2006 CCWS Rd.8--West Edmonton Mall Grand Prix of Edmonton

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Now that Toronto is in the rearview mirrors, the teams and drivers of the Champ Car World Series travel west, to the City of Champions, Edmonton, Alberta for the West Edmonton Mall Grand Prix of Edmonton. In their inaugural visit, then-RuSport driver A.J. Allmendinger seemed to have the race won.....until he gift-wrapped a victory to Sebastien Bourdais courtesy of A.J. slapping the turn 11-12 walls, ending his day mere laps from a victory. Now with Forsythe Championship Racing, Allmendinger's won three straight races(Portland, Cleveland and Toronto) and now sets his sights on the one that got away. Can he equal Bourdais' four-win streak, or will someone else claim the top step on the podium?

Here is the event schedule for the race weekend.......
(note: all times Canadian Mtn. Time/U.S. MDT, -2 hrs U.S. EDT, -6 hrs GMT)

Practice Session #1}12:15 pm, 21 July 2006
Practice Session #2}4:00 pm, 21 July 2006
Qualifying Session #1}4:25 pm, 21 July 2006
Practice Session #3}12:30 pm, 22 July 2006
Practice Session #4}4:00 pm, 22 July 2006
Qualifying Session #2}4:20 pm, 22 July 2006
Final Practice Session}10:00 am, 23 July 2006
West Edmonton Mall Grand Prix of Edmonton}1:00 pm, 23 July 2006

As always, I'll have qual. and race reviews, observations, commentaries, and whatever passes by the scoring/timing stands....

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Here are the television and radio broadcast channels for the Edmonton round..............

US television}CBS Sports, 3:00 pm EDT/23 July 2006
Canadian television}live--Global TV, 3:00 pm EDT/23 July 2006; tape-delayed--TSN(times tba)

Radio(North America)........Champ Car Radio Network, CBC Sports Radio

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After missing the last round in Toronto due to sponsorship woes, Rocketsports Racing confirmed Tuesday that Dutch driver Nicky Pastorelli will be back with the team in the #8 Rocketsport entry for the upcoming round; future decisions for the remainder of the season will be set race by race.

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Despite spinning in the turn 11-12 carousel, Forsythe Championship Racing's A.J. Allmendinger(#7 Indeck/Forsythe FC/L) set the fastest time in the 90-minute opening session, besting former RuSport teammate Justin Wilson(#9 CDW FC/L) by .327 seconds. Rounding out the top-5 were last year's winner, Sebastien Bourdais, then rival Paul. Tracy and Team Australia's Will Power.

Top-5 times from the opening practice session.............
1--A.J. Allmendinger, 1:00.463 sec
2--Justin Wilson, 1:00.790 sec
3--Sebastien Bourdais, 1:00.796 sec
4--Paul Tracy, 1:01.008 sec
5--(R)Will Power, 1:01.184 sec

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What a difference a year makes.......last year, Sebastien Bourdais(#1 McDonald's FC/L) struggled in qualifying, starting 10th in last year's inaugural race in Edmonton; this year, he will start no worse than second, as he edged out A.J. Allmendinger for the porvisional pole in the QS-1 session Friday afternoon. Here is the provisional top-5...........

1}S. Bourdais, Newman-Haas......................59.895 sec
2}A.J. Allmendinger, FCR...........................1:00.067 sec
3}B. Junquiera, Newman-Haas....................1:00.085 sec
4}J. Wilson, RuSport..................................1:00.251 sec
5}C. da Matta, RuSport..............................1:00.412 sec

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........Its' weekends like these that show why it pays to use those frequent flyer miles................

Let's see.............currently enroute from Edmonton to Milwaukee for Saturday's trackside action; here's a glimpse of what happened back in Gretzky's 'ole stompin' grounds.......

1}Am I getting to you? That's the sentiment current series champion Sebastien Bourdais believes is happeneing over at Forsythe Championship Racing, after hearing Paul Tracy declare to the world that, rhetorically speaking, its' "checkers or wreckers" time for him the remainder of the season, to which SeaBass, never one to leave a good chance to pip his rival, remarked to reporters that since A.J. Allmendinger's arrived at Forsythe, the American's "getting in Tracy's head". Remember, everyone, its', to quote PT, "checkers or wreckers" time......or is it?

2}He's got........that RuSport look.......... With apologies to the Everly Brothers, A. J. Allmendinger had an interesting conversation with FCR VP-Operations Neil Micklewright Friday afternoon after spinning in turn 1 and crashing into the concrete retaining barriers. When he returned to the pits, he got chewed out a little bilt by Micklewright, but as Mickelwright put it........

A.J. came back with that 'RuSport' look. I said, 'What the hell's wrong with you? You break it, we'll fix it, and you'll win Sunday.

Confidence building 101, hmmm?

3}Just like old times, heh? For rookies Charles Zwolsman and Katherine Legge, Friday's first practice session was almost a mirror image of their Atlantics' race last year, in which the Flying Dutchman did everything but throw the kitchen sink at the Brit, only to watch her use another car to get around him. In the practice session, the same thing happened again; this time, the unlucky driver was none other that PT himself, who wondered what they were doing. Maybe A.J. has gotten into his head, if he's wondering those thoughts................

