Well, this is a strange time in the series. Here I am, sitting outside on a beautiful day in Holland, coming off a successful inaugural Zolder race and about to embark on a very successful Assen race this weekend. Coming off Bruno Junquiera giving Dale Coyne a podium in what of the great drives he’s had. I have spent a lot of time with my colleagues and have gotten to know a lot of them more than ever. Not to mention the bunch of emails with regards to the “Foreign Champ Car race contest” I received, most of them with complimentary words on my work*. Also in the last couple of days, I have heard more than a few potentially very good things for the series. I could honestly feel a lot of momentum within the series. And then we hear about the Phoenix situation. I know nothing more than you do, except that a lot of people here are, naturally, very upset with the situation. I don’t know who’s to blame, I don’t know the nitty gritty of the situation, except that it just became very difficult to cheerlead for the series. Very difficult.

There is no sugar coating this. While it doesn’t signal the end of the series or anything dramatic like that, it certainly doesn’t look good. Things just got a lot harder for anybody who works for the series or who is constantly defending it. If Phoenix is canceled, it’s a darn shame for Champ Car. Especially after all the legal battles with NASCAR that Champ Car won. It beat the 800-pound guerilla and now it doesn’t appear the event will take place.


There is little you and I can do about the situation except continue to enjoy the racing. The racing is good. Best in the world. Assen is going to be great. It’s a fast track and with the Power to Pass button, should make for some exciting racing. We now have (it appears) three races left to watch the master at work. Three races left to watch Bourdais do things in a Champ Car that shouldn’t be. And while I haven’t done the math at this time, I suppose he can win his 4th Vanderbilt Cup this weekend. One of the great accomplishments in motorsports and in sports in general, something that should not be overshadowed by any politics. We are watching the future in Graham Rahal. 3 podiums in the last 4 races since the kid and his MediZone team refocused.

After Zolder, two things happened. First, they gave Katherine Legge Bruno’s engineer and that relationship appeared to work instantly, as she was able to keep pace with Bruno. The second is that it appears Tom Brown was able to help Forsythe dramatically and Tracy would have likely been on the podium if he hadn’t broken the differential early in the race. Very positive signs for Assen, as the racing should be even better if you include Forsythe as a threat.


And this is all we can do for now. We can get up early on Sunday and watch another exciting Champ Car race. We can argue and debate as to how good Bourdais actually is. We can debate and argue as to who will get that number 1 seat next year. We can argue and debate as to which car was the best ever or the nicest looking. These are things we can do and let the chips fall where they may. I’m going to continue to make silly, irreverent videos for champcar.ws and hope that they make you smile.

Post Race: Zolder

I wish I had a teammate to help me out at the front – Robert Doornbos. Post-race press conference quote.

He was talking about how Rahal and Pagenaud helped their respective teammates by either letting them go or getting in the way of Bobby D. He didn’t entirely blame his result on that, but it sure made him sour.

Bourdais aside, the story of the day was definitely Bruno Junquiera, who had one of the most up and down weekends of his career. He’s running well, and then suffers a mishap in the pits and suddenly it looks pretty bleak for the Brazilian. But the team decides to gamble and with some incredible driving Bruno comes home with a 2nd place. Bruno told me in his post race interview that it was so gratifying for the team, a team that has 4 or 5 guys while everybody has 10 or more. I bet they are partying tonight!

It was nice to see Graham Rahal up there too, his 3rd podium since Edmonton when the team went into that event re-focused. Things are obviously working for the 18 year old and its nice to see his talented engineer Todd Malloy have some success, as he deserves it. Graham is learning with every lap he turns. If you are NHL racing, do you give him the number 1 seat? Or do you let him develop with the number 2? Either way, the post-Bourdais future looks good for NHL.

Jan Heylen lost his 7th gear early and on a track when you are on it 3 times, you just can’t possibly do well. Not to mention the miscue he had with his team, who told him he needed to be in the pits as he was crossing the start-finish line. When I spoke to him afterwards, he was happy with the Zolder event in general. You can tell that this race means so much to him, as a proud Belgian. He did everything he could to promote it and it’s near and dear to his heart. I think he’s happy with the overall event. He was also very happy for Dale Coyne, his former employer.

The set up of the track was very cool in the sense of where the spectators chose to park themselves for the race. The grandstands were packed, no question about it, but it was all the people standing for 2 hours along the front straight and around the first corner. It was very neat to see.