Montreal Thursday

My dad is thinking of coming to the race this weekend, though he said he wouldn’t be able to attend until Sunday. They live in Ottawa which is approximately an hour and a half outside Montreal. He’s been to the race the last 4 years and isn’t particularly impressed with it. The reason being that he’s used to a Toronto event where everything is close and within walking distance and not 7 miles from each other like they are in Montreal. Remember, Montreal is made for formula One, where you sit in your grandstand seat and shut up and watch the race. For a series as open to the fans as the Champ Car World Series, it is difficult to convey in Montreal. Still, the fans come out and walk the miles it takes to get to the paddock from their seats and back. My dad isn’t as young as he used to be and the walking and the difficulty in getting to and from the track displease him. Nonetheless, he’s a race fan and can appreciate a good race when he sees one. My point is that I told my dad that if he IS coming, to make sure that he is sitting in his seat at 11am on Sunday to watch the Atlantic race, because it promises to be the most exciting race of the weekend. I know I have preached the Atlantics in the past, but I sometimes feel I don’t give them their proper props on this blog. I know I focus predominantly on the Champ Car World Series, just like a baseball blog would focus on the Majors and not necessarily the minors. It’s also difficult for the casual fan to be able to appreciate these kids, given that the races are on tape delay and naturally they don’t command the same attention as the big boys. But this season, more then any other I have seen in my life, this crop of Atlantic drivers is spectacular and with two races left, the finish promises to be as dramatic as anything. Everybody by now knows about Graham Rahal. The kid is phenomenal. He’s won 4 times this season and has 5 podiums. The kid is evidently getting a Newman/Haas test fairly soon and I suspect we may even see him drive in Mexico City, on his way to a full time ride next season. The attention is and should be on him given his name and record. But he’s not leading the championship, amazingly enough. But he’s only 16 points back from the leader, a young man named Simon Pagenaud. Simon Pagenaud came into the series this season an unknown. We don’t need to beat around the bush, nobody knew much about the kid. Sure, he finished runner up in the European World Series by Renault last season, but that accolade is on par with 90 percent of the other rookies this year in terms of where they came from. And let’s face it, Team Australia fielding two Atlantic drivers with one of them being Australian, who did we suspect the team would revolve around? He wasn’t even the most recognizable Frenchman in the series, as that honor went to Richard Philippe, for two reasons 1) being the younger brother of Nelson and 2) being the Formula BMW USA Champion in 2005. Yet with only 2 races left, ten rounds later, Pagenaud is the driver everybody is chasing and James Davison is being replaced this weekend in the number 5 car for Team Australia. Pagenaud is quietly confident, methodical and cerebral. He has all the qualities of his countryman Sebastian Bourdais. He’s very mature and two weeks ago in Denver was very happy to be on the podium despite the fact that the guy who won the race gained some points on him. It’s going to be dynamite watching these two drive this weekend and frankly, it’s anybody’s guess as to who leave for Road America with the points lead. Andreas Wirth is the only other driver mathematically in it and having won the first two races of the season, maybe he can close out the 2006 campaign by winning the last two races of the year, getting himself a championship and 2 million dollars towards a champ car ride in 2007. Whatever the outcome, I just hope my dad makes it in time for the standing start at 11am. He won’t regret it!