2006 CCWS Rd. 2--Lone Star Grand Prix of Houston

mlittle · Post by **mlittle** » Fri May 12, 2006 12:04 pm

11 minutes in the session.....top-5 at the moment are Junquiera, Power, Phillipe, Legge and Wilson. Bourdais and Tracy both on flyers now.......SeaBass now P2, Tracy now P8. Junquiera still provisionally P1.

mlittle · Post by **mlittle** » Fri May 12, 2006 12:05 pm

Allmendinger and Wilson now up to P3 and P4!

All 17 drivers are on track now, looking for room to make their flying laps. 10 minutes remaining.

mlittle · Post by **mlittle** » Fri May 12, 2006 12:07 pm

And Bourdais now moves to P1! He currently has a 59.492 sec. flyer, the only one under 60 seconds.

And for the third time, there is another red flag; the clock is frozen with 8 minutes or so left in the session. For the second time tonight Pastorelli has spun and stopped the session!

mlittle · Post by **mlittle** » Fri May 12, 2006 12:10 pm

Current top-5 at the moment: Bourdais, Junquiera, Tracy, Power and Allmendinger.

The clock is frozen at the moment; race control now indicating that 6:42 left in the session. At the moment only Bourdais is under 60 seconds; the next 8 drivers(Junquiera, Tracy, Power, Allmendinger, Wilson, Servia, Tagliani and Dominguez) are in the 60-sec. range.

mlittle · Post by **mlittle** » Fri May 12, 2006 12:11 pm

Pastorelli will have to sit out the remainder of the session; race control now reporting the track is green.......No change in the order, less than 6 minutes in the session now.

mlittle · Post by **mlittle** » Fri May 12, 2006 12:13 pm

Race control reporting that "it's like a stampede now as cars stream out of pitlane ", and another red flag!

What's going on now? Clock now frozen at 4:28 remaining.

mlittle · Post by **mlittle** » Fri May 12, 2006 12:15 pm

Now Team Australia's Will Power is the cause; apparently he went into the tire walls around turn 5.....as a result, he will lose his fastest lap, dropping him from P4 to P9. Safety crews' reporting the #5 Aussie Vineyards car has suspension damage. Clock still frozen at 4:28.

mlittle · Post by **mlittle** » Fri May 12, 2006 12:16 pm

Green flag! Green flag!

If they thought there was a stampede before, w/4 minutes in the session, watch out!!!

mlittle · Post by **mlittle** » Fri May 12, 2006 12:20 pm

Top-5 in the session: Bourdais, Junquiera, Tracy, Servia and Allmendinger.

Junquiera now on a flyer........stays in P2, but goes under 60-sec. with a 59.6-sec. lap. Allmendinger improves to P3.

Bourdais now on a flyer....can be break 59 and go under 59 secs.?

mlittle · Post by **mlittle** » Fri May 12, 2006 12:21 pm

SeaBass now at a 59.1-sec. lap for the session; Tracy moves up to third in the session. The times are really starting to pour in!

Race control reporting that the session has ended.....waiting for the official word.

mlittle · Post by **mlittle** » Fri May 12, 2006 12:24 pm

And the session has ended! Reigning series champion Sebastien Bourdais has taken provisional pole, earning one championship pt. and guaranteeing a front-row spot for Saturday's race.

Observations to come later this evening. Provisional top-5 from QS-1 are Bourdais, Junquiera, Tracy, Allmendinger and Tagliani.

mlittle · Post by **mlittle** » Fri May 12, 2006 2:41 pm

mlittle wrote:And the session has ended! Reigning series champion Sebastien Bourdais has taken provisional pole, earning one championship pt. and guaranteeing a front-row spot for Saturday's race.

Observations to come later this evening. Provisional top-5 from QS-1 are Bourdais, Junquiera, Tracy, Allmendinger and Tagliani.

