Greg Moore – 10 years after

So like always, its hard to believe that a decade has already passed since the fatal tragedy that claimed one of CART’s rising Stars on Halloween occurred, thus taking Greg Moore’s life in the 1999 CART Season Finale’s Marlboro 500 at the California Speedway…

As I can still recall seeing Moore’s Player’s liveried Forsythe Reynard/Mercedes Benz violently Barrel-rolling multiple times along the circuits high bank knowing that it would be a miracle for Moore to escape un-injured; especially at the unabated speed of 200mph plus!

Yet for reasons unknown, the strongest memory of the late Greg Moore I seem to harbor is his overly foolish Bonsai carnival-like maneuver into the Festival Curves at the start of the 1998 Portland G.I. Joes 200, where as “Auntie” Harriet would say… He was acting like a “Hot Head!”

As almost co medically, Moore attempted to leapfrog his way into the lead from P14 and in the process managed to eliminate seven Racers!

Yet obviously the New Westminster native, who grew-up in the Maple Ridge suburb of Vancouver, BC had unbridled talent, as none other than the legendary “Captain” Roger Penske had just inked him to a (Multi-year) contract during the summer of 1999 to become a Penske Racing Driver for the 2000 season before his untimely incident.

Like many “Kanuck’s” Moore played Ice Hockey as a youth and ironically the No. 99 would be assigned to him when he began his Karting career… Thus reputedly having nothing to do with the revered “Great One,” (Wayne Gretsky) although certainly the connection wasn’t lost to Greg, as it would become his Car number throughout his CART career...

And like most Open Wheel Racecar Drivers, Moore cut his teeth in Go-Karts, winning the 1989-90 North American Enduro Championship before progressing to Formula Ford’s, where in 1991 he was the Formula Ford 1600 Rookie of the Year after finishing fourth overall with one victory.

In 1992, Moore became the USAC West FF2000 (Formula Ford) Champion, having claimed four Poles and four victories enroute to the title, along with being the series Rookie of the Year, before moving onto the (original) Indy Lights series, which he ran in 1993 for his Family’s underfunded Team and finished ninth overall.

In 1994 Greg became the youngest ever winner of a (CART Sanctioned) Indy Lights race at the tender age of 18 when he took the chequered flag at the season opening round in Phoenix, AZ and would record two more wins that season enroute to finishing third in the Championship.

For 1995, Greg joined the Players/Forsythe Racing Organisation and simply crushed the competition enroute to the Indy Lights Championship with a staggering ten wins out of twelve races, including a scintillating five-in-a-row… And thus was destined to make his move up to the “Big Boyz” the following season.

In his Debutant season, Moore scored 84 points and finished as runner-up in the CART/PPG’s Jim Trueman Rookie of the Year standings behind somebody named “Zorro,” a.k.a. Alex Zanardi.

In 1997, Greg then became the Championship Auto Racing Teams youngest ever winner (to that date; since eclipsed by Scott Dixon and Nelson Philippe) at the age of 22 when he beat Michael Andretti to the stripe at the famed Milwaukee Mile and would repeat as winner again just one week later… As I recall screaming at the Telescreen as not one but both of my Home team’s PacWest Racing Drivers; Mauricio Gugelmin and Mark Blundell who were running nose to tail 1-2 both sputtered out of petrol on the final lap and Moore swept thru from third place to claim victory on Detroit’s Belle Isle.

In ’98 Greg was joined by fellow Canadian Patrick Carpentier as Players/Forsythe expanded to a two car operation and Moore would dice with Zanardi at the Emerson Fittipaldi Speedway (“Roval”) in Rio de Janeiro before making a spectacular pass to solidify his fourth Champ Car victory, before later that year he’d pass the Target Boyz duo of Zanardi and Jimmy Vasser to claim the Vanderbuilt Cup in the US 500 at Michigan International Speedway, which was sadly overshadowed by the deaths of three spectators from a flying tyre that bounded over the catch fencing.


The year 1999 would start off very good for the Kanuck, once again taking victory in the season opening race in Miami, this time on the Oval Track at Homestead, which sadly would become his final Indy Car career victory, as Moore would suffer fatal head injuries on his early race incident at Fontana. (As the violent crash registered an incomprehensible 154 G’s!)

And ironically the Halloween race weekend had started out ominously for Greg when he was struck on his “Scooter” by a vehicle in the Paddock, suffering an injured right hand with Roberto Moreno being called-in by Players/Forsythe as a Back-up replacement, although Greg would take the Green flag from the rear of the field, having been cleared to drive with a hand brace.

And as I’ve said before, reportedly it was Greg whom introduced the “Dashley ‘Juan,” nee Dario Franchitti to his future wife (Ashley Judd) at a party of friend Jason Priestley's… As Greg’s posse was known to include the likes of “Mad Max” (Massimiliano) Papis, “TK,” (Tony Kanaan) “REO Speedwagon” (Dario Franchitti) and others I cannot recall, (Greg Moore Brat Pack: Adrian Fernandez, Franchitti, Kanaan, Papis and Jimmy Vasser) as I was overly touched by Dario dedicating his 2009 Indy Car Series Championship at Homestead to his late, great, friend…

Remembering Gregg Moore

Stats
1993-95: CART Indy Lights
1995 Indy Lights Champion

1996-99: CART/PPG Championship
72 Starts; 5 Poles; 5 Wins; 17 Podiums.
First race, 1996: Homestead-Miami Speedway; Homestead, FL
Last race, 1999: California Speedway; Fontana, CA

Portland’s Centennial

Sorry folks, but I just cannot let go of the fact that Portland has been majorly “Dissed” by the Indy Car World Series... Although I suppose I should understand by now that IMS rules the roost and will not play second fiddle to anybody! Yet, while much ado has been made over the fact that this year’s Indy 500 marks the famed Speedway’s Centennial, (Part One) little noise seems to be made about the fact that Portland, Oregon is also celebrating its own Open Wheel Racing Centennial, as its AAA sanctioned road race pre-dates the series first visit to Indianapolis, with Portland’s inaugural race being held on June 12, 1909; while today marks the 100th Anniversary of the Speedway hosting its inaugural event; the National Balloon race, of which IMS founder Carl Fisher was participating in...

Balloon races at Indianapolis

So, it’s a bit funny to me how I’m assuming that there’ll be NO mention of this fact by Indy Car, which seems sad to think that there still is an unspoken rift between CART/Champ Car and the IRL, of which I suppose will linger on for several years to come, sorta like the Civil War?


Truesports; Scott Pruett

And although my earliest memories of Open Wheel Racing cars is those bygone days of the early 1970’s with ABC’s Wide World of Sports Jim McKay at the microphone over Memorial Day weekend... much of my zest for this unique series spawn’s from traipsing about the grounds Of PIR for over two decades and the yearly pilgrimage on Father’s Day weekend to watch the Champ Cars.

Portland Celebrates 90th Anniversary

It was here that battle lines were drawn over whether you were an Andretti or Unser “Hater!” As the elder generation gave way to the mighty skirmishes between Mikey and Little Al, although John and Jeff Andretti would also take turns at Portland, along with Mario’s farewell tour, whose teammate was none other than “Il Lione,” a.k.a. Nigel Mansell or better known as BLOODY NIGE!

There was Scott Pruett persevering in the struggling Truesports chassis, which always seemed to be one step behind on engine choice, while Randall was always quick to give a driver a new nickname like “Stevie Johnson” (Stefan Johansson) and Raul Boesel being the originall Boom-Boom Smash-Smash BRAHMA! Who was at the time being sponsored by Brahma Beer.

Yet, one of my most favourite memories is the Pub we made our yearly destination sporting a life-size cardboard cutout of Bobby Rahal, who I used to call “Boobie Ruble,” of which Meesh has a much more diabolical spelling of... As Rahal senior was resplendent in his Miller High Life racing overalls and somebody had cleverly stuck a note underneath his arm saying “Need two tickets for Indy!” Since this was the year that the Three time CART Champion had switched to Honda “Lumps” and looked set to fail qualifying for the 1994 Indy 500 before making the painful decision to switch to a customer Penske/Ilmor chassis instead to satisfy his sponsors...

Then there was the year when a person by the name of Robby Gordon asked me if the seat next to me in the Grandstands was taken? As he and his girlfriend sat thru the entire Trans Am race, as I tried having a casual conversation with him, while my friends tried heckling him... As this was his Rookie season in CART, driving for ‘Ol Super Tex... Before I got his autograph the following year when he’d jumped to Derrick Walker’s “Team Valvoline” and Robby seemed none too impressed with me when discovering my pen was running dry of ink!


ARS Chassis with Buick V-6

Or watching a very “Young Lion” named Jon Beekhus kicking ARSE in the ARS... (American Racing Series) which I believe was the pre-cursor to the original Indy Lights series, as the ARS chassis were motivated by normally aspirated Buick V-6’s...

And then there was the SCCA Trans Am, which just had some of the NARLIEST Pony Cars going fender to fender, as this was during the era of Factory backed “Works” teams featuring the Ford Mustang, Chevy Camaro and Dodge Avenger(?) With Tommy Kendall, Dorsey Schrader, Ron Fellows, Scott Sharp and the Archer Brothers to name a few; while there was our local PacWest Racing team making good, as Mark Blundell captured the team’s very first victory in what must arguably be Portland’s closest finish, beating Gil De Ferran in a drag race, with Raul Boesel in third for CART’s closest ever 1-2-3 finish in its history.

Patrick Racing; Alfa Romeo

And witnessing “Mr. Hollywood” or “Sully” (Danny Sullivan) going from the highs of CART Champion in 1988 in the beautifully prepared gold Penske PC-17/Chevrolet Miller High Life to the lows of struggling while driving for Pat Patrick in the hugely uncompetitive Alfa Romeo powered Lola T91/00 chassis.

Along with Marlboro Team Penske’s three car armada simply crushing everybody in its wake, while “My Boy Dirtmann” (Robby Gordon)
Pipped ‘Ol Bloody Nige for fourth place on the final lap coming onto the front straight... (Remember that Randall?)

Then the tide turned red, as those pesky Target/Chip Ganassi cars ruled the roost in CART, winning an unprecedented four consecutive Championships (1996-99) as Jimmy Vasser, Alex Zanardi and Juan Pablo Montoya flexed their muscles on track, before Kenny Brack had what was deemed a sub-par season driving for The Cheepster!”

Or watching De Ferran take an improbable victory in the low budget Walker Racing entity vs. the big Guns of Penske, etc. by putting his Goodyear tires to good use over the opposition, as Derrick Walker called another crafty race for his charge, while Team Rahal triumphed at Portland with Max Papis, with Brack and Vasser driving that wonderful looking white/yellow Shell car, along with Mexican Michele Jourdain Jr’s brief tenure with the team.


Walker Racing; Scott Goodyear

And I’ve completely left out the “Kuh-Nuck’s” (Not on purpose Meesh & CAM-Wow) as there was Scott Goodyear, Ross Bentley, and John Jones off the top ‘O my noggin... Not to mention somebody named PT, as Mr. Chrome Horn (Paul Tracy) and Dario Franchitti were always a force to be reckoned with at Team Kool Green, along with some cats nicknamed Jack Vanilla, (Jacques Villeneuve) Pat the Carpenter (Patrick Carpentier) and TAG. (Alex Tagliani) And let’s NOT forget the late, great Greg Moore, whom I recall watching cause a massive seven car pile-up into the Festival Curves by going into the corner on the start overly aggressive and ultimately flying off track...

Or “Shorty” (Cristiano da Matta) scoring his final Champ Car victory whilst driving for PKV Racing before his horrendous testing accident at Road America, while Portland was also the site for first time CART/Champ Car maiden victories for: Al Unser Jr., Alex Zanardi (Mark Blundell) and AJ Allmendinger.


Dorsey Schroeder; Tom Gloy Motorsports

And lastly, all of the years making countless sarcastic cracks at “King Hiro” (Hiro Matsushita) Lyn St. James, Scott Brayton, Willy T. Ribbs and all of the other perennial back markers who drove for Dick Simon Racing and Dale Coyne Racing respectively, of which was totally uncalled for, but, hey! If we knew now what we didn’t know then, eh? Thus Salute Portland! And may be some day (SOON?) in the hoped for near future the leadership of the Indy Racing League will see fit to return to the Pacific Northwest of which could potentially once again attract its dedicated fans from California, Portland, Seattle and Vancouver, BC, eh? As it’s now going on three years without a FRILLIN’ race...

PIR Photos

Past Race Winners: Portland Champ Car Event

June 17, 1984 Al Unser Jr; June 16, 1985 Mario Andretti; June 15, 1986 Mario Andretti; June 14, 1987 Bobby Rahal; June 19, 1988 Danny Sullivan; June 25, 1989 Emerson Fittipaldi; June 24, 1990 Michael Andretti; June 23, 1991 Michael Andretti; June 21, 1992 Michael Andretti; June 27, 1993 Emerson Fittipaldi; June 26, 1994 Al Unser Jr.; June 25, 1995 Al Unser Jr.; June 23, 1996 Alex Zanardi; June 22, 1997 Mark Blundell; June 21, 1998 Alex Zanardi; June 20, 1999 Gil de Ferran; June 25, 2000 Gil de Ferran; June 24, 2001 Max Papis; June 16, 2002 Cristiano da Matta; June 22, 2003 Adrian Fernandez; June 20, 2004 Sebastian Bourdais; June 19, 2005 Cristiano da Matta; June 18, 2006 A.J. Allmendinger; June 10, 2007 Sebastian Bourdais.

My ’07 Portland Race weekend re-cap

Zeppelin von Champ Car

Obviously the face of Open Wheel Racing has changed dramatically since the Spring of 2006, which was also Pre-No Fenders…

Yet, interestingly, on Monday following the Roadster Show, RuSPORT announced new primary sponsorship for Justin’s No. 9 Champ Car, with new primary sponsorship from CDW, while just two days later, (Wednesday) Oriel Servia was signed to replace Cristiano “What’s duh Matter?” da Matta at PKV Racing as the ever growing Black Hole nebulous shadow of the Zeppelin von Champ Car was ever increasing in size.

Meanwhile Captain Kevin “Smiley-Face” Kalkhoven and Co-pilot Jerry “What me Worry?” Forsythe were busy sawing away at the recalcitrant controls… “Drop ballast, All hands to the left side of the Gondola, Schnell- Schnell!

Thus, here’s a quick all speed reverse look back from the surviving members of the Zeppelin von Chump Carzs… As ironically Toyota was sponsoring the Long Beach GP, although they had Pulled-Out” of all open wheel racing in the US after having their BUTTS SPANKED by the then dominant Honda Indy engine. Nevertheless Toyota has retained its title sponsorship of the LBGP and actually had CCWS’s LARGEST field in quite some time in the series swan song this April… You know, when we had that most PATHETIC two Open Wheel races in two countries on the same weekend!


Dale Coyne Racing
Cristiano Da Matta/Mario Dominguez
Jan Heylen

Simply known as the little team that could! Coyne recognized early in his driving career that perhaps he’d be better suited to taking the route traveled by such luminaries as Penske, Haas and Ganassi… As in focusing upon the managerial side of the fence, Ahem Mr. Roth!

The team started off with brilliant performances by Cristiano Da Matta who was making his return to the series after driving for Toyota in Formula 1, while rookie Jan “Van Hagar” Heylen was also busy impressing in the under funded Sonny’s Barbeque car.

Forsythe Championship Racing
Paul Tracy
Mario Dominguez/AJ Almendinger/David Martinez

Not sure what to say about Mr. Forsythe, as I was led to believe that many of CCWS’s problems stemmed from Paul Gentilozzi’s mis-management. (Can you say SCCA Pro Racing Trans Am?) Yet it was Forsythe who had sour grapes and left Paul Tracy standing at the altar upon the “Uni-fish-ication” of Open Wheel Racing this February.

And while Mr. Chrome Horn was without a doubt the team leader, after the incredulous firing of AJ “Wall-Dinger,” the Californian got engaged, hired by Forsythe and went on to win his first of five races that season in a span of just ten days. Yet, once again another “Yank” went for the easy money and DEFECTED to RASSCAR for 2007 behind the wheel of “Juan ‘O” Deeter Majestic’s Toy-yoter’s.

MiJack Conquest Racing
Andrew Ranger
Charles Zwolsman Jr.

This team has been owned by Eric Bachelart with long-time partner and “Money-man” Mike Lanigan of MiJack, before ultimately splitting to become the third wheel (Amigo) at the reformulated Newman Haas Lanigan Racing outfit in 2007, which saw Bachelart scramble to scrape by with a one car effort in Champ Car’s penultimate season.

And perhaps its just me, but I’m sure that everyone would prefer to see the three “KUH-NUCK” racing drivers Andrew Ranger, Alex Tagliani and Paul Tracy pounding’ round Edmonton City’s Centre INSTEAD of Marty “Gerritol” Roth, eh?

Newman Haas Racing
Sebastian Bourdais
Bruno Junqueira

What can I say about one of Champ Car’s most DOMINANT teams, which would ultimately see The Hamburgular (S. Bourdais) re-write the history books on his way to an unprecedented four consecutive championships before departing for Formula 1.

Yet “Junky” was back (literally) from his surgically repaired backside, grabbing pole position ahead of Almendinger with Sea Bass and Wilson starting on row two as it was most impressive of Newman/Haas to have returned Bruno to his seat in what would ultimately be his last season at N/H, while current driver Graham Rahal was then toiling away in the Atlantics championship and would finish runner-up to Simon Pagenaud, who’s now co-driving Gil DeFerran’s ALMS Acura LMP2 prototype.

PKV Racing
Oriel Servia
Katherine Legge

The 2006 Long Beach, CA race was the venue of team co-owner and 1996 Champ Car Champion Jimmy Vasser’s unofficial final start at that years Long Beach race, before coming back for another “One-off” Champ Car farewell drive aboard a third KV Racing Technology entry this April.

If memory serves me correctly? (Shush! Danny!) This was the weekend that Servia demolished NOT one but two Lola tubs and actually raced aboard Legge’s back-up chassis, of which the team mockingly made reference to with a sticker adorning the racecar’s nose. Servia would be unceremoniously dumped from the team the following season, only to return once again for this year’s season, while Legge, who still has MORE major career wins then somebody named Princess… Is now keeping busy giving Ralfanso (Ralf Schumacher) grief in the German DTM series.

RuSPORT
Justin Wilson
AJ Almendinger/Cristiano Da Matta

Of course everybody remembers RuSPORT, eh? As this was the year that team owner Carl Russo did the unthinkable and FIRED the driver he’d built the team around… As AJ Almendinger was let go to make way for Da Matta who in turn was replaced at Dale Coyne by Mario “BOOM BOOM” Dominguez… As Mario had lost favour at Forsythe after punting PT twice out of races in the first four events and would ultimately get the short straw in the three driver Monty.

Sadly, Da Matta would nearly perish in the freakish testing accident at Road America later that summer, when a wayward Deer decided to high jump the 8’ fence topped with barbed wire… Hmm? Perhaps this critter should be competing in Beijing shortly?

Da Matta has since made a full recovery and competed for Bob Stallings Grand Am team in a second Daytona Prototype co-driven by ex-boss/teammate/friend Jimmy Vasser at Laguna Seca this May.

After Da Matta’s nightmarish testing accident, Russo effectively threw in the towel in what started the team’s way towards eventual shut-down, as Kalkhoven enticed former business partner Dan Pettit to purchase the team for ’07. After a lackluster season, Pettit closed RuSPORT’s doors in order to join forces with Gerald Forsyte in the reconstituted Forsythe/Pettit Racing for 2008, when the team effectively threw Paul Tracy under the bus…

Ironically Forsythe/Pettit Racing was busy contesting the Formula Atlantic championship in Alberta this weekend with Canadian James Hinchcliffeand Mexican David Garza.

Also, FPR apparently announced on July 15th that they would be joining the Firestone Indy Lights championship in 2009 and are now also close to announcing deals to compete in both Indy Car and ALMS next year...

Team Australia
Alex Tagliani
Will Power

The Team Aussie set-up was made by long time racer Derrick Walker, who gained an infusion of cash from new team co-owner Craig Gore, who unceremoniously split with Will Power to the cozier confines of KV Racing Technology this season.

Thus it seems a tad ironic that Walker is trying to once again resurrect his Indy Car aspirations out of a “One-off” race with Paul Tracy behind the wallet of Tony George and his third Vision Racing Dallara chassis, as the Subway car hopes to keep itself “Fresh” the entire weekend, as Tracy has clearly been the fastest of the three Vision drivers… Along with being the oldest! Good luck PT and Derrick and watch your backsides… As some dude named EJ (NOT Ernesto) Viso may wanna borrow your pit stall, eh?

Hopefully, Tony George and Indy Car will do the RIGHT thing and re-instate Portland to the 2009 Indy Car World Series calendar, which as I’ve previously noted will be the 100th Anniversary of the FIRST Indy Car race…

Long Beach

With all of the Motorsports world in a lather of euphoria over Dan-Dan-Danica… Wait? Did I hear Helio Castroneves correctly? Saying he was told to PULL OVER for Danica…

But, wait a second we’ve got the second half of our tape delayed Double Header to run in the Sunshine state, where there will be MORE racing cars on the grid for a Champ Car race since 2002…

And while the IRL gang was busy trying to keep dry, Justin “Buckshot” Wilson was busy securing Friday’s provisional pole ahead of Oriel Servia, with Alex Tagliani third fastest, followed by Dominguez and St. Pete winner Graham Rahal. Paul Tracy was eighth quickest while Jimmy Vasser was mired in 15th.

Saturday’s final Qualifying session saw Justin Wilson retain Pole position, as the lanky Brit would be the only driver to run a lap under 67 seconds and eclipsed fellow Mic-Dougal’s driver Sea Bass’s qualifying lap of last year by 0.6 seconds. Meanwhile, the little team that could continued its heady performance as re-united Canadian ace Alex Tagliani finished just 0.182 seconds adrift of Wilson’s time to line-up second for Derrick Walker.

Row two saw Conquest’s Franck Perera edge out ex-Walker driver Will Power, with Mr. Chrome Horn moving up to the inside of row Three with his teammate for the weekend, Franck Montagny alongside.. Rolling off in P7 was Nelson Philippe, the highest placed member of the HVM Minardi triumbrant with Enrique Bernoldi alongside. Starting ninth was Wilson’s teammate Graham Rahal with Mario Boom Boom Dominguez rounding out the top ten in his Pacific Coast Motorsports ride.

And while obviously Dan-Dan-Danica was the headline story, all of the announcers, including Marty Reid did mention that the Stork had indeed stopped by the Wilson household during the opening segment of Sunday’s broadcast, but once again the IRL regulars got first billing.

