2006 CCWS Rd. 3--Tecate Grand Prix of Monterrey

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Now that the dust has settled from the series' return to the Lone Star State, the Champ Car World Series travels south of the border, to the city of Monterrey, Mexico, and the 2.104-mile Fundidora Park circuit, which has hosted the series since 2001, and has also seen the new A1 Grand Prix of Nations visit during the off-season. For the drivers and teams, its' the first visit to Mexico this year, and the first half of the series' Corona Cup, which goes to the driver who accumulates the most points in the series' 2 Mexican events(Monterrey, Mexico City). For Forsythe Championship Racing's Mario Dominguez, its' virtually a home-race for him(the fans cheer for Mario in Monterrey w/the same fire that they do for him in his hometown of Mexico City). For Newman-Haas Racing's Bruno Junquiera, its' a return to the high point of his 2005 season, when he won at Monterrey and was leading in the points.....only to have his season cut short due to injuries at Indy the week after. Its' also the scene of the first on-track dustup btwn. the series' two main protagonists, SeaBass and PT, who would meet on-track several times during the year, most notably at Las Vegas and in Toronto.

What will happen this year...........well, that's why they run the races!

As always, I'll have qual. and race reviews, observations, commentaries and whatever else come to mind. All I can say at the moment is......if the first two races were any indication of where the season's headed, it will be a long year for every team except Newman-Haas.

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Here is the event schedule for this weekend's Champ Car race in Monterrey......

Practice Session #1}11:15 am, 19 May 2006
Practice Session #2}3:00 pm, 19 May 2006
Qualifying Session #1}3:25 pm, 19 May 2006
Practice Session #3}11:30 am, 20 May 2006
Practice Session #4}3:00 pm, 20 May 2006
Qualifying Session #2}3:25 pm, 20 May 2006
Final Practice Session}10:00 am, 21 May 2006
Tecate Grand Prix of Monterrey.........2:00 PM, 21 May 2006, on Speed Channel(US cable broadcast)
(note.....all times listed are US EDT/+4 Hrs. UTC)

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In an afternoon qualifying session that swa seven drivers sit atop the top of the timing charts at Fundidora Park, what looked to be another Bourdais pole......turned out to be nothing of the sort, as RuSport's Justin Wilson(#9 CDW FC/L), stole the provisional pole on a last-second flyer, winning the championship pt. that goes to the prov. polesitter and the guaranteed front-row starting spot for Sunday's race. Here are the top-5 from QS-1......


1}Justin Wilson, #9 CDW.................................1:14.305 sec/101.937 mph
2}Sebastien Bourdais, #1 McDonald's...............1:14.658 sec/101.455 mph
3}A.J. Allmendinger, #10 Western Union...........1:14.860 sec/101.181 mph
4}Paul Tracy, #3 Indeck/Forsythe....................1:15.144 sec./100.798 mph
5}Bruno Junquiera, #2 Hole in the Wall Camps..1:15.162 sec./100.774 mph

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Let's see......there's somebody flying a wayward Cessna above the track, Julian's talking to an FIA official in hopes of securing a Superlicense(as another forum member said, Hours in a Ute don't count!! ), and I'm here at Fundidora Park, wondering what else is happening. Here are some of Friday's observations......

1}Speedy Dan's Not So Excellent Adventure.....Remember last year's "Punch Heard Around the World" at the IRL race in Fontana last year? Well, if rookie Dan Clarke does tomorrow what he did to fellow rookie Katherine Legge, that could happen.....During today's first practice, Clarke, who was on his out lap, attempted to overtake Legge, who was on a qual.-like flyer, and ended up sideswiping the #20 Bell Micro/Optium, leaving the #20 with a damaged front-wing and a couple of tire marks along the side of the car. The result: race control made Clarke stay in the pits for 20 minutes during the session. If it should happen again, a word of advice: Kath, it was a roundhouse punch your IRL counterpart threw at Fontana......

2}What is this, a maternity ward? There must be something in the water here.....Over in the RuSport paddock, A.J. Allmendinger's chief mechanic, Dave Cozart, is on maternity leave this weekend, as his wife Erin gave birth to son Gunnar last week. Meanwhile, in the Newman-Haas paddock, Sebastien Bourdais's engineer, Craig Hampson, is on alert to return to Chicago, where his wife, Helen, is due to give birth at any moment. As a sign of respect, both Carl Russo and Kevin Kalkhoven have offered their Gulfstreams' to take Craig back to Chicago anytime during the weekend.

3}More grip, less traffic......normally, there are several other series besides the Champ Cars and Atlantics; in past years, several Mexican racing series were present. This year, its' just the ChampCar and Atlantic teams present, which according to some drivers actually has made the track acquire "grip" sooner. As some would say......we shall see.

