2006 CCWS Rd. 6--U.S. Bank Grand Prix of Cleveland

[mlittle]

First on the ChampCar schedule in 1982, Cleveland's Burke Lakefront Airport serves at the backdrop for one of the more interesting races on the calendar. On what is arguably one of the bumpiest temporary courses in North America(it is a fully functioning airport, complete with incompetent security screeners and a nice view of Lake Erie....at least for 362 days of the year.....), drivers are pushed to the limits as they tackle a wide, fast course which starts with one of the scariest turn 1's in racing, The Funnel Turn. From a 180-foot start/finish straight to a 55-foot turn, every year sees at least one, two or more cars turned into very expensive pieces of junk as drivers get impatient trying to win the race in one turn. It could be worse......their Atlantic counterparts will be doing standing starts for the first time since the late 1990's. Can't you just see Tracy and Bourdais doing standing starts at Cleveland?

Here is the event scehdule for the weekend...............(all times U.S. EDT, -4 Hrs. GMT)
Practice Session #1}12 pm, 23 June 2006
Practice Session #2}4:30 pm, 23 June 2006
Qualifying Session #1}4:50 pm, 23 June 2006
Practice Session #3}10:30 am, 24 June 2006
Practice Session #4}2 pm, 24 June 2006
Qualifying Session #2}2:20 pm, 24 June 2006
Final Practice Session}10:30 am, 25 June 2006
U.S. Bank Grand Prix of Cleveland, 2:30 pm, 25 June 2006(live TV broadcast on CBS Sports, w/radio simulcast on the Champ Car Radio Network; radio simulcast also available on the United States Armed Forces Network)


As always, I'll have qual. and race reviews, news, rumors, observations, commentaries and whatever else floats by the airport during the "Roar by the Shore"...............

[mlittle]

Weather update from Cleveland..........current temps at 12:27 PM US EDT(16:27 GMT 23 June 2006) is 66 deg.(F), 18 deg.(C) with rain....lots and lots of rain. All the teams are currently using the wet-condition Bridgestone Potenza tires and several drivers have already run off-course during the first practice.

[mlittle]

Throughout the 35-minute QS-1 session at Cleveland-Burke Lakefront Airport, it was anyone's guess as to who would secure provisional P1 and the all-important championship pt./front-row starting spot.........if you guessed either A.J. Allmendinger, Paul Tracy or Sebastien Bourdais, you at least had a 1 in 3 chance to win. Although PT and A.J. led for most of the session, a last-second flyer by the Frenchman secured the provisional pole as Bourdais pipped Allmendinger by less than 0.094 secs. Bourdais topped the QS-1 charts with a time of 56.851 sec., while Allmendinger provisionally slots into P2, followed by Tracy in third. RuSport's Justin Wilson had the 4th-fastest time, while Bruno Junquiera had the fifth-fastest time.

Selected driver quotes................

Sebastien Bourdais, #1 McDonald's FC/L:

It was a great lap, but I wish I could have done it a little earlier, just talked about it with PT, and the first run, I don't know if he made a mistake or tried to get out of the way with Cristiano. I just run into them at the last two corners, so stopped that lap and the mext one because it was the last corner, so I tried again; really didn't put another one together after that, and second run, a Rocketsports car spun in front of me, same thing, last corner and I said, boy, that's it, going to be really difficult from now on. And them I was able to collect myself a little bit and just try again, two last laps and it was--the last one was very clean, but the front tires starting to give up a little bit so I was very intent not to overdrive it. Really feels like these Bridgestone tires this year are a little bit better; definitely more grip. I think the guys at the track did a good job to put these curbs on the last corner and in the last chicane. That's definitely a good thing because it used to be a real mess. It's good; I am pretty happy with the McDonald's car right now.

Oriol Servia, #6 Gulfstream FC/L:

The Gulfstream-PKV Racing team is in better shape after this qualifying session than we have been in the last few races, so that is good. The car felt good in the rain in the morning and it felt good this afternoon when it was dry. I think we are better than the time sheets show; we should be fourth or fifth, but toward the end of the session I got into traffic on every lap. We are still far from where we want to be. Sebastien is the target and he's almost a second ahead of us, but we have a good idea or what we need to do to improve the car for tomorrow.

