Racing: Sierra Sierra opens season in Vegas

Last year, the Minden-based Sierra Sierra Enterprises open wheel racing team made a strong comeback in the Champ Car Atlantic Series - taking fourth overall and missing out on the series championship by a couple of bad breaks.

This year, the team that has quietly put together a big name for itself while operating out of a hangar near Minden-Tahoe Airport has added another car, making it one of the series favorites heading into this weekend's season-opener in Las Vegas.

"We have some high expectations," team manager Richard Raeder said. "We've added a talented driver, we brought back several members of our original crew and we've even changed up our image a bit with new paint jobs on the cars and new driver suits."

Among the biggest developments for the series will be a new television contract with ESPN2.

"Every race will be televised on a week delay," Raeder said. "It will help people around here to see us in this format, so they can see what we do.

"ESPN is definitely a step forward and to have our first race in Las Vegas is a big, big deal."

Sierra Sierra's lead driver, Raphael Matos, took fourth in the series last year as a rookie driver.

The 25-year-old Brazilian will be joined on the team this year by Canadian James Hinchcliffe.

"It was a very competitive season last year, to the point where one crash could take you out of the overall hunt," Raeder said. "That's what ended up happening to us.

"This year we wanted to double-up our odds, so we added James, and we made a significant investment to buy a back-up car for each driver just in case.

"James is a guy I knew for about four years. He competed in this series last year and we kept an eye on him. When his team made some cutdowns in size, we were ready to pick him up."

Team owner Dianne Kottke said she was glad to bring back a number of the team's original crew in order to staff both cars for the season.

Among the returners from last year will be Keone Awa, who will serve as the chief mechanic on Hinchcliffe's car.

Jethro Austin returns to the team after a two-year absence and will be the chief mechanic for Matos' car.

Two-time series champ David Empringham returns as the team's driver development coach and Larry Edscorn returns as crew chief.

Bob Markley will serve as the team's data engineer and Lee Dykstra and David Buschemeyer have joined on as engineers.

"Just the way we perform as a crew, the way we operate will be at the highest level," Raeder said. "Our engineers are top caliber."

Chris Ness, Maciek Kruszewski and Cameron Hutt are among the crew's mechanics and Ron Park and Don Hartzell will be the team's truck drivers.

Sierra Sierra went local as much as possible when farming out some of the work during the offseason.

The team's new paint job was done by Norris Auto Body in Gardnerville and some of the engine and frame parts were machined at Burns Machinery near the airport.

"I think it is a little different when we come in the door," Raeder said. "People are always surprised there is an operation of this magnitude running here locally.

"I think we stretched the people at Norris to their limits, but they were so flexible to our needs. As much as we can, we try to go local with the work that needs to be done for the cars."

Kottke said the team is still in search of corporate sponsorships, but hopes the new television deal will help.

"Anyone who might want to sponsor us, we always welcome that," she said. "It's a tough sell, especially when you are up against NASCAR, but it is growing. ESPN is a big step for the series."

The team shipped out of town on Tuesday to prepare for this weekend's race. Qualifying starts this afternoon and continues on Saturday with the race on Sunday. The race will be televised April 13 at 2 p.m.

They spent last week putting together last minute preparations on the cars and loading up their two full-sized tractor trailers before heading out.

Combined, the trailers serve as crew quarters, engineering headquarters and a mobile auto shop for the team.

The team won't get much of a break over the next month as they will head straight from Las Vegas to Long Beach, Calif. and from Long Beach to Houston.

"We'll get of a breather in May, but then we're back to it every two weeks until the end of August," Raeder said.

The series will also travel to Portland, Ore., Cleveland, St. Jovite (Canada), Toronto, Edmonton, San Jose and Elkhart Lake, Wis. this summer.

"We've been testing since January and it's gone very well," Raeder said. "We've been at or near the top of the leaderboard at every event with one driver or another. We're hoping for good things this season."

For more information on the team, visits www.sierrasierra.com and for more information on the series, visit www.champcaratlantic.com.

-- Joey Crandall can be reached at jcrandall@recordcourier.com or at (775) 782-5121, ext. 212.