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After taking the provisional pole on Friday, what, possibly, could current series champion Sebastien Bourdais do for an encore...........why, win the pole in Saturday qualifying, of course! A combination of fast qual. laps and mistakes by competitors allowed the Frenchman to capture the pole for Sunday's West Edmonton Mall Grand Prix of Edmonton, allowing him to extend his points lead over rival A.J. Allmendinger by another point; the lead currently stands at 24. Here is the starting lineup for the race.......

1}Sebastien Bourdais, #1 McDonald's FC/L.....................58.560 sec
2}Paul Tracy, #3 Indeck/Forsythe FC/L..........................58.622 sec

3}Justin Wilson, #9 CDW FC/L.......................................58.665 sec
4}A.J. Allmendinger, #7 Indeck/Forsythe FC/L.................58.893 sec

5}Oriol Servia, #6 Gulfstream FC/L.................................59.324 sec
6}Nelson Phillipe, #4 Sherwin-Williams FC/L.....................59.510 sec

7}(R)Will Power, #5 Aussie Vineyards FC/L......................59.560 sec
8}Andrew Ranger, #27 MiJack-Tide FC/L..........................1:00.071 sec

9}Bruno Junquiera, #2 Hole in the Wall Camps FC/L..........1:00.085 sec
10}Mario Dominguez, #11 Pride of Mexico FC/L.................1:00.106 sec

11}Alex Tagliani, #15 Aussie Vineyards FC/L.....................1:00.110 sec
12}(R)Jan Heylen, #19 Diamall/Muermans FC/L.................1:00.199 sec

13}(R)Charles Zwolsman, #34 Golden Palace.com FC/L......1:00.291 sec
14}Cristiano da Matta, #10 Western Union FC/L..................1:00.305 sec

15}(R)Katherine Legge, #20 Bell Micro FC/L........................1:00.358 sec
16}(R)Nicky Pastorelli, #8 Bavaria City Racing FC/L.............1:00.978 sec

17}(R)Dan Clarke, #14 CTE Racing FC/L.............................1:01.215 sec
18}(R)Tonis Kasemets, #18 Flexovits Abrasives FC/L............1:01.704 sec


Pre-race observations in the morning.....................

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With racetime about 2 hours away, here are some of the things floating around the weekend notebook.................

1}Nice recoveries, gentlemen...............Two drivers made great recoveries on the starting grid from QS-1 to QS-2; Forsythe's A.J. Allmendinger went from 17th on Friday up to 4th for the race. The other major upward move came from Team Australia's Will Power, who failed to post a time in QS-1 after a hard crash in Fri. practice(credited w/a prov. 18th), then put the 7th-fastest time in the bank for the #5 Aussie Vineyards car.

2}Could it happen? I've often said that, if a merger btwn. the IRL and ChampCar doesn't occur, the next best thing could be if teams move from one series to the other. According to the ar1.com rumors page, that could happen, and three teams are being mentioned.......Marlboro-Team Penske, Target/Ganassi Racing, and Rahal-Letterman Racing. And the source of that was none other than RLR co-owner Bobby Rahal, who's in Edmonton to watch son Graham race in the Atlantic Championship. When asked, he was quoted as saying "Penske, Ganassi or ourselves could be 50-50 if a merger doesn't happen (in 2007)."

3}More blues...............for newman-Haas Racing's Bruno Junquiera, it's been a near-abysmal season, and yesterday was no exception; for the third time this year, he had to use his QS-1 time to post his fastest qual. time for the race grid. Unlike the first two times, yesterday was his fault, as he suffered minor damage to the car trying to push for a pole-winning time.......instead, he'll start 9th.

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~~3 different drivers paced the field in Sunday's race..........Sebastien Bourdais led 55 laps, racewinner Justin Wilson led 28 laps and Forsythe's Paul Tracy led 2 laps

~~4 caution periods in the race, all caused by on-track contact btwn. cars
CP-1: lap 1-3 btwn Junquiera and da Matta)
CP-2: lap 5-9 btwn Pastorelli and Heylen
CP-3: lap 65-69 involving Tagliani
CP-4: lap 70-72 involving Phillipe

Top-10 results from the race.....................
1st}#9 Justin Wilson.............................................85 laps
2nd}#1 Sebastien Bourdais...................................-5.319 sec
3rd}#7 A.J. Allmendinger.......................................-9.946 sec
4th}#6 Oriol Servia...............................................-12.650 sec
5th}#3 Paul Tracy.................................................-16.609 sec
6th}(R)#5 Will Power.............................................-27.803 sec
7th}#27 Andrew Ranger.........................................-1 lap
8th}#19 Mario Dominguez.......................................-1 lap
9th}(R)#14 Dan Clarke...........................................-1 lap
10th}(R)#34 Charles Zwolsman...............................-3 laps

Next round................Taylor Woodrow Grand Prix of San Jose, 28-30 July 2006