Will Power, #5 Aussie Vineyards FC/L:

At the moment it's probably mre me than the car, because I've only done a handful of laps here. This is my first time in Cleveland so I'm getting more familiar with the track. Overall, the car felt pretty good and it's definitely something we can work with. We won't have to make many big changes. We will think about it overnight, and I will sleep on it learning more about the track, and have a quick day tomorrow.

Nicky Pastorelli, #8 Bavaria City/Muermans FC/L:

I think that things are going ok. We did not get the result that we wanted today, but I did not have much time on the track to really learn it with this morning being so wet. The #8 Bavaria City/Muermans Rocketsports car is not bad, I think we can improve the car and on my driving for tomorrow and we will have a better result.

Observations from the Roar by the Shore later this evening........

[mlittle]

Let's see........Julian's lost in Cleveland traffic, kapel's somewhere in central Ohio riding shotgun w/T-K in his plider(..... .....), and I'm stuck in the rain in Cleveland....oh well, turn up the volume on the mp3 player, cause' here's the Friday notebook.....

1}More turn one mods??? Every year, it seems ChampCar officials attempt to figure out how to corral the drivers through turn 1( the infamous "funnel turn"). At the beginning of the race, everyone seems to fan out along the 180-foot pitstraight into a 55-foot turn which seems to result in the occasional boom, bang and crash.....with attendant DNF's in the ready. So, officials from chief steward Chris Kniefel to VP-Operations Tony Cotman have decide on yet another solution.....they've painted "in" boundaries on either side of the turn, designating where cars may try to pass in the corner. Will it work????......Who knows......

2}Pit lane mods.....in addition to the turn 1 changes, series officials revamped pitlane in an effort to provide additional sightlines for fans of the race to see the track. Although they've added a few gray hairs to team mechanics', CTE-HVM's chief mechanic, Daryl Fox, had this to say.....

It's a little inconvenient for us, but if it's better for the fans, then I'm all for it. Heck, they could put them on the backstretch and if it's better for the fans then I'm all for it!

3}New wings......with all the rain today, several drivers ended up clipping the newly lain curbs, damaging front wings. Worst of the offenders was Forsythe's Paul Tracy, who destroyed two front wings during the first practice session. Worse, PT took out two cones as well. As the Mastercard commercial says......

2 orange cones.....$30 dollars. 2 front wings.......$1,000 dollars. Pretending you've just hit Bourdais twice......PRICELESS.

[mlittle]

On Chamber of Commerce weather in Cleveland, Forsythe Championship Racing's A.J. Allmendinger(#7 Indeck/Forsythe FC/L) broke the 8-year old qualifying record formerly held by 1996 series champion Jimmy Vasser to capture the pole for Sunday's U.S. Bank Grand Prix of Cleveland. How significant was Allmendinger's record performance? When Vasser set the previous mark, there were three differneces in CART at the time: 1}a tire war btwn. Firestone/Goodyear, 2}three different chassis' in use(Swift, Reynard, Lola), and 3}four different engines in use(Ford-Cosworth, Honda, Toyota and Mercedes-Ilmor) w/150 more hp at the time(900hp compared to 750hp at present). At the very least, it was an interesting session.......

Throughtout the 30-minute QS-2 session, all the teams set laps faster than in QS-1, but the frontrunners, Allmendinger, Bourdais and Wilson were setting times w/in 0.1 secs. of each other, leaving everyone else in the proverbial dust. Meanwhile, Forsythe mechanics scrambled to get the backup car setup after Paul Tracy(#3 Indeck/Forsythe FC/L) broke the suspension in the primary hitting the turn 8 tirewalls. He was one of three drivers who had to go to their backups, as rookies Katherine Legge(#20 Bell Micro FC/L) and Dan Clarke(#14 CTE Racing FC/L) both crashed hard in turn 8; thankfully, both were checked at the trackside care center and were unhurt.....both are cleared to drive for Sunday.

At the end of the session, though, it was Forsythe's new hire, Allmendinger, who held off Bourdais to capture his second career pole. Here is the starting order for tomorrow's race.............