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They say, "He who laughs last laughs the loudest.".....right now, I suspect they're having a barrel-full of laughs over in the Newman-Haas paddock, as 2-time series champion Sebastien Bourdais(#1 McDonald's FC/L) will lead the field to the green tomorrow for the third round of the 2006 Champ Car World Series season, the Tecate Grand Prix of Monterrey. SeaBass set the fastest lap of QS-2, 1:13.253 sec(103.401 mph), grabbing the top spot from RuSport's Justin Wilson(#9 CDW FC/L), who won the provisional pole on Saturday. Rounding out the top-5 were Wilson's teammate, A.J. Allmendinger, in 3rd, Newman-Haas's Bruno Junquiera, who is the 2005 winner at Monterrey and Forsythe's Paul Tracy. Here is the starting lineup for tomorrow's race......

1}Sebastien Bourdais, #1 McDonald's FC/L...........1:13.253 sec/103.401 mph
2}Justin Wilson, #9 CDW FC/L.............................1:13.532 sec/103.008 mph

3}A.J. Allmendinger, #10 Western Union FC/L..........1:13.796 sec/102.640 mph
4}Bruno Junquiera, #2 Hole in the Wall Camps FC/L..1:13.911 sec/102.480 mph

5}Paul Tracy, #3 Indeck/Forsythe FC/L..................1:14.009 sec/102.344 mph
6}Alex Tagliani, #15 Aussie Vineyards FC/L............1:14.534 sec/101.623 mph

7}Oriol Servia, #6 Gulfstream FC/L........................1:14.553 sec/101.598 mph
8}Mario Dominguez, #7 Pride of Mexico FC/L..........1:14.692 sec/101.408 mph

9}(R)Will Power, #5 Aussie Vineyards FC/L.............1:14.884 sec/101.148 mph
10}(R)Charles Zwolsman, #34 GoldenPalace.com FC/L....1:15.162 sec/100.774 mph

11}(R)Jan Heylen, #11 Sonny's Real-Pit BBQ FC/L.........1:15.220 sec/100.697 mph
12}Cristiano da Matta, #19 Amer. Med. Repsonse FC/L....1:15.253 sec/100.652 mph

13}Andrew Ranger, #27 MiJack-Tide FC/L......................1:15.410 sec/100.443 mph
14}(R)Dan Clarke, #14 A Bird & A Bear Ent. FC/L..........1:15.484 sec/100.334 mph

15}Nelson Phillipe, #4 A Bird & A Bear Ent. FC/L.............1:15.540 sec/100.270 mph
16}(R)Nicky Pastorelli, #8 Muermans FC/L......................1;16.285 sec/99.291 mph

17}(R)Katherine Legge, #20 Bell Micro/Optium FC/L.........1:16.351 sec/99.205 mph


Observations later this evening.........

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While T-K hones his Cessna skills, and Julian goes out to inspect the track surface, I'm sitting here in the paddock, wondering about all the day's activities......here's just a few of the observations from today.


1}4 times for SeaBass.......In starting on the pole for Sunday's race, Sebastien Bourdais is only the third driver in the modern era of ChampCar racing to do so. The other two were legends Rick Mears, who turned the trick at Phoenix from 1988-1991, and Michael Andretti, who sat on the pole from 1989-1992 in Detroit(89-91 were at the downtown street circuit, while '92 was over at Belle Isle). Not bad company, huh?

2}Them's the brakes, boys.....for Team Australia's Alex Tagliani and RuSport's A.J. Allmendinger, it wasn't a very good QS-2, as both of them suffered from braking issues the entire session. While Tag was quiet on why he had problems today, "Flattop" was more sanguine....how so? Just ask him:

I've flat-spotted every set of prime tires we've had on the car today. So when we put the options on for qualifying today I was real careful not to lock the brakes because I didn't want to chunk up the options because we have to use them tomorrow in the race and I didn't want to ruin my race on Saturday.

3}Up and down day for the Coyne gang......for Dale Coyne Racing today in QS-2, it was an interesting session, as rookie Jan Heylen outpaced veteran Cristiano da Matta for the second cons. qual. session(Heylen starts 11th, da Matta starts 12th). Ironically, Heylen benefitted from some misfortune from fellow rookie Katherine Legge, who overshot the braking zone entering turn 1 and spun, bringing out a red flag. When the dust cleared and the session restarted, Heylen shot out of the pitlane, got up to speed quickly, and got in several clean laps before the track began to fill up. However, considering the problems Heylen had in Houston last week, it was refreshing to see him get in several good laps. And it never hurts to beat the veteran on the final qual. charts.

As for the race, it's set for 2 PM US EDT(18:00 UTC May 20) for broadcast on Speed Channel.

