Saturday night in San Jose. Another gorgeous day/night. Anybody know of any property I can buy here? Anybody know of any money I can get to buy said property?

So, the stage is set for the race and boy is it going to be a dozy. But first, a little about the unveiling…they say the chassis can be purchased at some 250 grand. I would bet it’s what they paid for the whole gala. What a night, with opera singers and Harleys and those two dancers who did all sorts of weird things to each other’s body. Naturally every driver was there. In fact the best part was when they let the drivers go near the car and they were like kids in a candy store. They were genuinely excited. If you read Eric Mauk’s press release of what the owners had to say, everybody seemed very very excited about the DP01. Well, everybody but Carl Haas that is. At least his comments indicated it. They were polite, but obviously quite short. Anyway, the car is a beauty, and it looks like the series is certainly headed in the right direction, especially with Gelles racing announcing their intentions to participate in the 2007 season.

The thing I liked about the new chassis was the fact that it appears to be the safest tub in all of racing. It’s the one element that I naturally hate about the sport, but I also understand it’s the reality of the game. If this panoz is recognized as the safest tub in motor sports, then I truly believe that is the greatest accomplishment of the new chassis. Not to mention that it looks amazing. I had seen the pictures and I knew it was sharp looking, but I could never imagine liking it this much. It will be by far the best looking racecar in the world, there is no doubt in my mind and once we start seeing the team’s paint schemes, its going to be even cooler.

Now, 1 problem I have with it: paddle shift. I’m sorry, but to me this isn’t what American open-wheel racing is all about. When Derek Daly was giving us the rundown of the car last night, he kept referring to Formula One with just about every comparison. The nose, the tub, the paddle shift. I was fine with everything else, but frankly, its one thing that irks me about F1. I want it to be difficult to drive a Champ Car. I want the best drivers in the world to battle it out. I don’t want it to become easy to drive. But hey, the decision was made, we’ll see how it goes and it’ll be interesting to see how the veterans adapt to it. It’s a pretty dramatic change.

All in all though, the car looks spectacular and should provide some incredible racing. It’s cool to see Panoz tackle an open-wheel car considering all their sportscar history. Now maybe they will let us race at Road Atlanta?

Okay, back to Sunday’s race. Hmmm, well, we have Bourdais who has been incredibly fast. You have Tracy who was fast on Friday and so-so today. AJ was fast on Friday but didn’t like the reds today. Da Matta finally gets a good start. But it’s going to be all about the hairpin baby! And while I think the top 6 might escape without incident, it’s the other guys I’m worried about. Will Dan Clarke bonsai a bunch of cars off the start? He’s been known to try. What about Tags? And Jwil? Tags has been quick this weekend and will be looking to climb the ladder. Justin hasn’t been quick, but he knows AJ and Seabass are 1-3 while he’s starting 12th. What about Nelson? He’s been quick all weekend too and finds himself back in 11th? Will he be overzealous? It’s very difficult to hazard any kinds of predictions because I think the hairpin is going to be the toughest corner to get by all season long. Consider that they are coming down the longest straight-away of the season into a hairpin two abreast!

Poor Raphael Matos. Yes, he did capture the pole position, his third of the season and 2nd consecutive. But following last week’s disaster, now he faces even more pressure. Everybody, including himself, knows what happened last week. This is a perfect way to redeem himself…or a perfect way to choke while everybody is watching. HUGE pressure tomorrow. Most notably if he keeps the lead as the laps wind down. It’s a 45 lap shootout, how will Matos face the pressure of leading the race with 10 laps to go? Will he be able to erase the demons from Edmonton? I guess first and foremost, he’ll have to be leading at that point. Rahal, Wirth and oh, 10 other drivers will have something to say about that!