Cart: General

[Regs]

Comments from me?

Oval racing is the dog's bollocks.

I don't know if that is good or bad but it about sums up my knowledge and interest in the auto racing scene

~TB.

 

[TheRob]

An inspiration

Just three months after he had both his legs amputated, Alex Zinardi stood in front of his pears and accepted an award. Considering that he lost 70% of his blood, and was seconds from death, it is great to see him standing.

 

[TheRob]

It's that time again.(Almost)

With the CART season just around the corner there has been some interesting news to date.

First and foremost, the Vancouver race date has been moved to July 28th from the traditional Labour Day long weekend date. This should make for an interesting weekend. It is the week after Portland which is traditionally a wet race. We'll see.

Penske has left CART for the IRL. Not really a big deal, but worthy of note.

Then, this news from TSN.ca(TheRob's favorite source for sports info):

INDIANAPOLIS (CP) - Paul Tracy is returning to the Brickyard. The Toronto driver will be on the starting grid for this year's Indianapolis 500 auto race, Team Green announced Monday. The 86th running of the event is slated for May 26 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

It will mark Tracy's fifth Indy 500 race but first since 1995. Tracy has failed to finish in each of his previous starts but he's eagerly anticipating his return.

"It will be great to get back to the Indy 500," Tracy said in a prepared statement. "I've never had much luck there but I plan on doing everything I can to change that this time.

"It's the greatest race in the world and I want to win it."

Tracy and teammate Dario Franchitti of Scotland will carry Team Green's colours in the race. Franchitti will be making his Indy 500 debut.

Can't wait until March, and the season starts. Hopefully I won't be talking to myself in here this year. Keeper? 5Bigtoes? Buckfast? let's talk racing shall we?

 

[5bigtoes]

Is it time?

Wow!!!!

I can not believe it's here. Car racing, I love it. Should be a good year as well.

I'm going to follow the CART series a bit more this year. F1 of course is my main focus and will be pleased to post alot on that thread with thoughts, and meaningless banter....

As far as Tracy is concerned, well yes! "he's is a Canadian" and well I have never much like the dork....

Can hardly wait!!!! Motor car racin'

 

[TheRob]

CART is back baby!

(Mar 10) MONTERREY, Mexico (AP) - Cristiano da Matta spent the winter wondering if he could keep the momentum his Newman-Haas Racing team built in winning the last two races of 2001. He had no need to worry.

The diminutive Brazilian overcame some late-race frustration Sunday to successfully defend his Monterrey Grand Prix title and become the first CART FedEx Series driver to win three straight races since Juan Montoya in 1999.

"The whole Newman-Haas team had a good off-season and we were really anxious to come into the first race and see if we could keep it going," da Matta said. "We put a lot of pressure on ourselves and it's good to get this off our back and know after five months we can still do it."

Da Matta ran a strong race Sunday on the 2.104-mile, 12-turn course in downtown Fundidora Park, but ran into two problems during the 85-lap event.

First, he collided with Shinji Nakano on lap 38 while trying to lap Nakano and Bruno Junqueira.

"I made a big mistake and tried to pass two lapped cars and got off line," he explained. "It was too exciting and I lost a little piece of the front wing, but the car didn't feel any different."

A combination of running faster than most of his competitors on nearly every lap on the slick racing surface and perfect pit strategy helped da Matta's Toyota-powered Lola to a lead of 18.521 seconds on lap 57.

Struggling to lap the slower cars of Michael Andretti and Adrian Fernandez, though, da Matta's lead steadily diminished as Dario Franchitti's Honda-Reynard charged back into contention.

"Adrian and Michael were doing their own race and you don't want to go a lap down, but they were running about two seconds a lap slower than I was," da Matta said. "I could see my lead shrink and it was very frustrating.

"I had that close call with Nakano before that and I didn't want to get off line again."

By the time Franchitti made his final pit stop on lap 74, the lead had been cut to under five seconds. Da Matta made his last stop on lap 77 and, as he left the pits, Tony Kanaan's car spun and tapped Tora Takagi's from behind, bringing out the second caution flag of the race.

Takagi continued and was between the two leaders when the green flag came back out with three laps remaining. Takagi ignored repeated requests from CART to move out of the way, Franchitti couldn't get past and da Matta drove off to his fifth career victory, beating the runner-up by 1.679-seconds - about 10 car lengths.

The winner averaged 90.544 m.p.h.

"I think our run at the end was spoiled by Takagi," Franchitti said. "We could have given da Matta a good run. I was just disgusted by what he did. CART needs to do something about that kind of situation."

