the end is near

Well, the season comes to a close on Sunday and without a doubt, it’s been the most bizarre season the Champ Car series has seen in many years. A season filled with twists, switches, drama, fights, comedy, you name it, it happened in 2006. And to think, this was supposed to be our throw away year, a pass-through season before the introduction of the Panoz in 2007. Even the title race this year got somewhat interesting after the three-way swap took place. While it wasn’t the most exciting Championship race ever, the Champ Car series nonetheless made more headlines than in any of the year’s past. It might have been for the ‘wrong’ reasons that we showed up on Sportscenter, in SI or on PTI. But does that really matter? Heck no! We showed up and that’s what counts. Better to be in the news than out of it. Better to be talked about, then to be ignored. All in all, 2006 has been one of the best champ car seasons ever, on and off the track. There are a couple of reasons why it can be classified as that:

1) The Lola and the astuteness of the engineers. We talk about the Drivers being some of the best in the world, but we tend to forget about the players behind the scenes. We talk of ‘paid-drivers’ who may not have earned their stripes yet, but there is no such thing as a paid-engineer. These guys are the best in the business and combine that with the wealth of knowledge of the Lola developed by years of usage, and you have situations like Cleveland, where a qualifying track record held by Jimmy Vasser back in 1998 when the HP was practically unlimited is broken in 2006. This shouldn’t even be possible, but it happened in 2006. The crews are some of the best in the business and they definitely showed it off this season. It’ll be a lot of fun watching them start from scratch next year.

2) The rookies. Along with the usual veteran talented Champ Car drivers, this year’s rookie crop has been the best in the last 6 years in my opinion. Naturally Katherine garnered most the attention, but a young, brash Brit and a methodical Aussie stole the show and as of this writing, the ROY award is still undetermined. Both have been brilliant at times and knuckleheaded at others. They are following the path of great drivers. To go with these two, you can’t forget Charles Swolzman, who after initial struggles, put a very impressive string of top ten results and even battled the best on a couple of occasion. Consistency wins championship and Charles is building his resume. I don’t want to leave out Jan Heylen because I firmly believe that he’s a quality driver who did the best he could in that car. Sure, there were times when he drove like a rookie, but in all in, he did a good job and one needs simply to look at Cleveland to see where his potential lies. The rookie crop has been top notched this season and you can expect it to be the same next year with the likes of Rahal and Pagenaud. Gone are the days of the Marshalls and the Lemarie.

3) Paul Tracy. Yes, the man had a below average year on the track. The man made some boneheaded moves at times and in a lot of ways resorted back to his younger days. It seemed that the mature, patient Paul Tracy of 2003 was gone and in came the kid. Paul Tracy didn’t win a race (yet) and didn’t come close to the Championship title, yet was easily the most talked about and entertaining driver we have seen since, well a mid-90’s Paul Tracy. While Paul Tracy has always been a staunch supporter of the Champ Car Series and he, with Jimmy Vasser became ambassadors for the series while most jumped to the IRL, and have been outspoken about their love of the series, he made more headline this year than any other years before that. His actions in Montreal alone are worthy of him being a member of the Champ Car family for the rest of his life. I saw what happened in Montreal and it was pure brilliance. It could not have been better scripted. To have that story book ending was classic and I am very happy to have been part of that moment. Love him or hate him, you can’t stop talking about him. And this year, more newspapers, TV shows and radio shows talked about the series thanks solely to Paul Tracy.

4) The fans. Simply amazing. Year after year, the series continues to pack them in to capacity. If you think about it, one season in the Champ Car series garners more at the gate then most if not all NFL teams at home, NHL, NBA and some Major League Baseball clubs. Sure, NASCAR tops the list, but NASCAR is a different beast, a different game. Apple and oranges. The great fans in places like Toronto or San Jose are incredible. Put away all the hoopla about street festivals and all that, and think about Sunday right before the race with the stands full. You can feel the buzz, you can hear it. They cheer loudly after the US anthem, go crazy for the fly over. It’s just such a phenomenal atmosphere during the pre-race ceremonies. It’s something unique to big time Motorsports events. And the Champ Car fans make it one of the best ceremonies all around because of their love and enthusiasm. I know its been said before, but through the ups and downs of the Champ Car World Series, the fans never left. How loyal is that??? Did I mention we once had Lamerie as a driver? (Cheap shot, I know)

5) The Atlantics. I am not going to go on for too long about the Atlantics, because if you read this blog, you know I am their number one fan. You know about the extended field, you know about the beautiful new car and all the excitement that took place this year. The future is now for that series. They deserve a STRONG A+ for 2006.

6) Sebastien Bourdais and Newman/Haas Racing. They have become the evil empire, the team to root against, the bad guys. Why? Because they are soooo good at what they do. They are simply the best outfit in maybe all of racing. Bourdais is special; there is no question about it. But it goes much deeper than that. They are a disciplined bunch; they put the car first, ahead of everything. They are methodical. They want to win at all costs. It’s why you see them complain on television when things don’t go their way, because if they aren’t number One, they might as well be last. That’s the mentality a championship team must take. Not to mention Paul Newman, but he’s a category of his own.

I can name a number of other things naturally, but we’ll leave it at that for now and enjoy the season finale on Sunday. And then look forward to a silly season that will me more exciting then we have seen in the past. It’s going to be fun!