Quest for adrenaline fueling Viso’s IndyCar run

Published 4:50 pm Wednesday, April 29, 2009

KANSAS CITY, Kan.— The Playstation received as a gift sat in a box, never opened. E.J. Viso was more interested in doing jumps on his bike outside.

The TV in the living room? Not when he had his skateboard. Even sleeping in his bedroom was sometimes too mundane. The backyard with the family dog was much more exciting.

Age hasn’t mellowed Viso, either. Skydiving, freestyle motocross, BASE jumping — if it gets the adrenaline flowing, chances are he’s tried it.

“I just get bored when my adrenaline levels are low,” he said. “I always need to find something. Adrenaline is my passion.”

Viso’s need for speed has turned him into pretty good IndyCar driver, too.

Aggressive and fearless, he’s become one of the best young drivers on the circuit. The 24-year-old Venezuelan had a decent rookie season in 2008 — four top-five finishes despite having never driven on ovals before — and figures to only get better this year with more experience.

“He was very impressive,” Brazilian driver Helio Castroneves said. “He’s a very aggressive driver, but an aggressive where he’s going for it. He’s not hesitating or waiting for anything. If the car makes it, great. If it didn’t make it, oops, I know the limit. He’s a good guy, a good kid. He definitely has a bright future.”

It’s been a tough start to the 2009, though most of it hasn’t been Viso’s fault. Last year? Sure, he made some mistakes, most due to inexperience. This year, it’s been a string of bad luck.

Viso struggled in qualifying at St. Petersburg, starting 16th for the season-opening race. It didn’t get any better once the race started; steering problems sent him off after 75 laps. Viso had a great qualifying run at the Long Beach Grand Prix, starting fourth, only to get knocked from the race by contact after 16 laps.

It was another tough weekend in Kansas.

Viso had the 18th-best qualifying time, then was sent to the back for a technical violation. He quickly made up ground once the race started, moving up from 22nd to 14th, then suffered front wing damage from a wreck between two other cars. He made it back onto the track, but was done for a good a few laps later, a failed gear box ending his day after just 37 laps.

“Of course, we are very disappointed. In each of the first three races we have started off with a good, fast car, and then something went wrong,” Keith Wiggins, owner of Viso’s No. 13 HVM Racing IndyCar, said after Sunday’s race. “Even though we were starting from the back today, we still had a lot of confidence in E.J.’s ability to move up to the front, which is exactly what he was doing when the problem occurred.”

Viso has had a knack for finding the front since a young age.

His father, Ernesto Sr., raced cars in South America and got little Ernesto his first go-cart at age 7. Thanks to his aggressive style, he starting winning right away, earning five national carting championships before moving to Europe.

Viso bounced around several series and had a stint as a Formula One test driver, making a name for himself as the driver who survived a spectacular crash at a 2007 French Grand Prix after his car lifted into the air and broke into pieces while bounding down a retaining wall.

Looking for a new challenge, Viso decided to try the Champ Car series in the U.S. in 2008, showing up just before the series merged with IndyCar. The problem? IndyCar meant driving on ovals. Viso had never even seen an oval race, much less raced in one, but he had made a commitment and decided to give it a shot.

“When I got that news it was a pretty big challenge because I didn’t know anything about IndyCar, didn’t know anything about ovals, didn’t even like them,” Viso said. “I never watched an oval race before in my life, but I had already told everyone in Europe that I was coming to the United States and had a good ride, so I said let’s go for the challenge.”

That’s the thing about Viso: He never backs down from a challenge.

Whether it’s trying to learn ovals, weaving through 200-mph traffic with a loose car or diving off the edge of a cliff with a parachute strapped to his back, Viso never gets rattled. He keeps pushing, adrenaline fueling the aggression that has made him so good behind the wheel.

“You can’t put aggression into someone unless you feed them raw meat and chain them up somewhere,” Wiggins said. “It’s something a guy’s got. It’s a lot easier to calm and mold a driver than it is to try to make them aggressive.”

Some owners might be concerned that their driver is diving out of airplanes, doing back flips on 250-pound motorcycles. Not Wiggins. Certainly, he doesn’t want Viso to get hurt and have to find another driver. But he also understands that Viso is wired a little different and is willing to give him some room to enjoy life.

Besides, it’s not like Viso’s going to quit reaching for that adrenaline rush anytime soon.

“That’s the way I am,” he said. “It’s the way a lot people like me. I guess there’s some people who don’t like me, but it’s not my problem. That’s how I am. That’s me.”