And dare I say it? I believe there were more lead changes in the Long Beach finale then some Roundy-round race over in Japan? As it was quite entertaining to me listening to Mr. Reid and Scott Goodyear having to explain the Champ Car format of qualifying and racing, with Marty even saying how he liked the idea of having “Turbo-boost…”

And making IRL regulars squirm even further? Long Beach saw the final standing start of a Champ Car race a la Formula 1… With Wilson having apparently chosen the wrong side of the grid to start upon as Power “Willed” his way past the leader into turn one, with Wilson tucked in behind in formation as the cars roared around the tight street circuit. Paul Tracy demonstrated what happens if you’re off by just a few inches when he kissed the wall with a rear tire, which would ultimately lead to his demise as the team would struggle to repair a damaged CV grease boot clip!

And I liked hearing that if TAG’s car looked similar to the leaders… It was because Will Power and Aussie Vineyards had bolted to KV Racing Technology when Craig Gore left Walker holding the bag so to speak… While Newman Haas Lanigan continued the theme with a retro look on the number 06 entry and suddenly Wilson was coasting down the escape road after harassing Power for the lead, apparently victim of an engine failure? Which saw TAG now trying to chase down Power, while Graham Rahal would spend the afternoon demonstrating the laws of physics while trying to force his way past fellow competitors and ultimately end up finishing in the tire barriers on the final lap.

Yet, Power was not to be denied as he led the majority of the race, while Tagliani’s gamble to run the red “Option” tires on his final stint saw him fade, with ex-F1 pilot Montagny the only driver able to somewhat close the gap in the final stages of the race, finishing second. (5.9 seconds behind) Meanwhile some 17 seconds adrift was eventual third place finisher Dominguez, with Bernoldi fourth and Oriel Servia rounding out the top five.

Tagliani wound up falling back to seventh place while Jimmy Vasser finished behind both of his hired guns in 10th and thus Servia will most likely sigh a breath of relief over not having to hear his boss chide him over the radios next week in Kansas, while fellow Nevadan Tracy soldiered home in 11th…

Champ Car on my mind

In regards to this weekend’s Long Beach Grand Prix being the Champ Car World Series farewell event, I was recently asked if (when) ‘lil Napoleon’s takeover, Err, merger of Open Wheel Racing occurred, would I still watch Indy Cars?

Having been a fan of CART/Champ Car for a very long time, I replied that; YES, I’d still watch the series, but I just wasn’t a fan of Ovals… Which inevitably leads to that timeless debate of which came first; The Chicken or the Egg? The Road Runner or the Coyote, Oval tracks or Road Courses, but I digress, since I’ll be watching’ the “Live” broadcast of some ‘lil ‘Ol Street race.

Yet this never ending question between Ovals vs. Road Courses led me to ponder the following? Wasn’t CART full of Oval races? As I recall watching some real doozies on the high banks of Michigan as well as Fontana and ironically, my haziest, early memories of motor racing in general are the yearly summer rides in the back seat of my Grandfather’s white Buick Riviera to the summer cottage on the peninsula, where while the others played on the beach I was busy watching those glorious taped delayed World Wide Sports episodes of the Indianapolis 500 hosted by Jim McKay and Chris Schenkel during the early 1970’s.

It would be nearly another two decades before I’d be re-united with the wail of Open Wheel Racing cars, upon a fellow co-worker informing me about the yearly Championship Auto Racing Teams event at Portland, Oregon, which I first visited in 1987.

Since then, I’ve been fortunate enough to watch the majority of the Open Wheel “greats,” with names like; Foyt, Andretti, Unser, Mears, Sullivan, Fittipaldi, Zanardi, Montoya, Mansell and Villeneuve to name just a few.

And for several years I was even more fortunate to have two race events per season to attend with the addition of the temporary street circuit venue in Vancouver, BC, where unfortunately I witnessed Willy T Ribbs darkest racing moment.

Yet, to be fair, I did attend the 1994 Phoenix Oval race, where Jacques Villeneuve tried to impale himself on the Goodyear pedestrian overpass, a la the Flying Franchitti, but the constant circling of the one mile bullring did little to sway me towards the allure of Oval track racing, as Formula 1 and the Pacific Northwest road racing scene had already firmly affixed it’s grip over me.

But alas, part of what made me so fond of CART and subsequently Champ Car was the variety of circuits they competed on each season; Permanent Road Courses, Temporary Street Circuits and a variety of Ovals, i.e.; Super Speedways and Bull Rings, like the long discarded Nazareth and Phoenix venues. Yet, unlike F1, there were always a multitude of potential victors, instead of just the usual Red cars vs. Silver (Ferrari vs. McLaren) drubbings… Although I did quite enjoy Michael Schumacher kicking der arsen-holes for several seasons!

And I still can remember the bitter distain towards Tony George and his rival Oval only Indy Racing League as one fans T-Shirt in Vancouver, BC read; this is your brain (CART venues) and this is your brain on DRUGS! (IRL Oval track venues) split side by side on the back of the T-Shirt; CART on the Left side and IRL on the Right!

And what truly must be the darkest years of this PATHETIC Split in Open Wheel Racing can be summed up by the following recollection.

Walking to my nearby grocery store in 1998 just hours after the completion of that years Indianapolis 500, while in the check-out line the cashier noted my sundrious racing apparel and asked me wasn’t there a race today? Yeah, the Indy 500 I replied. So, who won? Eddie Cheever, Eddie WHO?

And I swore that I would NEVER set foot in Indianapolis, specifically Tony’s sandbox at Sixteenth and Georgetown, better known as the Brickyard. Thus, while holding fast to this silly mantra, I recalled crowing about how the first seven drivers across the yard of bricks in 2000 were all CART alumnus…

Yet as the years went by, with no end in sight to the pathetic War of Northern Aggression, my stranglehold against Tony faded, as I finally relented and visited the Speedway for the very first time in 2001, albeit for the second running of the United States Grand Prix, NOT the Indy 500, which I still held in low esteem, as I believe I even proudly wore my CART T-Shirt on the property. But, hey Mary Ellen, DON’T tell anybody that you took my picture while I sat in the “Earle” chassis in the Hall of Fame museum that year…

Then I made a second return to Indy for the 2006 USGP, where my “Hero,” Herr Schumacher became the very first driver to ever win at the Speedway five times… Before last summer’s FANTASTIC experience of sitting behind Davey Hamilton in the Sinden 2X Seater, which even if only at 75% throttle, gave me an entirely new respect for Ovals…

And while I still continue to hold 1995 as the last TRUE season of Open Wheel Racing in the US, I hope to attend my very first Indy 500 next year on the centennial of the venerable Speedway’s opening...

Yet, while pondering the future Roadification of the Indy Car World Series that some of you fret about, I decided to look up some past CART season calendars, choosing 1998; since it was 10 years ago, (Circa A.T.S.) While obviously I’d also pick 1995 since I regard this as the last truly great Open Wheel Racing season, as previously mentioned. (Circa B.T.S.)


(A.T.S. = After The Split; B.T.S. = Before The Split. HMM? Has a nice Kingdom-Come ring to it, eh?)

While I do indeed hope for the coming glory and renaissance of Open Wheel Racing, rest assured that Tony ‘N Co. will truly be hard pressed to bring Open Wheel Racing back to the promised land. But (OUCH!)) let’s give him a chance, to potentially right the Good Ship OWR.

Although I will greatly miss my yearly trek to Portland this summer as it’ll be the first time since 2005 that I’ve not partaken in the Open Wheel race, albeit foregoing the worst two years of Champ Car (2003-04) at the Portland venue, thus I’ve already experienced the rebuilding phenomena once and hopefully the 2009 Calendar will have some semblance of the past’s greatest variety of racing venues, including Portland, as Y’all know; it too will be celebrating its centennial in motor racing…


1995 CART Season
Miami; Surfers Paradise; Phoenix; Long Beach; Nazareth; Indianapolis; Milwaukee; Detroit; Portland; Elkhart Lake; Toronto; Cleveland; Michigan; Mid Ohio; Loudon; Vancouver, BC; Laguna Seca.

1998 CART Season
Homestead; Motegi; Long Beach; Nazareth; Rio de Janero; Gateway; Milwaukee; Detroit; Portland; Cleveland; Toronto; Michigan; Mid Ohio; Elkhart Lake; Vancouver, BC; Laguna Seca; Houston; Surfers Paradise; Fontana.

Long Beach entry list

While Indy may have just scooped up the services of the Gecko and found a new lizard king in Massimiliano Papis. (But do Gecko’s like the wet stuff, you know… RAIN!) Don’t underestimate just how far CCWS is pulling out the stops for its series swan song this weekend in Long Beach…

I mean Hell! We’ve got such luminary characters as the over-loved “Jungle Boy” who’ll be partnering’ with his Rookie sidekick Juho “I Wanna be a Flying Finn” Annala.

Yep, that’s right, Antonio Pizzonia got his nickname Jungle Boy due to the Amazon region he comes from, while Annala is an aspiring Finnish driver who’s looking for a single seater opportunity outside of Formula 1 since two seats are already occupied by fellow countrymen…

Other Really Big names include Bobby Moreno, whose first name at least starts with the same letter as the car’s former driver Robert Doornbos, a.k.a. Bad Bobby D. At 49yrs of age Roberto Moreno will be the oldest driver in the field and hopes to use this “One-Off” as a springboard to another drive at Indy this May. Moreno will hope to outshine his younger teammates Nelson Philippe and EJ “DON’T uze call me Ernesto” Viso…

And I’ve already chronicled the plights of fellow Nevada residents Paul “Sand Dune” Tracy and “Top Jimmy” Vasser, who are both ex-CCWS champions and it seems fitting they’ll strap on their crash buckets for the series finale…

And don’t forget Bruno “Whiney-bags” Junqueira, Alex Tagliani and Mario “Boom Boom” Dominguez… While sadly Katherine Legge is MIA! As its even sadder that it takes a series farewell celebration to entice 20 cars onto the grid, which is a higher car count then Champ Car has been able to assemble the past few seasons…

To read the full line-up, see; Field of 20 expected for 34th Annual Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach

Long Beach tidbits

Whale, you know the saying; the more things change, the more they stay the same… As Indiana Bureau Chief Danny B was having a quiet chuckle at the expense of a fellow co-worker’s predicament yesterday while in Long Beach, as the hapless worker was attempting to lay out the fibre optic HD TV cable… Nope it ain’t NO STINKIN’ Durrect TV cable, just the standard fare ESPN coaxial cable… Looking up, he was momentarily stunned as a Mini-Van complete with “Soccer Mom” and a bushel ‘O waving kids was headed directly towards him… What in the HELL? This stretch of roadway was supposed to be closed two hours ago… As apparently the LBPD was busy taking their requisite doughnut break… That’s a big 10-10 on the roads still being opened, do you copy pardoner? HMM? Wonder what all those detour signs were for…

And according to Robin Miller, The Paul ‘N Jerry show is all patched-up for the moment, as they’ve decided to curtail their long running disagreement over whether or not PT will drive this weekend in Long Beach? As Tracy has been confirmed “Just-in-Time” for the Really-Really-Really Big Farewell party… As the two haven’t spoken since last December… Yet the shyster’s musta worked something out as first Tracy was finally given his back-pay from last season and said they’ll squabble over this year’s $2.5 million salary after Sunday’s event is history.

Still it would seem a tad odd to show up for one last run aboard a piece of high speed machinery for a boss you haven’t spoken to for four months, who doesn’t see eye to eye with you, while his Pit Lane General is no longer on your circle of five calling friends… Thus, I’ll assume that Kenny “Hit your marks, Sebastian” Seewig will be calling the shots for PT…

In an odd mix of pomp ‘N circumstance, this weekend’s Bon Voyage will host and eclectic mix of vehicles, with a gathering of Hybrid “Synergy” on display, in the Long Beach Port’s: Green Pace Car Parade, as Toyota will have a host of it’s current gas sipping vehicles running parade laps, with other forms of alternative energy vehicles showing off there wares, including a Mazda Fura, running on E100 ethanol, the new Ronaele, powered by lithium-iron-phosphate batteries and the SolarWorld No. 1, a solar powered vehicle from Germany capable of 70mph hot laps.

There will also be a very odd Robotic car race, said to be contested between three vehicles, utilizing only on-board computers and GPS in the hopes of completing the single lap event, while the American Le Mans Series will be one of the LBGP’s support events… And I’ll assume that they’ll also host the traditional Toyota Celebrity Challenge.

Paying homage to the past three decades of CART/Champ Car (You’d think they could come up with a bit more than this, eh?) will be three vintage racing cars; An ex-Tom Sneva Skoal Bandit sandwiched between two ex-Dan Gurney’s All American Racer chassis…

And when’s the last time that the USA Today featured a story about Open Wheel Racing, not in regards to the Month of May? Thus, I found it refreshing to find an article about the Champ Car finale and Jimmy Vasser in its sports pages; Vasser's goal: Get in shape for one-race return

It was interesting to note that it was Kevin Kalkhoven who enticed the former Champ Car Champion to make one last guest appearance behind the wheel of a Panoz DP-01… But HELL, who wouldn’t jump at the opportunity if able to do so?

And I liked the part about Vasser having to give up his occasional glass of wine, as I was unaware that he has his own vineyard in Napa, CA, while Jimmy’s goal’s are to not only beat his last finish (12th place; Long Beach, 2006) but to outdo his two younger hired guns…

Oriel Servia:
“If he beats me, I'm going to have to hear so much BS on my radio the rest of the season, I can't let that happen."

Long Beach finale

According to Tony Cotman, who was on Autosport Radio this evening, he claims that he’s seen the Long Beach Champ Car finale entry list and there are 20 cars on it…

When asked about PT showing up, Cotman said, yeah, he’ll be there… But I thought he’d said Forsythe had violated his contract to which Cottman brilliantly deadpanned; “I DON’T know who’s violated who over there…”

Vasser at Long Beach

Last night on Wind Tunnel, Robin Miller scooped us all once again by noting that Jimmy Vasser would come out of his semi-retirement to drive in the Champ Car series finale at Long Beach.

Robin also told Dave Despain he should ask Jimmy if he was getting paid by Craig Gore. This was in regards to the acrimonious split between Gore and Derrick Walker, which had Miller sounding less than impressed by Gore’s scuttling of perennial Open Wheel Racing team owner Walker’s devotion to the sport. You can read more about the possible impending lawsuit here: Walker threatens to sue co-owner Gore

After the commercial break, Dave’s next guess was Jimmy Vasser who said it must be true if Robin says it, in regards to running at Long Beach. Vasser said he hopes to be one of the Really-Really-Really big announcements pending for the promotion of the Champ Car World Series farewell party.

Vasser was most politically correct over the Gore vs. Walker matter, saying he’d like them to both work it out, Gore’s done everything he’s promised and he know’s that Derrick didn’t go three years without any funding…

Jimmy would also like to see his hometown rival Paul Tracy in an Indy Car, but PT’s got some tricky legal waters to navigate.

And on the subject of Vasser and Cristiano Da Matta racing together at Laguna Seca in an upcoming Sports Car race later this year, Vasser in his best Kevin Kalkhoven “I KNOW NOTHING” voice, said that’s news to me Dave, but if it happens, it would be great and I don’t know where you’re getting your info from? To which Despain replied; Miller said it!

Bachelart bleu

As previously noted, after making the most of his first outing aboard a Champ Car, Conquest Racing team owner Eric bachelart has hired Champ Car Atlantics standout Franck Perera as one of his drivers for the upcoming season. The second seat is rumoured to be up for grabs between Simon Pagenaud and Nelson Philippe, although Pagenaud tested for Conquest at the just concluded Sebring test and most likely has the inside track as the team co-owned by Opes Prime Limited, a Australian entity looks set to become loosely known as Team France.

It would be nice to see Pagenaud end up with the ride since it would be a farce if the original Champ Car Atlantics champion was bounced out of Open Wheel racing after just one season, showing that the $2 million prize check didn’t account for much, if he couldn’t stick around.

And of course, Bachelart is a little perturbed, having just ordered a brand new Panoz DP01 for the upcoming season, upon receiving the news that The Split may be over?

Champ Car testing begins

With little or no fanfare, Champ Car held its first official testing session of 2008 in Sebring, Florida. And while many of us have predicted gloom ‘N doom for the despondent Open Wheel racing series, I must say it was surprising to read that 14 drivers/car combinations showed up for the first day of testing… I mean c’mon, that’s almost a full Champ Car grid. (OUCH!) And while the majority of last year’s contestants were present, Team Australia was MIA.

With seven drivers confirmed for the upcoming season, the other half of the grid was made up by a variety of Open Wheel talent hoping to convince their possible suitors to ink them to the upcoming Champ Car season, albeit contingent upon bank wire transfers occurring.

While Alex Figge struck first blood by being quickest in the first testing session, the man atop the timing sheet for the first two days was ex-Formula 1 driver Frank Montagny testing alongside Paul “Bite Me-Micklewright” Tracy for Forsythe Petitt Racing.

In the never ending game of Pop goes the Weasel. 2006 Champ Car Atlantics champion Simon Pagenaud, who drove for Team Australia last year spent the test auditioning for a seat at Conquest Racing alongside 2006 Champ Car Atlantics runner-up Franck Perera who set the overall fastest lap time on the final day of testing. The blitzing of the field convinced team owner Eric Bachelart to sign Perera for 2008, as part of his two car effort which could become Team France.

Mexican David Martinez tested for Pacific Coast Motorsports and hopes to land a ride for the season as Mario “Boom Boom” Dominguez’s replacement in the team’s sophomore season.

Team Minardi USA ran a single car for VenezuelanErnesto Viso, who’s spent the last three seasons contesting F3000 & GP2 for Durango, BCN Competition and Racing Engineering respectively, along with also driving the third Spyker F1 chassis. Meanwhile 2007 Champ Car Rookie of the year Robert Doornbos claims he’ll be back with the team this season, yet he’s still waiting for the best Euros conversion rate before exchanging into the necessary dinero needed to obtain the drive.

And surprisingly Dale Coyne ran Mario Moraes aboard what was Katherine Legge’s mount last season, for the three day test. The Brazilian native has contested Formula 3 with Carlin Motorsports, finishing 14th overall. Does this mean that Legge is looking for a ride elsewhere? Certainly Kevin K. will not let Legge slip off of the Champ Car grid as she’s the only female currently contesting Champ Car and it would be another huge gaf by Chump Carzs to let this fan favourite disappear.

Testing will continue at Laguna Seca March 13-14, during Champ Car’s designated Spring Training session.


Final combined test times from Sebring testing

(Pos., driver name, team, lap time, mph, total laps for the 3 days)

1. Franck Perera, #24 Conquest Racing, 49.806 seconds, 120.636 mph, 205 laps

2. Graham Rahal, #2 Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing, 49.950 seconds, 120.288 mph, 238 laps

3. Alex Tagliani, #21 PKV Racing, 50.173 seconds, 119.754 mph, 281 laps

4. Oriol Servia, #22 PKV Racing, 50.178 seconds, 119.742 mph, 288 laps

5. Justin Wilson, #1 Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing, 50.207 seconds, 119.673 mph, 269 laps

6. Franck Montagny, #7 Forsythe/Pettit Racing, 50.209 seconds, 119.668 mph, 207 laps

7. Bruno Junqueira, #19 Dale Coyne Racing, 50.507 seconds, 118.962 mph, 247 laps

8. Alex Figge, #29 Pacific Coast Motorsports, 50.521 seconds, 118.929 mph, 247 laps

9. Simon Pagenaud, #34 Conquest Racing, 50.702 seconds, 118.504 mph, 186 laps

10. Enrique Bernoldi, #8 Rocketsports Racing, 50.714 seconds, 118.476 mph, 255 laps

11. Paul Tracy, #3 Forsythe/Pettit Racing, 50.732 seconds, 118.434 mph, 179 laps

12. David Martinez, #28 Pacific Coast Motorsports, 50.736 seconds, 118.425 mph, 255 laps

13. Ernesto Viso, #4 Minardi Team USA, 50.800 seconds, 118.276 mph, 164 laps

14. Mario Moraes, #11 Dale Coyne Racing, 50.930 seconds, 117.974 mph, 241 laps

When five equals seven

Yep, you read that right, as it’s also known as Chump Carzs math….

Since just days prior to the Sebring test, the ranks of confirmed Champ Car drivers for the 2008 season had swelled to a ground shaking five as Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing finally made official what had long been rumoured by announcing Justin Wilson as Graham Rahal’s partner.

And I liked Justin’s comments about the Hamburgular’s shoes being a tall task to fill, but he’s got big feet the Brit said jokingly. I’ll assume that the 19yr old Yank, Messer Rahal will now be swathed in Mic-Doogal’s livery with Wilson continuing with his long time sponsor CDW, guess the only thing left to scrap about is who’ll get to use ‘ol Sea Bass’s left over number one plate.

Meanwhile in addition to N/H/L being the only team with a full complement of drivers, there had been three other signings announced prior to Sebring.

As previously mentioned, Paul (Neil Micklewright AIN’T on my circle ‘O Five) Tracy has re-signed with Forsythe Petitt Racing, while Oriel “Suitcase” Servia has unpacked his bags at PKV Racing for the entire 2008 season, while Alex Tagliani looks set to become his new teammate.

TAG, who previously drove for Rocketsports Racing has been replaced by Enrique Bernoldi for the 2008 season. You may remember that Bernoldi was ditched by Peter Sauber in favour of some young Finn named Kimi Raikkonen! Although Bernoldi did manage two seasons with the floundering Orange Arrows F1 team dutifully run into the ground by Tom Walkinshaw.

Yet, the two confirmed driver announcements which seem to not be ballyhooed about in the media or were victims of the crack Champ Car press core were Bruno Junqueira’s staying put with the minnowesque Dale Coyne Racing operation, while Alex Figge’s continuation with Pacific Coast Motorsports was a no brainer since his father owns the team…

Captain Quebec rides again

Prior to Christmas, it was revealed that apparently Gerald Forsythe had attempted to throw Champ Car World Series “Super-star” Paul Tracy under the bus, as Mr. Chrome Horn received an email from Neil Mickelwright telling PT to either re-negotiate his current contract or face loosing his ride.

Fortunately cooler heads seem to have prevailed as Sand Dune Tracey flew to Chicago the day after Christmas to meet with Mr. Forsythe to clear the air, with Tracy’s position seemingly helped by making a few collect calls to someone by the name of Tony George…

Thus Forsythe and Tracy have agreed to continue on in Champ Car for (at least) 2008, which should greatly appease the various Canadian promoters, eh?

Forsythe Petitt Racing has vastly revamped its personnel, with Tom Brown coming on board as PT’s engineer at the end of last season. Forsythe has also hired Kenny Siwieck to manage Tracy’s team, as PT says it’s not exactly a secret that he and Mickelwright aren’t on the same page.

You may recall that Siwieck is that annoying voice they’ve played a zillion times telling “Mikey” (Michael Andretti) and the “Hamburgular” (Sebastian Bourdais) to hit there marks… Interestingly, Siwieck was an 18 year employee at Newman Haas Racing.

And I’m wondering if Tracy had any inkling of Tony Cotman’s decision to resign from Champ Car prior to settling this matter? As Tracy’s loyalty to Champ Car seems destined to become a footnote in the series impending demise…

Champ Car notes

Justin wins Moore award
Justin Wilson has won the Greg Moore Legacy Award for the second time, being awarded the honour at this years Champ Car season ending banquet.

