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Zamboni25
champcarguru
Joined: 08 Nov 2005
Posts: 1207
Location: skating on thin ice at Lake Placid
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 Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2006 3:32 pm Post subject: Portland GP ?! |
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| SPEEDtv wrote: |
Justin Wilson Tops Portland Practice 1
Wilson beat Bourdais by 0.009 in a session highlighted by Allmendinger's strong Forsythe debut. (LAT Photo)
Justin Wilson, robbed of a seemingly certain win at PIR by mechanical failure last year, carried on RuSPORT's good form on permanent road courses by topping the charts on the first practice session for this weekend's Champ Car Grand Prix of Portland. With a best lap of 58.430, Wilson beat championship points leader Sebastien Bourdais (Newman/Haas) by just 0.009 in a 75-minute session that started under wet conditions but ended with a mostly dry racing surface.
If the top-two were hardly a surprise, A.J. Allmendinger raised eyebrows with a strong outing in his Forsythe debut, beating new teammate Paul Tracy to third-fastest, 0.4s behind Wilson and 0.052 ahead of the Canadian. Team Australia's Will Power completed the top-five to be the session's fastest rookie.
Adding a little more irony to this week's musical chairs involving Allmendinger, Cristiano da Matta and Mario Dominguez, the Mexican, driving the No.19 car steered by CDM in the first four races of the year, managed to lap PIR's 1.96-mile layout 0.010 faster than the Brazilian. Dominguez ended up 11th-best, one spot ahead of the new RuSPORT recruit.
Newcomer Tonis Kasemets, the reigning Atlantic championship runner-up, was the slowest of the 18-car field aboard Rocketsports' No.18 Lola-Ford. His teammate Nicky Pastorelli managed the 14th time.
Champ Car Grand Prix of Portland - Practice 1 results:
1) Justin Wilson, RuSPORT, 58.430
2) Sebastien Bourdais, Newman/Haas, 58.439 + 0.009
3) AJ Allmendinger, Forsythe, 58.887 + 0.457
4) Paul Tracy, Forsythe, 58.939 + 0.509
5) Will Power, Team Australia, 59.299 + 0.869
6) Oriol Servia, PKV, 59.352 + 0.922
7) Bruno Junqueira, Newman/Haas, 59.365 + 0.935
8 ) Nelson Philippe, CTE-HVM, 59.575 + 1.145
9) Dan Clarke, CTE-HVM, 59.588 + 1.158
10) Alex Tagliani, Team Australia, 59.653 + 1.223
11) Mario Dominguez, Dale Coyne, 59.687 + 1.257
12) Cristiano da Matta, RuSPORT, 59.697 + 1.267
13) Andrew Ranger, Conquest, 1:00.324 + 1.894
14) Nicky Pastorelli, Rocketsports, 1:00.817 + 2.387
15) Katherine Legge, PKV, 1:00.839 + 2.409
16) Charles Zwolsman, Conquest, 1:00.850 + 2.420
17) Jan Heylen, Dale Coyne, 1:00.891 + 2.461
18 ) Tonis Kasemets, Rocketsports, 1:01.060 + 2.630 |
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Cowboy
champcarmanic
Joined: 18 May 2005
Posts: 908
Location: Alberta, Canada
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| Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2006 4:16 pm Post subject: |
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AJ did pretty good for his first outing in the Forsythe car, I expected him around 10th just getting used to the car. Good job. Dominguez and DaMatta were where I expected from first practise.
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Zamboni25
champcarguru
Joined: 08 Nov 2005
Posts: 1207
Location: skating on thin ice at Lake Placid
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| Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2006 9:17 pm Post subject: |
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| SPEEDtv wrote: |
Allmendinger Over Bourdais for Friday Portland Pole
Allmendinger outshone the man who replaced him at RuSPORT...and everyone else in his first qualifying session for Forsythe. (LAT photo)
A.J. Allmendinger certainly out a smile on Jerry Forsythe's face this Friday, as the 24-year old Californian - the only American competing full-time in the Champ Car World Series - produced a last-minute lap to pip Sebastien Bourdais off the provisional pole for Sunday's Champ Car Grand Prix of Portland.
Allmendinger secured an extra point an a front-row spot for race day with a best lap of 58.378 around PIR's 1.96-mile layout, thus outpacing the Newman/Haas ace by just 0.086. A.J.'s new teammate Paul Tracy completed the top-three, but Allmendinger and Bourdais were on a class apart: the Canadian was over 0.7s slower than his former go-karting protege.
"I think from the start of the weekend, including yesterday, Forsythe has done a great job to get me here and get me in the car and fitted correctly," Allmendinger praised. "More than anything, the team just really made me feel like at home, they're excited to have me here.