Wally Dallenbach, returning as CART's chief steward after a year in retirement, said he had warned Takagi to let Franchitti and third-place Christian Fittipaldi go by and had also talked with Takagi's team owner Derrick Walker.

"It's definitely an open issue," Dallenbach said. "We're not going to do anything tonight, but we're going to take a long, hard look at it. I talked to the team and they know how I feel about it."

Franchitti was happy, though, with CART's new rule eliminating fuel restrictions and allowing the drivers to race all out for the entire race.

"I really enjoyed this," he said. "We were absolutely flat out all the way and it was magic. It's the way we're supposed to race."

Fittipaldi, da Matta's teammate, wound up third, followed by local favourite Michele Jourdain, in his first drive for Team Rahal and the best of the three Mexicans in the race Sunday.

Team Players teammates Alex Tagliani of Lachenaie, Que., and Patrick Carpentier of Joliette, Que., posted solid results.

Tagliani was fifth, despite losing time during a pit stop when his equipment suffered a hydraulics failure.

"We definitely lost time," said Tagliani. "But the Team Players guys did a great job of compensating for the problem. While the delay cost me the lead, and we had to play catch up, I'm just really happy to finish in the points."

Carpentier, who was dogged by communication errors, was seventh.

"With the new rules I was supposed to come in 27 laps later at the latest, but I ended up running 28 laps before coming in," said Carpentier. "It was a miscommunication and its too bad, but I'm happy with the race result."

Paul Tracy of Toronto finished eighth.

The race got off to a rocky start when rookie Townsend Bell tried to pass both former champion Jimmy Vasser and Kenny Brack on the third turn of the race, igniting a multicar crash that ended the day for all three drivers and caused lesser damaged to several other cars.

"I guess he thought he could win the race on that first lap," Vasser said of Bell. "If Kenny wasn't there, Bell would have blown off the track. So I went to the outside of them and I think someone backed into me.

"There was no way (Bell) was going to make that move stick. He'll learn from it, but it's unfortunate for guys like Brack and myself since we will be running for the championship all year."

Fernandez, one of the top sports figures in Mexico, started out front and led the first 14 laps before being passed for the top spot by Tagliani. Fernandez fell out of contention and wound up a lap behind in 14th.

A great race yesterday. TheRob really likes the new manditory pit stop rules. No more follow the leader to save fuel. All out racing, all the time. Good result for De matta, and good results for all the Canadians.

 

[Yoda]

Butt Head

For a moderator you sure are good at wasting space with your 100 line posts.
Why not just post the link to the article?

Typical brain of a Racing fan.

 

[TheRob]

(Mar 19) tsn.ca - Alex Zanardi will return to the scene of the horrific accident which claimed the use of his legs last year.

Zanardi has agreed to be the starter for the German 500 CART event at Lausitzring this September.

Zanardi, who was leading last year's race, was leaving pit road and rejoining the race when he spun on the track. Canadian Alex Tagliani slammed into his car, slicing it in half. Zanardi eventually had both legs amputated. He only recently began walking again with the use of artificial limbs.

It's good to see Zinardi staying involved in the sport after what happend.

 

[TheRob]

(Apr 15) LONG BEACH, California (Ticker) -- CART has fined Team Motorola and race winner Michael Andretti $20,000 following a post-race inspection failed at Sunday's Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.

The infraction discovered was that Andretti's Honda/Reynard did not meet the minimum underbody height requirement known as the "2-inch rule". Andretti's car conformed to the rule in a pre-race inspection.

In accordance with CART rule 10.2.1, the penalty was issued by CART director of technology and competition Lee Dykstra with the concurrence of the race CART stewards.

Team Motorola and Andretti retain the victory and the 21 points earned. It was Andretti's 42nd career CART victory which is top among active drivers.

How can CART become a respected orginization when it lets guys who cheat keep victories? Andretti is the biggest whiner in the series, and one of the bigger names so obviously they wouldn't take it away from him, but what does this say to the other drivers? It's OK to cheat? We'll only fine you? Seems like CART always tend to take one step forward, and then three steps back.

The Grand Prix of Long Beach was a good race though. Enough passing and drama to make it semi exciting. Too many yellow flags for TheRob's liking though. A terrible day for the Canadians as well. Tracey finished ninth, while Tagliani, and Carpentier didn't finish. Next up, Motegi Japan.

 

[TheRob]

After being ripped off last week at Indianaplois, Paul Tracy dominated the CART race today at The Millwakee Mile. He led something like 192 of the 250 laps. A dominating win for a good Canadian kid. Maybe getting burned last week has given him a good kick in the arse, and this could be a banner year for him. Here's hoping?