Justin becomesthe the first two-time winner of the award, (2006-07) named after the late Canadian driver who died in 1999. The award is awarded to the driver that most displays the determination, passion and skill that typified Moore's days as a racer.

Justin Wilson:
“It's a real honour to receive this award for the second time. Greg had an outstanding reputation as a driver and as a person and to be associated with him in this way means a lot."

Previous winners of the Greg Moore Legacy Award are Oriol Servia (2005), Ryan Hunter-Reay (2004), Sebastien Bourdais (2003), Patrick Carpentier (2002), Dario Franchitti (2001), and Helio Castroneves (2000)


Conquest new partner
In a refreshing bit of good news, Conquest Racing has just landed a new partnership arrangement with Opes Prime Group Ltd, an Australian based financial services provider. The new alliance will see Conquest campaign two cars for the 2008 Champ Car World Series season,

“Additionally, the new agreement sees Opes Prime principle shareholder Anthony Blumberg acquiring an equity stake in the organization, providing the necessary capital investment to fuel the team's growth over the next two seasons.”


Power wins award
Team Australia’s Will Power has won the coveted Sir Jack Brabham award at this year’s CAMS Australia Awards banquet…


Forsythe’s smooth move
Talk about your pathetic promotional ploys of “Stiring the Pot.” As Gerald Forsythe has attempted to throw Champ Car World Series “Super-star” Paul Tracy under the bus… By reportedly telling ‘Ol Sand Dune Tracy to re-negotiate his current contract or face loosing his ride.

This is not the best way to go about stabilizing a weak product, as rumours suggest that the Toronto race promoter is extremely (PEEVED-OFF) Freaked-out about not having Tracy in this year’s Champ Car line-up, which could potentially cost him the race. Way to go Gerry!


PKV signs Servia
While Forsythe has its caboose up its tailpipe, PKV has just announced the signing of Oriel “Suitcase” Servia as one of its two drivers for 2008.

I for one am very happy to hear the news that Servia will be able to ditch the suitcase moniker for the upcoming season, after PKV sensibly signed the extremely quick and popular Spaniard.

Its currently unknown whom will partner Servia, as Neal Jani who was sponsored by Red Bull is possibly out of the picture since its rumoured that the Red Bull sponsorship deal was only for a single season. If Jani doesn’t return, which would be a shame, then look for him to replace Dan “Speedy-Dry” Clarke at Team Minardi USA…

Champ Car MIA

For the past week I’ve been enjoying another very pleasant holiday in Scottsdale, AZ. The trip had originally been planned to coincide with this year’s inaugural Phoenix Grand Prix, which I’d been looking forward to attending, as it was to be Champ Cars seasons finale in the “Valley of the Sun,” Sadly Champ Car was forced to pull the plug on this event, well actually the promoter’s pulled the plug since they didn’t want to loose anymore of their own money! Of course I’d learned of this decision just days after purchasing my airplane ticket to Arizona. (BASTARDOES!) This leads me to ponder the “just completed” season of Champ Car… (Wondering’ how it went overall?) With the “official” tally for cancelled races being three this year, which certainly cannot do much for one’s credibility! Yet the Indianapolis based operation managed to complete another season, albeit with some major speed bumps along the way! As the three events cancelled was the stillborn China race, which has now been cancelled three years in a row… Or has never gotten off the ground, although Roberto Moreno did indeed run demonstration laps aboard the DP-01 at the Zhuhi circuit. Denver lost its temporary street circuit event around the Pepsi Center, which ironically had “stolen” Vancouver, BC’s traditional Labor Day calendar spot… While Phoenix scrapped its planned street race around the Downtown corridor. Perhaps they were worried about Sherriff Joe blocking the track when he couldn’t stand the noise anymore? Then there were the two INSIDIOUSLY LONG schedule breaks… The first six weeks coming this spring while the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was garnering “All” of the media attention with their annual Month of May festivities… Overly hyped with the arrival of Danny B’s favourite IRL addition. None other than Milka Duno… The second six weeks break was self-inflicted by Champ Car who STUPIDLY aired both European rounds on ESPN Classic. Hey, doesn’t everybody get that freakin’ channel? (Way to go Comca$t) And it seemed almost foreign to me to sit down and finally watch the Surfers Paradise event via tape on November 3rd. Which means I hadn’t viewed a Champ Car race in two plus months… Although the event “Down Under” was fairly entertaining, since I’d just assumed that The Hamburgular had run away and hid while stealing his 30th Champ Car victory… Yet he’d actually had to work for it, before dusting off Justin Wilson once again, whom theoretically will replace Sea Bass next season? On the flip side the Panoz DP-01 acquitted itself fairly well in its maiden season, albeit a few teething issues with fuel tanks, gearboxes, etc. Not to mention a freakish low speed crash to series “Star” Paul Tracy. And Champ Car unveiled standing starts at Portland this season, which cut down on the number of first corner pile-ups, along with giving us some spirited competition… Alas, nobody seemed capable of beating that DAMN Hamburgular! And with the release of the 2008 schedule, along with Champ Car possibly solidifying its driver line-ups? Perhaps next years championship will be “Muchoe Better!”

Forsythe and Pettit join forces

Surprisingly Gerald Forsythe has just announced that he’ll be joining forces with Dan Pettit, formerly of RuSports to form Forsythe Pettit Racing.

Dan Pettit was originally the “P” in PKV Racing, a joint venture between Pettit, Jimmy Vasser and Kevin Kalkhoven, who’s one of the original three co-owners who bought CART when it went into bankruptcy and beat Tony George’s rival bid.

Kalkhoven along with Forsythe then subsequently bought Cosworth Engineering from the Ford Motor Company to ensure a stable supply of the venerable Ford/Cosworth turbocharged
V-8 engines powering the newly renamed Champ Car series.

When Carl Russo decided to leave Champ Car at the end of 2006, Champ Car was in peril of loosing one of its premiere teams with star drive Justin Wilson, thus Kalkhoven talked his business partner and new part co-owner of Champ Car Pettit into purchasing the RuSports team.

Then unexpectedly Pettit decided to join forces with Paul Gentilozzi’s Rocketsports team, with the two teams running single car entries, yet sharing paddock space together along with pooling engineering resources. Gentilozzi who was the third original co-owner of Champ Car had previously ran a string of “Pay” drivers to fill the second seat of his two car operation, yet both Gentilozzi and Pettit, who’s RuSports team was also a two car entity apparently had been unable to find sponsorship for their team’s second car and thus decided to form RSPORTS with Justin Wilson and Alex Tagliani as the teams two drivers.

Although I missed “The Memo,” apparently Pettit and Gentilozzi discontinued their partnership towards the end of this year’s season, which has caused some major strife with RuSports title sponsor CDW, as rumours have abounded that CDW was potentially leaving Champ Car?

Meanwhile Gerry Forsythe had originally threatened to run only a single car entry this season in Champ Car for series star Paul Tracy as he was tired of funding a two car team out of his own pocket, having been unable to find any corporate sponsorship for the teams second car. Shockingly Forsythe Championship Racing started the season with Mario “Boom Boom” Dominguez announced as Tracy’s teammate for the first three races. Recall that Super Mario (?) had been FIRED from Forsythe the previous season after twice taking out team leader Paul “Sand Dune” Tracy…

Oriel Servia was then drafted into the team as Tracy’s substitute while recuperating from his back injury suffered during practice at Long Beach. Servia subsequently became Dominguez’s replacement (on a race-by-race basis) upon PT’s return to racing at Portland. Yet “Suitcase” Servia was rudely sent packing for the season’s final two races to make way for Mexican “Home Boy” David Martinez in order to hopefully draw spectators to the Mexico City season finale.

With the season over and both Pettit and Forsythe having endured the rigors of running struggling teams, the decision was made to join forces, thus the creation of Forsythe Pettit Racing which will be based out of Forsythe’s Indianapolis shop, thus effectively ending operations at the former RuSports base in Colorado. Interestingly nothing was mentioned in the press release about either teams marquee drivers Wilson or Tracy, as Wilson has been widely thought to be the Hamburgular’s replacement at Newman Haas Lanigan. So it’ll be interesting to see where Wilson lands, as he seems to be the top domino in the Champ Car driver market currently.

In a further bit of Champ Car news, Kevin “Glass Half Full” Kalkhoven is currently involved in a shareholder lawsuit in regards to his previous Silicon Valley business, which fortunes allowed Kalkhoven to purchase Champ Car and Cosworth. Interestingly I believe that Pettit was also in “cahoots” with Kalkhoven, yet seems to have been left out of the lawsuit. Hmm? Why does all of this news make me think of the song “The future’s so bright, I’ve gotta wear shades.” Then again perhaps if Champ Car can shore up its existing teams, stabilize its schedule and have more than 17 cars on the grid next season, Shades may be actually required?

Viva la Mexico

Well it’s finally over… As I’m certain that Champ Car is sighing a breath of relief over the conclusion of a very rough 2007 season.

Along with several cancelled events, Mexico City sees newly anointed four time consecutive Champ Car champion Sebastian Bourdais making his series farewell.

Kicking the weekend off in his traditional fashion, the Hamburgular once again stole the top spot in Friday’s provisional qualifying with a new record lap of 1:24.698.

This didn’t last long though as Will Power forced his way to the front in Saturday’s final qualifying session, setting a “New Track Record” of 1:23.558. (119.515 mph) Power led a contingent of seven drivers besting Sea Bass’s time of Friday as Bourdais ended up tenth quickest, but started second overall due to his Friday pole.

Then Bourdais and teammate Graham Rahal were penalized 22 seconds of their P2P time due to laying down rubber in their pit boxes against Champ Car orders.

And I suspect that the altitude of Mexico City had something to do with the aborted start, as three competitors stalled for the very first time of a standing start. Mexico City’s air (while polluted) is very thin, with the elevation being 7,400+ feet.

Although one of the casualties was Dan “Speedy Dry” Clarke who’s clutch failed on the aborted start. Teammate “Bad Bobby D” (Robert Doornbos) also lost his clutch on lap three. Hmm? Perhaps Minardi Team USA used some of the Hamburgular’s “Secret Sauce” for their clutch set-ups? Yet the team did an Indy Racing League style pit job, repairing the clutch and sending Doornbos back out to score one point for setting the fastest lap to ensure his third place in the championship.

And was it “Déjà vu?” As this year’s pole sitter Power was racing with a broken wrist, having suffered a hairline fracture in his accident with Katherine Legge in Australia. Last year saw Justin Wilson racing with a broken wrist and ironically Power’s teammate Simon Pagenaud was suffering from tendonitis in his wrist.

And for all of you Die Cast Vroomers, fortunately Champ Car hasn’t put out a decent diecast in years; especially the later Lola’s which were incorrect! So you won’t have to worry about getting’ the custom Mac Doogals car that Bourdais drove to victory… As it was adorned with decals for his entire Champ Car career, leaving a blank space left on the nose for Mexico… Hey, now they can make two versions of this car, eh?

Meanwhile Justin Wilson was forced to soldier around the track for the majority of the race with fuel pressure problems, this made him a lame duck on the long straightaway, and finishing tenth do to his lack of horsepower.

Yet Sea Bass clearly showed why he’s currently heads ‘N shoulders above the rest of the Champ Car fraternity, by overtaking Power and pulling away to an 11+ second lead. Then when a late yellow flag bunched the field back together to give Power one last shot at the Hamburgular, who was at a disadvantage on P2P power. Sea Bass simply drove off into the sunset, making a banzai start while NOT using any of his precious P2P supply! Thus leaving Power to finish second.

And with Michael Schumacher-like numbers in Champ Car, *31 Wins/73 Starts = 43% win avg.) The series will potentially be much more exciting next season. The win ties Bourdais with ‘Lil Al (Al Unser Jr.) and Paul Tracy for sixth overall in all time Champ Car wins.

But the best story of the day was “Suitcase” Servia’s run from 16th to the final podium position with a burst of late race passes., after having stalled on the start from fourth place. PKV co-owner Jimmy Vasser told Oriel to quit saving his P2P! Jumping from sixth to third on the final restart.

Servia got the nickname courtesy of Rick Benjamin in deference to the number of teams and drivers the Spaniard has filled in for this season.

Afterwards, Servia wanting to know how to get on Wind Tunnel asked SPEED’s Robin Miller about his brother… Who? You know “Dee-Spain.” I’m from Spain, he’s De-Spain, and if I win a race will this get me on Wind Tunnel? To which Miller assured him he’d even drive him to the Charlotte studios…

Champ Car Season Finale

Although it seems more of a formality with “The Hamburgular” having already wrapped up the Championship at Surfers Paradise. Nevertheless it will be Sebastian Bourdais very final race in Champ Car before he departs to Formula 1 in 2008.

And for the Mexico City elevation Champ Car will add an extra 50bhp to its vaunted “P2P” feature, better known as Power to Pass. This is when any of the competitor’s can push a button on their steering wheel for a specific amount of time to induce extra horsepower or “Turbo Boost!”

And instead of the normal 60 second time allotment, the P2P will be increased to 75 seconds. Thus the Champ Car circus will have a maximum of 850bhp on tap for 75 seconds in Mexico.

Does this mean that perhaps somebody will be able to pass Sea Bass for the win? As I’m still mad over his pin ball bounce off of Justin Wilson on the very final lap to steal the victory last year…

And supposedly Pacific Coast Motorsports will be making a “Big” announcement in Mexico. Hmm, let’s see. Mario Dominguez plus Tecate beer. Wonder what it could be? Now all we need is those long departed Tecate “Girls.”

You can catch the Champ Car season finale this Sunday on ESPN2 @ 11AM. (Pacific)

Please check your Local Listings…

Champ Car announces 2008 Schedule

Champ Car has FINALLY announced their 2008 schedule, which will feature the same amount of races run this season. The 14 race venues will feature a few revisions, with another temporary street circuit being excluded from the mix. Champ Car will now consist of eight road courses and six street circuits, while four races dropped from this year’s calendar will not return. Also Laguna Seca will replace San Jose in 2008.

While much banter is being made about the addition of the newest European race to be contested at Jerez, little is being said about the demise of Las Vegas after a single event, which was also promoted by the same organizers of the stillborn Phoenix Champ Car race. Thus the 2008 schedule will revert to its tradition of opening in Long Beach (April 20) and conclude in Mexico City. (Nov 9)

Jerez previously was a Formula 1 circuit until 1997, which has now apparently given up hopes of landing a future Grand Prix after the introduction of Spain’s newest venue on the streets of Valencia.

Currently Jerez is used as a Formula 1 winter testing haven and will now host its inaugural Champ Car race on June 8th in conjunction with the Zolder event which has been moved to June 1st.

Although thought to be on shaky ground, the Portland Champ Car race will once again return in 2008 for its 25th anniversary, albeit on a new date, now being moved to the hottest part of the summer in Oregon. (July 27) Hopefully the weather will not repeat the last American Le Mans event held during the same weekend, when the temperature hit 100 degrees…

2008 Champ Car World Series*April 20 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach , Long Beach, Calif.April 27 Champ Car Grand Prix of Houston at JAGFlo Speedway, Houston, TexasMay 18 Champ Car Grand Prix at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, Monterey, CaliforniaJune 1 Champ Car Belgium, Zolder, Belgium June 8 Champ Car Spain, Jerez, SpainJune 22 Champ Car Grand Prix of Cleveland, Cleveland, Ohio June 29 Champ Car Mont-Tremblant, Mont-Tremblant, Quebec , Canada July 6 Steelback Grand Prix of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada July 20 Rexall Grand Prix of Edmonton, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada July 27 Champ Car Portland, Portland, OregonAugust 10 Road America Grand Prix, Elkhart Lake, Wis.September 14 Champ Car Holland at the TT Circuit, Assen, Holland October 26 Gold Coast Indy 300, Surfers Paradise, AustraliaNovember 9 Gran Premio Tecate Presentado por Banamex, Mexico City, Mexico
* Pending ACCUS/FIA Approval

Champ Car Chatter

While Champ Car is in the midst of another extremely long hiatus, having been out of sight of the majority of US house holds for nearly two months now…

Champ Car held its final 2007 season test at Sebring, (9/25-26) with Conquest, Dale Coyne, Forsythe, N/H/L, PCM and PKV taking part in the two day test session. New recruit Martinez got acclimated to the cockpit of Forsythe’s second Panoz DP 01 chassis, previously driven by Oriel Servia.

And the weirdest part of the testing was that Forsythe asked Servia to test for them on the first day, with Servia being the fastest of the three Forsythe drivers after being previously given his walking papers.

Dominguez re-sumed driving with Pacific Coast Motorsports, whom he’d previously driven for during Ryan Dalziel’s forced absence from the San Jose race after a bicycling accident.

And I suppose it will come as NO surprise that on Day 1 the “Hamburgular” (Bourdais) topped the time sheets.

Day 2 saw Sea Bass drop down the order due to having used up all of his allotted testing miles the previous day. This saw Will Power take over the top spot as well as “Christian Comedy” nipping at his heels…


Sebring Champ Car testing times – Day 2:

1) Will Power, Team Australia, 51.51
2) Tristan Gommendy, PKV, 51.53
3) Mario Dominguez, Pacific Coast Motorsports, 51.55
4) Simon Pagenaud, Team Australia, 51.71
5) Alex Figge, Pacific Coast Motorsports, 51.73
6) Paul Tracy, Forsythe, 51.79
7) Graham Rahal, Newman/Haas/Lanigan, 51.82
8) David Martinez, Forsythe, 51.91
9) Neel Jani, PKV, 52.04
10) Bruno Junqueira, Dale Coyne, 52.30
11) Katherine Legge, Dale Coyne, 52.58
12) James Winslow, Conquest, 53.65


And in another incredulous slight of hand, Conquest Racing has given Jan “Van Hagar” Heylen the unexpected BOOT! In order to make room for Nelson Philippe… Yeah I can hear y’all saying’ Nelson Who? As perhaps many of you have forgotten that the Frenchman is Champ cars current youngest ever winner, apparently being recalled “just-in-time” to defend his last year victory at Surfers Paradise.

“Van Hagar” is the third current Champ Car driver getting an extremely RAW deal! Joining the likes of Servia and Dalziel, who’ve also been shown the door for less than honorable reasons…

But Heylen’s dumping is extremely poor seeing how he brought desperately needed funding to Eric Bachelart’s team that was on life support at the beginning of the year. Then Heylen has done nothing but improve each week after his Portland debut, with a 6th place finish at Road America and runner-up behind Justin Wilson at Assen TT…

And I’ve also seen rumours of Wilson possibly defecting to Andretti Green Racing next season along with major sponsor CDW saying NO Thanks to continuing in Champ Car!

Meanwhile Paul “Sand Dune” Tracy was busy thrashin’ about the mud bogs of Chula Vista in an Off Road Trophy Truck curtsey of Ricky Johnson. Well at least one of Champ Car’s driver’s is enjoying his holiday!

PCM Turnabout?

Although I’m still overly disappointed about Pacific Coast Motorsport’s dumping of Ryan Dalziel in favour of Mario “Boom Boom” Dominguez, apparently my flogging of PcM may be misguided? Especially upon reading David Phillips latest commentary, explaining how the Dominguez decision could rather be more team oriented than Gerald Forsythe’s quick-fix solution with Mexican David Martinez. As Phillips points out in Apples ‘N Oranges, Forsythe’s maneuverings are totally transparent, while PCM could actually be trying to improve its struggling Champ Car operation…

Blame Canada!

Once again its Labor Day weekend which traditionally signals the end of summer. Also causing me to reflect upon the long vanished yearly tradition of trekking north to Vancouver, BC for the annual Molson Indy. Which STUPIDLY Vancouver dumped in favour of the 2010 Winter Olympics…

And as the time flies by I recall less ‘N less of those trips Up North, Eh? As I truly miss this event. Although not being a huge fan of Temporary Street circuits which seem to run their course. The trend seems to be making a strong revival at earlier venues expense. Excluding Phoenix’s second demise with Champ Car)

As my only experiences with this type of racing are the much lamented Iceberg Grand Prix and the Molson Indy. Does anybody remember that Formula 1 raced around the downtown streets of Phoenix, Arizona from 1989-91? Even funnier was the title sponsor in regards to Arizona’s cool summer climate. As I vividly recall it being 104 degrees on June 4th, 1989! But hey,

“It’s a DRY Heat…” (And so’s your oven!)

But I thoroughly enjoyed both venues, especially the Molson Indy, which seemed to ALWAYS have a LARGER crowd then Portland during CART’s heydays of the early 1990’s.

I guess part of the attraction of the Vancouver event was its great location, being situated around False Creek nearby BC Place. This locale was also the site of Expo ’86. A very popular World Exposition that unfortunately I attended on the day it set its record attendance of 211,000+ spectators. Yet Expo ’86 itself was a fairly fun event.

The Molson Indy Vancouver BC race ran for 14 years before coming to an unexpected demise with me already writing my thoughts about Willy T Ribbs darkest moment as a professional driver, which I witnessed live in 1990, when an errant corner worker ran in front of the oncoming Ribbs… To which I’ve been told isn’t politically correct to write about.

I attended the first five events, before being dropped from the group attending the races. This is when the course was still in its original vane, my favourite circuit configuration. As we had seats reserved in the first corner hairpin where we watched several drivers trying to out brake one another Including numerous skirmishes between ‘Lil Al and Mikey… As I seem to recall also being present when Al Unser Jr barrel rolled his Galles/Valvoline race car!

In 1997 the circuit was heavily revised, leaving little intact from the original layout nearby Pacific Place. Yet I also enjoyed the new circuit as I finally made my way back to this great race in 2000, as it offered unbelievable access to view the Champ Cars. Especially at the Science World hairpin, where you could stand 30+ feet from the circuit

And I also enjoyed the fantastic Art exhibits they had in the latter years, as I seriously considered purchasing an original painting of Greg Moore along with oogling over a beautiful bronze of Gilles Villeneuve

And the track was always popular with the drivers, whom claim it was one of their favourite circuits to attend. I suspect because of the amazing spectator support. With records showing that Al Unser Jr and Michael Andretti ruled the roost from 1990 to 1996. With ‘Lil Al winning four times to Mikey’s three, before “Big Mo” (Mauricio Gugelmin) broke this streak. The win was popular since Gugelmin scored his only Champ Car victory for the local PacWest Racing team.

The event was also dominated by the Team Kool Green boyzs Dario franchitti with two victories and native son Paul Tracy scoring a Hat trick in the events waning years.

My favourite moment had to be the year we took Auntie Harriet to the race and witnessed Roberto Moreno doing victory doughnuts in front of us as we were clouted by billowing clouds of tire smoke!

And towards the end, the city even had an elaborate scale model of the area’s proposed renovation, in which the track would be incorporated into a Monaco-esc setting. Yet nearby residents complained about the noise and the date was eventually moved from its traditional Labor Day spot to early July. Of which I attended for my final trip north.

My other most vivid memory involves Alex Zanardi. As the mighty CART champion had returned to the series after a disappointing season at Williams. After a force one year sabbatical, Zanardi made his return to racing with the fledgling Mo Nunn team.