1}A.J. Allmendinger, #7 Indeck/Forsythe FC/L.......................56.283 sec/134.705 mph*
2}Sebastien Bourdais, #1 McDonald's FC/L............................56.638 sec/133.861 mph

3}Justin Wilson, #9 CDW FC/L..............................................56.651 sec/133.830 mph
4}Oriol Servia, #6 Gulfstream FC/L.......................................56.855 sec/133.350 mph

5}Paul Tracy, #3 Indeck/Forsythe FC/L.................................57.011 sec/132.985 mph^
6}Nelson Phillipe, #4 Sherwin-Williams FC/L..........................57.162 sec/132.684 mph

7}Bruno Junquiera, #2 Hole in the Wall Camps FC/L..............57.178 sec/132.596 mph
8}Alex Tagliani, #15 Aussie Vineyards FC/L..........................57.401 sec/132.081 mph

9}(R)Will Power, #5 Aussie Vineyards FC/L...........................57.538 sec/131.767 mph
10}Cristiano da Matta, #10 Western Union FC/L.....................57.570 sec/131/694 mph

11}(R)Dan Clarke, #14 CTE Racing FC/L...............................57.619 sec/131.562 mph^
12}Andrew Ranger, #27 MiJack-Tide FC/L.............................57.772 sec/131/233 mph

13}(R)Charles Zwolsman, #34 GoldenPalace.com FC/L..........58.023 sec/130.665 mph
14}(R)Katherine Legge, #20 Bell Micro FC/L..........................58.048 sec/130.609 mph^

15}(R)Nicky Pastorelli, #8 Bavaria City/Muermans FC/L.........58.179 sec/130.315 mph
16}(R)Jan Heylen, #11 Sonny's Real Pit BBQ FC/L.................58.261 sec/130.132 mph

17}Mario Dominguez, #19 Pride of Mexico FC/L.....................58.801 sec/128.937 mph
18}(R)Tonis Kasemets, #18 Flexovit Abrasives FC/L...............59.549 sec/127.317 mph

*-new track record; previous one held by Jimmy Vasser(56.417 sec/134.385 mph)
^-will be driving backup racecar due to damage suffered to the primary racecar

Pre-race observations tomorrow morning.............

[mlittle]

With the morning sun a-rsin', here's some observations on Saturday's action at the airport.........

1}Here's one way to do it!! Even though the 2007-spec Panoz DP01 chassis isn't slated to debut in ChampCar until 2007, they might want a few for late this year.....at the rate everyone's going, there won't be any of the venerable Lola B2K's left. Indeed, in the past 2 race weekends, no fewer than five of them have been carted off to the scrap heaps; three of them Saturday. First to go was the FC/L of Paul Tracy, who not only lost yet another front wing and, later, the suspension(see previous posting), but also decided to turn his racecar into the world's fastest lawnmower, with a couple of off-course excursions during practice session #4. Then came rookies Dan Clarke and Katherine Legge, who both managed to crash, rear-wing first, into the turn 8 tirewalls prior to QS-2. Unlike the tirewalls at the USGP, the tirewalls in Cleveland are in use....

2}No standing starts..........when the top-3 qualifiers for the race, Allmendinger, Bourdais and Wilson, began their post-qual. press conference, a reporter asked them if ChampCar should adopt the standing starts that the Atlantic Championship will use for a few races this year. Their answer.......a resounding NO. Maybe we should listen to the drivers for once.....

3}He's doing what??? Prior to Sunday's race, Sebastien Bourdais will be getting 15 minutes of extra time on-track. No, he won't be driving the FC/L we're all used to him seeing; instead, he'll be driving the 1993 Lola T93/Ford-Cosworth DFX-3 that former Newman-Haas Racing driver Nigel Mansell drove to the 1993 PPG/CART IndyCar World Series championship. The reason......the car has been rebuilt from the ground-up, and the team is preparing to send it to Goodwood for the annaul Festival of Speed, set for 7-9 July, 2006. And someone's got to drive it before they ship it over there. Ain't SeaBass lucky, or what?

[mlittle]

In one of the wildest races ever at Burke Lakefront Airport, Forsythe's A.J. Allmendinger(#7 Indeck/Forsythe FC/L) held on to win the U.S. Bank Grand Prix of Cleveland, but it was one scary wild race.......

