The traditional pre-season test at Phoenix International Raceway was usually a casual, under-the-radar affair – no fans to speak of, just a handful of photographers, sport writers and local reporters watching Indycars go round and round in the Arizona desert. But in January 1993, the press office at PIR was unexpectedly flooded with press credential requests. More than 70 media types from seven different countries showed up. All of them shared the same assignment – to chronicle every move and utterance of a rookie making his oval-track debut at the not-so-tender age of 39.
The singular object of their attention was Nigel Mansell, fresh from winning the Formula 1 world championship with Williams and now seeking a new challenge with Newman/Haas Racing. As he watched photographers jostle for position around him, Carl Haas, the team’s cigar-chomping co-owner (with actor Paul Newman), leaned over to PR officer Michael Knight and whispered, “I think this is going to be bigger than we thought.”
Mansell-mania, the US edition, was go.
After winning the first race of the CART season, at Surfers Paradise in Australia, Mansell rode with Knight on a golf buggy to Victory Lane. “Fans were standing on both sides of us, waving Union Jacks and chanting Nigel’s name,” Knight says. “And I remember thinking that this is what it must have been like when Elvis was king.”
Mansell was a rock star in 1993, when he won five races, the adoration of thousands of fans and the PPG Indy Car World Series title. But if 1993 was what team mechanic Tim Coffeen called Camelot, the next year was a season in hell as the