"For the first time in a while, I was able to come to the track today and have fun and be happy and really enjoy myself."
Allmendinger's current deal with Forsythe is for two races only, but he hopes to have impressed his prospective full-time employers: "Obviously, there's still a lot of weekend left, there's still a lot of things we're going to go through," he added. "[But] it starts a process of showing them how hard I'm going to work and how much I want to be here at Forsythe."
Team Australia showed consistent pace as Will Power and Alex Tagliani - who had missed the Milwaukee race two weeks ago due to a heavy practice crash - completed the top-five.
Justin Wilson, who had paced this morning's 75-minute practice session, could do no better than sixth this time around. The Briton ended up four spots ahead of new RuSPORT teammate Cristiano da Matta, who was tenth. The two CTE cars of Nelson Philippe and Dan Clarke and PKV's Oriol Servia slotted in between.
Mario Dominguez managed the 15th time in his debut for Dale Coyne, while newcomer Tonis Kasemets was 18th and last aboard the No.18 Rocketsports car.
A.J. Allmendinger (LAT Photo)
Champ Car Grand Prix of Portland - Qualifying 1 results:
1) A.J. Allmendinger, Forsythe, 58.378
2) Sebastien Bourdais, Newman/Haas, 58.464 + 0.086
3) Paul Tracy, Forsythe, 59.121 + 0.743
4) Will Power, Team Australia, 59.160 + 0.782
5) Alex Tagliani, Team Australia, 59.275 + 0.897
6) Justin Wilson, RuSPORT, 59.283 + 0.905
7) Nelson Philippe, CTE-HVM, 59.354 + 0.976
8 ) Dan Clarke, CTE-HVM, 59.416 + 1.038
9) Oriol Servia, PKV, 59.485 + 1.107
10) Cristiano da Matta, RuSPORT, 59.575 + 1.197
11) Bruno Junqueira, Newman/Haas 59.576 + 1.198
12) Andrew Ranger, Conquest, 59.633 + 1.255
13) Jan Heylen, Dale Coyne, 59.861 + 1.483
14) Katherine Legge, PKV, 59.903 + 1.525
15) Mario Dominguez, Dale Coyne, 1:00.035 + 1.657
16) Nicky Pastorelli, Rocketsports, 1:00.333 + 1.955
17) Charles Zwolsman, Conquest, 1:00.612 + 2.234
18 ) Tonis Kasemets, Rocketsports, 1:01.089 + 2.711 |
Maybe this Dinger three-way swap is better than we expected ?!...  
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Zamboni25
champcarguru
Joined: 08 Nov 2005
Posts: 1207
Location: skating on thin ice at Lake Placid
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| Posted: Sat Jun 17, 2006 7:17 pm Post subject: |
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| SPEEDtv wrote: |
Junqueira Edges Allmendinger for Portland Pole
Junqueira beat Allmendinger by just 0.008, with Bourdais only another 0.007 further back. (LAT Photo)
After a difficult start to his season - he currently lies 16th in the standings, 101 points behind Newman/Haas teammate Sebastien Bourdais - Bruno Junqueira finally began making some good headlines in '06 by clinching the pole position for tomorrow's Champ Car Grand Prix of Portland, round five of the 2006 campaign.
Earned with a last-minute lap, Junqueira's pole was an upset of sorts, as Forsythe's A.J. Allmendinger entered the session as the favorite to qualify on P1 after leading yesterday's first round of qualifying and the morning practice today. In the end, the Brazilian managed to beat the American by a mere 0.008, which would translate as inches on PIR's 1.96-mile layout.
"I'm very happy for myself and for the whole Newman/Haas team," Junqueira said. "Yesterday it was very difficult, we were very much off the pace, [but] I got the help of Sebastien and his team. We changed the setup a lot towards his setup, and the car was much better this morning.
"After my accident [at the Indianapolis 500 last year], it's the first time I'm on the pole, so I'm quite happy with that."
Rather than lamenting the "lost" pole, Allmendinger praised his new team: "Forsythe this whole weekend has been fantastic," he said.
"Right out of the box, they've given me a good car. Going into qualifying, I think we all knew it was kind of just going to be up in the air for whoever could go in to get pole. Taking the gamble yesterday with going on the reds to get pole, we knew that was going to be a little disadvantage today because we weren't going to have two red tires."
In what turned out to be a very closely fought session, Bourdais ended up third, only 0.007 behind Allmendinger.
"Well, we were fifteen-thousandths short; that's about as close as I can remember any qualifying session I ever did," the Frenchman admitted. "I'm very happy for Bruno. I think he's been through an extremely rough time, and it's good to see him back up there."