The two other Canadians, Tagliani, and Carpentier both didn't finish.

 

[SC]

is this where you were,

in mind and spirit during our Dragooons game?

+SCsaysBACKTOTOPICSC

 

[TheRob]

The saga finally ends.

(Jul 3) tsn.ca - Indy Racing League president Tony George has denied Paul Tracy and Team Green's appeal of the final results of the 2002 Indianapolis 500.

George's ruling upholds the original decision reached by IRL officials immediately following the May 26 race.

In an 11-page document explaining his reasons for the decision, George said there was "ample evidence" to support the fact that Castroneves was ahead of Tracy when an incident occurred on the track, bringing out the yellow caution period.

George added that Team Green's basis for the appeal, which was the position of the cars on the track at the time the caution lights came on, is a "judgment call and is not protestable nor appealable under the Rule Book."

No surprise really. No way George was going to rule against Penske. Hopefully the other CART guys will take note, and boycott this race in the future.

 

[TheRob]

CLEVELAND (CP) - Patrick Carpentier followed up his worst weekend of the year with his best.

Carpentier, from Joliette, Que., beset by mechanical problems last week in Toronto, earned his second career victory with a win at the Marconi Grand Prix of Cleveland on Sunday.

``Toronto was such a tough weekend, we had electronics problems ... we didn't have 10 minutes in any practice session where the car functioned properly,'' Carpentier, who took the lead on Lap 49 when defending champion Dario Franchitti broke down, said on a conference call.

``This weekend I was not expecting (to win) but the engineers did a fantastic job on the engine. We had a perfect weekend.''

The win was especially sweet for Carpentier because it ended Cristiano da Matta's record-tying CART winning streak at four races. Al Unser Jr. (1990) and Alex Zanardi (1998) had previously accomplished the feat.

The 30-year-old Canadian, who now makes his home in Las Vegas, hit the gas and spun donuts to celebrate his first win on a road course. He vowed to ``try and do it again'' at CART's next race _ the Vancouver Molson Indy on July 28.

``I'm mostly happy for the team,'' Carpentier said. ``It just takes so much pressure away from them.''

He won by 17.059 seconds over Michael Andretti, and 28.295 seconds over Toronto's Paul Tracy.

``It was a great race for the whole (KOOL Green) team and I'm really happy for (Carpentier),'' said Tracy.

Kenny Brack was fourth, and Carpentier's teammate, Alex Tagliani of Lachenaie, Que., was fifth.

Carpentier ``drove a great race and the win is great for Team Player's,'' said Tagliani.

Caprentier started alongside da Matta on the front row, and averaged 120.998 miles per hour on the temporary Burke Lakefront Airport course.

Da Matta has dominated the circuit all season. But the Brazilian was done after just 21 laps because of an electrical problem in his engine.

``It's a huge shame,'' da Matta said. ``What happened was just one of those things in racing.

``I'm not disappointed about not setting a new record. The streak doesn't mean anything to me. The championship is my goal.''

The championship is still his to lose. Despite his early exit, da Matta leads the standings through eight races with 120 points - 50 more than Bruno Junqueira and 56 more than Franchitti. Carpentier surged from ninth to a fourth-place tie, but still trails da Matta by 78 points. Tagliani is tied for ninth and Tracey is 12th.

Carpentier took advantage of a lighter fuel load to build a lengthy lead when Franchitti went into the pits to refuel. Carpentier had excellent work from his pit crew.

His surprising win comes only a week after struggling to a 10th-place finish at the Toronto Molson Indy.

``It was one of the worst weekends that Team Player's has had in the last five years,'' Carpentier said. ``We had a problem in every qualifying session, the practices, everything.

``This weekend, everything was perfect. It was completely the opposite of Toronto.''

However, he did have an early problem as his dashboard electrical system malfunctioned and he was unable to gauge how his car was performing.

He was able to take care of the problem, and soon after got another break when da Matta, the pole sitter and overwhelming favourite, went out.

``Man, I was so disappointed you couldn't believe it,'' Carpentier said jokingly.

For the first 20 laps, the 28-year-old da Matta, who won two bonus points during qualifying for the race, looked to be on his way to making history.

He built a 2.3-second lead over Franchitti, with Carpentier third, and his No. 6 Toyota-powered Lola seemed to be racing toward another win when he unexpectedly pitted, telling his crew over the on-board radio that he didn't know what was wrong.

``The car started losing power,'' da Matta said.