And as I stood at the Science World chicane during practice, I watched “Zorro” spin haplessly. Looping the Pioneer Reynard/Honda while entering the turn with his nose facing me! Zanardi managed to not hit anything and kept the engine running as he waited for competitors to pass by before ultimately killing the lump. This in turn brought out a yellow flag and a safety vehicle was dispatched to give Zanardi a restart tow.

I recall thinking how far Zanardi had fallen as he was struggling at the back of the pack, trying to wring every ounce of performance out of his new mount. Yet unbeknownst to me, this would be his last complete race.

As sadly he would suffer life threatening injuries in the following CART round held at the Lausitzring a fortnight later…

Phoenix race melts away

The Champ Car World Series just took another blow to the temple. With the announcement of the Phoenix Grand Prix pulling the plug on its inaugural Champ Car race. The event was scheduled for December 2nd as the series finale. Which coupled with the long unannounced cancellation of the China event sees a total of three races remaining this year, with NO viable TV coverage of this weekend’s Holland event.

Promoter Dale Jensen, part owner of the Arizona Diamondbacks said that economic turmoil had prevented the landing of major event sponsorship. As the city of Phoenix seems indifferent to another street car race in the Downtown area. With the long defunct Iceberg Grand Prix *Formula 1) of 1989-91 still lingering on…

“I CAN’T get to my Bar! There’s some funny ‘lil cars blockin’ off the streets. What are all these Damn Foreigners doin’ here…”

Jensen claims that the Phoenix cancellation will have no affect on the sister event, the Las Vegas street race that Jensen’s company is promoter of. Claiming that they’d spent $15 million to make Vegas happen and were hopeful of recouping their investment by running both events. Champ Car claims that “Los Wages” three day attendance was over 100,000…

Yet this is Champ Cars third event of the 2007 season to be cancelled. And once again the series will finish outside of the United States. And by the time another race is viewable to the remaining stateside audience…

Having just purchased my airplane ticket to attend, I’m mildly adjitated with Phoenix & Champ Car. But hey, we’re NOT merging…

Chez Zolder

So did anybody actually get to see the Champ Car race early Sunday morning? As apparently we didn’t miss too much. Since once again the Hamburgular ran away and hid, while stealing his sixth victory of the season.

And unfortunately Zolder’s claim to fame for most of us will always be that it’s the track that Gilles Villeneuve lost his life at in 1982. So it’s ironic that Champ Car was racing there 25 years later. Yet according to David Phillips, Circuit Zolder is a First Class “A1” track that would put the majority of North American circuits to shame…

Although bourdais’s championship nemesis’s lined up second and third. The Frenchman was nearly untouchable, leading virtually the entire distance. With the second place driver being a bit of a shock. As Whiney Bags Bruno gave Dale Coyne Racing its best finish in 24 years! With the final podium spot going to Junky’s replacement Graham Rahal.

Look for the Champ Cars next week on El Classico. Err, Oh Nevermind…

Da Matta still recovering

While I’m completely behind on the previous Champ Car races. Once again its hard to believe it was one year ago when Cristiano Da Matta had his horrifying collision with a wayward deer at Road America.

And although mostly recovered, Da Matta is becoming restless in his pursuit of returning to the cockpit. As Cristiano admits he’s not a very good watcher… After attending the San Jose Champ Car race.

Good Luck Cristiano!

Alberta tarmac

I’d have to say that watching the Edmonton Champ Car race after the wet ‘N wild European GP probably wasn’t the wisest move. As the Champ Car race seemed a little more sanguine. With far less action then the Nurburgring.

And once again the Hamburgular stole the show. First by outlasting everybody on fuel during the first round of pit stops. And then simply running off and hiding from Justin Wilson, who finished 4 seconds adrift of Sea Bass. Wilson was the meat of an Newman/Haas/Lanagin Racing sandwich, with Graham Rahal finishing third, followed by Simon Pagenaudand and Paul Tracy respectively.

Pagenaudand and’s fourth place secured the inaugural Canadian Triple Crown trophy for Team Australia. Which was of little consolation for Will Power who retired with steering rack issues while running in the top three all day.

“Bad Bobby D” (Robert Doornbos) had a sub par day for the first time this season, upon colliding with Alex Tagliani. And with another boring victory. Bourdais now vaults back into the points lead by 20+ points over his rivals. As Champ Car moves from the wide open spaces to the concrete canyons of San Jose, where Seb has been nearly unstoppable. Unless Paul Tracy runs him over.

Have Helmet bag, will travel

Looks like Mario “Boom Boom” Dominguez knows the way to San Jose. As he’s just been tabbed as Ryan Dalziel’s replacement for this weekend’s San Jose Champ Car race. Dominguez became available upon Tristan Gommendy being medically cleared to resume racing after sitting out the Edmonton event.

Do you know the way to San Jose?

Apparently Champ Car driver Ryan Dalziel got lost while preparing for his journey to the Silicon Valley. When the Scotsman fell and suffered a broken collar bone.

Pacific Coast Motorsports has not yet named a substitute driver, but there is definitely NO shortage of possible candidates. Although Oriel Servia is currently racing for Forsythe with Mario “Boom Boom” Dominguez filling in for the sidelined Tristan Gommendy. Perhaps Andreas Wirth or Ronny Bremmer will get the call?

Champ Car staff changes

As I’ve been busy gallivanting about the countryside. OTAY! DON’T everyone feel sorry for me at once… And still being “Old School” with limited recording time via my VCR, I’ve had to skip the past few weeks of various SPEED TV programming in order to attempt keeping up with the dueling Open Wheel racing series.

Therefore I’ve missed the latest rantings of the ‘ol Windbag himself (Dave Despain) as well as the satire ‘O Robin Miller. Nor have I had time to read the various scribblings of my foremost news sources… Aw Shucks, Doesn’t everybody still feel sorry for me?

Any Hoo… I managed to miss the following story by Messer Miller on the realignment of Champ Car management, which I’ll simply provide the following link to Derrick Walker’s reply: Walker responds

Canadian Thunder

WOW! Another WET ‘N Wooly Champ Car race in Canada… If I didn’t know better I’d think it always rains in Canada too? So take that Seattle. And unlike RASSCAR which melts in the rain… The Open Wheel warriors simply strapped on Bridgestone full wet’s and put their welly into going quick!

Well everybody except Speedy Dry Dan Clarke that is. As the overconfident Englishman thought he could drive with slicks on ice, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

As it was total mayhem on lap one upon Mr. Excitement, Paul Tracy getting a front wing stuck under his nose, which ultimately lodged underneath the chassis. Causing PT to loose control of his steering and walloping the wall at 150mph, causing a multiple car collision behind him.

Refreshingly we had a new leader up front, with Oriel Servia having gotten the better of the front row of the Hamburgular and Justin Wilson. Yep, Sea Bass was on pole once again… But Servia would lead convincingly for the first 34 laps before it went all wrong.

And did I mention that it rained? As this is when all of the fun on track began, with various competitors finding the slippery liquids caused by precipitation. After a few full cautions and various pit strategies. We were treated to having Ryan Dalziel leading his very first Champ Car race. And as Mr. Rick said in-between multiple sponsor shout-outs. Dalziel is used to driving in the rain being from Scotland. Now all he’s waiting for is the fog to roll in!

But what the HELL! Is Ricky Boy doing telling us who won the Formula 1 race while most of us had NOT seen the race since it was going head to head with Champ Car... Smooth Move Benji!

But it wasn’t to last as first Will Power passed the Scotsman, before Wilson uncharacteristically bumper cared his way around D. for third place. This was after Justin had unsuccessfully attempted dive bombing his arch nemesis Bourdais earlier in the race.

And it was pretty funny to watch how many drivers attempted bowling over the brazen Hamburgular, with rookie teammate Graham Rahal even taking a swipe. Yet I found myself laughing out loud when the two points leading protagonists Bourdais and “Bad Bobby D” (Robert Doornbos) collided during the final moments of the race. Ensuring Team Aussie’s Power his second victory of the season. With Power’s post race comments fitting, as he said “Sock it too them!”

Canadian Triple Crown

With Champ Car in the midst of a three race swing thru Eastern Canada, it’s been announced that Canada has created its own version of the Triple Crown trophy. The awards will be given to the top three placing teams of these events, with maximum points being awarded a la Formula 1’s Constructor’s championship. Champ Car has just announced the artist commissioned to create the trophies, while Team Australia leads after round 1…

Calling Dudley Duwright

So I’ve finished watching the tape of the Mont-Tremblant Champ Car race which was pretty entertaining. I mean when is the last time that the Pole sitter was unable to fire his engine and not take the start of a Champ Car race? Unfortunately this is exactly what happened to Pole debutant Tristan Gommendy who was sidelined with electrical gremlins for two laps. And then on Champ Car’s third standing start, Will Power who had the front row to himself stalled. As well as his Team Aussie teammate, along with Jan “Van Hagar” Heylen.

Thus it appeared that it would become a pretty boring processional with the Hamburgalur leading once again. Yet as Robin Miller said. About 30 laps in we need a little rain to make it interesting… And Walla. The track was half wet/half dry. As I laughed gleefully when Sea Bass went slithering off track upon being the first to find the “slippery liquids.” (Rain fall)

And I think that Alex Tagliani’s Wall$mart du Canada WON the Ricky Boy sponsor shout-out sweepstakes this race… Although it’s always hard to tell who Mr. Rick calls out most.

Apparently the place NOT to be was in the lead of this race, as several drivers held the point briefly. Bourdais led until hitting the wet stuff. Robert Doornbos took a brief turn before his car got a little too squirrelly. Justin Wilson ran up front in the rain before getting it all wrong. This saw rookie Graham Rahal leading on perfectly planned pit strategy before the “Lucas Lectric’s” got the better of him. Thus handing the lead to rookie Simon Pagenaud before he made a slight bobble into a corner handing the lead back to Doornbos. With a total of seven lead changes.

And if you think the only rookie Open Wheel driver who’s having a phenomenal season is young Lewis Hamilton, think again. Ex Red Bull F1 driver Doornbos scored his fifth podium in six starts while holding off Bourdais to score his maiden Champ Car victory.

And I had to immediately mute the remote as Seb started WHINING! So I was quite happy to hear that the French Canadian crowd started BOOING Bourdais upon hearing his crying ‘bout Doornbos blocking him…

As Jon Beekhuis called him, “Bad Bobby D.” Hit the nail on the head, upon telling Bourdais he’ll be seeing a lot more blocking in Formula 1! So you’d better get used to it Sebastian.

And Paul Tracy had an eventful day, trying to use the Chrome Horn once again. Having to start dead last after wrecking his primary car in the morning’s warm up session. Yet it was not to be as PT hand grenaded his T-Car’s lump.

The Team Aussie duo of Power and Pagenaud recovered quite nicely to finish third and fourth respectively, with Justin Wilson rounding out the top five. Doornbo’s victory sees him tied with Bourdais for the Championship lead. Wouldn’t it be funny if Paul Stoddart’s Team Minardi USA was the team to end the Hamburgular’s title streak?

Robin Miller’s: This Ain’t your Grand Pappy’s Minardi

Champ Car testing

It’s hard to believe that Portland was already two weeks ago. And in-between Portland and this weekend’s race at Cleveland, Champ Car has just completed a two day test at Road America.

And the final day results seem to mirror the season’s standings with once again Sebastian Bourdais on top of the time sheets. Not even competing in the 24 Heurs du Mans could slow down the Hamburgalur… Where Sea Bass finished second overall upon Peugeot’s return to the Circuit de la Sarthe.

With Bourdais running rough shod over the entire Champ Car field, looking to be a “schue-in” for a record forth consecutive title. It seems only natural for “Seb” to pack his bags and make his Formula 1 debut next season. Can anyone beat him? PLEASE!!!

Portland Fast Facts

And I’m still in a fog over the past weekend’s trek to Portland, which was most enjoyable. My FUNK has nothing to do with the inclement weather, but the fact that my favourite Champ Car driver Justin Wilson seemed to have outfoxed himself on race day… Although I suspect the blame lies more with the team than driver?

Although its hard to believe that another year has already slipped by, as this yearly migration southward for the sole remaining Northwest Champ Car race, doesn’t always seem to exude warmer “Climes.” Forgive me for waxing melancholy as Pink Floyd’s “Time” plays in my mental background… (You know that fabled tune about Ten years gone by and you’ve missed the starting gun…)

So, just a quick recap of my weekend outing at PIR. Thursday night I decided to attend my very first Champ Car Fan Forum which featured CCWS President Steve Johnson and the “luminary” PT (Tracy) as the guest speakers.

Then a full three days at the track, arriving bright and early Friday morning to take up my position once again at the end of pit exit from inside the paddock. Still cannot believe that we’re allowed approx. 50’ from the race track. This is my personal favourite vantage point for the opening practice session.

Back across the Bridgestone foot bridge to wander the “Manufacturer’s Midway.” After this brief jaunt I watched the Toyota Atlantics. OOPS! Freudian slip as they’ve now been the Champ Car Atlantics powered by Mazda for two years. Actually I think it’s now Cooper Tires presents the Champ Car Atlantics powered by Mazda… (Try saying that fast five times.)

Then I watched Champ Car provisional qualifying from the exit of turn 12 onto the main straightaway before heading back inside the paddock to get my poster signed at the yearly CCWS autograph session, before calling it a day.

Saturday was an absolutely miserable day as I decided to gut it out and sit in a myriad of rain squalls in my cheesy raingear. As I felt that after the euphoria of the prior day and a half, the drivers deserved my support. Which I was happy to see the amount of fans who braved it out in absolutely horrible conditions. After 5 hours in constant rain, I left for the shelter of my dry hotel room across the freeway adjacent the track.

Sunday, the weather was much more cooperative. Although I intended to arrive at my seat for the second Atlantics race. I ended up arriving so early that I caught the entire Champ Car warm-up session proceeding the Atlantic’s. And they put on an excellent second race, which was followed by the Champ Car driver introductions.

After putting the rain gear back on once again for a passing shower during the Atlantics race, the rain basically stayed away for the remainder of the day, although a fellow fan above us told the couple sitting in front of me. DON’T take that off until about 5:30PM! And I did finally take off the rain coat prior to the green flag being dropped. Which was preceded by an overly annoying fireworks blast. This was followed by a wonderful fly over by a lone vintage P-51 Mustang! And I find that the sound of a Rolls Royce Merlin piston engine has to be one of the sweetest sounds of Aviation!

And I’m still totally baffled over what happened to Justin Wilson who finished second after taking off from pole like a scalded cat. I mean it just DOESN’T add up for Justin to suffer a 32+ second swing, from leading by plus 17 seconds to finishing runner-up by 15 seconds…

More Portland insights to follow, as soon as my overtaxed fingers can pound away on the keyboard. (Now that I’ve managed to be reconnected to the internets!)

Race Report

More from my Portland weekend

Riding the Rails

Having just spent the weekend enjoying Champ Cars circulating around a proper road course at Portland International Raceway. I’ve just completed making my way northwards to Seattle via the Best Damm train in Amtrak’s dilapidated fleet. Well the train is really nice, but even this “Express” runs on Amtrak time… As we’re forced to pull over for freight trains.

I really like riding on the Cascade Express, which utilizes the Talbot high speed train, with a top speed of 79mph. (Governed-by rails) This of course PALES in comparison to the French record setting train, which hit a terminal velocity of 357mph earlier this year.

Prior to leaving, I still was undecided over attempting to get the Hamburgular’s autograph on my poster. (Again?) As his group of four drivers were such JERKS last year and sent me off fuming!

I was happy to see that the Atlantics and Star Mazda ’were once again support races, while the verdict is still out on the new Mazda MX5 event. But I’m NOT too impressed to see that “Formula DUH!” Drifting is back once again… (Talk about being desperate for entertainment!)

Damm I miss the good ‘ole days of SCCA Pro Racing’s Trans Am series. When the Factory Backed competitors put on one HELL of a show. These NASTY looking “Pony Cars” were equally fan favorites with CART as we’d all make our way to the Festival Chicane to await the first corner fista-cuffs! That’s back when Tommy Kendall was kicking everybody’s ASS in his Roush All Sport Body Quencher Mustang. While arch nemesis Dorsey Schroeder and Ron Fellows were always close behind. But I digress…

Now if I was savvy enough I’d be filing this report via my laptop aboard the train, but then I’d need to purchase a laptop and learn how to use the darn thing…

Also in order to pen my thoughts about this weekend’s Circuit Gilles Villeneuve event. I’d have to see who won the Canadian Grand Prix prior to watching it… Which is very taboo for me… But I think the one person I’d NEVER expect to give it away… (My Mother) Has just RUINED the results for me upon briefly checking my emails…

So I’ll just leave you to ponder my thoughts about both Portland and Montreal for a bit longer, while I try to recoup from four days in Oregon as well as catch up on 8 hours of videotape prior to this weeks upcoming events. And although the WRONG driver won the Champ Car race, it was a very good weekend. Albeit a bit too DAMM SOGGY on Saturday…

More from my Portland weekend

Portland Tidbits

Otay, so now it’s really late… (Or REALLY EARLY!) And I haven’t had my 40 cups of Java today, nor do I have a fancy mahogany table. And it’s raining once again, blah-blah-blah…

Just a quick story about this weekend’s Portland Champ Car race. And suffice it to say, I won’t try reinventing the wheel, err writing what’s already been penned.

But I found this story in the Oregonian, as a prelude to the fast approaching Champ Car race pretty entertaining. The interview with Jimmy Vasser was enlightening, since I didn’t know he’d raced Midgets in Portland in the 1970’s. I’ve always been a fan of Vasser, who seemed like a quality act and always willing to help a team mate. After reading Alex Zanardi’s book I was even more impressed! As Zanardi claimed Vasser was more like a brother to him then team mate. And that’s coming from a two time CART Champion.

Its pretty funny hearing Vasser talk about his two young charges, especially Gomendey. Whom Robin Miller nicknamed “Christian Comedy.” Perhaps Miller was onto something as Vasser comments that when Gomendey gets excited he lapses into French over the radio…

Also of interest, was the fact that Champ Car plans to make its very first standing start at Portland this Sunday. Yet as Champ car doesn’t have traction control like Formula 1, it will be interesting to see if anyone stalls on the grid? .

This seems NOT too hard to do as I witnessed some Champ Car driver stall last year while trying to blaze a path out of pit lane during the Friday morning practice. This caused the session to be red flagged while the chagrined pilot had to wait for his pit crew to pull him back and re-fire the “Cossie lump!”

Of course I was not OVERLY HAPPY to hear that Champ Car has put Portland “On The Bubble,” as this is the final year of its current contract. Champ Car want’s Portland to increase its attendance… Here’s a suggestion Champ Car. Why don’t you get a FULL GRID of MORE than 17 cobbled together entries…

PS: Portland International Raceway. DON’T let Champ Car do ANY scheduling of race dates for you! Just ask China how that worked out!

Zhuhai pickle

As those old Bridgestone commercials used to say. “The wheels keep going round.” As the Champ Car World Series (CCWS) plays its proverbial game of positive “Spin.”

This story seems to sum up the current Management mentality of Champ Car “All roses” theory pummeled on by Kevin Kalkhoven, as it appears quite certain that the Zhuhai Champ Car race has been off of the calendar since April 2nd.

Yet, Champ Car made NO mention of this apparent cancellation of its inaugural Chinese race during its first three events, claiming instead that it was simply working upon a new race date, while leaving the race in all printed media.

Last week I caught a brief little story where the Indianapolis Star reported that the Chinese race promoter has filed a lawsuit against CCWS for breech of contract. The promoter is seeking damages over the $1.6 million fee it paid in advance for the May 20th event that was rescheduled to October 28th.

Hey Champ Car, quit monkeying around with what’s left of your dwindling fan base…

Tracy interview

Perhaps you watched the interview on Wind Tunnel last Sunday night? As always I found Paul Tracy to be entertaining and straight talking. With Dave Despain winding up the audience just prior to Tracy’s segment with the Dan ‘N Danica fodder.

It was hilarious hearing Paul Tracy’s comment on the matter as he was a guest on Wind Tunnel. PT quipped “That’s Good Stuff! The verbal exchange was better then me, Bourdais and Tagliani in a Rubber Room…”

If you’re not familiar with PT’s antics of last season, The Canuck earned the nickname of “Sugar Ray” Tracy for fighting with Tagliani at San Jose and scuffling with Bordais while punting him off in the final corner of the final lap at Denver the following race.
Then just days prior to going to Montreal Tracy was quoted saying that he didn’t understand why French drivers ALWAYS fought with their helmets on.

Dave Despain asked PT how he felt about longtime ex-teammate Dario Franchitti winning Indy. Tracy said he hasn’t spoken to him yet, since Dario’s been a little busy doing the “Hat Dance.” But he thought it was great. And he was really impressed by Franchitti’s homage to Tony Kanaan.

Then the scary part. Tracy was complimentary towards his sparring buddy, the Hamburgular. Saying the guy’s won everything there is to over here and that he hopes he gets his shot in Formula 1.

And I was pleased to hear PT put the rumours to bed concerning his potential Busch Series ride at Montreal. As Despain said what’s the deal? Tracy said that Kevin Harvick had called him and initially Tracy thought it would be really cool to race alongside fellow Canadian Ron Fellows. But the more time that went by and sponsor and owner conflicts grew. Tracy came to the conclusion that it wouldn’t happen. Tracy pointed out a little known fact. When he was 15 and purchased his first Formula Ford chassis. He bought the vehicle from a racer having hard times as an Open Wheel racer who’d decided to go “Tim Top” racing instead. The racer was none other than Ron Fellows.

And it was interesting to hear Tracy’s opinions about his latest accident. He was under the impression that because of his position inside the raised nose Panoz DP-01 and positioning of the seatbelts. His body was basically “scrunched” and broke his vertebrae. Tracy noted that both the Lola and Penske were smaller chassis, but Dr. Terry Trammel seemed to think that Tracy has just been lucky all of these years. Getting away with the “Big Ones” that should have also caused serious damage.

So I found it interesting to hear Tracy downplay any design deficiencies towards the brand new Panoz. Although Tracy did admit that they’d changed the seatbelt mounting locations as well as redesigning his seat.

I’d say Champ Car has dodged a bullet…

Champ Car Driver Announcements

Perhaps you’ve already heard the news that Paul Tracy will be back in the saddle at this weekend’s Portland Champ Car race. Yet I’m still pleasantly surprised that Forsythe has decided to keep Oriel Servia as PT’s teammate. Giving Mario “Boom Boom” Dominguez the boot. This was a bold move in spite of the potential Mexican audience loss. Unless forsythe has another trick card up his sleeve? By planning to run Dominguez, David Martinez or both in a three car “one-off” for the upcoming Mexico City race?

And the other driver change is the announcement of Jan “Van Hagar” Heyland’s return to the cockpit for the remainder of the season with Conquest Racing, thus giving Belgium a “home-boy” to root for this year at Zolder…

Champ Car keeping busy

While sadly all of the Champ Car teams declined to participate in this year’s Indianapolis 500. The various teams and drivers have been keeping busy by testing, racing or going on media junkets.

