Well, I guess the IRL figured out that street courses can produce exciting racing and bring in good crowds. Hmm…who’se been doing that since its inception? Oh right, we have!! They have figured out that our formula works and now are dead set on re-creating it. Good luck. What’s that saying…often imitated, never duplicated?

Props go to the guy who flew the banner “bring back Champ Cars” during the race. Funny stuff. Oh, and a Honda sponsored event that finished with four Hondas at the top??? Remember what I wrote earlier about Honda?

Alright, enough about those guys. Champ Car is in Long Beach this weekend and it’s gearing up to be a great event. I picked Tracy to repeat, cause nobody knows those streets better than him. But, my darkhorse pick will be Justin Wilson, of RuSport. Last year, in his first ever Champ Car race at Long Beach, he managed to put the car in 6th place. Considering that he kept stalling the car on Friday, that’s pretty darn good. I think with Rusport, he’s going to excel this year. He’s going to see his F1 buddies as well as his F3000 buddies and will want to prove to them that he’s the MAN!

Da Matta could surprise, but it’s going to be a challenge for him. Simply because he’s used to a Toyota powered car and using his tiny weight to his advantage. No more. The cars must be a certain minimum weight, including the driver who gets weighed at the beginning of the season.

I was reading the rule book last night and noticed that a driver gets weighed at the beginning of the season, and could POTENTIALLY get weighed again throughout the season, but not necessarily. So, if I was a driver (and this is probably why I’m not) I would put on a hundred pounds going into Long Beach. Sacrifice Long Beach with an overweight car, then drop 100 pounds before Monterey. They have 5 weeks inbetween races. Surely an Atkins diet can shed 100 pounds in 5 weeks? Maybe Champ Car officials would notice the weight loss and weigh you again. But maybe not. Advantage GAGNON!!

Alright, I gots some packing to do, I gots some notes to take and documents to read before this glorious event that is about to be upon us. I will try and write something over the weekend, but I can’t make any promises. If anything, I’ll write something down on Saturday. Once the starting grid is set, then we can talk about it.

Enjoy the race and remember:

Champ Car Baby! Champ Car for life!