Scratch the above.........according to reports from Houston, Bourdais' car failed post-qualifying tech and ALL his times from the session were wiped from the board; teammate Bruno Junquiera(#2 Hole in the Wall Camps FC/L) assumes the provisional pole and the championship pt. that goes with it.

The reason.....Bourdais' car was 3 lbs. underweight. According to series rules, all ChampCars must weigh no less than 1,565 lbs(including the weight of the methanol racing fuel).

mlittle · Post by **mlittle** » Fri May 12, 2006 3:41 pm

The last time I visited Houston for a ChampCar race, it was 2001......it was hot, dry, dusty, and the race was a near-boring, "follow-the-leader" race.....but enough about the past. Here are some Texas-sized thoughts from Thursday's action at Reliant Park.......

1}World Rally Cars, Rd. 2........Remember Paul Tracy's line about the track in San Jose....."These ain't World Rally Cars..." PKV's Katherine Legge(#20 Bell Micro/Optium FC/L) had her own take of the oft-bumpy Reliant Park circuit......

I think we've underestimated just how bumpy it is. It is very tiring as you never get a chance to rest here. There are no long straights and you're either turning or fighting the wheel over the bumps all the time. It's really hard to get a perfect lap here but we'll deal with it like everyone else.

2}Track changes.........prior to the first practice today, series/track officials added a chicane prior to turn 2, and they may not be done yet. Due to the bumpy track surface(see above quote....) officials trackside have said that they wlll take the grinders to the bumps a/la F1's efforts last year in Montreal during the weekend of the Canadian GP. Let's hope the results are better than theirs'....

3}As stated on one of the other ChampCar threads, Forsythe Championship Racing announced that 2003 series champion Paul Tracy has re-signed with the team for an additional 5 years, now ensuring his driving services until 2011. Congrats, PT!!

Well, time to get back in the air......T-K's still flying that Zero from Motegi(I thought I shot down that Zero over Motegi......oh well, like Reagan once said.....here we go again.).....now, if we could just get Julian to fly up here as well. Imagine, 3 of the F1 Idiots flying prop-engine planes.........

mlittle · Post by **mlittle** » Sat May 13, 2006 11:55 am

QS-2 this afternoon was a very bumpy affair, but in the end, it was the Forsythe cars that held the front row for qualifying; Mario Dominguez(#7 Pride of Mexico/Indeck FC/L) will start from pole, with his teammate Paul Tracy(#3 Indeck/Forsythe FC/L) in P2. Rounding out the top-5 are RuSport's A.J. Allmendinger(#10 Western Union FC/L), Newman-Haas's Sebastien Bourdais(#1 McDonald's FC/L) and Team Australia's Alex Tagliani(#15 Aussie Vineyards FC/L).

Observations to come later this evening.......

mlittle · Post by **mlittle** » Sun May 14, 2006 10:00 am

Apologies in advance for no friday observations........instead, here are a few pre-race storylines before they fire up the engines in Houston.....

1}How long will it take him to get to the front? For the first time since Edmonton, reigning series champion Sebastien Bourdais will start from outside the top-three, as he will start from 5th after a trying 24-hr period. Thursday, he won the provisional pole.....only to lose it after failing post-qual. tech. Friday, he couldn't get a fast enough lap to re-take the pole. There is some solace......at Edmonton, he started 10th......and won.

2}Can Forsythe take a street win away from Newman-Haas? With a few exceptions, street races in the ChampCar series have usually gone NHR's way rather than Forsythe's.......but both Forsythe cars, Dominugez and Tracy, will start P1-P2. Question is....can they and the other 15 drivers handle the very abrasive, bumpy Reliant Park surface?

3}Pit strategies galore? As at any street circuit, pitstops will be crucial....especially should there be lots of cautions during the race. Don't be surprised if several of the drivers mid-pack go off-sequence from the leaders......

Anyway, time to grab a Texas-sized meal, find a comfortable paddock seat and enjoy the fireworks.....on the track, that is.

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