"In the late nineties, when we used to race at Michigan and Fontana, we put on some good races," Lisles commented, "There was a lot of moaning and complaining about the Handford device, but a lot of care went into choosing the lift/drag ratio of the car and, when it was first introduced, it was actually pretty effective. Of course, as things changed, it didn't quite keep up with some of the changes so, a couple of times, it produced somewhat bizarre races.
"Certainly, in the CART days, a lot of attempts were made to produce the most effective aero package. We ran relatively low downforce at some of the short tracks and we ran high downforce at some other short tracks. In the end, I don't think any of them really produced more or better racing.
"The drivers would complain, if we ran low downforce, that the cars were slippery and slidy and difficult to drive. And, if we ran a lot of downforce, they complained that they were pulling such high Gs in the corners that, if anything went wrong, they were going to get seriously hurt. I'm sure both comments were made with equal sincerity."
Another factor is that progress in tyre development has produced much safer, more reliable tyres. Bridgestone/Firestone does a superb job. Its tyres are incredibly consistent in quality, performance and durability and today's radial tyres, first introduced more than twenty years ago, are so much better than the old bias-ply tyres that the art of getting the best from your rubber has almost gone out of the sport.
"One of the problems is that motor racing continually evolves and everything gets better and better," Lisles remarked, "People remember the good old days of how, halfway through a fuel stint, all of a sudden, somebody would start to go a lot faster and come from eighth place and overtake everybody and pull away. Then he would go to the pits and he was not quite as good for a while but, after burning off some fuel, he would run a lot better again.