As previously mentioned, drivers Alex Tagliani, (“TAG”) Bruno Junqueira and Ryan Dalzielall kept busy racing over the incredulous six week “Holiday” break. Dalziel actually competed in two races as Milka Duno’s substitute for SAMAX’s Grand Am entry while Duno was busy wowing the crowds at Indy.

After only half of the Champ Car teams took part in a three day test at Portland, Champ Car has been heavily promoting its upcoming events outside of the border (except China) with TAG and Will Power busy “Up North, eh?” Promoting the Mont-Tremblant and Edmonton races,

The “Fab Five” have been busily winging their way thru a non-stop media blitz. With Champ Car drivers Justin Wilson, “Sea Bass,” (Bourdais) Dan “Speedy Dry” Clarke, Robert Doornbos and Simon Pagenaud all jetting off for Europe aboard Kevin Kalkhoven’s Lear Jet. The driver’s made quick stops in London, Amsterdam, Brussels, and Paris in hopes to drum up some support for upcoming Champ Car events.

Prior to Memorial Day weekend, Champ Car held one final test at Circuit Mont-Tremblant. This was Champ Cars first visit to the Canadian race track in 39 years. With 7 teams and 12 drivers taking part. (Almost a full champ car grid) with predictable results as the Hamburgular topped the time sheets on Day 2.

Look for Champ Car to return to action this weekend in Portland, Oregon June 8-10…

GO JUSTIN!!!

He’s Back!

As Derr-Wreck Daily would say. “Hold onto your Holly Hocks!” As I just noticed that Paul “I Can’t Drive 35” Tracy will be on Wind Tunnel with Dave Despain this Sunday. (6PM Pacific)

“PT” is always an entertaining interview and should be in rare form prior to returning to action in Portland next week. Look for “Sugar Ray” Tracy to be fired up as Despain asks him the tough questions,

Dave Despain (DD) Does it still bother you that you LOST the Indy 500 in 2002?
Paul Tracy (PT) Well Dave, I’m still waiting for Helio Castroneves to wire me the check and Tony George to send me the trophy…

DD: what can you tell us about your upcoming drive in the Montreal Busch Series race this August?
PT: I’ll be racing in Montreal with a really-really-really good team, but I can’t tell you who it is yet…

Yet I’m sure that Tracy will give his brash no-nonsense answers, so check it out!

Champ Car “All Roses”

While their counterparts swing into full practice for the upcoming Pole Day competition, the “Hits just keep on Coming,” as everything is fine in Champ Car… (NOT!) Yet the flowery theme of Champ Car refers largely to the six week hiatus the Open Wheel series is taking before its next round at Portland, Oregon on June 10th.

At Houston, The Four Mouseketeers err Musketeers… Messer’s Kalkhoven, Forsythe, Gentilozzi and new round table member Dan Petitt held a 36 minute press conference with selected journalists to answer questions regarding the current state of their series. You see this meeting was in keeping with Champ Cars new timed format and therefore could not be given a certain number of (laps) questions…

And while Kalkhoven repeatedly assured his audience that “Everything’s Fine,” Gentilozzi noted that in the absence of a race he expected all of the teams to use up the majority of their testing mileage over the break.

“I expect almost everybody to participate in the upcoming test days at Portland.” Drivers should use up to 400 miles of their allotted 600 test miles before the Portland event.

(Yet only five teams made the trek to PIR for the three day test, held on May 1-3. Taking part were: Minardi Team USA; Newman/Haas/Lanigan; Pacific Coast Motorsports; PKV; RSport. And while the weather was a bit inclement, once again the Hamburgular was atop the time sheets with his rookie wingman securing second place.)

This extended break also gives the drivers extra time to either heal from their injuries or hopefully find much needed funding to continue their drives.

Perennial series star Paul “I can’t drive 35” Tracy is hopeful of returning at the 100th Anniversary weekend of the Rose Festival, which serves as this year’s G.I. Joes 200 backdrop. With Alex Figge planning to be totally mended by the time the Transporters are parked alongside the Columbia River.

And two drivers will be busy working overtime scrounging for funds to continue their Champ Car careers as both Mario “Boom-Boom” Dominguez and Matt Halliday’s three race deals expired at Houston.

Of course without these two drivers returning, Champ Car will sink to 15 entries, yet Forsythe has a dilemma on his hands with “Super Sub” Oriol Servia’s two race performance as PT’s stand in. (Good thing Servia didn’t sign up as Tracy’s stunt double, eh?)

And the trouble with Servia’s performance is that he clearly outperformed Dominguez who Forsythe and Champ Car desperately need for their Hispanic audience. If I was Forsythe, I’d cut Dominguez loose, and replace him with Servia.

Then the “4 Horsemen” could start up another new operation named Team Chihuahua, err Mexico and run Dominguez and David Martinez in a two car effort. That should make the “Guacamole Heads” more then happy. CI?

And speaking of which, whatever happened to Gentilozzi’s South American backer’s who were going to purchase his operation and re-name it Team Brazil? Wait a second, is it just me or is this beginning to sound a bit like the A1 GP?

Meanwhile three current Champ Car “stars” decided to keep their helmets on and go racing during the holiday break. Alex Tagliani co-drove a Ford Mustang in the Grand Am GT race at Virginia International Raceway. (VIR)

Ironically Ryan Dalziel was named as Milka Duno’s replacement for the SAMAX DP (Daytona Prototype) entry at VIR, as “Y’all” know Duno was busy testing the “spin-dry” cycle at KC.

Bruno “Whiney Bags” Junqueira decided to hop a jet “Across the Pond” in order to compete for Team Brazil at Brands Hatch in the A1 GP season finale. It was Junqueira’s third time of driving for his home country’s entry and perhaps he wanted to “rub elbows” with the Czar of Formula 1…

Leader of the Pack?

Yeah, so it was mostly a way of getting television exposure and came largely due to the different pit strategy that PKV Racing employed. But rookie FrenchmanTristan Gommendy has now led the Long Beach and Houston Champ Car races.

And although I appreciate Robin Miller’s satirical nickname for the young paying driver, labeling the Frenchman as “Christian Comedy” largely due to his unknown abilities, could Robin have to change his tune?

At Long Beach Gommendy led 13 laps before having to pit for fuel, while his countryman the “Hamburglar” was unwilling to attempt passing for the lead, secure in the knowledge that Gommendy needed petrol.

In Houston, once again at the tail end of the race Gommendy found himself leading due to PKV Racing’s alternative pit strategy. At first it appeared that Gommendy would indeed try to stretch his fuel mileage, going the distance and possibly taking the win?

This caused Bourdais to “turn up the wick,” heavily attacking Gommendy for the lead of the race before backing off when it became apparent that Tristan couldn’t go the distance. And shortly thereafter, the camera’s panned onto Gommendy’s stricken Panoz.

The rookie Frenchman’s car had run out of fuel on track, yet it was impressive how Gommendy had once again held off his fastly superior countryman for the lead in only his third Champ Car race. Especially when it was revealed that Tristan wasn’t strong enough to man-handle the Panoz chassis around Laguna Seca during his initial pre-season outing.

In a post race interview, Gommendy claimed that there was 4 gallons of Methanol left in his tank when the car sputtered to a stop. (This still wouldn’t have been enough to complete the race…)

Could “Christian Comedy” get the last laugh?

Lone Star (“J.R.”) Race weekend

And then there were 16… Champ Car entrants that is. Pacific Coast Motorsports Alex Figge decided to withdraw from this weekend’s Houston Champ Car race due to lingering back pains resulting from his crash in Long Beach.

And once again the “Hamburglar” (Sebastian Bourdais) stole the show on Friday by capturing the provisional pole ahead of his main rival opposition. Team Australia’s Will Power, who was just .05+ second adrift of “Sea Bass.”

Third fastest was Bourdais’s rookie teammate Graham Rahal ahead of the two RSPORTS teammates, with Justin Wilson finally regaining his rightful spot as team leader ahead of “TAG.” (Alex Tagliani)

On Saturday Will Power was awarded the pole 3 hours after qualifying, as Bourdais was deemed to have been blocking an opponent. Yet “Sea Bass” sounded like a CRY-BABY when learning about his penalty. Guess all of that time with “Whiney Bags” rubbed off on the Frenchman…

And I’m happy to report that Justin Wilson is finally getting up to pace. I was unaware that he had a brand new engineer this season, along with all of the other changes that have occurred. Wilson wound up in P3 in final qualifying.

And lost in all of the whimpering was the fact that 48 year old Roberto Moreno came out of retirement after 4 years to once again race in Champ Car, substituting for the injured Alex Figge. Unfortunately Moreno’s exuberance to be back racing caused him to loose his fastest lap after staying out on track one too many laps!

I was unaware that the counter clockwise race was run on a parking lot next door to Reliant Stadium. Although diamond grinding was done prior to the event, with up to ¾ inch of concrete being removed in places. The track surface was still quite rough with portions of the bumpy course still being overly “lumpy.”

Sunday’s “Good Timing” award went to Jon Beekhuis. As they went onboard Matt Halliday’s “42 Below” (Gotta get those sponsor names in, right Rick?) Beekhuis said “Oh, he’s got a problem…” And then wall-lah, SMACK into the retaining wall! And Rick Benjamin said, “Now he’s got an even bigger problem!” As it turned out Halliday had been “punted” by Moreno as neither driver wished to lift for the corner…

Yes, that’s right, we’re back to our primary announce crew of Rick “Insert $ponsor names Here” Benjamin alongside perennial Champ Car reporter Jon Beekhuis, who’s a much admired replacement for Derr-Wreck” Daily…

And Mr. Benjamin seemed a tiny bit subdued as he didn’t have the #27 WALLMART du Canada/Tide entry of Andrew Ranger to call out 79 times during the broadcast.

Yet Benjamin had NO trouble picking out and announcing each racer’s sponsor as they briefly passed thru the frame.

And after another aborted start, “Sea Bass” straight-lined the chicane, jumping ahead of pole sitter Will Power. Then Wilson got around Power as Power’s team boss Derrick Walker claimed that he’d been brake checked… by the McDougal’s car. Then Champ Car told bourdais to give up one spot handing the lead over to Wilson…

Interestingly it was pointed out during the race that Robert Doornbos had gone running in the desert in his nomex fire suit 10 miles in order to try preparing for the heat of Houston. Does anybody still not believe that race car drivers are atheletes?

And not that it was a total “snoozer,” as it appeared that several of the competitors were trying out there best “Cole Trickle” impersonations… But it was mentioned several times that 18yr old rookie Graham Rahal was skipping his High School Senior Prom in order to go racing…

And was that embarrassing or what when “Speedy-Dry” Dan Clarke walloped into the rear of Katherine Legge’s stricken chassis during a yellow flag period! This was after Legge had taken out her boss’s primary driver, rookie Neil Jani. And then Kevin Kalkhoven’s mug appeared on the screen saying he was gonna go kill somebody… Yet Jon Beekhuis pointed out how Kalkhoven’s funding Legge’s ride, so he doubts anything’s going to happen.

Unfortunately the Ham burglar’s penalty in final qualifying served only as incentive for the Frenchman to once again wax the entire field, leading his teammate across the finish line for a N/H/L Racing 1-2 with who’s car was that Rick? Oh yeah it’s the Oz Jet Minardi Team USA of Robert Doornbos coming in third.

Race Report

DAMM! Will I be glad when Bourdais departs for Formula 1 next season…

Champ Car rolls on in Long Beach

And I forgot to mention the excellent Easter day birthday gift Derrick Walker received in “Los Wage$” as he notched his first Team victory since Portland, 1999. DAMM! That was a long time ago… And Will Power became the first “Aussie” to win a Champ Car race, so Kudos to Team Australia.

And never fear if you were worried about Rick “Insert $ponsor Here” Benjamin. As I was scribbling furiously during reviewing the tape of Friday morning’s Bahrain GP action, I found ‘ol “Ricky-boy” calling the action for the Hooters Pro Cup race as the VCR sat in pause mode…

Continuing on a high, Will Power seems to be the strongest driver to challenge the might of N/H/L Racing at the moment as he “pipped” Sebastian Bourdais for the provisional pole on Friday. Actually “Sea Bass” was the meat of a Team Aussie Bit-O-Mite” sandwich…

And what the HELL is wrong with Justin Wilson? I mean, c’mon. Getting out qualified by a Dale Coyne entry? Ok, so it was “Whiney-Bags” behind the wheel, but still you’d expect Wilson to be further towards the sharp end of the grid! As it appears that his new teammate “TAG” is getting the better end of their technical partnership, eh?

Of course I have to wonder if Wilson is having his own personal “New Car Blues?” I believe he’s the tallest driver in Champ Car at 6’3” and I wonder if he’s having trouble inserting his lanky frame into the Panoz DP-01 cockpit.

Interestingly on race day they noted how Wilson had stayed late inserting extra foam padding into his “office” the day before. So I just hope that the Panoz designers didn’t make the cockpits too small…

It was also noted that the gearbox manufacturer had brought new software updates for this weekend’s race and that the paddle shifting is getting quicker. Of course it’s not as quick as the seamless shift transmissions in Formula 1. Yet the software changes are the same for all drivers in Champ Car and the drivers have to make the difference on track vs. “unfair” technical advantages.

And speaking about New Car Blues, Champ Car court jester “Sand Dune” Tracy will now be known as “Crash” as he had a “weird” accident during the Saturday warm up session...

Tracy had a “huge” impact with the jersey barriers at 35mph and suffered a compression fracture of a lower back vertebrae. “Crash” will be out of action for 3 months.

This led to Forsythe’s scrambling to find a replacement. Fortunately Oriol Servia was on hand and jumped into PT’s Panoz late Saturday to once again fill in as “Super Sub.” (This title previously belonged to Roberto Moreno before he landed a quality full time CART ride in the late 1990's. Hopefully the same will happen for Servia)

As Robin Miller interviewed Gerry Forsythe about Servia’s “audition” Forsythe answered that if he wins a race he’ll be pretty assured of a drive…

And on the flip side it was wonderful to hear Cristiano da Matta’s voice being interviewed during the beginning of the race. Da Matta definitely sounded like he’s ready to get back into the cockpit, yet still needs doctor’s approval in regards of another potential head injury before being allowed aboard a Panoz…

Friday Qualifying Report

Saturday Qualifying Report

Vegas Crap Shoot

Champ Car finally kicked off its 2007 season on the streets of “Sin City” today.

And I was pleasantly surprised to have the “Peacock’s RASSCAR” crew (minus recently departed Benny Parsons) filling the announce booth alongside Jon Beekhuis. Yeah, that meant I didn’t get to listen to Rick “Insert $sponsor here” Benjamin who must have been busy hunting for chocolate eggs…

Unfortunately the Panoz DP-01 is struggling thru some “New Car Blues,” as all nine Champ Car teams thrashed to make repairs to the fueling system. Apparently Elan Motorsports flew in brand new fuel cells/venting systems for replacement, which took approx. 11 hours to swap out. And several teams had troubles during the actual race with refueling as they simply couldn’t get the race car tank to fill completely. (This had something to do with venting of the tank)

Also the DP-01’s had troubles with gearbox issues, taking Justin Wilson out of the race. And the new onboard starters refused to work on-track. This appears to be a heat related issue. Yet overall the new Panoz looked pretty damm good for its race debut!

And I squealed in delight when they announced that Sebastian Bourdais had made an uncharacteristic mistake in qualifying… “Sea Bass” would be starting 16th… While Will Power took the overall pole away from “homeboy” (Paul Tracy)

I hope it’s not a sign of Champ Car’s future but I found it a bit embarrassing that NBC couldn’t clean-up the pre-race “canned” features as I swear it sounded like a “Cossie” (Cosworth) being warmed up thru half of the Wally Dallenbach Jr. on-track race course segment…

This was followed by a cheesy segment of Jay Leno “playing” for the cameras as the “Big Man” was on hand along with Bon Jovi (Bon who?) for race weekend activities. And what’s up with the movie Red Line being a race sponsor? I’d think they’d wanna be promoting a RASSCAR event instead! (Of course I’m sure the advertisement prices are MUCH HIGHER for Nextel Cup airtime)

And it was funny to hear Bill Webber giving Dallenbach Jr. some “Shtick,” about pronouncing drivers names… As he gave Scotsman Ryan Dalziel a new moniker, calling him Ryan “Diesel.” Or was it “Deezhaul?”

There was also a quick segment on the new seven speed paddle shifting steering wheels costing $10,000 a piece, which is far less than the spaceship steering “instruments” used in Formula 1. As I recall Bob Varsha discussing how the steering wheel that the “Iceman” had flung across the garage went for a cool thirty grand a pop…

And even though I’m not a fan ‘O “Whiney-Bags” (Bruno Junqueira) it was great to see him doing so well for Dale Coyne. The little team “That Could” appears to have a brief chance of actually winning a race…

Then it was time to start the race. Well OK, may be? As previously mentioned, standing starts have been abandoned for now and Champ Car asked the drivers to begin the race in a staggered start. Whatever that means? As I enjoyed Dallenbach Jr’s comments that race car drivers are NEVER gonna hang back on a start.

And what gives with Champ Car events being timed races? I mean this is just plain LAME! I thought this was “top level” racing? So today’s event was a 1 hour 45 minute timed event and they had to wave off the first start as “Sand Dune” Tracy wasn’t in formation.

Then Graham rahal got “squeezed” by “Speedy-Dry” Dan Clarke off into the marbles… Or as David Hobbs would call it, “Clag!” Rahal ended parked against the wall and they couldn’t even get one green flag lap in… After finally getting his car removed several laps later, the camera showed rookie Alex Figge parked sideways on the track as they threw the green flag. Uh, you might wanna throw another yellow before the entire field runs over the stricken Panoz…

For a full race report including who WON, see: Vegas Grand Prix. Overall it was a pretty good event, although Champ Car still needs more entries…

Ranger gives up on Champ Car

With the 2007 Champ Car season set to begin only hours from now, sadly another promising Champ Car driver has thrown in the towel on the possibility of landing a ride for the upcoming season.

Canadian ex-Ice racer Andrew Ranger has given up hopes of returning to Champ Car this season and has signed to compete in CASCAR “Lite,” the newly acquired Canadian racing series now owned by “RASSCAR.”

It also appears that Nelson Philippe, Jan “Van Haggar” Heylen and Oriol Servfia won’t be back this year either, with the drivers still unannounced for Dale Coyne Racing.

I particularly liked Robin Miller’s nickname he stated on last week’s The Speed Report, for the new paying driver at PKV Racing. You know, “Christian Comedy.”

And as Miller snorted towards where would Katherine Legge land at? Most likely Dale Coyne, but HELL! Why make ANY announcements since there’s ONLY six days to go…

Meanwhile the struggling Conquest Racing. Team just confirmed the driver of its single entry only three days before the engines roar to life. “Kiwi” Matt Halliday will pilot the #34 with sponsorship backing from 42 Below. Yet curiously both Halliday’s and Mario Dominguez’s deals are firm for the first three races only.

The worst part about Ranger’s lost ride is who will Rick “Insert $ponsor’s name here” Benjamin talk about now? I mean last year the Benjamin sweepstakes award went to Ranger’s #27 WALLMART du Canada/Tide, as Benjamin would say this at least 7 times per broadcast…

Guess Mr. Benjamin will have to do his FREE shopping somewhere else now? Then again with WALLMART du Canada and Proctor & Gamble set to also sponsor Tagliani, we may get an earful of the #8 car, eh?

Champ Cars Easter Basket getting Fuller

Perhaps Champ Cars co-owner Kevin Kalkhoven will pull a proverbial “Rabbit out of his Hat” and manage to have a “Full” grid “Just-in-Time” for Easter. With just one week to go until Champ Car begins its 2007 season we’re finally hearing some of the Really-Really-Really “Big” announcements Kalkhoven promised us. Of course there’s still plenty of Easter eggs and chocolate Bunnies to find as Champ Car still has NOT conjured up a pathetically weak field of 17 entries for “Los Wage$.” Nevertheless, here are some of the latest announcements…

Minardi confirms drivers
Minardi Team USA has announced their two car driver line-up for the 2007 season just days prior to the Las Vegas season opener.

Not surprisingly Robert Doornbos, who’s been flush with bag loads of Kroners, has been confirmed to one of the team’s seats.

Yet the choice for second driver was a little surprising, as the seat went to “Speedy” Dan Clarke instead of Nelson Philippe.

Meanwhile look for the team’s third driver, Zsolt Baumgartner to be the primary pilot of the two seater F1, Err Champ Car that will appear at several venues this year…

Dominguez returns to Forsythe
Talk about the desperate times in Champ Car… As Forsythe has decided to take the driver it spurned last year as “Sand Dune” Tracy’s teammate.

Mario Dominguez who was fired after punting Tracy off track twice last year was unceremoniously “FIRED” at the beginning of the 2006 season. This led to the ultimate round robin of AJ Almendinger’s move to Forsythe. Cristiano da Matta moving to RuSPORT and Dominguez being sent to Dale Coyne.

Dominguez then moved to the faltering Rocketsports for the remainder of the season and now has once again been given a reprieve at Forsythe…

Interestingly the deal seems to be only firm for the first three races, with major sponsorship coming from Mexico, where Forsythe has several business interests including promoting the Mexico City event…

“R Sports” alliance announced
Although it has previously been mentioned that RuSPORTS and Rocketsports were combining forces for the upcoming season, the alliance has now been formally announced.

The two squads, who’ll only be campaigning single car efforts for the 2007 season, tried a technical partnership arrangement at the final pre-season test at Laguna Seca.

Justin Wilson and Alex Tagliani seemed to work very well together and now appear to be one of the strongest driver pairings for the upcoming season…

Rahal confirmed at N/H/L
Although this has to be one of the worst kept secrets in the Champ Car paddock, Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing has finally confirmed American “hot-schue” Graham Rahal as Sebastian Bourdais teammate…

So with a ground swell to 14 Champ Car drivers confirmed for the upcoming season, who will fill in the remaining seats? Stay Tuned to see if Champ Car can muster up more than 17 competitors, as Kalkhoven’s claims of 22-24 entries seems a “Hair” optimistic…

Philippe and F1?

In another not so promising development for Champ Car, comes report that Nelson Philippe has been spotted perusing the Melbourne paddock in search of some sort of Formula 1 drive.

This is very disturbing since Philippe is definitely one of Champ Cars “rising stars,” yet do to the current lack of funding dollars available for Open Wheel drivers, Philippe is searching for a ride…

Standing Starts postponed for now

Although Champ Car had hoped to debut its new standing start feature at the season opening “Lost Wages” race, after much fumbling during the recent practice the idea has been postponed for the time being.

Seems that of the Champ Car drivers who were present, many were stalling the cars due to troubles modulating the revs prior to mashing the “loud” pedal. Also Champ Car noted that there wasn’t a full grid of drivers participating at Laguna Seca and they don’t want egg on their face at the Vegas Grand Prix due to a reduced entry grid…

Champ Cars (Not So) Really Big Announcements

Wouldn’t it be nice if Champ Car would quit muddying the Open Wheel waters and get on with it? I’m speaking about the “Really-Really-Really Big” announcements towards driver line-ups.