Like most years at Cleveland, it didn't take long for the customary pounds of flesh to be expended......but it wasn't on the first turn, as all 18 cars made it through the Funnel Turn. It was on the entry into turn 2 that things got interesting. As the field began entering 2, the #27 MiJack-Tide car of Andrew Ranger spun, causing both Cristiano da Matta(#10 Western Union FC/L) and Alex Tagliani(#15 Aussie Vineyards FC/L) to run into the grass; Tag clipped the #34 GoldenPalace.com ride of Charles Zwolsman, sending him spinning. Further afront, Paul Tracy(#3 Indeck/Forsythe FC/L) tried to split the Newman-Haas cars of Sebastien Bourdais(#1 McDonald's FC/L) and Bruno Junquiera(#2 Hole in the Wall Camps FC/L) but ended up riding his car onto that of SeaBass'.........Bourdais momentarily lost consciousness and was taken to the trackside care center for x-rays, but was released an hour later and has been cleared to drive in 2 weeks in Toronto. Tracy would continue to limp around until spinning out and exiting the race on lap 43.

Meanwhile, Allmendinger continued to lead, followed by PKV Racing's Oriol Servia(#6 Gulfstream FC/L) up to the first round of stops, turning the lead over to Junquiera. The threesome continued to battle early on for first until Allmendinger slung his FC/L around Junquiera through tunr 9 for the lead, eventually building a 10-second lead over Junky at one point. The lead wouldn't last, though......courtesy of a spin by rookie Tonis Kasemets(#18 Flexovit Abrasives FC/L).

On the resulting round of stops, everyone except Tagliani and Nelson Phillipe(#4 Sherwin-Williams FC/L) pitted, putting fuel strategy into play. The two would run P1-P2 for 16 laps until having to pit, ceding the lead back to Allmendinger, who would stretch out a lead of some 6+ seconds.....only to see the yellow yet again, this time courtesy of Andrew Ranger. The lead quickly changed from Allmendinger to Junquiera to Phillipe who held the lead for a few laps before the unthinkable happened....he ran out of fuel on the back-half of the course(he would get a tow back to the pitlane from the ChampCar Safety Team, but any chance of winning was gone....). Worse, Justin Wilson(#9 CDW FC/L), who had been running in the front for most of the day when the suspension linkage on the right-front broke entering turn 6, causing him to slide into the concrete barriers, bringing out another caution.

Although Allmendinger would hang on for the win, things got interesting on the last lap, as Clarke battled Mario Dominguez(#19 Sonny's Real Pit BBQ FC/L) for P2, making a banzai move into the Funnel Turn, only to spin out and crash into Dominguez, taking both cars out. For Allmendinger, though, it was his win of the 2006 campaign and, with the retirements to both Bourdais and Wilson, brings a new player into the points battle as the series travels across the border to Canada's largest city, Toronto and the Exhibition Place circuit, for the Molson Grand Prix of Toronto.

Post-race observations to follow later tonight.................

[RE30B#16]

Further afront, Paul Tracy(#3 Indeck/Forsythe FC/L) tried to split the Newman-Haas cars of Sebastien Bourdais(#1 McDonald's FC/L) and Bruno Junquiera(#2 Hole in the Wall Camps FC/L) but ended up riding his car onto that of SeaBass'.........Bourdais momentarily lost consciousness and was taken to the trackside care center for x-rays, but was released an hour later and has been cleared to drive in 2 weeks in Toronto. Tracy would continue to limp around until spinning out and exiting the race on lap 43.

mlittle, your race summary is very generous to Paul Tracy who drove like man posessed! The carnage he personally racked up in this race was amazing, and I wouldn't be surprised if he gets a fine or a reprimand from ChampCar. Mercifully, he got on the marbles on the last corner before the main straight and slammed the wall taking himself out of our misery. He can be exciting or excrutiating to watch sometimes. His first, most dangerous looking moment riding up on SeaBass' car was actually not his fault, but after that...

