Carter gives Japanese driver Cup test run

DARLINGTON, S.C. -- Former Japanese GT champion Hideo Fukuyama, who was hooked by stock car racing when NASCAR staged a series of exhibition races in that country in the late 1990s, has tested a Haas Carter Motorsports Ford in hopes of making his Winston Cup debut this fall.

	Travis Carter

Fukuyama, 47, was able to test one day last week at Dover International Speedway before rain interrupted the test. Carter has hired young crew chief Teddy Brown, who at the beginning of the season worked on the turnaround by BAM Racing with Shawna Robinson, to engineer Fukuyama's program.

"I thought it went real well," Brown said. "We only got about four-and-a-half hours on the track because of the weather; and Hideo ended up only a second-and-a-half off last spring's pole.

"I felt like we made big gains. He is very knowledgeable about a race car (and) he knows what he needs to do. He picked up on the line so fast -- I was very impressed with that, him never being there, because Dover has a couple different lines and he didn't have anyone to follow."

"I'd say I'm very confident we'll attempt to make a race this season," Carter said. "Probably in the 66 car, but this test procedure is somewhat complicated, and if you have to, you can have another number -- but we tested with the 66.

"Dover is a tough track to get used to and one day is not a lot of time in which to do it. I think he made a lot of progress and we were pretty pleased with what we saw, so far."

In the meantime, Carter said he has been in discussions with executives from Discover Card, in hopes the company would extend the sponsorship program with his No. 26 Ford driven by Todd Bodine that began about a third of the way through this season, then was extended through the end of 2002.

"It's positive," Carter said of the talks. "Time is of the essence right now, and I hope within two to three weeks we'll have an answer, and I certainly hope it's positive."

The team owner said he hoped to retain Bodine's services for 2003, but that retaining Discover was critical to retaining the driver that has a Bud Pole and three top-10 finishes.

"The Discover people like him and the team gets along well with him," Carter said. "They communicate with him and I think as time grows we can get better."

Carter, who will make a trip to Japan to discuss business opportunities in the Winston Cup Series with Fukuyama's backers, would like to test him again at Dover and at Rockingham before he possibly attempts Winston Cup races at the one-mile Dover concrete oval; the half-mile Martinsville (Va.) Speedway short track and Rockingham, also a mile oval.

He said the driver had sponsorship in place, although Carter did not know the specifics.

"For him, I'm sure it's a situation that he wants to see enough of himself and have enough time in the cars to feel that he's comfortable," Carter said. "I think he's a guy that's not gonna dive in cold turkey -- he knows what he's doing and wants to be comfortable that he knows what he has and what he's dealing with."

The sports car driver, who has competed internationally with several starts in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, has also raced in a couple NASCAR Winston West Series events, including one at the Twin Ring Motegi oval in Japan and another at Pikes Peak International Raceway.

He met owner Travis Carter at the first NASCAR exhibition race in Japan, at the Suzuka Circuit road course and drove his No. 23 Team Camel Ford.

Fukuyama competed in both Winston Cup style exhibitions at Suzuka and also drove in the Winston Cup race at the 1.5-mile Motegi oval in 1998 and the final NASCAR appearance in Japan, the Winston West finale in 1999.

Carter said there has been some talk about Fukuyama doing a full Winston Cup season, but his trip to Japan would clarify some of that talk.

"I don't know that that's a goal," Carter said. "That's been talked around a little bit and perhaps I'll know more about that this week."

One young Japanese woman who served as his interpreter for Fukuyama's concerns joined Carter at Darlington. He said Brown was taking another route.

"Last I knew, he was looking on the Internet for some kind of little machine to interpret what he said," Carter said, chuckling. "I have two girls that speak for me. They take my Southern drawl and turn it into something they can understand."

Brown said they worked it out, having to also deal with the fact that the interpreters had previously only worked in a Formula One environment.

"The interpreter was getting upset because she didn't understand the terminology," Brown said, "but we worked with sign language, using a scale of one to 10 for oversteer and understeer, which he understood.

"It was tough, but not as bad as we thought it would be."