Yet there seems to be speculation about RuSPORT and Rocketsports being committed to running only a single car apiece and “working together” under the guise of a technical partnership. Rocketsports did confirm Alex Tagliani as the driver of its Lexington Energy entry.

And while several veteran drivers were patrolling the paddock with helmet bag in hand, they’re finding the chances of landing a seat to becoming a game of diminishing returns.

Curiously PKV Racing, OOPS forgot Red Bull’s name there… Has just announced its second driver. Tristan Gommendy is another GP2 refugee and was a massive 3 seconds off the pace in his Champ Car debut at Laguna Seca.

With Gommendy’s and Tagliani’s confirmation, there are now a total of 10 confirmed drivers with one month left until Las Vegas. Champ Car eagerly awaits the announcements of Graham Rahal, Katherine Legge, Bruno Junqueira, Robert Doornbos and whomever else can scrape up enough funding to entice team owners to give them a ride.

Meanwhile Newman/Haas racing has apparently gone for a cash transfusion with the addition of new third partner Mike Lanigan and the team has been re-christened Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing.

And speaking of Wiley ‘ol Paul Newman, the actor done good was in typical rare form when queried about NHL’s still unsigned new recruit Graham Rahal. “Shit, I thought the deal was done weeks ago, but Lawyers have to Eat…”

And not so surprisingly, Mazda has stepped into the void left by longtime Champ Car title sponsor Ford, replacing the Dearborn companies Pace Car program with a fleet of its own automobiles. Hmm, doesn’t Ford own a majority stake of Mazda?

Sadly showing the current state of Champ Car was without a doubt Autosport journalist and stand-up comedian David Malsher’s comments during Saturday’s lunchtime break. Malsher quipped: “someone should put Oriol Servia in a car. After all he set the fastest time at Sebring and the $5000 would give him some money to take to a team for a ride this year.” (A $5,000 dollar bounty was offered for anybody breaking the track’s official lap record)


For a further recap of the final Champ Car open test weekend see, David Phillips Friday Test Notes and Saturday’s Test Notes.

Will Champ Car deliver?

As I’ve been spouting off recently about how Champ Car appears to be floundering so far, here’s an excellent commentary about the current state of affairs written by David Phillips. See: Promises to Keep

More Schedule Changes in the works for Champ Car?

According to Champ Cars thorny journalistic nemesis Robin Miller, Champ Car has quietly moved the inaugural Chinese Champ Car race from May to October, as well as moving the Zolder race back one week.

This is being done to apparently not conflict with other major Open Wheel racing series. By moving the Zuhai event, Champ Car teams and drivers will now have the opportunity to spend the whole month of May at the Brickyard.

The other race date change is apparently to give space between the Champ Car event and the following Belgian Grand Prix…

HO Scale Champ Cars

Although the concept itself isn’t new, I cannot recall ever hearing about Champ Car Slot Cars. Of course almost everybody has at one time or another played with slot cars, as I fondly recall playing with the original skinny tire Tyco HO cars myself.
And although today’s hot sellers are the 1/32 variety, Champ Car has just announced a multi-year licensing agreement for the production of HO Scale Champ Cars

Pagenaud gets Speeding Ticket

Although it was all in good fun? Sherriff Joe gave Team Australia’s rookie driver Simon Pagenaud a surprise speeding ticket during the Arizona test day.

The test was to check decibel levels as the track curiously goes directly past the MCSO 9/11 call center. At least Sherriff Joe was content enough to give the race his thumbs up after the two Team Aussie cars circulated around the downtown corridor…

Champ Car invades Phoenix

Although the majority (strange word for the current state of Champ Cars) of Champ Car team haulers are currently trekking west to sunny Monterey, CA, a few of the shiny semi’s will make a brief pit stop in Arizona.

Champ Car and the Phoenix Grand Prix promoters have decided a test is required around the city streets in order to determine decibel levels.

Even better yet is the tough talk of Sherriff Joe. (Who’s a real piece of work) You may recall that the then reigning Nextel Cup champion Curt Busch had a run-in with Sherriff Joe after drinking and driving like a madman the weekend of the 2005 fall event in Arizona.

Busch was subsequently fired from Jack Roush for the remaining two races prior to moving to Penske to replace rusty Wallace in the Miller Light car…

Racing Mounties

Ah, the pomp ‘N circumstance of another press release. Yet this time the noise makers are Up North, eh? This has to do with Champ Car returning to a very old haunt, none other than Circuit Mont-Tremblant after a nearly four decade’s hiatus.

And perhaps Champ Car should be holding this event on Boxing Day instead of Canada Day weekend as ironically Normand Legault is one of the partners promoting the event.

You may recall that Legault is Bernie Ecclestone’s “whipping boy” of the frozen tundra. You see, Legault is the promoter of the Canadian Grand Prix along with the now defunct Molson Indy Champ Car event held on the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

Legault was implicated in the Champ Car lawsuit claiming breech of contract and overdue payments, upon Legault purposely scuttling the Champ Car event in favour of a RASSCAR Busch Series race. Ironically the Mont-Tremblant event replaces Montreal…

This is why I found it so damm hilarious that Champ Car is now in “cahoots” with the turncoat promoter. Interestingly there’s NO mention of Champ Cars acrimonious dealing with the diabolical henchman in their press release.

Yet perhaps that’s why Messer’s Kalkhoven and Forsythe shied away from the Montreal press conference and sent “Bully Boy” (Paul) Gentilozzi as their series spokesman instead...

“Blame Canada!”

Team Australia confirms Pagenaud

Although it had been long speculated that Simon Pagenaud would be joining Team Australia in 2007, the team has finally confirmed this during the second day of testing in Houston…

Pagenaud’s announcement gives Champ Car a grand total of eight confirmed drivers for the upcoming season. With just under two months to go prior to the season opener at Las Vegas, Champ Car needs to get serious and start filling up its grid…

And the icing on the cake for “Team Aussie,” was Will Power (the driver) being the fastest runner on the final day of Houston testing…

aguna Seca turns 50

Laguna Seca, home of the famed Corkscrew (corner) has just announced that the race track will host the final Champ Car/Champ Car Atlantics open test (March 7-10) prior to the season opener at Las Vegas. Laguna Seca Raceway will use this event to showcase the start of its 50th Anniversary…

OOPS! Sorry, but it will always be Laguna Seca to me, NOT Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, since I visited this fantastic race track back in 1994, prior to the owner’s selling out…

Ford QUITS Champ Cars

Although several teams running at Sebring featured Ford’s blue oval logo on the engine cowlings during the start of the Sebring tests, these logos were immediately replaced by Coswort decals after the surprise announcement that the Ford Motor Co. was ending its long standing association with Champ Cars…

After three decades of sponsorship, Ford claims it no longer feels that Champ Cars reflects its marketing strategies with Champ Cars decision to pull the plug on the pace car program in favor of running Paul Stoddart’s fleet of 2 seater Formula 1 chassis...

Champ Cars goes to Europe

Although it had been speculated that Champ Cars would fill the large gap left in its 2007 calendar with a pair of races in Europe, the two events have finally been announced. And while Holland still has its race, the rumored German event has been switched to Belgium

Phoenix gets Title Sponsor

This year’s upcoming inaugural Phoenix Champ Cars race has just announced it’s new title sponsor, with First Data Corp. signing up for 3 years…

As part of a deal previously made in conjunction with the Las Vegas event, First Data Corp. will now add its name to the Phoenix street race with the event renamed The First Data Grand Prix Arizona…

RuSPORT keeps Brit

The RuSPORT team has finally announced that current team leader Justin Wilson will return with title sponsor CDW for 2007…

Although RuSPORT plans to campaign a second car alongside Wilson’s #9 CDW Entries, with Briscoe jumping to the ALMS its unknown who’ll become his partner. Interestingly Mario Dominguez will test the team’s #10 entry at Sebring, yet there’s no confirmation on who’ll be driving in Las Vegas…

PKV gets Bullish

Although it had long been rumoured that PKV would reap some of Red Bull’s millions… PKV has finally confirmed the terribly kept secret of Red Bull becoming the team’s new title sponsor…
Red Bull PkV Racing also announced Champ Car Rookie Neil Jani as the pilot of the team’s #21 entry. Jani spent 2006 as Scuderia Toro rosso’s test driver along with competing in selected A1 GP races for Team Switzerland

Sebring Test Notes

Now that the first open test of 2007 has wound up at Sebring, Here’s a quick recap of the 3 day test which featured the debut of Champ Cars “Car of the Future;’ the Panoz DP-01...

Day 1:
The opening day of testing shed very little light upon team’s final driver line-up’s with the Mi-Jack/Conquest Racing team electing to sit out the seasons first test, while some of the other teams were at half strength or testing un-confirmed drivers…

Jimmy Vasser did make a surprise return to the cockpit for PKV Racing. But don’t get your hopes up, Vasser just wanted a crack at the new Panoz to help with driver development in the upcoming season… (“Yeah that’s the Ticket!” What better excuse for a team owner to come up with who’s itching to drive a Champ Car once again)

Vasser has just completed running in this year’s Rolex 24 along with several other former and current Champ Car standouts…

Having the most fun was Alex Tagliani who has a penchant for NOT liking to do seat fittings… As the Rocketsports team had to mold a fourth seat at Sebring as TAG was unhappy with the first three seats the team had made…

The Champ Car driver roster swell to a full dozen pilots present vs. the just increased total of 7 confirmed drivers for 2007…

Yet nothing seemed too different from the ending of 2006 with Sebastian Bourdais topping the time sheets aboard his Newman/Haas Panoz followed by new Red Bull PKV Racing recruit Neal Jani who was making his Champ Car debut. Jani bested “Sand Dune” Tracy and the other participants…

Day 2:
The second day of testing saw the most Champ Car participants on track for the three days of testing with 17 drivers taking part in the day’s activities…

And while the front of the grid didn’t change much with “Sea Bass” and “Sand Dune” Tracy grabbing the top two spots… The next two drivers caused a slight stir as Dale Coyne’s two “guest” testers locked up P3 & P4 with Katherine Legge leading Bruno Junqueira who’s still searching for a ride…

Day 3:
Stamping his name to not only the top of the day’s time sheet, but the fastest time overall for the three day test was currently unemployed driver Oriol Servia…

Servia whose good friends with Jimmy Vasser was given the nod to take over testing of the team’s second car as Vasser was off to Daytona for the upcoming Rolex 24…

Following Servia was Neil Jani acting as Servia’s “wingman” as PKV Racing grabbed the first two slots on the day’s time sheets, followed closely by “Sand Dune” Tracy…

And don’t you just love the Media? Watching the Speed report their announcers stated that overall there were 14 drivers taking turns behind the wheel, while earlier published results listed 17 drivers including Jimmy Vasser…

Meanwhile the Panoz DP-01’s overall performance was generally good with the exception of numerous teams repeatedly reporting troubles with the new sequential shafting’s downshifts.

Several drivers either complained of the downshifts being too slow, not working at all or of broken gearboxes. As Junqueira noted: “If your car won’t downshift then it really doesn’t matter what your lap time is…”

Hopefully we’ll have a clearer picture of the 2007 Champ Car line-up when the teams show up for he series second open test at Houston’s Motorsports Ranch in February…

Tuesday (Day 1)
1) Sebastian Bourdais (51.024 seconds/117.756 mph) 2) Neal Jani: (51.620) 3) Paul Tracy (51.70)

Wednesday (Day 2)
1) Bourdais (50.888) 2) Tracy 50.960) 3) Katherine Legge (51.060)

Thursday (Day 3)
1) Oriol Servia (50.741) 2) Jani (50.904) 3) Tracy (50.925)


Teams:
(2) Dale Coyne Racing: Bruno Junqueira, Katherine Legge
(1) Forsythe Championship Racing: P. Tracy
(2) Minardi Team USA: Robert Doornbos, Nelson Philippe
(2) Newman/Haas Racing: S. Bourdais, Graham Rahal
(2) Pacific Coast Motorsports: Alex Figge, Ryan Dalziel
(3) Red Bull PKV Racing: N. Jani, Oriol Servia, Jimmy Vasser
(1) Rocketsports Racing: Alex Tagliani
(2) RuSPORT: Justin Wilson, Mario Dominguez
(2) Team Australia: Simon Pagenaud, Will Power

Forsythe’s Red Wings

Perhaps as a parting gift or smoothing the way for AJ Almendinger’s DEFECTION to “RASSCAR,” Red Bull will sponsor Gerry Forsythe’s Champ Cars Atlantic team in 2007…

The news came prior to Forsythe’s vote of no confidence towards Champ Cars by publicly stating that his team will only campaign a single car in 2007 unless he finds a driver bringing sponsorship of $5 million along with him…

Since the Champ Car season finale, Forsythe has reduced his payroll by keeping only a skeleton staff intact over the winter. And even though Red Bull will partner with Forsythe in Atlantics, Forsythe has reduced his entry from four cars to only two for the upcoming season…

As Robin Miller recently stated; what bad timing for Champ Cars… There doesn’t get any bigger backer of the series then Gerry Forsythe who’s thrown millions of his own towards Champ Cars since starting in 1983…

Yet Forsythe has been unable to find a legitimate sponsor for the past three years since Players was forced out when the Tobacco sponsorship ban was enacted. The only money Forsythe found was from Corona beer to sponsor Rodolfo Lavin for a single season…

So is it just the typical “scare tactics” prattle of an owner trying to “stop the bleeding?” Forsythe as all team owners is keen to spend somebody else’s money instead of watching his fortune slip away…

Or could Forsythe simply be trying to stir up some much needed off season controversy to keep Champ Cars in the media spotlight…

And speaking of fortunes… Formula 1’s Red Bull Racing’s current test driver Robert Doornbos is rumoured to be flush with cash, as in $5-10 million from a Dutch sponsor. What better way to promote the expected 2007 inaugural Netherlands Champ Car race, which is expected to be announced shortly…

2006 Champ Car Review (Part 3)

Mi-Jack:
(Ranger: 10th; Zwolsman: 13th)

Mi-Jack/Conquest soldiered on through another mostly mundane season. The team did however win the Benjamin Says Your Sponsors Name sweepstakes…

As apparently WALLMART du Canada must have given him a years free shopping? Mr. Benjamin would call out the #27 WALLMART/Tide entry of Andrew Ranger during every broadcast, on average 7 times per event…

Rookie Charles Zwolsman meanwhile had a fairly quiet year with occasional flashes of brilliance. Yet as the state of Champ Cars remains dollar orientated, I suspect Zwolsman’s ride will most likely go to another newcomer…

PKV:
(Servia: 11th; Legge: 16th)

Can it really already be a year since perennial Champ Car star Jimmy Vasser made his final race in Open Wheels at Long Beach…?

And yet the team’s chemistry continues to shift every season. This year saw Junqueira’s stand-in the previous year at Newman/Haas, Oriol Servia signed to a full year ride as team leader at PKV. Servia had mixed results along with dubiously writing “OFF” two $440k Lola chassis during the Portland weekend…

Meanwhile Champ Car Female Rookie Katherine Legge had a fairly adventurous season… Legge had multiple run-ins with fellow rookie competitors, but also led several laps on the Milwaukee oval. (Which appears to be Champ Cars final oval track race for the foreseeable future…?)

Legge made the most miraculous recovery when her rear wing disintegrated at somewhere between 160-180mph at Road America. This horrific looking accident saw Legge’s car barrel rolling down the track. The rear half of the Lola chassis broke away and passed her. Yet Legge not only escaped uninjured, she walked out of the medical center before the end of the race, smiled and waived to the crowd…

After winning Portland in 2005 with Cristiano da Matta, the team seemed to be off stride the entire season. It will be interesting to see how the team performs this year as another change of team chemistry is expected…


Dale Coyne:
(Heylen: 14th)

Wouldn’t it be nice to see this ever struggling team claim its very first victory? If effort counted the perpetually under funded “little team that could” would have scored multiple victories by now…

The team started the season with Cristiano da Matta and Rookie Jan “Van Haggar” Heylen. Da Matta then jumped ship in a 3-way driver swap which saw fired Forsythe driver Mario Dominguez as his replacement, while Da Matta went to RuSPORT…

Dominguez actually put in some good drives for the ever trying race team. I believe Dominguez was enroute to Coyne’s first podium when Servia dive bombed Dominguez on the final lap taking both drivers out…

“Van Haggar” soldiered on through countless bouts of banging wheels with Legge along with having a few new teammates. Uruguay’s Juan Caceres did a “one-off” before Forsythe Atlantics star Andreas Wirth contested the final two rounds in his maiden Champ Car season. Coyne has always been willing to give any aspiring driver a chance. Of course cash doesn’t hurt either…

And now the teams should be well on their way towards Sebring for the first Champ Car test of 2007. “Let’s get ready to Rumble…”

2006 Champ Car Review (Part 2)

CTE/HVM:
(Philippe: 4th; Clarke: 12th)

The never-say-die attitude of co-owner Keith Wiggins paid off in spades this season as CTE/HVM had another breakout year…

Vastly improving Nelson “Flowing Locks ‘O Hair” Philippe won his very first Champ Car race down under in Surfers Paradise. Philippe became the youngest ever winner of a Champ Car race in just his third season…

Meanwhile Rookie teammate Dan “Speedy” Clarke had a fairly adventurous season before finishing as the Rookie of the Year runner-up…


Team Australia:
(Power: 6th; Tagliani: 8th)

I really DON’T have anything good to say about Alex Tagliani since as time passes by I suspect more and more that it was TAG who WOULDN’T sign my poster at Portland…

Team Australia’s shining light definitely had to be Rookie sensation Will Power…

Power got off to a slightly shaky start before coming on strong during the second half of the season. Power took a hugely popular pole position in his native Australia and led the races firs 17 laps before being punted by Bourdais…

Yet Power scored his first Champ Car podium at Mexico City where he also captured Rookie of the Year honors…


Rocketsports:
(Dominguez: 9th)

To me this was without a doubt the worst performing Champ Car team on the grid. After winning “Rookie of the Year” in 2005 with Timo Glock and his bag loads of DHL’s Deutschmarks… Rocketsports struggled to keep 2 cars on the grid and shuffled multiple drivers through its doors.

Drivers included a “punted about” Mario Dominguez
And 3 Rookie drivers splitting driving duties between two ex-Formula 1 Drivers: Nicky Pastorelli, (Midland F1) Antonio Pizzonia (Williams) and rookie Champ Car driver Tonis (Tony) Kasemets. (Estonia) Interesting the three drivers finished 16th, 17th and 18th respectively…

While Pizzonia and Dominguez put in good showings, it seemed that press spotlight focused more upon the teams sponsors as Rick “Insert Sponsor Here” Benjamin tripped all over himself pointing out new sponsor’s Lexington Energy and PEMEX…

While Dominguez hopes to land a full time seat for the upcoming season, Tagliani sheepishly is also planning a return to the team that booted him in favour of Glock. It will be interesting to see if this indeed becomes their driver line-up in 2007…

To continue reading my Champ Car review see: 2006 Champ Car Review-Part 3

2006 Champ Car Review (Part 1)

With the fast approaching first Champ Car test of 2007 at Sebring this week, here’s a look back at the previous season’s results.

Newman/Haas:
(Bourdais: 1st; Junqueira: 5th)

It’s funny how fast opinions change… When Sebastian Bourdais first joined the Champ Car scene in 2003. You could sense right away “Sea Bass” was something special enroute to taking Rookie of the Year honors.

The following two seasons I found myself gleefully screaming at the TV every time thatBourdais showed Paul Tracy the “chrome horn…” And yet my attitude towards Bourdais quickly soured this season, and NOT because he’s French. First there was the mistaken outing at the Portland driver’s autograph session which was followed by “Sea Bass” whining on the podium ‘cause the other drivers didn’t pull over for him…

The final Bourdais “straw;” Along with his whininess I am NOT impressed by his driving techniques… a la “MAC” Montoya. I was really pissed off when he dive bombed Justin Wilson on the final lap in Mexico City…

Yet “Sea Bass” did manage to do something very special in Champ Cars by becoming only the second driver ever to win 3 consecutive Driver’s titles…

Bruno “Whiny Bags” Junqueira (“Junky”) has never been a favourite ‘O mine, since his rookie season with Target/Ganassi… And I know it’s cruel to hammer the guy after his horrific accident at Indianapolis, but “Junky” seems to have just never been able to beat his teammate… Junqueira had a disappointing year finishing 5th in a watered down championship after finishing runner-up three years in a row…

As you can tell I’m not a huge fan of Newman/Haas’s driving line-up, but you have to admire this team for consistently being the team to beat. And how can you not like co-owner Paul Newman’s forthright outspokenness on NEVER wanting to join the “Dark Side.” (IRL)

I look forward to Newman/Haas’s newest recruit Graham Rahal’s arrival in 2007…


RuSPORT:
(Wilson: 2nd)

This is my sentimental choice, considering my favourite Champ Car driver Justin Wilson races for them…

What a roller coaster season the team experienced. And I still do NOT understand the firing of AJ Almendinger… Since I believe that there were some high level shenanigans involved in order to spice up the show. (Unless Carl Russo knew of his impending DEFECTION to “RASSCAR?”)

Then there was the nasty testing accident at Road America where new recruit Cristiano da Matta nearly lost his life when colliding head on with a wayward deer… Fortunately da Matta has almost recovered entirely and is vowing to make a race return shortly…

Then Justin Wilson broke his wrist prior to the season finale the old fashion way, i.e.; driving his race car! In typical “True (Grit) Brit fashion, Wilson was determined to drive the finale after missing Surfers Paradise and led the race for the duration before “Sea Bass” PUNTED him out of the way. Nevertheless Wilson’s gritty drive vaulted him into the runner-up position in the Driver’s championship...