[mlittle]

RE, that whole first lap was very wild, to say the least. What surprised me, though, was that they managed to get through the first turn(i.e. the Funnel Turn) without any carnage, only to damage everything it seems on the second corner. As to your point about PT driving possessed.......after watching the highlights of the race(particulary the first-lap accidents), I have to disagree on one regard........I think PT should've tried to get around Junquiera instead of trying to split him and Bourdais(but you know PT......why try to go around someone when you can try to go through them), but in the end, whatever damage he suffered ended his day eventually. I do agree with you, on the last point, though....he did drive like a man possessed until that lap 43 crash.

As to whether he'll get in trouble with series officials........probably not; since Tracy took himself out of the race, they're not going to bother doing anything this time. But who knows........I stopped trying to figure out what series officials will do a long time ago.

[mlittle]

Considering all that happened today, here's a look at the Sunday notebook........

1}A lot of "seen and heard" this weekend. Several items of interest were overheard this weekend......A}the possibility of ChampCar and the IRL running "joint" race weekends is pretty likely next year; possible venues include St. Pete., Fla., Mexico City, Toronto and Long Beach, with one series running on Saturday and the other running on Sunday, B}3 European venues were discussed, the LeMans Bugatti circuit(where MotoGP runs), the newly renovated Assen TT circuit(also where MotoGP runs) and a third venue currently used by Formula 1(the three mentioned were Catalunya, Spa-Francorchamps and Silverstone)....{most likely LeMans and Assen, by all accounts), C}PKV Racing let it slip that 1996 series champion Jimmy Vasser will run at least one or two more races this year, and D}that an ownership-sharing agreement btwn. CCWS and the IRL was indeed signed(during the Speed Channel broadcast, Speed's Bob Varsha mentioned the agreement, saying that, to his understanding, it had been signed......)

2}2 in a row..........how significant was A.J. Allmendinger's win Sunday in Cleveland? It was the first time since 1996 than an American has won 2 cons. races in a season(Michael Andretti won at Vancouver and Road America back in 1996).

3}Please don't crash any more cars......please. It's a good thing there is a 2-week gap btwn. Cleveland and Toronto, because I suspect the Lola engineers are going to be very busy repairing not only suspension and wing packages for the ChampCar teams, but several of the chassis monocoques' as well. Let's hope Panoz next year has pleanty of engineers....

4}He's okay. When all the first-lap carnage settled down, the crowd of over 110,000 people waited for word on series champion Sebastien Bourdais, who had the car of competitor Paul Tracy land on top of his, hitting his head and hand as it rested on top of the champion's car for several seconds. Here's how the 2-time series champion recalled it.......

I was slowly fading away as the pressure (from the bottom of Tracy's race car) was increasing. Maybe his tire hit me when it came up but it was the bottom of his car that was on top of my head. I probably lost a little consciousness because by the time the whole thing stopped I didn't know if it was a dream or where I was, what happened. I couldn't put everything together. For example I don't remember (assistant team manager) Kenny (Siwieck) calling me three times or answering him. At some point I came out of it and saw people running toward the car. I haven't seen the video so I can't comment too much. I know I didn't change my line but don't know how Tracy got on my head. That's what happens when you race wheel to wheel. I got turned around and the next thing I know there was a car on my head. He missed the rollbar and was pushing me down into the cockpit; I was the shock absorber for him. I must have started losing consciousness then because the next thing I remember was being stopped in the grass and people coming at me. The design of the cars really helped me because your head is not sticking out as much. If it had been Nigel's car (that he drove prior to the morning's warm-up session) from 10 years ago I would really have been in trouble.

Although he was taken to the trackside care center and released there, series officials sent him to a Cleveland-area hospital for CT scans, which came up negative; series officials have cleared him to drive in Toronto.

[RE30B#16]

RE, that whole first lap was very wild, to say the least. What surprised me, though, was that they managed to get through the first turn(i.e. the Funnel Turn) without any carnage, only to damage everything it seems on the second corner. As to your point about PT driving possessed.......after watching the highlights of the race(particulary the first-lap accidents), I have to disagree on one regard........I think PT should've tried to get around Junquiera instead of trying to split him and Bourdais(but you know PT......why try to go around someone when you can try to go through them), but in the end, whatever damage he suffered ended his day eventually. I do agree with you, on the last point, though....he did drive like a man possessed until that lap 43 crash.

We all dodged a major bullet last Sunday. If Tracy's car was 5 inches to the right, SeaBass might be dead today.