RACER@25: Issue No. 80, December 1998

This is the ninth installment in RACER's ongoing 25th anniversary celebration during which we share the 25 most important issues from our first quarter century.

Earnhardt. Schumacher. Zanardi.

As the holiday season approached, the thread of family – and racing bloodlines – weaved throughout RACER's December 1998 issue.

Leaving home took center stage in David Phillips' cover story, "Zanardi's Choice," as two-time champion Alex Zanardi made the decision to leave his adopted Chip Ganassi Racing family to return home, with his growing family, for a second shot at Formula 1.

Zanardi told Phillips: "With Chip, I always had a great relationship; a very straightforward relationship. Chip was aware that my mind was divided between an opportunity with Williams and an opportunity to remain in the United States and race with Target/Chip Ganassi Racing – because I wouldn't have considered anything else."

Phillips wrote: "The family matter was a contributing – but not a decisive – factor. What it all comes down to is that undefinable but valiant quality that separates every great achiever from the merely good: an insatiable desire to reach for the stars." Revered by his Ganassi team, his place in Americans' hearts would only grow as he faced tragic lows and unimaginable highs as he reached higher and higher in the decades to follow.

As for the team he left behind, Rick Graves went "In Focus" to probe the secrets of the Target/Chip Ganassi Racing Reynard 981/Honda.
"The Family Way" led Zanardi to Williams – "a racing family if ever there was one, RACER editor John Zimmernan noted – and a partner in Ralf Schumacher, whose bloodline "surely seems to have gifted him with the same kind of raw talent that's made brother Michael a double World Champion." Maurice Hamilton's "Sting in the Tail" profiled the young Jordan team driver's intent on establishing his own F1 credentials, independent of his star brother.

Another family business played a prominent role: Honda, which powered both Zanardi and Schumacher and was celebrating its 50th anniversary. In October, RACER contributor Pete Lyons saw Honda mark its golden anniversary with a gala celebration at Twin Ring Motegi. "Going Golden" told the tale of a birthday party extraordinaire and a weekend's adventure in Japan.

The year 1998 was a monumental year for one of the biggest family names in NASCAR: Earnhardt. Gerald Martin's "Into the Blood" observed the father-son relationship between seven-time Winston Cup champion Dale Earnhardt and Dale Earnhardt Jr., who was in the midst of his first full-time season with his dad's team in the NASCAR Busch Series.

Martin's narrative would turn out to be prophetic.

Just as Dale Sr., 47, followed in the tire tracks of his father, the late sportsman champion Ralph, Dale Jr. is also expected to follow. The difference? Ralph was taken from Dale Sr. before the young driver, then just 22, was afforded the opportunity to work hand in hand, year after year, with his mentor.

God willing, Junior, 23, and Senior will be afforded that opportunity, and almost all is in place. In September, the Earnhardts, along with Anheuser-Busch, announced that Dale Jr., after a five-race Winston Cup debut in 1999 — will join the Winston Cup tour, driving full-time for Dale Earnhardt Inc.

Phillips also profiled a young Adrian Fernandez in "Overnight Sensation," a look at a driver who left family and friends and was coming into his own in CART's FedEx Championship Series.And Bill Oursler's "Time Capsule" went behind the scenes with Josef Hoppen, a man who played several roles in promoting Porsche's racing heritage in the United States.

As the days ticked down to 1999, big milestones were on the horizon as RACER neared its 100th issue ...