racing tent. Look back at pictures from his first years as a team owner, and you'll find many familiar faces still working for him today. In an industry where loyalties are gained and lost on an annual basis, Adrian's character is easily measured by the loyalty and long standing relationships he has with his managers, his crew, and his PR staff. Just as Fernandez has been on a long journey in motor racing, he's fostered an environment where those that have had the fortune of working for him want to return year after year to work alongside the man. That's both a rarity, and surely one of the key elements that's allowed Fernandez Racing to rise to the top in every series they've competed in.
Finally, Adrian Fernandez is a piece of living history. He's lived most of his adult life at over 200mph -- from his early days in Indy Lights to the years spent fighting wheel to wheel with Andretti, Zanardi, Montoya, Franchitti, Tracy, Kanaan, Castroneves, de Ferran, Moore, Unser Jr., Vasser, and all the other greats of open-wheel's golden era. He also spent most of those years in the thick of championship battles, and besting all of the drivers worth beating in his decade of CART competition. He's raced in NASCAR, and raced well. He's been Mexico's top driver throughout the '80's, '90's, and for every year this decade. For his countrymen, Adrian Fernandez IS auto racing.
But more than his role as a national racing hero, Fernandez isn't just the best Mexican driver of the modern era; he's one of the best we've seenof any nationality from the moment he set foot in America. He graduated to CART after learning his big car craft in the Indy Lights Series -- a place where he entered as a complete rookie on ovals, and left with a win in his first race on the 1.0 mile Phoenix track, and backed it up on Milwaukee's flat 1.0 mile oval. A third win on the streets of Detroit marked Fernandez as a driver with an aptitude for fast learning, and with talent to spare. Fernandez would battle Brack, Tracy, and de Ferran for the 2000 CART championship. He'd end up finishing a close second to de Ferran in one of the fiercest years of the series. (Photo: Getty Images) � More Photos To appreciate Adrian's place amongst modern open-wheel heroes, he came into CART at a time when legends of the sport were still active, bridging the gap between the days of lower tech and lower speeds, to the pinnacle of power, grip, and chassis innovation that defined the series through 2002.
In his rookie season of 1993, Fernandez called Galles Racing home along with team mates Al Unser Jr. and 1988 series champion Danny Sullivan. A.J. Foyt was still racing, as was Mario Andretti, Nigel Mansell, Emerson Fittipaldi, and Bobby Rahal.
He'd score his first win under trying conditions at Toronto in 1996, the same event where Jeff Krosnoff would lose his life. He'd battle at over 240mph on the super speedways, and would thrive in the days where Ford, Honda, Mercedes, Toyota, Goodyear, Firestone, Lola, Reynard, Swift, and Eagle spent cash on speed with complete abandon. While Fernandez never drove for a true powerhouse team in CART, he was always capable of a win, logging eight victories throughout his eleven seasons. With a close 2nd place finish in the 2000 championship serving as his best result in CART, Fernandez would call time on his career in CART in 2003 after more than a decade waging war as an elite member of the CART racing fraternity.
He'd move to the IRL in 2004, taking three wins -- and despite running the 2005 Indy 500, Adrian's Indycar career was replaced by a move to sportscar racing. He'd driven for famed owners Rick Galles, later for Pat Patrick, and from 2001 onwards, with his own Fernandez Racing operation. Just as Adrian made his CART debut at Long Beach in 1993, he'll see his beloved series off as the final race is run on Sunday. (Photo: Getty Images) � More Photos A call from Acura to be a part of their new 2007 American Le Mans program would land Adrian and Fernandez Racing in what should be a long and fruitful relationship. In a life full of tough challenges, it's Fernandez's nature to keep seeking new ones, and Acura's high expectations for wins in 2008 and a possible Le Mans entry in 2009 are just the things Fernandez is cut out for. Despite a long career that most drivers would be happy to retire from, and true to Adrian's form, he's graduated to new challenges and the opportunities for new victorious chapters to be written in sportscar racing. Clearly, a life of early retirement, golf, and tales told by the fire will have to wait, if they ever come.
On a weekend where the CART and ChampCar eras officially come to an end, I can think of no more a fitting result for the ALMS race on Saturday than for Adrian Fernandez to claim his first 'Series win on the streets of Long Beach. Despite making his series debut here in 1993, he'd never won a CART race in all of his years of racing along Shoreline Drive, but as the chapter on the CART closes, Adrian's fans will be cheering for him to spray champagne from the American Le Mans victory circle this Saturday.
On Sunday, he gets to celebrate a birthday while saying goodbye to an old friend for the final time.