After getting fuel and new tires, he returned to the track, but it wasn't long before his streak went up in a puff of greyish-blue exhaust smoke on the back straightaway.

Carpentier's first victory was the Michigan 500 last year and his best result this season going into Sunday's race was fourth in Japan.

``I'll be honest with you,'' Carpentier said. ``If he didn't break down, he would have been really tough to catch. He was pulling away with every lap.''

A good day for Canada at the track. Next up, Vancouver. Anyone going? TheRob will be there as usual. Good beers, good birds, good times.

 

[TheRob]

Good start for Tracy.

Paul Tracy set the quick time to capture the provisional pole in qualifying Friday for Sunday's Molson Indy Vancouver. The race is Round 10 of the 2002 CART FedEx Championship Series. Tracy toured the Concord Pacific Place in the KOOL Honda/Lola with a top time of 61.888 seconds, good for an average speed of 103.600 miles per hour.

Like I said above, this is a good start for Tracy. The other Canadians, Tagliani and Carpentier were in 8th and 9th. Should be another interesting session tomorrow.

 

[TheRob]

VANCOUVER (CP) - It was a podium made in heaven, says Tony Kanaan.

Dario Franchitti won the crash-studded Vancouver Molson Indy CART race Sunday and dedicated the victory to his close friend Greg Moore, the Maple Ridge, B.C., driver killed in the last CART race of 1999.

It was two years later than he'd planned, said Franchitti, who came second here in 2000 behind Team Kool Green teammate Paul Tracy of Toronto.

This year, the positions were reversed.

``A couple of years ago I really wanted to win the race as a mark of respect for Greg ... but we screwed up at the last moment in the last pit stop,'' he said.

``So today it's good to finally get the job done. It means a lot for me to be able to win up here. I knew that if he was here we'd be out partying tonight.''

Polesitter Christian da Matta dropped out with a failed driveshaft but retained his lead in the CART FedEx series championship race with 122 points.

Franchitti vaulted to second with 84 points and Michel Jourdain and Bruno Junqueira are tied at third with 74 points.

Patrick Carpentier's surprising fifth-place finish here, after starting 16th, moved him to fifth in the title hunt.

Tracy's podium enabled him to leap to sixth from 11th.

Tracy led much of the race but lost top spot to Franchitti thanks to different pit-stop strategies.

An accident with eight laps left brought out a red flag that stopped the race for about 20 minutes.

That set the stage for a sprint to the finish that saw Franchitti hold off Tracy and the Brazilian Kanaan drive his Pioneer/Worldcom entry to third place.

Moore, Franchitti, Kanaan and now-idle Max Papis were CART's brat pack. They often came to Vancouver to visit, partied together on the circuit and remain close to Moore's father and race mentor, Ric.

Kanaan, who's had a season plagued by mechanical problems, said he saw Moore's hand in the finish in his home town.

``I think he organized this podium here today,'' he said. ``Every year when we come here it's a tough weekend for us. Every year when we do the party, we know he's around.

``To see Ric Moore at the podium, how happy he was, he was just filled with emotion,'' said Tracy. ``That was great, really, really great.''

Kanaan fended off a challenge by Jourdain, who finished fourth.

Carpentier capitalized on yellow flags to make timely pit stops and move up but his late-race spin triggered the accident that brought out the red flag.

``I'd love to say I could see it coming and I saved it but it was just a bit of luck,'' said Carpentier. ``I hit the wall and pushed the clutch so it wouldn't stall and the front end just came back.''

Though he escaped unscathed, Carpentier's Player's-Forsythe teammate Alex Tagliani of Lachenaie, Que., was hit by Mexican Adrian Ferandez as both tried to avoid Carpentier.

Ferandez's car hit Tagliani, then the wall, and the Quebec driver's front suspension gave out seconds later.

``Earlier in the race I let Pat by because he was faster then I end up in this situation because of his mistake,'' an angry Tagliani said. ``It makes me upset.''

Fernandez suffered only a bruised hip but was taken to hospital for a checkup. The accident also claimed Junqueira, who had been second behind da Matta in the CART points race.

Despite the crash, Tagliani still collected points for seventh place.

Only seven of the 18 cars that started the race were running at the checkered flag.

An accident at the first turn took out American Jimmy Vasser and Kenny Brack of Sweden.

``I got on the brakes to the inside in turn one and they just locked up,'' said Vasser, who collected Brack and Michael Andretti in the incident. ``I just spun on my own.''

Andretti, who announced last week he had bought control of Team Green, was able to continue despite falling behind six laps while his pit crew repaired heavy damage and managed to finish sixth.