The team’s future looked bleak upon RuSPORT founder Carl Russo’s decision to quit Champ Cars. Fortunately Kevin Kalkhoven was able to entice PKV team co-owner Dan Petitt to step into the fray and purchase Russo’s team…


Forsythe:
(Almendinger: 3rd; Tracy: 7th)

Without a doubt, Forsythe was the most High Profile team of the year. After Mario Dominguez punted team leader Paul Tracy two races in a row, Dominguez became the “fall guy” in a 3 team driver swap…

AJ Almendinger’s Champ Car career went from “Rags to Riches” upon being hired by Forsythe. Almendinger scored his very first Champ Car victory at Portland. This victory opened the floodgates as Almendinger scored a hat trick of victories and finished the season with 5 total wins. Unfortunately the bag loads of money personal sponsor Red Bull offered was too much for the young Open Wheel star to resist. Almendinger DEFECTED to “RASSCAR” and was let go prior to the season finale at Mexico City. This led to Almendinger slipping to third overall in the driver’s standings…

What more can you say about “PT,” eh? Paul Tracy was definitely Champ Cars “Entertainer of the Year…” And what’s really funny is that he was clearly the fan favorite as I stood for nearly an hour in the paddock for the driver’s autograph session at Portland. The line for Tracy was by far the longest and this was prior to his San Jose, Denver and Montreal theatrics…

By now you’ve heard of how “PT” became known as “Sugar Ray” Tracy… After pulling off an extremely STUPID maneuver by blindly pulling out on track directly in front of the oncoming Alex Tagliani… “TAG” went ballistic in the paddock when confronting Tracy… As the camera’s rolled TAG exclaimed “What the FUCK! Were you doing?” And I sat there laughing heartily as CBS wasn’t “bleeping” TAG cussing out Tracy on-air… After saying the “F” word at least 7 times TAG ‘N Tracy got into a fight as the cameras showed them rolling around on the pit lane before CBS cut to commercials…

Next at Denver, “Sugar Ray” Tracy dutifully punted Bourdais out of 2nd place on the final lap at the final corner where “Sea Bass” quickly ran across the track to confront PT. Bourdais like TAG kept his helmet on and simply slapped Tracy before walking off in disgust…

Then just days prior to the next race in Montreal, “Sugar Ray” Tracy publicly stated how the French were AFRAID to fight with their helmets off… This of course grew instant attention as the predominantly French crowd voistriously booed PT every time he appeared on track. Yet Tracy quickly turned the tables by making fun of himself and scored major “points’ when taking the drivers parade lap donned in cape and blue fighting mask…

Then PT garnered another new nickname, “Sand Dune” Tracy after flipping his Rhino ATV in the Nevada desert prior to the season finale…

Interestingly Tracy finished 7th in the final standings, splitting the Team Australia drivers and finishing just one place ahead of arch nemesis Tagliani. This was due to PT being docked 10 points for his on-course shenanigans. I’d love to know how much the point demotion has cost him…

With both of Forsythe’s regular driving duo out of action for Mexico City, the squad drafted IRL refugee Buddy Rice and Mexican newcomer David Martinez. Martinez did an excellent job in his Champ Car debut, finishing ahead of fellow Champ Car debutant Rice…

To continue reading my Champ Car review see: 2006 Champ Car Review-Part 2

More about the Panoz DP-01

Now that the existing Champ Car teams have all picked up their first Panoz DP-01’s and are set to shortly debut them at Sebring. (Jan. 23-25) Gordon Kirby has revealed more about the new cars design process…

Although I was aware of the new cars major changes, i.e.; Front nose wing; Paddle shift gear selector; Removal of the ubiquitous “Pop-off” valve and new Anti-stall technology. I wasn’t aware that the new car will feature Aluminum wheels vs. traditional Magnesium…

The new Panoz also will cost significantly less then a current Lola chassis. The DP-01 goes for a cool $220,000 which is approx. half the cost of the recently retired Lola B2K chassis…

With the completion of the firs 10 customer chassis, Panoz will continue production in batches of 5 cars until reaching the planned for 35 car allotment for 2007…

Champ Car sends Devoted Fan Fuming

While this years Champ Car World Series saw improved racing along with several bouts of “wrasslin” there were also moments of despair. How to NOT influence loyal fans reared its ugly head inside the Portland paddock…

Portland; Friday, June 16th:
It sprinkles on the way to track… This year I’ve finally decided to “Go For It!” by purchasing a paddock pass to ensure early entrance into the infield. I’ve brought my Molson Indy poster along for the autograph session at the end of the day. (Having made a custom carrying tube for my poster & encasing in plastic to protect from the elements…)

Crossing the pedestrian bridge approx. halfway through the Atlantic’s practice session, I noticed a Champ Car driver appear in a blue driving suit to sign a kid’s program. Not knowing who it was, I later decided it,

Must have been Paul “krackman” Tracy since he had bright blonde hair…?
Meandering my way towards the very end of the pit lane exit, I noticed what appeared to be a huge silent blob approaching me… “What the Hell?” It turned out to be the Forsythe pit crew pushing one of the blue & white Indeck Lola’s to the grid…

Next I scooted out of the way as the Dale Coyne pit crew pirouetted the #19 on a jack to back it into its paddock stall. A third car passed by as the teams moved to grid their cars along pit lane…

When I’d first entered the paddock I noticed that the 27 Atlantic’s sounded like an angry pack ‘O bee’s buzzing the circuit. It was such a surreal moment when Portland International Raceway went absolutely silent during the brief break between warm-up sessions. The silence was only broken by the sound of the air guns bbrrap- bbrrap- bbrrap as they bolted on fresh rubber just prior to going green…

With military precision the engines came to life exactly as the Champ Car practice session begain, the car on the very end of pit lane nearest the exit selected first gear, squealed his tire’s and rocketed onto track… Six more cars joined the fracus as they made deliberate downshifts into the chicane during their exploratory laps on the still slightly damp circuit…

As the circulating cars are now at full song along the front straight. I watch and listen to the various pitches of these cruise missiles stumbling down pit lane on their restrictive pit lane speed limiters. “Wog-Wog-Wog-Wog-Wog” as it takes what seems an eternity before lurching to full throttle after crossing the exit stripe…

Others nearer pit lane exit simply mash the “go-pedal” on the floor, screaming “RRRRRRRRRRRbbbbbrrrrrrrrr” at maximum RPM’s utilizing the speed limiter as a form of traction control to quickly heat the cold “Flinstones.” (Bridgestone Potenza tires) It’s amazing to hear these beasts upshift 3 gears before entering the Festival curves which are only a few hundred yards away!

During a lull in the on-track action I walked along the pit lane checking for better vantage points. Hey that dude looked just like Robin Miller climbing over the pit lane barrier…

After all the cars had made preliminary runs they circulated back into the pits and began bolting on new tires…

While attempting to quickly rejoin the action the lead car stalls at the pit lane exit! The track goes silent as this causes a red flag period. In the silence the mechanic’s begrudgingly go out and push the stricken car back to its pit box. Then as the session goes green, the embarrassed driver uses maximum engine revolutions ensuring a massive burn out to launch him onto the track…

“I love the smell of Methanol in the Morning!” Actually it was the fragrances of burnt rubber during several heat cycles being applied to the tortured “Flinstones…” along with some funky smelling petrol that wafted past me from the end of pit lane…

Following practice I walked around the entire paddock again, listening to various people muse about the “Salad days ‘O CART.” I did have to agree that the paddock was definitely more crowded during the 1990’s era of factory engine wars. (Chevrolet, Ford, Honda, Mercedes-Benz and Toyota)

Walking towards the pedestrian bridge I heard the sound of a snarling auto approaching. I followed the car, watching its driver reverse into his parking stall. It turned out to be a silver Factory Five Type 65 Daytona coupe replica. I was amazed to notice how small this chassis seemed to me, since the real Daytona coupes I’d seen at Sonoma 11yr’s earlier had seemed much larger…

Following my unfruitful efforts of trying to view the various Champ Cars being worked on underneath their team awnings (which car is that?) I went over to my grandstand seat to watch Atlantic qualifying. A brief rain squall passed through basically wiping out any chance of the Atlantic drivers posting any fast laps.

Then I watched champ car qualifying from the far southwest end of the track, just past the motor home parking after the Festival curves. The session was briefly red flagged when Oriel Servia crashed into the barrier exiting the back straight. Servia would destroy 2 cars in the same spot during Friday & Saturday qualifying…

During the days proceedings I found it intriguing to notice the differences of engine tones between the various race classes. The Formula Ford’s sounded like aggravating mosquitoes, the Atlantic’s like bee’s and then the siren song of REAL racing engines as the turbocharged V-8 champ cars go blazing by!

Just prior to the end of qualifying I went back across the pedestrian bridge to the infield to stand in line for the upcoming champ car driver’s autograph session. Arriving at 3:05PM a long line was already forming. Standing with my white cane the people in line were very friendly, telling me which line was each foursome of drivers. Stating I’d never done this before and was hoping to get all the driver’s to sign my poster, the couple in front of me explained how to accomplish this, telling me how to work from longest line to shortest…

I had a great time “kibitzing” with the other fans in line. We chatted ‘bout F1, the Michelin tire debacle, CHUMP CARZS, etc. When Marco Andretti’s name came up-a diehard CART fan retorted: “Sounds like you need an intervention!” (Interesting to know there's still a loyal champ car base, eh?)
“That race is OK,” (Indy 500) grumbled the man who’d wanted to give us an intervention. I’m sure I didn’t score any points by saying that I just want the two series to merge since they both have a PATHETIC lack of entrants…

Then we “jeered” the drivers as they arrived on their scooter’s… I made a wisecrack ‘bout “Sand Dune” Tracy using the “chrome horn” to get to the front of the line…

It pains me to admit that “Sugar Ray” Tracy was by far the most popular driver of the fans as we stood in the longest line waiting for him…

Katherine Legge is definitely doing a good “Danica,” since the women want to meet her. At least that was all the woman in front of me could talk about…

The first group (Tracy, Legge, Justin Wilson & Graham Rahal) all signed my poster and I quickly walked to the end of the next line. (Sebastian Bourdais, Bruno Junqueira, Alex Tagliani & Nelson Philippe) While the couple I’d been standing in line chatted-up the drivers I stood there waiting to move forward to the table, since they were blocking my way…

Whoever the driver was? (Unfortunately all the drivers were wearing identical green champ car polo’s with the STUPID Champ Car logo…) He just stared at me. I asked him to please sign my poster, (twice!) but he just kept staring at me as the couple in front of me continued “kibitzing” with the other drivers…

Then he stood up, holding a card in his hand without ever saying anything… Still trying to move forward to have my poster signed a lady came over and told me to keep moving, you’re holding the line up! SHEISA! (Should have whacked her with my WHITE CANE!!!)

Dumbfounded I simply took the card the nameless driver was brandishing in front of me. (Since I was UNABLE to recognize their faces…) This in turn led to the other three drivers’s doing the same thing. (BUTT I DID NOT WANT THE F##KING “MicDoogle’s” CARD!)

(Since the WHOLE purpose of going to the Autograph session was to have ALL of the drivers SIGN my Molson Indy Vancouver, BC poster! Which several of this year’s drivers NEVER competed in…)

I blew through the third & fourth lines, which were much friendlier! The entire driver’s signed my poster and two of the driver’s in the shortest line actually spoke to me! Amazingly I managed to get all 16 drivers autographs in just less than 1 hour…

I spent the rest of the weekend cursing Bourdais for being an ASSHOLE! Since I’d originally thought he was the culprit who wouldn’t sign my poster, I was thrilled when he didn’t win his 5th consecutive race… (He did whine during the podium interview)

Upon returning home I wrote a letter to champ car describing this experience, since they haven’t replied to my previous emails… Unfortunately Champ Cars has also been too LAME to answer my letter…

As I think back the jerk who wouldn’t sign my poster wasn’t wearing glasses and was either Bruno or TAG? I suspect it was most likely Alex Tagliani… (GOOD RIDDENCE if the rumours are true ‘bout TAG going to the CRAP-Man trucks next year!) And if it was “Junky” (Bruno Junqueira) then GOOD RIDDENCE to him also… As I will hope that Graham Rahal is soon announced as his REPLACEMENT!!! (And let “Sea Bass” go off to Formula 1 and get his ASS KICKED in a Scuderia Toro Rosso…)


Regardless of whom it was I think they should have had a little more savvy, eh?

Santa Stops in Indy

T’was almost the night before Christmas and there were only hours to go… The traffic in, out and around the shopping malls was horrific, the grocery stores were flaying away while trying to keep up with grumpy shoppers demands and everybody was in a hurry to get somewhere…

Not sure if I’ve been naughty or nice this year and I definitely haven’t made a list for Santa to check twice… I’m pretty sure that I won’t get the Ferrari F430 I ask for every year, but I do know that Santa’s been extra busy preparing for his upcoming ‘round the world jaunt…

On Wednesday, Santa’s elves’ dropped off the first 10 production Panoz DP-01’s at Champ Cars Indianapolis headquarters. There members of the 10 teams committed to competing in the 2007 season gathered to pick up there shiny new “toys…”

The teams proceeded to collect their unpainted chassis, load them into awaiting transporters and haul them back to there workshops “just-in-time” to return home before Christmas…

The teams will be given a brief respite to enjoy the holidays,
have some eggnog and see what else Santa brings them before going back to work. The teams will immediately strip down their new “steeds” in order to prepare them for the upcoming seasons first test…

Champ Cars first official test session for the teams and their shiny new DP-01’s is January 23-25, 2007 at Sebring…

Forsythe Finishes Testing

The Forsythe team concluded its winter testing last week also at Houston’s MSR race track. Forsythe rand three more potential drivers as it seeks to find a partner for Paul Tracy in 2007. Taking part in the test was the reigning Champ Car Atlantics Champion Simon Pagenaud who’s flush with his $2 million winner’s check. Former Indy Pro Series driver Jay Howard and Adam Carroll who previously tested for RuSPORT…

Digging Road America

Road America is set to begin work on a major facility improvement. Road America will demolish the Bill Mitchell paddock bridge and replace it with a new underground tunnel. The tunnel will feature two vehicle lanes with separate pedestrian walkways…

New Champ Car Rules for 2007

Champ Cars has made a host of rule changes for the upcoming season. The two biggest changes are the implementation of standing starts where possible and allowing unlimited use of tires issued for the race weekend…

Mi-Jack tests Simpson

The Mi-Jack/Conquest Racing team continued its evaluations of
Potential “paying” drivers for the upcoming season. Not to be confused with Homer or Bart Simpson, Mi-Jack tested S. African racer Stephen Simpson last week at Houston’s MSR race track…
Interestingly S. Africa is expected to broadcast all Champ Car World Series events next year for the very first time…

Vegas gets Title Sponsor

The Las Vegas Grand Prix has announced the events new title sponsor. VISA has signed a multi-year deal to sponsor the new Champ Car event around the streets of “Old Vegas.” The event will now be known as: Vegas Grand Prix Fueled by Visa. Interestingly the deal is for multiple venues with Los Vegas being a benefactor of Arizona businessmen who are intent on invigorating Phoenix’s entertainment value with the addition of a Street race around Phoenix’s downtown as the Champ Cars season finale in 2007. It will be interesting to return to the streets of Phoenix, once the home of the Iceberg Grand Prix. (F1 USGP: 1989-91)

Stoddart purchases CTE/HVM

Former Minardi F1 owner Paul Stoddart has bought a majority share holding of the CTE/HVM Champ Car team. It was announced today that the team will be renamed Minardi Team USA, with driver line-up and sponsors TBA. Stoddart will run a multi-car team next season, so look for Nelson Philippe, ”Speedy” Dan Clarke and Jos Verstappen behind the wheel…

Stoddart who was a very small “minnow” in the Formula 1 world eventually sold the Minardi team to Red Bull after 5 years of being a F1 Team Boss. Apparently Stoddart missed the smell of methanol in the morning too much and decided to try his hand at Champ Cars where he can possibly become a “Big Fish.” (In a much smaller pond)

It will be interesting to see if Stoddart’s fleet of F1 two seaters comes across the pond with him…

Champ Car Testing

Not wishing to be left out in the cold, three Champ Car teams tested in Texas over the past week. Participants included: Forsythe, Mi-Jack and newcomers Pacific Coast Motorsports…

PCM Completes First Test
The Pacific Coast Motorsports team has just concluded its very first Champ Car test. PCM hired Rocketsports to provide current Champ Car machinery (Lola chassis) for the team’s two drivers Ryan Dalziel and Alex Figge to sample the brute horsepower of these Open Wheel beasts…

Mi-Jack’s French Mustard
The Mi-Jack/Conquest Champ Car team ran two cars for aspiring French racing drivers Alex Premat and Guillaume Moreau, Team Owner Eric Bachelart stated he’d been looking forward to seeing how both drivers would perform during their Champ Cars debut.
Premat finished third in this year’s GP2 series along with a “one-off” outing as Spyker F1 Racing’s third driver in China. Premat also helped France win last season’s A1 GP Championship. While Premat was fastest in testing Moreau, an ex-Euro F3 regular was a second behind…

Forsythe tests Young Guns
The Forsythe team ran a few “Young Guns” over the three day test in Houston. Taking part in Forsythe’s “Gong Show” were Richard Philippe, Andreas Wirth and Lawson Aschenbach.
The 16 year old Philippe who competes in Atlantics is the younger brother of recent Champ Car winner Nelson Philippe…

Wirth, who raced as part of Forsythe’s 4 car Atlantics team in 2006 made his Champ Car debut in Australia for Dale Coyne Racing, Wirth then competed in Champ Cars Mexico City finale with Coyne...
Aschenbach is the reigning SPEED GT champion…

Champ Car visits China

Roberto Moreno continued his ambassadorial role by driving Champ Cars “Car of the Future” in China last week. Moreno has been test driving and performing demonstration laps aboard the Panoz DP-01 at selected venues…
Moreno became the very first Champ Car driver to drive in China when making his demonstration run at the Zhuhai International race circuit. The Champ Cars entourage used the event as a media “junket” to hype the upcoming inaugural China race in May, 2007 in front of the Chinese media. The Zhuhai event appears to be a more viable event after Champ Cars three failed attempts to race in Korea…

Fast Facts

Verstappen to Champ Cars?

According to Jos Verstappen’s website; Verstappen expects to be competing in Champ Cars next season. Although no team has been named, speculation centers upon Jos “The Boss” Verstappen racing with former Minardi team boss Paul Stoddart who will become a stakeholder in CTE/HVM next season. In typical Verstappen fashion; Jus says although no contract has been signed: “What, Me Worry? Champ Cars doesn’t kick off until next April!”

Da Matta Vows Return

Cristiano da Matta whose back home in Brazil continues his remarkable recovery. Da Matta now plans hopefully to return to racing. Although his doctor asked that Da Matta promise not to consider returning to racing during his recovery, Da Matta says that he’ll probably break his promise. Da Matta plans to drive a go kart shortly. Hopefully he’ll fair better than Jenson “Crash” Button or “Sand Dune” Tracy did in their off’ road adventures…

Champ cars Next Star?

Although nothing official has been announced, Graham Rahal expects to race in Champ Cars in 2007. Rahal has previously tested for Newman/Naas Racing at Sebring and hopes to join the team shortly. It’s unknown if Rahal joins Newman/Haas whether he’ll campaign a third car or replace Bruno Junqueira? Rahal has recently announced dropping his A1 GP plans in order to focus upon a Champ Car drive in 2007. If Rahal joins Champ Cars, he would increase the number of American driver participation to three? Currently Alex Figge of Pacific Coast Motorsports is the only confirmed driver, with Rahal and Buddy Rice awaiting confirmation. Rice is hoping to secure the second Forsythe seat alongside “Sand Dune” Tracy…

RuSPORT Sold

The RuSPORT Champ Car team has been sold! The semi-floundering team was sold to Dan Pettit. Pettit is the “P” in PKV Racing along with Champ Car co-owner Kevin Kalkhoven and former Champ Car driver Jimmy Vasser…
Apparently Carl Russo suddenly wanted out of Champ Cars after the roller coaster season he’d experienced in 2006 after firing AJ Almendinger and Cristano da Matta’s devastating testing accident…
Interestingly Russo seems to have been “coerced” to sell his team to Pettit to keep it “In the Family.” Pettit made his fortunes in the ‘90’s alongside Kalkhoven... I’m sure that the prospects of loosing RuSPORT would have been a bitter pill for Kalkhoven to swallow, since he enjoys publicly stating that Champ Cars future is “All Roses…”
RuSPORT, one of Champ Cars premiere teams will remain in Colorado and retain Jeremy Dale as team president. Dale said that RuSPORT will have two cars on the grid in 2007. Dale say’s his top priority is to retain the team’s number one driver Justin Wilson. With Gerald Forsythe already stating that he’d not been able to cement a deal with Wilson and RuSPORT sponsor CDW wishing to continue its current sponsorship arrangements, it seems merely a formality towards retaining Wilson’s services for next season. Dale is also hopeful of keeping new recruit Ryan Briscoe, who’s wanted by Team Australia…
It’s unknown how Pettit’s purchase of RuSPORT will affect his current team ownership of PKV, which I suspect will keep it’s current name since KV Racing sounds a bit “dorky!”

New Champ Car

Although Champ Car unveiled its chassis of the future earlier this summer, during the San Jose race weekend. More details are becoming known about the completely new 2007 Panoz DP-01.
Most noticeable change is the DP-01’s redesigned front nose wing, a la Formula 1. Underneath the lightened chassis’s skin is the same Ford Cosworth XFE 2.65 liter turbocharged V-8…
New for 2007 the DP-01 chassis features an on-board starter with anti-stall technology along with a new 7-speed paddle shift gearbox. According to Champ Car “guru” Derrick Daly, drivers will be able to make lightning fast gear changes. Upshifts will occur in 24 milli-seconds; Downshifts in 27 milli-seconds. Current F1 gearshifts occur in 3 milli-seconds…
(Milli-seconds = 1/100 second)

Champ Cars New TV Package

Rick Daly here, (NOT to be confused with Rick “SMARTWALL” Benjamin…) this just came across my desk. Breaking News… ESPN to broadcast Champ Cars in 2007!
Apparently Santa Claus has left Captain Kirk a present after all…
Although how will we know who the sponsor of former Ice Racing Champion Andrew Ranger’s #27 is, eh7? Perhaps this will feature the return of ESPN’s talented broadcasters Paul Page and Gary Gerald currently languishing in the world ‘O Top Fuel… (NHRA) Of course I certainly hope this will NOT affect perennial pit reporter Jon Beekhuis…

The following comments were penned by Captain Kirk:
we can't have open-wheel unification, at least we can have a common broadcast partner. Once you get past that, the channel is outstanding in a lot of ways. Now, American open-wheel racing is at a place where fans can find it. Speed Channel [the previous broadcast sponsor] has become so NASCAR-centric that we were just a speed bump in their day."

Halleluiah! Does this mean no more Rick Benjamin or Derek Daly?

Champ Car Notes

Stoddart Signs Up

Keith Wiggins confirmed in Mexico City that Paul Stoddart will be joining the CTE/HVM organization as a co-owner next season. Stoddart hopes to run a four car effort with a three car entry definite. Wiggins would like to retain his current driver line-up, while Stoddart hopes to introduce one of his ex-Minardi drivers into the fray…

Wilson Wanted

Justin Wilson’s stellar performance of pole position and second place at Mexico City mirrored the 2006 Champ Car driver standings as Wilson finished runner-up behind Sebastian Bourdais…

Wilson’s showing of true grit in Mexico City has also made him Champ Cars “Most Wanted.” Wilson is a free agent for ’07 and is definitely a hot commodity. Speculation is that Gerald Forsythe is his top suitor with ex-Minardi boss Paul Stoddart as a dark horse…

Down Under Duo?