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In the first three rounds of the 2006 Champ Car World Series season, Sebastien Bourdais(#1 McDonald's FC/L) has won in three different ways. At the season opener in Long Beach, he almost literally was in a different zipcode, running away from the field with a win. On the streets of Houston, he took advantage of Mario Dominguez's woes to take the lead and held off Paul Tracy to win there. In Monterrey, it was old-school racing, as SeaBass held off the RuSport duo of Justin Wilson(#9 CDW FC/L) and A.J. Allmendinger(#10 Western Union FC/L) to win his third race to start the season.

Under 95-degree(F) conditions, the drivers took the green flag and, as has been the case, Bourdais jumped out to take the early; indeed, he led the first 25 laps of the race. In a rarity for ChampCar races in Monterrey, there were no on-track incidents involving drivers; there was only 1 caution, for debris on the track, prompting drivers to head down pitroad for fuel and tires. There, RuSport's Wilson took the lead from Bourdais, or so it seemed. In reality, the reason Wilson got out was that Bourdais' pitcrew took just a few seconds longer, filling his car with more fuel than Wilson's......which would pay off handsomely later down the road. On the restart it was rookie Dan Clarke(#14 A Bird & A Bear Entertainment FC/L) who was on point, but he was quickly shuffled back as Wilson, Bourdais and Allmendinger immediately began jostling for position.

As at the beginning of the race, Allmendinger tried several times to pass the former F1 pilot, but Wilson head him off and pulled out to a 2.3-sec. lead over Bourdais, a lead that would prove temporary as the final round of pitstops began. As we've seen over in Formula 1 several times this year, it came down to the last pitstop. First up, Wilson, who pitted on lap 55, ceding the lead to Bourdais, who began to tear around Fundidora Park like a "scalded cat"(to quote CBS Sports F1 analyst Derek Daly). Then the roles were reversed, as Bourdais made his stop on lap 56. Due to the extra fuel his team put in the #1 car on the first stop, the tactical gambit his crew used worked, as Bourdais exited pitlane just ahead of Wilson. Although Wilson made several moves to pass Bourdais while he was on cold tires and full of methanol fuel, it didn't work. Wilson bided his time and made one last move to pass Bourdais, but was unsuccessful. In the end, Bourdias would take his third win of the 2006 season, becoming the first driver since Al Unser, Sr. back in the 1971 USAC Championship Season to win the first three races of the season following a series title.

The series takes the week off for Memorial Day and then heads to one of America's most storied tracks, the Milwaukee Mile at the Wisconsin State Fairgrounds, for the Time Warner Cable 225, set for June 4th.

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With the dust clearing from round three of the Champ Car World Series season, here are some of the day's observations........

1}Farewell, Monterrey........if the three-day attendance figures are any indication, it could very well be. Less than 79,000 people attended the three-day event weekend, and speculation in the paddock is that, merger or not, this race will not be on the 2007 schedule. There is a bit of consolation, though......series officials did hint that the Atlantic Championship race may still return to Monterrey, possibly as a co-event alongside the A1 Grand Prix race.

2}Blocking, blocking, blocking......Unlike in road racing outside North America, where you expect to see cars get a little, um....."WIDE", in NA motorsports, that'll get you a drive-through penalty from race control. Don't believe me......just ask drivers Katherine Legge, Nicky Pastorelli and Bruno Junquiera, who each had to do a drive-through penalty during today's race. The irony of it all.......all three were penalized....for blocking Paul Tracy.

3}Don't pick on the Brits........several drivers after the race complained of various problems after the race ended. Dale Coyne Racing's Jan Heylen complained of muscle cramps in his right arm, while both Team Australia's Will Power and PKV Racing's Katherine Legge both complained of numbness in their right legs after the race. The worst, though, belonged to RuSport's Justin Wilson, who was taken to the infield car center due to dehydration, which, ironically, led to the following exchange btwn. his RuSport teammate, A.J. Allmendinger, and AutoSport writer David Malsher. When told about Wilson's predictament, Flattop quipped. "Yeah, he's a sissy. He's tall. British guys, heat, tall....." To which Malsher, 6'3"(the same height as Wilson) shot back from the press area, "Hey..." A moment later, Sebastien Bourdais looked over and said, "I'm sure you're going to have a great article in Autosport now.", to which A.J. replied, "Yeah, I'm sure I'll get slagged in Autosport now."

4}Is it safe???? One of the emerging stumbling blocks to a merger btwn ChampCar and the IRL are concerns voiced by IRL teams that the 2007-spec Panoz DP01 chass may not safe on high-speed racetracks(such as Indy). When asked about it, Bourdais scoffed at it, saying that it was the IRL's cars that were unsafe, reminding everyone that his teammate, Bruno Junquiera, was injured driving an IRL-spec Dallara, and he said he wouldn't go back until their(referring to the other series') cars were safe.