Tracy/Oriol

Well, I’m sure you have heard by now that Paul Tracy will be out of the number 3 seat for a while after injuring his back in the morning practice. The hit was hard and looked bad, but he did take the steering wheel off before complaining of a sore back. They took him to the medical unit and nothing dramatic was diagnosed but they nonetheless took him to the hospital where they diagnosed him with fractured vertebrae. Now, the initial diagnose has him out three months, but I am willing to bet that he will suit up for Portland. He’s going to rehab like crazy and the ‘three month’ period will likely be shorten considerably. Like Paul said in the pits this afternoon, he’d be willing to drive, but its really for precautionary reasons. You don’t want to risk aggravating the injury should he suffer another collision. It’s a shame, he’s certainly going to be missed, but there is no point in risking further injuries. I give him full credit for not only returning to the track this afternoon, but also to the pits to address the media. Under the circumstances he had no obligation to address the media, let alone walk to pit lane and address them there. He’s certainly shown a lot of class today.

As for Oriol, well he has to make the most of the opportunity. This is very similar to 2005 when his other friend Bruno Junquiera injured his back and Oriol made the most of that seat time. If you consider 7 podiums, 1 pole and 1 win making the most of seat time. I tell you what, this, in my humble opinion put Mario Dominguez in the hot seat because he knows that Paul is guaranteed the #3 seat, but that #7 seat is wide open after Houston. If Oriol throws down the kind of performances he did back in 2005 and Mario is mediocre, then what is stopping Gerry Forsythe from putting Oriol in that seat? I suppose his sponsors could make Gerry an offer he can’t refuse, but that’s speculative at this point. There seems to be a few drivers with 3 race deals, so this could bode well for Oriol. Like he said, he came to Long Beach looking for a ride. He found one and now it’s time to show what he can do. He was fast at Sebring with the new car and he’s got one of the top teams in racing. He’s got an uphill battle, starting in 15th, but he’s also got a long race and plenty of experience to back him up.

Friday post qualifying

So this morning during practise there were all these cameras around Team Australia and then, wouldn't you know it the team delivers in Qualifying. I was speaking with their lovely PR rep Elizabeth and was joking about how busy it gets when you reach the top. She joked with me, but I think the team is a little overwhelmed with the attention, not that anybody is complaining. In fact, she had a good response for me after I was being a smartass. she said "at least they are both fast, so they both have to go to the press conference with me"
ah the life of a racecar driver PR.

My favorite moment of post qualifying today was as the team was taking the car back, Pagenaud made sure to go shake every one of his teammates hands and thank them. I'm by no means surprised he did this, it was just nice to see. He's a great kid, no doubt and fast.
I was as surprised as anybody when Will took the fast lap, as I was certain that Bourdais had it. He was almost half a second faster in practise on Friday and for the most part, about half a second faster in qual before Pagenaud made it closer. I actually watched the end of the qualifying from the Bourdais pit and some of them were handing out high fives until Mr. Power got the lap. I didn't see Bourdais after (as I ran towards Team Australia) and he's in the press conference right now so I don't know how he feels about the day.
For the second weekend in a row, differential problems cost Tracy track time, but he was quick, he knows it and his 5th place finish certainly wasn't indicative of his car. His teammates' 6th place was impressive too, although he wasn't the happiest, given that he was quite quick in the morning.
I have to tell you, maybe I haven't noticed in the past, maybe I was too busy in my announcing tent and didn't get to roam around a lot, but the crowd was incredible today. I may be par for the course, but I really noticed it today and it literally gave me shivers. Saturday should be even better.
(I didn't get a chance to check the spelling of this blog, i'm writing it right on the site. I appologize for any grammatical errors.)
:)

the Score

I am happy to say that the Score will be broadcasting 10 races in Canada this year. We know that Canada has the biggest Champ Car fans and they finally have a home broadcast. The Score is legit my friends, they are buying up content after content, including the NCAA and the EPL (two items formally owned by Sportsnet and trust me, they took a lot of flack for losing those!). They are a smaller company, but their passion for sports is evident and, to be honest (and at the risk of ever being hired by Sportsnet again) have better personalities than other canadian broadcasters. I am excited about this because they are a young, edgy network. This is a good day for Canadian fans.
I hope to be doing reports for them again like we did back in the Players days, so as of Houston (worse case Portland) get your CHamp Car news from the Score and watch yours truly deliver the reports.

go canada go!

