Open Wheel Wednesday

Probably one of the saddest situations in the unification of American Open Wheel Racing is that of former Champcar Series racer, Paul Tracy. Who is the most recognizable driver to come out of Champcar in the past 10 years? Paul Tracy. Who is the one driver, who should have but does not have a ride in the unified series? None other than Paul Tracy.

Sure he may be a little long in the tooth(he’s 39, which is old by open wheel standards), but he drives balls out – every weekend. This guy has no fear and drives his car on the line(and sometimes over) every single moment.

Now we find out that he will not even be representing Champcar in their swan song at Long Beach. Can you believe it?! The relationship between Tracy and Forsythe, and Forsythe and open wheel racing has soured to the point of bitterness with all fans. It’s one thing to be staunchly against the IRL, it’s quite another to hold your driver in his contract out of spite and then not field cars for the unified series.

Tracy is now free of Forsythe but has been unable to find a ride. Crowds at the St. Petersburg race were treated to a great coming out party for the old Champcar teams and also Graham Rahal, but it rang hollow for me. It was missing Paul Tracy.

It remains to be seen if Paul will be in the Indy 500 or the rest of the unified series schedule. Word has it that Tony George may field another car for him within Vision Racing.

At this point, I don’t even care if it’s a competitive car. I just want Paul Tracy doing what he does best; race.

Monday Morning Quarterback

Monday Morning Quarterback

We finally got to see what our Champcar guys, what is left of them, had for the IRL regulars on a more level playing field – a street course; the bread and butter track of the now defunct Champcar World Series. And let me tell you, things could not have gone better outside of sweeping the podium. Here’s how they fared:

1. Graham Rahal

4. Ernesto Viso

5. Enrique Bernoldi

7. Oriol Servia

8. Will Power

9. Justin Wilson

16. Mario Moraes

20. Franck Perera

24. Bruno Junqueira

This contest had changing conditions throughout; rain at the start, a very wet track, and the added variable of when to change to the faster racing slicks from treaded rain tires. It was evident with Justin Wilsons’ early domination and Graham Rahal’s eventual race win, that Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing work like mad men to gain as much knowledge as possible. KV Racing had a similar showing with Oriol Servia and Will Power consistently in the top 10 throughout the race.

But the biggest surprises of the afternoon had to be HVM’s Racing, Ernest Viso(Hard Charger Award Winner) and Conquest’s Enrique Bernoldi finishing fourth and fifth respectively. While not household names these guys are no strangers to racing. Viso has won two British F3 (B) championships, raced in GP2, and was involved in F1. Bernoldi raced in F3000 and also had a taste in F1 as a test driver. Neither driver looked out of place on the grid, never really putting a wheel wrong.

It’s obvious that Dale Coyne Racing has still got a lot of work to do, but if anyone can find a way to make lemons out of lemonade, it’s this guy.

Other notable takeaways from St. Petersburg:

1. As promising as the street course results were, don’t look for quite the same results in the next oval event. Those teams have not had the testing and telemetry hours necessary to be up to speed with the IRL requlars.
2. After getting a lot of their clocks cleaned by the newcomers, some IRL regulars don’t want it to be an ‘us against them’.
3. Danica is not that good (never was). It’s even more obvious with the influx of more talent.
4. Sponsorship is up and the IRL has a much better marketing group than Champcar ever had. Expect good things.
5. Graham Rahal is the real deal with an exceptional team. He will be in the hunt.

Open Wheel Wednesday

This weekend will see the first street course race of the 2008 Indy Car Series. The St. Petersburg course has a wide open front stretch with a very accommodating turn 1.

There will be a new qualifying format the larger field, which is up to 26 cars. It will be interesting to see if they pull it off; but I think with Tony Cotman involved, only good things can happen. It may also afford the Champcar teams the opportunity to be up the grid.

I have a feeling that KV Racing will make a good show; maybe even qualifying in the top 10. However NHLR has not been able to catch a break, having their Sebring test shortened by inclement weather.

So keep an eye to the TV on Sunday at 2:30pm.

Open Wheel Wednesday

I haven’t had the opportunity to see if there was any fender-less cars racing up until this point, but there is a big one this weekend.

The Formula 1 series kicks off its 2008 campaign from Melbourne, Australia on Saturday night, 11:00pm CST. It’s time to see if Lewis Hamilton is the real deal; he is a fabulous racer and now we’ll see if he can follow through with his #1 status at McLaren. Or will Kimi Raikkonen make it back to back championships at Ferrari. My big deal is to see if Renault has got what it takes to put Fernando Alonso back in the winners circle. He hasn’t been at the top of the chart in pre-season testing, so is the car off or are they sandbagging? It remains to be seen.

Regardless of what you think of F1, whether it is that they are all prima donna ride buyers, or there is too much whine with their cheese, this is high tech on the edge and I can’t wait to watch.