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Fabrizio column: Pattie Keeps Focus After Losing Father

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Tony Fabrizio The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 10, 2007

AVONDALE, Ariz. - Brian Pattie sat at the conference table, a laptop open and printouts of lap times and other data scattered on either side of it.

Crew members stepped into the small office in the front of the hauler with questions, and Pattie, the crew chief for Chip Ganassi Racing's No. 42 Busch Series Dodge, sent them away with decisive answers and instructions.

There was no hint that Pattie had anything on his mind other than the task of preparing 2007 Indy Racing League champion and Indy 500 winner Dario Franchitti the best car possible for today's Arizona.Travel 200 at Phoenix International Raceway.

Not until he was asked about his loss.

"It kind of wakes you up and makes you realize," Pattie said softly. "I mean, I have a wife and four beautiful children at home, and leaving them every week is hard. And then, after losing my father, it kinds of makes you think about where your priorities are."

Earlier this week, Pattie and childhood friend David Reutimann flew to their hometown of Zephyrhills. Their destination was First United Methodist Church, where the Pattie family has a long history and Brian himself got married.

The occasion was a memorial service for Paul Woodruff Pattie, a 1964 Zephyrhills High graduate and Air Force veteran who served in Korea during the Vietnam War and, through his dabbling in racing and love of cars, infected his son with the racing bug.

A man who at age 61 left behind a son yearning for more time.

"My parents got divorced when I was young," Brian, 32, said in the hauler. "So it was difficult to spend a lot of time with either of them. I lived with my father until I was in junior high; then moved in with my mother and finished school. Any divorce is difficult to go through, especially when you're young. So I wouldn't say we spent as much time together as we needed to."

Apparently Healthy

Paul Pattie was healthy, or so Brian thought after their annual snorkeling trip for scallops in June. Even more recently, Paul and his wife, Chere, vacationed in California with family and took a motor home trip to Vermont.

It was back on his farm in the north Florida town of Pinetta that Paul experienced what he thought was indigestion. Doctors in Valdosta, Ga., diagnosed him with coronary artery disease, scheduled bypass surgery and then discovered heart muscle damage.

On Oct. 26, Paul was flown via medevac ambulance to Emory University Hospital. The prognosis was grim. He died three days later.

Brian spent three days at the hospital. He spent a day at home in North Carolina with his children. And then was back at work for a test session with Franchitti at Kentucky Speedway. Focused and committed.

"Getting back to the track just felt normal," Brian said. "But it wasn't easy by any means. Especially when Dario showed up and gave me a big hug. But the fact is, I can't bring him back. All I can do is make my life better as far as family and friends, and that's what I'm going to do."

Crew Chief, Teacher

Brian Pattie has an important job with Ganassi. He is charged with getting Franchitti, who has virtually no stock car experience, ready to race full-time in Nextel Cup next year.

There are those who think it can't be done. That Franchitti's learning curve is too steep and that his heart isn't fully invested in the switch to NASCAR. Pattie believes otherwise.

"From what I've seen, he actually has the drive of very few people," Pattie said. "As long as we can match the cars with his skill level, he'll be just fine."

Franchitti makes it apparent he has taken a liking to Pattie. He says he reminds him of some of the even-keeled and methodical engineers he worked with during his CART and IRL career.

"He's in a difficult position," Franchitti said of Pattie. "He's trying to tune the car sometimes to feelings I'm having that might not be right. I can tell him what's going on with the car, but I might not necessarily be going the right way with what I want. What I want might work on an Indy car, but doesn't necessarily work so well on a stock car."

Pattie has been a crew chief for almost half of his life. He started as a teenager with Reutimann, building and working on cars at the Reutimann shop on Wire Road.

But when Brian chose to make racing his life's work, his father had reservations.

"Out of high school, when I chose to go to North Carolina, I don't think he was real keen on the idea," Brian said. "He wanted to see me go through school and become an engineer or an architect - because I liked that stuff. But I figured moving to Charlotte and getting the on-the-job training was best. And it has worked out well."

It's hard to imagine that Paul Pattie wasn't proud.

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