This is for Christine, who in the comments section of a couple of blogs back asked what the mood of the teams were in Vegas with regards to the car and the race. To be frank Christine, the mood wasn’t all that rosy. It is one thing to paint the picture of a fantastically fast DP01 that breaks records at historic tracks, which the car is/was. But it’s also another thing to see it on the track at high speeds in heavy traffic for an hour and a half. I ‘m sure you all heard about the potential fueling problems that the cars had (some of them) where they couldn’t get that much methanol in the system. And of course there is Seabass’ weird problem of the coils that kept burning up all weekend. Bottom line is that the crews were worried somewhat and knew that they would be working long hours throughout the weekend because this was it. Testing was over, Spring training was over and a screw up now or a malfunction would cost them valuable points on Sunday. Some were more cautiously optimistic, others were rather pessimistic. I think the bottom line was that the teams would have liked more testing. But then again, what team doesn’t want more testing?
Also, the fact that there are 3 street races in a row was cause for some apprehension, given how little time between events there would be to fix any tub or whatnot. On road courses, if you get off the track, you most likely go on the grass. There is no such luxury on a street course. Evidently a whole bunch of spare parts arrived on Saturday (though I can’t confirm that, I just heard it did) which I’m sure eased some pressure.
Also, because the streets of Vegas had to be opened at certain times, this was a race where track time was held to a minimum. Where they usually have an hour and a half (at least) on Friday morning, this time they barely had an hour and then it was right to qualifying. So, I think that had something to do with it.
All in all, I am happy that the first race (as I’m sure they are) is done and now everybody knows exactly (more or less) how the car performs under those circumstances. What I like about it right now is that Dale Coyne seems to have figured out the DP01, while Newman/Haas/Lanigan haven’t. Not that I cheer for one or the other, but it’s interesting how things are turning out. Although I do expect NHL racing to be back in fine form this weekend.

I think everybody will breathe a little easier now that the car has been put to the test so to speak. Scott Elkins, the director of technology especially. The poor guy (he had a major part in the development of the DP01) was stressed all weekend. Understandably for sure. I think the focus will change this weekend, it’s going to be “how can we push it to the limit” compared too “will it get through a race”.

I want to see Graham on the track. I want to see what he can do in a Champ Car. I hope he’s able to last longer than a lap cause the kid is for real.

For the record I didn’t do any track announcing at Las Vegas. It was hard sometimes cause I wanted to run to the booth and start yapping away like I used too. But I held back. I let the new guys have their day.


With regards to my videos, we have decided that it makes more sense to add some fresh videos during the 6 week break then packing it all in during a race weekend. So, except the “This or That” and “me or my teammate” to rise during the 6 week break. With three races in a row, I think the video content right now will be specifically race related, while during the break it’ll be more timeless stuff. My producer Tom McGovern is a smart man.

race just ended

Well the race just ended and I am sitting in the television compound with a few minutes to reflect on what we just witnessed. It certainly was an interesting race. A race of attrition, definitely. But probably not for the reason that many people thought it was going to be. Going into the race, the worries came from the DP01 and its lack of race experience. Throughout the weekend some teams grumbled about this or that and, just like the new car last year in the Atlantics, you naturally worry during the first race. And yes, while there were a lot of cars that didn’t make it until the end, those were mostly the results of contact. That was certainly the case for Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing, as they just want to forget this weekend even ever happened. On the other hand, Dale Coyne ran very well and had it not been for a fuel mishap, Junquiera could have very well found himself on the podium, while Katherine Legge had some very positive results.

Right after the race, I ran into Robin Miller and I ask him his thoughts on the race, to which he says “Disaster. Complete disaster”. I didn’t stay for the explanation.

I’m very happy for Will Power. If you read this blog, you know I have been a fan of his last year when somewhere in the middle of the season he caught my attention and I knew he had the speed and just needed everything to fall into place. This weekend it did. And on Derek Walker’s birthday no less. His pass on Paul Tracy had me on the edge of my seat and my heart probably stopped beating until after the corner when he made the pass. Tracy did everything he could to hold him off, but he realized that Will had him and gave it to him. I don’t know what would have happened if it was Bourdais on his tail. Regardless, Power had a faster car and it was his right. After the race during Robin Miller’s interview with Will Power, Paul went over and gave him a big kiss on the cheek. That was a great moment of respect between two great drivers.

Robert Doornbos also drove one heck of a race, considering it was his first Champ Car race. He was very excited about it afterwards and talked about how much fun he had at work today. His smile is a mile wide and his enthusiasm is phenomenal. That kind of attitude is great for the series!

I felt bad for Graham Rahal and frankly at this point of the blog I still haven’t really seen what happened. I know he made contact and it looks like it was of his own doing which is unfortunate. It would have been fun to see what he could do. Luckily, we won’t have to wait long to find out. Bourdais was fun to watch too, as he was climbing the grid on his way back. It looked real nice, but alas, another Bourdais mistake? How many times did he hit the wall this weekend? Very Un-Bourdais like.