While SPEED’S Cameron Steele interviewed Will Power about capturing his first career podium and Rookie of the Year honors, Steele put Team Australia co-owner Derrick Walker on the spot about Team Australia’s 2007 driver line-up. Walker said: “Yeah I guess we’ll have to ask Will back.” Yet Walker remained mum about the team’s second driver…
Rumours abound that Team Australia will become an all Aussie affair next season with Ryan Briscoe possibly joining the team. This leaves Alex Tagliani as the odd man out. TAG’s options are currently unknown with possible drives available at Dale Coyne or Rocketsports…
A return to Rocketsports seems remote as I assume TAG still has harsh feelings over being dumped by Paul Gentilozzi after making a “handshake” deal to remain a Rocketsports driver for 2005. Gentilozzi took Timo Glock’s DHL millions instead. Glock who won Rookie of the Year honors in 2005 left Champ Cars this year and now hopes to become BMW-Sauber’s test driver…

Wither RuSPORT?

There are many rumours swirling about over the future of the Report team with reports that team owner Carl Russo wishes to leave motorsports in favor of business interests abroad…
This has led to speculation regarding the team’s future, although team president Jeremy Dale assures us that RuSPORT will be in Champ Car next season. Dale is in discussions with anybody with a large enough checkbook willing to donate a small fortune…

While the ownership of RuSPORT fluxates… So does the team’s current drivers line-up. Although it was assumed that Wilson had packed his bags for Forsythe Racing, Gerald Forsythe has recently stated that it appears unlikely that Wilson will partner “Sand Dune” Tracy next year…

Ryan Briscoe who’s also in demand after his two race stint as Cristiano da Matta’s substitute at RuSPORT is also uncertain of whom his employer will be for the upcoming season. With interest from several teams for both drivers services, both drivers are suddenly in demand... While Dale says that RuSPORT’s future is looking good is also adamant about hanging onto his current driver line-up for 2007…

Thumbscrews

Not to be confused with “Thumbscrews at Dawn.” Or twenty paces with sidearm’s… Champ Cars lone female driver Katherine Legge had surgery to her thumb after the Mexico City race. Legge had two screws inserted into her right thumb to hasten her recovery from injuries sustained in Mexico…

Mexico City Finale

Once again the Rick Daly show was bemusing as always… Kind of like the Good, Bad & Ugly… I was amazed how much actual on-track coverage was given between commercial breaks. And even better yet, was the onboard footage of Justin Wilson and the announcers going silent to listen to Justin’s throttle applications in the wet!
This was the final race for the stall hart Lola chassis and the ubiquitous “pop-off” valve. The current Lola chassis has soldiered on for 7 seasons with the pop-off valve in exsistance since 1979. Next year Champ Cars will have a fresh look with the racing debut of the Panoz DP-01. This chassis features Formula 1 paddle shifting and front wing. The pop-off valve will be replaced by electronic controls amongst other powertrain improvements…
At each race venue the Ford/Cosworth’s “Power to Push” ratings are manipulated per Champ Cars requirements. For Mexico City’s high altitude event the “Cosie’s” wee slightly “de-tuned.” During the majority of the season Champ Car has utilized a base output of 750bhp with 60 seconds of “turbo-boost” for a peak power output of 800bhp.
According to Derrick Daly; this weekend the XFE V-8’s base power was regulated to 680bhp with an additional 60bhp of power to push for 180 seconds. Daly noted the extra 60bhp equated to an extra 300 revs, with top speeds of 200+ mph along the long front straight…
Team Australia’s Will Power won Rookie of the Year while claiming his first career podium. Power’s competition “Speedy” Dan Clarke DNF’ed with a broken differential.
Buddy Rice piloted the ex-AJ Almendinger #7 with rookie David Martinez making his Champ Car debut aboard “Sand Dune” Tracy’s #3. Rice spent the entire weekend trying to get used to the unique characteristics of the Lola Ford/Cosworth. Rice mentioned how the turbo lag took a little time to get used to. Yet, Rice’s major problem for the weekend was trying to adjust to the brakes. Apparently Rice was never able to come to grips with how hard and deep you needed to stand on the discs compared to the IRL chassis he’s used to…
The GOOD:
Pit reporters Jon Beekhuis & Cameron Steele. Justin Wilson capturing pole position with a broken right wrist. Justin utilized a custom carbon fiber brace to enable him to drive the entire weekend…
The BAD:
Rick “SMARTWALL” Benjamin just couldn’t refrain himself, having to once again promote Andrew Ranger’s sponsor Wallmart SEVEN times…
The UGLY!
Sebastian Bourdais brazen kamikaze overtaking maneuver of Justin Wilson for the lead… With Justin obviously suffering fatigure from his broken wrist, “Sea Bass” hounded Justin relentlessly during the final 6 laps. Then on the final lap Sebastian “dive bombed” Justin into a corner using Justin as a pool table cushion to take the lead… And contrary to what Ed Hilton (Co-host of Wind Tunnel) said about that being a legitimate move. Sebastian admitted that he used Justin’s car as a side-rail saying he knew he could bounce off of Justin’s sidepod with minimal damaged to his suspension!

Viva La Mexico

RuSPORT
Justin Wilson will travel to Mexico City with RuSPORT, where Justin plans to compete this weekend broken wrist and all…
As The World of Forsythe Turns
Forsythe’s “Big Adventure” continues… First Mario Dominguez fired, and then AJ Almenginer jumped to "RASSCAR."At least there’s always Mr. Reliable to fall back on, eh? Ywet nearly a fortnight ago, Paul Tracy decided to “Have a Few too many Drinks before Jumping Sand Dunes with a Golf Cart,” claimed England’s Autosport… “Sugar Ray” Tracy suffered a broken right scapula (shoulder blade) in the mishap. Recently Tracy phoned in to Wind Tunnel to give Dave Despain the “real skinny.”
In typical P.T. fashion; Tracy explained that yes, he’d had a few beers that afternoon while watching “MAC” Montoya slap the wall in the Busch Series race. But, NO he certainly was NOT drunk when he later took his Yamaha Rhino ATV out into the desert. I don’t even own a golf cart… Unfortunately I was jumping the Rhino and “It landed on Me…”
I was hoping to use the “I Slipped while Playing Tennis” excuse, but that was already taken. (Can you say Juan Pablo Montoya; McLaren, 2005) Or I was going to try using the “I Fell Down some Stairs when I slipped while carrying some Bags,” but that excuse has also been used already…
Although Tracy had promised to make Mexico City come “Hell or High water,” Tracy has since been forced to skip Champ Cars season finale. Thus Tracy will miss just his third race in 15 years due to injury…
Forsythe’s New Driver Line-up
Forsyther Racing had originally planned on running a third entry for the season finale. Following Tracy’s sand dune jumping “hi-jinx,” Forsythe will revert back to its normal two car operation…
Making his Champ Car debut alongside recently recruited ex-IRL driver Buddy Rice will be David Martinez. Martinez is a graduate of Champ Car Atlantics with vast single-seater experience including the A1 GP series…
Rice who was the Toyota Atlantics Champion in 2000 and won the 2004 Indy 500 will now step into the role of team leader taking over Tracy’s mount with rookie “wingman” Martinez running Almendinger’s chassis…

Spin ‘N Win?

Did you see AJ Almendinger’s big spin? On Saturday while “channel surfing,” I ran across the Craftsman Trucks race on SPEED. I happened to tune in just-in-time to see Almendinger get the air taken off his rear and cause a really, really big WRECK…

Meanwhile in another twist of fate, apparent former IRL driver Buddy Rice will occupy Almendinger’s vacated seat at Forsythe Racing for the Champ Car season finale in Mexico City, Mexico. (Nov. 12) Rice is hopeful that a good showing could lead to a full time position with Forsythe in 2007…
Almendinger is practically assured of finishing second overall behind three time series Champion Sebastian Bourdais. With Justin Wilson most likely not racing due to his broken wrist, Almendinger’s finishing position seams secure since Wilson currently lies third overall. The closest battle in the Champ Car points race is for fourth place overall between ex-Forsythe driver Mario Dominguez and “Sugar Ray” (Paul) Tracy. Will RuSPORT substitute a driver for Wilson in Mexico?

Cubic Dollars

On Tuesday, Red Bull announced that AJ Almendinger will pilot its #84 Toyota Camary in NASCAR’s Nextel Cup series for 2007. Although Champ Car co-owner Gerald Forsythe had offered the 24 year old American driver a multi-year contract extension, Almendinger could not resist Red Bull’s “Big Money” offer to jump ship. Almendinger has finished 13th and 5th in two NASCAR Craftsman Truck races with Bill Davis Racing in recent weeks. Almendinger will partner Brian Vickers at Team Red Bull, making his Nextel Cup debut at Atlanta this weekend…
Although Almendinger has revitalized his Open Wheel career by winning 5 Champ Car races this season at Forsythe, Almendinger accepted Team Red bull’s offer because it gave him MORE guaranteed money. Almendinger will also contest the Texas Nextel Cup race on November 5th before becoming a full time NASCAR driver next year…

“MAC” Montoya continues his steady progress towards his 2007 Nextel Cup debut at Daytona. Montoya’s ARCA short track debut didn’t fair quite as well as his initial ARCA series debut. While leading the race Montoya made a “rookie” mistake. Claiming he didn’t understand his spotter’s comments, Montoya moved “up-high” Veering into the direct path of eventual race winner Stephen Wallace. (Rusty Wallace’s son) Montoya’s ARCA stock car scorecard reads 1-1 with a Third place finish and DNF to his credit. Look for “MAC” to make his Busch Series debut at Memphis this weekend…

Italian Open Wheel veteran “Mad Max” (Maxamilo) Papis will also make his Busch Series oval debut at Texas on November 4th…

Surf’s Up (Australia Race Notes)

Qualifying
Think that Champ Cars visit to Australia is all “Fun ‘N Games?”
Just ask Champ Car driver Justin Wilson about his trip “Down Under.” Wilson suffered a broken wrist bone during Friday’s provisional qualifying session.
Lying third in the championship, Wilson suffered the injury upon spinning and striking a tire barrier. Wilson’s Champ Car season appears to be over for the remainder of the year as RuSPORT’s 2006 season continues to falter…
While home town “hero” Will Power (Team Australia) “wowed” the natives with his sweep of pole position both Friday and Saturday. (Power’s initial Champ Car career pole) Sebastian Bourdais was having troubles of his own. During the final qualifying session, Bourdais clouted the wall demolishing his primary chassis. Ripping the left half of the Lola chassis to shreds, damage to the monocoque tub was sufficient enough to cause Newman/Haas to switch to his back-up chassis for race day…

”The Rick Daly Show”
In another classic case of “Penny Pinching” SPEED sent only Jon Beekhuis to Australia, letting Derrick Daly and Rick Benjamin call the action stateside… Yet once again Rick Benjamin belabored his favourite series sponsor WALLMART. Benjamin ONLY managed to point out Andrew Ranger’s #27 WALLMART Lola seven times before Derrick Daly had to join-in, commenting that it was actually WALLMART ‘O Canada sponsorship… Then Benjamin got in one final “plug” for a grand total of mentioning Ranger’s sponsor 8 times. How much is Wallmart PAYING Benjamin, eh?

Uncharacteristically, Derrick Daly called his “hero” (Sugar Ray) Paul Tracy an IDIOT… The quip was in regards to Tracy spearing race leader Power upon exiting pit lane. Daly also agreed with Derrick Walker that Bourdais’s overtaking attempt was “Boneheaded!”

Race Action
While the race start was aborted in favor of a single file restart, fireworks soon erupted when the leader’s made their first pit-stop under caution. On lap 16 AJ Almendinger ripped his refueling hose off its fuel rig while exiting his pit-Box. The broken fuel hose sprayed methanol in his pit stall causing a brief pit fire to erupt… Returning to pit lane to remove the torn fuel hose Almendinger stalled before leaving the pits. Then on lap 19 Almendinger hit the wall due to gearbox difficulties.
Almendinger’s retirement secured Bourdais’s third consecutive Champ Car Driver’s Title. Bourdais became only the second driver in Champ Car’s 97 year history to accomplish the feat, joining Ted Horn’s achievement 58 years ago. (1946-48)

Meanwhile “Sugar Ray” Tracy was busy digging through his bag ‘O tricks, ramming Power’s side pod while exiting pit lane. The contact only caused minimal damage and the two drivers continued on…
Unfortunately while running third overall, Bourdais tried a “bonsai” out breaking maneuver, hitting Power and bending potential race winner Power’s suspension. (Lap 28) Bourdais was assessed a “drive-thru” penalty and finished 8th overall, while Power soldiered on to salvage a 12th place finish.

The furious in-fighting allowed Nelson Philippe to quietly work his way towards the front, where he held off the hard charging Mario Dominguez, scoring his debut Champ Car victory… The win was also CTE/HVM’s maiden team victory.
Ironically, Dominguez finished ahead of his ex-Forsythe teammate Tracy, whom was the meat in a “Canadian Bacon” sandwich. Tracy was forced to relinquish third place to Alex Tagliani for shortcutting a chicane. Andrew “Insert $ponsor’s name Here” Ranger brought up the rear of the Canadian trio, finishing 5th overall…

Rocketsports Racing had it’s best showing of the season with Dominguez’s 2nd place finish and teammate Antonio Pizzonia briefly leading in the newly re-liveried Lexington Energy Lola Ford/Cosworth. Unfortunately Rocketsports apparently “bungled” Pizzonia’s pit stop strategy by mistakeningly leaving “Jungle Boy” on track during the races final caution period…


Notes
According to Derrick Daly, spectator attendance was 211,000 through Saturday’s qualifying, EXCLUDING Sunday attendance figures…Sunday’s race day attendance was reported at 101,00+, giving an estimated total attendance figure of 312,00+…

In only his third Champ Car season, 20 year old Nelson Philippe became Champ Car World Series youngest race winner. Philippe also became Surfer’s Paradises 16th different winner in 16 years. Ex-CART (Rookie of the Year) “Kiwi” Scott Dixon previously held the honors, winning at age 21. Dixon surpassed youngest race winner. honors held jointly by the late Greg Moore and Al Unser, Jr.

Driving “Down Under”

As previously mentioned, Andreas Wirth will drive for Dale Coyne Racing “Down Under,” this weekend. Wirth won the Formula BMW (USA) Championship in 2004. Wirth made his Toyota Atlantics debut in 2005, finishing 6th overall. Driving one of Forsythe‘s four car Atlantic contingent in 2006, Wirth won the opening two rounds of the Champ Car Atlantic series. Wirth netted 6 podiums and finished 3rd overall behind 2006 Atlantic Champion Simon Pagenaud and runner-up Graham Rahal.

Pagenaud won 2 million dollars for clinching the title and the “mega” payout is an incentive to enable fledgling drivers the opportunity to move up to Champ Cars. Rahal recently tested a Newman/Haas Lola at Sebring. Look for both drivers to graduate to Champ Cars in 2007.

Meanwhile RuSPORT has confirmed Ryan Briscoe as Cristiano da Matta’s substitute for the season‘s remaining two races. The “Aussie” has driven previously for Chip Ganassi’s IRL team along with being a Toyota F1 test driver.

Rocketsports Racing has confirmed Antonio Pizzonia for this weekend’s event. Pizzonia will pilot the team’s second Lola chassis in the season‘s remaining two races in a bid to land a permanent full time ride in 2007. Pizzonia is an ex-Williams F1 test driver with Grand Prix race experience…

The Rocketsports announcement ensures a “full” Champ Car grid of 18 cars for the final two races. Champ Car has fielded as few as 16 or 17 cars earlier this season…

Buying a Country

Talk about bullying your way into a new market Up North, eh? First Montreal’s promoter voted Champ Cars off his Island. (The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on the IL Notre Dam) Then he announced a new “Twin-bill” NASCAR Busch Series/Grand Am race as its replacement…

Now that Jack Roush didn’t hire Jacques Villeneuve for the vacated Mark Martin 2007 Nextel Cup seat, speculation is that Roush is close to possibly signing Villeneuve to run in Busch. Roush campaigns a 5 car team in Busch and will possibly run Villeneuve in a limited number of events next season. Obviously the Montreal Busch Series race will be one of them as NASCAR will use Villeneuve as a crowd darling for the inaugural event…

Champ Car Driver Roulette

Rocketsports Racing has confirmed Antonio Pizzonia for the upcoming Surfer’s paradise, Australia event. The team’s second car driver for the season finale in Mexico City is still TBA.
Meanwhile RuSPORT has confirmed Ryan Briscoe as Cristiano da Matta’s substitute for the remaining two season races.

New Champ Car events for 2007

Champ Car World Series has announced its 2007 schedule, vastly revamped from the nearly concluded 2006 season. . The 2007 calendar includes a total of four newly confirmed events with two more possible late European additions. The 4 new venues are: Los Vegas, Nevada: (April 8) Zhuhai, China: (May 20) St. Jovite, Canada; (July 1) Phoenix, Arizona (Dec. 2).
Strikingly there will be no oval races held as Champ Car focuses solely on temporary street circuits and permanent road courses for the very first time in its history. Also many traditional venues race dates have been reassigned.

The 2007 schedule kicks off with three “state-side” races in April, beginning the season on the streets of Las Vegas, followed by Long Beach and Houston. The series then takes a month off before heading to china. The schedule does allow teams to compete at Indianapolis if they so desire with China’s inaugural Champ car event preceeding Indy’s Memorial Day weekend race…

Then back to the States for Portland and Cleveland before a three race swing “north of the border.” (Canada) Portland moves up one week from its traditional Father’s Day date to be combined with the 100th running of the Rose Festival. (The final year of Portland’s 3yr contract) Moving north, Montreal which has been purposely “mismanaged” by its Canadian promoter has been dropped in favour of a NASCAR Busch Series/Grand am race. Montreal will be replaced by St. Jovite which hosted Champ Cars during 1967-68, followed by traditional stops at Toronto and Edmonton. Then back home to San Jose, followed by Road America moving back to its traditional date followed by Denver.

The schedule currently has no September races, which most likely will be filled with two European events in Holland and Germany. Rumoured venues are the road circuits of Assen in Holland and Oschersleben in Germany. Assen is known primarily for it’s motorcycle racing, but has just undergone a $100m upgrade to include car racing. Speculated dates are: September 23 and September 30.

Champ Cars then moves “down under” to Surfer’s Paradise, Australia, before swinging “south of the border” to Mexico City, Mexico. The season ends for the first time in 4 years in America with the finale being held on the downtown streets of Phoenix, Arizona.
Dropped from the calendar is the Korean race which all 3 race attempts failed. Also gone are Monterey, Mexico and the Champ Car “signature” oval, the famed Milwaukee mile which will now host the IRL a week after the Indy 500.

All Quiet in Champ Car

After an extremely eventful race at Road America, the series takes a one-month sabbatical before contesting round 13 in Surfer’s Paradise, Australia. Look for Sebastian Bourdais to most likely collect his third consecutive Vanderbuilt Cup “Down Under.” The historic accomplishment would tie the only other driver in Champ Car history to win 3 titles in a row: Ted Horn,
58 years ago. (1946-47-48) A.J. Almendinger will most likely finish second in the championship with Justin Wilson collecting third…

Road America Journal

Da Matta flies home
While the Champ Cars returned to Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin after a one year hiatus this weekend, the best news of all was that Cristano da Matta has finally left the hospital and flew home aboard a private Gulfstream jet to Miami. Da Matta had been in a medically induced coma for one month after striking a wayward deer that cleared an 8’ fence topped with barbed wire during the Champ Car test on Aug. 3rd. Da Matta was shown on TV walking down a hospital corridor, chatting with Jimmy Vassser, playing guitar solo along with a duet with his brother before giving today’s command for “Drivers to Start their Engines.” Da Matta will soon return to bicycling along with returning home to Brazil and hopefully will make a full recovery after completing his rehabilitation in Miami…

“Speedy-dry”
Rookie “Speedy” Dan Clarke used a gambling tire strategy during Friday’s provisional qualifying session to claim his very first Champ Car pole position, also the team’s first pole since 2004 and first pole under the CTE/HVM banner. Clarke switched from rain tires to slicks in the latter moments of qualifying to emerge a fastest on a slow drying track. Rookie Charles Zwolsman employed a similar tactic to claim 2nd place on Friday. During Saturday’s final qualifying session, the rain continued with Sebastian Bourdais grabbing quickest time in the rain to grab 1 point and line up 2nd behind Clarke for Sunday’s race…

Driver roulette
Making his Champ Car debut for the revolving door driver shuffle at Dale Coyne Racing was Juan Caceres, 22 years old from Uruguay. Caceres, previously competed in European F3000, a step below the FIA’s GP2 category.
Rocketsports continues its driver shuffle with Tony Kasemets back behind the wheel of the #18. Mario Dominguez will pilot the #8 for the remainder of the season with new PEMEX (Petroleum Mexico) sponsorship livery.

”The Rick Daly Show”
Although I know they’re just doing the job they’re being paid for… Unfortunately I’m not a huge fan of Derrick Daly whose gift of the ‘ole Blarney-Stone seems to make him think he’s “Juan” ‘O America’s premiere motorsports analysts. I simply prefer the intelligent insights of pit reporter Jon Beekhuis…
Meanwhile Rick “Insert $ponsor’s name Here” Benjamin seems infatuated upon Andrew Ranger’s new “WALL$MART” le Canada sponsorship. See if you can count how many times he mentions this during the Road America coverage...

Surprisingly “Dudley D” (Derrick Daly) was fairly restrained during Sunday’s broadcast. The only time he seemed to get into a lather was when he began gushing over his main man “Sugar Ray” (Paul) Tracy… He did however make an entertaining comment about Justin Wilson’s drink bottle being located inside the helmet as he circled the drink hose with the telestrator…

Bridgestone presented a special Red Alternate tire autographed by all the drivers to Cristano da Mata’s doctor…

In his never-ending quest to insert sponsor’s names, Rick Benjamin did his usual bang-up job. His favourite sponsor plug “WALL$MART” outscored CDW 5-4…


Legge’s “NOT so Excellent" Adventure
“Dudley D’s” best one-liner of the weekend was: “Katherine’s Corner, Katherine’s Kink,” which fortunately he was able to joke about after Katherine Legge’s savage crash after an apparent rear wing flap failure. Legge became a passenger in the 180mph corner, loosing rear end downforce, slamming into the concrete wall backwards. Her car went airborne before being collected by the catch fencing. The car exploded into multiple pieces, the engine and transmission shearing clean off! Then the carbon fibre monococque tub barrel rolled several times on the racetrack… Amazingly Legge emerged from the emergency care center on her own two legs and gave a brief interview to Jon Beekhuis…
Showing an unbelievable coolness, bravado and tenacity, Legge quipped: “You’ve got to have a screw loose to be a racecar driver!” Legge said that she was ready to jump back into the car immediately. It was quite the interview as Legge kidded that she’d had her eyes closed through much of the incident… Her worst fear was potential fire, but when she saw the engine pass by, she felt relieved, SHEISA!
This in part led too much kidding in the announce booth about having Legge autograph leftover pieces of the car since Legge was part of a special CARA auction this weekend. Legge sported a special “one-off” pink paint scheme, pink driver’s suit & pink helmet as part of “Warrior’s in Pink.” The auction is to raise funds for breast cancer… Legge’s driving suit & helmet are to be sold in an on-line auction. Even Bridgestone got in on the action by producing pink “alternate” sidewall tires for the occasion…