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From 1998-2001, ChampCars raced on a temporary street circuit in the heart of downtown Houston, Texas, and the racing was pretty good. After a four-year absence, the Champ Car World Series returns to Houston, this time to the Reliant Park complex for the series' only Saturday-night race, the inaugural Lone Star Grand Prix of Houston. The temporary street circuit, built around an area encompassing Reliant Field, home to Major League Baseball's Houston Astros, and their former home, the Astrodome(often referred as the "Eighth Wonder of the Modern World") should provide plenty of challenges to the drivers, especially with it being a night race(there's nothing like seeing a turbocharged engine belch a little fire at night..... ).

Here is the event schedule for the weekend of May 11-13(Thursday-Saturday)...............

Practice Session #1: 4:45 PM EST, Thursday, May 11
Practice Session #2: 9:00 PM EST, Thursday, May 11
Qualifying Session #1: 9:25 PM EST, Thursday, May 11
Practice Session #3: 1:30 PM EST, Friday, May 12
Practice Session #4: 5:00 PM EST, Friday, May 12
Qualifying Session #2: 5:25 PM EST, Friday, May 12
Final Practice Session: 5:00 PM EST, Saturday, May 13
Lone Star Grand Prix of Houston: 9:00 PM EST(8:00 PM CST), Saturday, May 13; to be broadcast on Speed Channel live w/tape-delay broadcast for Wed. May 17 at 12:00 PM EST, also on Speed Channel.

As always, I'll have qual. and race reviews, summaries, commentaries, and whatever else crosses my mind.......I just hope I've got enough frequent flyer miles btwn. Indy and Houston....

Rocketsports Racing announced earlier today that there will be a driver change in the #8 entry prior to the Champ Car World Series' return to Houston, as out goes Antonio Pizzonia and in goes Nicky Pastorelli, following three test sessions(the open tests at Fontana and Portland, plus the Wednesday rookie test at Milwaukee on the historic Mile). Apparently.....silly season's still alive and well in North America.

With Champ Car's return to Houston in front of us, here are some of the things to look for this weekend.....

1}A street race....at night?!? For only the second time in series history, the drivers will run under an extensive night-lighting system provided by MUSCO Lighting; the only other non-oval event held under the lights was at Cleveland-Burke Lakefront Airport in 2003.

2}And the streak ends......When the field takes the green Saturday evening, a familiar stalwart of the series won't be present; PKV co-owner Jimmy Vasser will end his streak of cons. starts at 211, dating back to late in 1993. It will be sad not to see JV(Vasser, that is) on the track, but he's had an accomplished career(series champion in 1996, teammate to CART champions Alex Zanardi and Juan Pablo Montoya) with 10 wins, 33 podiums and a lot of memories.....

3}Can she do it again? By finishing 8th in Long Beach, PKV driver Katherine Legge currently holds the record for best finish in ChampCar history(dating back to 1979).....should she finish 10th or better Saturday, she would become the first woman in ChampCar history to record consecutive top-10 finishes....good luck!!

4}Starting in Style......Should Sebastien Bourdais win in Houston, he would join the legendary Rick Mears as the only ChampCar drivers to win the first two races of the season following a series championship(Mears accomplished this back in 1982).

5}Happy 100th, Servia!!! No, it's not his birthday.... but when the green flag falls Saturday, PKV's Oriol Servia will start his 100th ChampCar race. During the course of his career he has one win(Montreal, 2005), one pole(Surfers Paradise, 2005) and a carrer-best runner-up in the championship stdgs.(2nd, 2005).

Continuing his dominance early on this season, Newman-Haas's Sebastien Bourdais(#1 McDonald's FC/L) led the first practice session w/a time of 1:00.240 sec.(100.996 mph), followed by FCR's Mario Dominguez(#7 Indeck/Forsythe FC/L) who set a time of 1:00.607 sec.(100.384 mph). Rounding out the top-5 were the RuSport duo of Justin Wilson(#9 CDW FC/L) and A.J. Allmendinger(#10 Western Union FC/L) while PKV's Oriol Servia set the fifth-fastest time.

Practice session #2 is set for around 9:15 PM EDT tonight, with qualifying session #1(QS-1) set for 9:40 PM.

As in the first session, Sebastien Bourdais(#1 McDonald's FC/L) was the fastest, posting the only sub-60 sec. time of the session, a 59.935 sec. flyer late in the session. QS-1 is set to begin in the next few minutes. The winner of the session will receive 1 championship pt. and is guaranteed a front-row starting spot(P1 or P2) regardless of what happens in QS-2.

And the board is clear......the session is set to begin.

In each qual. session, except for when the series travels to Milwaukee for the lone oval race on the calender, each driver is alloted a maximum of 15 laps that they can use in any matter; most drivers will break them into 2 segments of 7-8 laps each(including outlaps).


And the session begins!! First out are rookies Pastorelli and Legge, followed by veterans Ranger and Junquiera.

Race control reports a car spun in the turn 2 chicane; its' Pastorelli; he spun entering the chicane........Red flag! Red Flag!

As a result, Pastorelli, making his series debut w/Rocketsports Racing, will lose his fastest lap of the session.

Race control reporting the track is green; the session resumes.

6 minutes into the session; no one has yet posted a flyer.

6 minutes into the session; several drivers posting times.

Current top-5 in QS-1: Power, Phillipe, Dopminguez, Ranger and Legge.

Junquiera's on a flyer......he posts a 1:06.278 sec. flyer, P6 at the moment. 7 minutes into the session.

Now the times are really beginning to drop! Junquiera posts a 1:00.287 sec. flyer(correction, his time in the last post was a 1:03 lap, NOT a 1:08 sec lap.)

8 drivers have posted a time in the session, and the order is Junquiera, Power, Phillipe, Legge, Zwolsman, Clarke, Ranger, Allmendinger and Pastorelli.

And we have a red flag; Clarke has crashed in the turn-4 area with 9 minutes gone in the session.

Race control reporting that Clarke has exited the car is appears okay; he will be taken by the ChampCar Safety Team to the Reliant Park Care Center to be checked out.

12 minutes gone in the session; several of the top drivers, such as Bourdais, Tracy and Wilson have yet to post qual. laps so far.

QS-1 is still under a red flag situation for a crash involving CTE-HVM's Dan Clarke; as a result, he will lose his fastest lap.....ironically, because of the crash, his team will prepare the backup for Friday and he will provisionally be posted in 17th.

14 minutes now elapsed in QS-1.

17 minutes now gone in the session......race control reporting that safety crews are still cleaning debris from the turn 4 area; there is the chance that the session may be extended in order to allow all the drivers a chance to qualify. Still under red flag conditions.

Race control reporting that, under series rules, all drivers must have 20 minutes of qualifying time in each QS, so they have frozen the clock w/12 minutes, 45 sec. to go.

And the green flag is out; the session resumes w/12:45 remaining. Expect a very busy session ffrom here on out.


Justin Wilson now on a flyer.......he posts a 1:02.367, P5 in the session. 12 minutes remaining.