The red-flag incident set the stage for a final shootout between Franchitti, who won here in 1998, and Tracy. But neither was willing to throw away points.

``There wasn't really any decision but I knew what my position was because I knew what Dario's position was in 2000 after he had a problem in the pits,'' said Tracy.

With only a handful of laps remaining, the usually hard-charging Tracy said trying to overtake on cold tires was too risky.

``I needed to get the 17 points today,'' he said. ``I wasn't going to take a big risk and throw it all away because all of the frontrunners were out of the race pretty much.''

Neither Tracy nor Franchitti have signed contracts yet for next year.

Tracy said the team's growing consistency builds momentum as the series goes into a crucial four-week, four-race schedule.

``Now we're back in the game,'' he said. ``We didn't need to have a mistake today and spoil the momentum, so we can build on this.

``This next month is going to be crucial for the championship.''

Three-day attendance at the race totalled 161,728 - 66,134 on race day.

It was good to see Greg Moores buddies on the podium.

Not a bad race actually apart from all the attrition. There was some passing, too many accidents, and I liked the fact that CART stopped the race 7 laps from the end so that they could clean up an accident instead of finishing under yellow. Great move from a fans perspective. Vancouver seemed to like the new dates as well. CART should run races in every Canadian city. The series would survive for sure. Oh well, another year, another great race.

 

[Dude]

CART RIP

TheRob,

You’re talking to yourself here, and I’m procrastinating like hell in doing any real work this morning, so I’ll help you out…

I’m a casual racing fan: I respect what the guys do, the fitness level, level of skill, and level of preparation it takes to compete. I like road formats as well, so long as you can create a course that has passing. I think I’d really miss the Vancouver stop if Cart folded, and nobody picked up the pieces.

It seems that CART just isn’t the same without the Indy 500. Kind of like the NHL without the Stanley cup, no? What do you see happening? I see CART and IRL heading towards a collision course, with CART loosing. I see all the talk of letters of intent and such just as being a frail smokescreen. The fact is, CART will be in no position to hold any team to a letter of intent of any sort. With the money at stake, and dwindling sponsorship dollars, teams will choose whatever series gets them the best bang for their buck, and eventually settle out of court with CART for far less than it would cost to run in both series.

I hope I’m wrong. If I’m not, I hope the IRL sees the benefit of grabbing the TO, Vancouver, and Montreal stops.

 

[TheRob]

Tracy to Players?

Paul Tracy is apparently set to join Player's Forsythe Racing in 2003.

ESPN.com reports that Tracy has recieved an offer to remain in CART next year with the Canadian-backed team.

"It's not done yet but Player's made me a great offer," said Tracy.

Neil Micklewright, vice president of operations for Player's, admits the team have opened talks with the Scarborough, Ontario native.

"There have been discussions with Paul and both our current drivers," said Micklewright. "Hopefully, in the next week to 10 days we'll be able to announce our lineup for 2003."

Tracy's addition is expected to come at the expense of Patrick Carpentier, whose contract with Player's is set to expire at the end of the season. The two sides have been talking about a new deal but recent comments suggest Carpentier is prepared to go elsewhere next year, possibly the Indy Racing League.

Tracy's CART future was thrown into doubt following the sale of Team KOOL Green to Michael Andretti. While CART's all-time winningest driver has yet to announce his future plans, it's believed Andretti will make the switch to the IRL next year, something Tracy was not keen on doing.

"I had a meeting with Michael, Kim (Green) and Kevin and they want me to stay with their team but they say they still don't know what they're doing next year," Tracy tells ESPN.com.

"I've made my living in CART for the past 12 years. CART is going through some hard times right now but I'm not going to jump off the bandwagon because the grass is greener, or supposedly greener, on the other side. I owe it to CART, its fans and myself to help push it forward and that's what I intend to do."

Player's, which has been involved in developing Canadian drivers for over four decades, is looking to make a major push for the championship next year before Canadian tobacco laws restrict the amount of advertising they will be allowed to do in sports.

 

[Dude]

Do you ever comment in here, or just post articles?

 

[TheRob]

Does it matter? Nobody reads it anyway.

 

[Dude]

I guess not...except I made a nice long post ot give you, an avid fan, something to respond to. It's the opinions on TTP that make things interesting.

 

[TheRob]

You want a comment? Here is what I think. CART will fold up in two years. That's two years. Not next year, but the year after. Everyone will then go to the IRL, and then before you know it, the IRL will be running on street/road courses as well as ovals. What are you left with? CART.

How's that for a comment?

TheRobwhoisstillbitterwithDude.