Justin Wilson, last year's pole winner, qualified fourth, while his new RuSPORT teammate Cristiano da Matta, the defending Portland race victor, completed the top-five.
CTE-HVM's Dan Clarke scored his best qualifying result to date to be the highest-placed rookie in the sixth spot.
Champ Car Grand Prix of Portland - Qualifying 2 results:
1) Bruno Junqueira, Newman/Haas, 57.631
2) A.J. Allmendinger, Forsythe, 57.639 + 0.008
3) Sebastien Bourdais, Newman/Haas, 57.646 + 0.015
4) Justin Wilson, RuSPORT, 57.818 + 0.187
5) Cristiano da Matta, RuSPORT, 58.018 + 0.387
6) Dan Clarke, CTE-HVM, 58.214 + 0.583
7) Will Power, Team Australia, 58.244 + 0.613
8 ) Nelson Philippe, CTE-HVM, 58.297 + 0.666
9) Alex Tagliani, Team Australia, 58.328 + 0.697
10) Paul Tracy, Forsythe, 58.376 + 0.745
11) Nicky Pastorelli, Rocketsports, 58.826 + 1.195
12) Oriol Servia, PKV, 58.830 + 1.199
13) Andrew Ranger, Conquest, 58.885 + 1.254
14) Mario Dominguez, Dale Coyne, 59.233 + 1.602
15) Katherine Legge, PKV, 59.297 + 1.666
16) Charles Zwolsman, Conquest, 59.315 + 1.684
17) Jan Heylen, Dale Coyne, 59.589 + 1.958
18 ) Tonis Kasemets, Rocketsports, 1:00.607 + 2.976 |
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zerO
champcarslut
Joined: 24 Jul 2004
Posts: 6575
Location: Where The Buffalo Roam & Close to the edge down by the ocean...
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| Posted: Sun Jun 18, 2006 3:15 am Post subject: |
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| Champ Car Fan wrote: | | David Phillips of SPEEDtv wrote: |
Portland Champ Car Notebook - Saturday
Clarke: plugged into both sides. (LAT photo)
CONSENSUS BUILDING ?
One of the busiest people in the PIR paddock yesterday and today has been Robert Clarke, president of Honda Performance Development. Flying "under the radar" in a non-Honda gear (OK, he donned a subtly embroidered Honda jacket this morning in deference to the cool Portland weather), Clarke is making the rounds speaking with all of the Champ Car team owners and also paid a couple of visits to Dan Davis, director of Ford Racing Technology, at the Ford hospitality unit.
The topic of conversation? What else but the potential merger of Champ Car and the Indy Racing League, a merger that was a hot topic of discussion in March, April and May but which has seemingly lost momentum in recent weeks . . . but which is still very much desired by most team owners, sponsors and manufacturers in both the Champ Car and IRL paddocks.
"We talked about a whole range of subjects involved that would be involved in a merger," said one team owner. "Robert was simply feeling us out on the issues be it chassis, engines, schedules, you name it, to see gauge our preferences and to see what the potential road blocks or deal breakers are from our standpoint. Taking a survey, if you will. Am I hell bent on the Panoz chassis? What kind of balance between ovals and road courses would I like to see in the schedule?
"I told him, and I suspect a lot of my colleagues said the same, that while I have my preferences, at the end of the day, the main issue is to get the series merged. Let's not have some minor issue keep us from moving forward.
"For example, the issue of power sharing. Somewhere along the line it was proposed that a certain individual be named as a sort of arbitrator to sort out issues where Tony (George) and Kevin (Kalkhoven) disagreed. The word going around is that one of them didn't feel comfortable with that particular individual. OK, fair enough, but let's not allow the whole process to break down over something like that. If we all put our heads together we could come up with a list of 10 candidates for the 'arbitrator' and surely both sides can agree on one of those 10 or maybe even a three-person arbitration committee."
Clarke echoed those thoughts.
"I'm talking to the team owners in both series," he said. "I came here with Kevin's (Kalkhoven) blessing . . . I wouldn't have come otherwise. I've done the same thing in the IRL paddock with Tony's blessing.
"I want to be able to go back to Tony and Kevin and show them there's unity within each series, but also within the community as a whole on the merger issue. Sure, people have their preferences on chassis, engines, schedules and the other issues, and of course they want the series to be affordable. But the real thrust of what they're telling me is, there are no deal-breakers as such. Just get the merger done."
Said Kalkhoven, "Robert asked if he could come to Portland and talk with the team owners in the (Champ Car World) series. I said, 'By all means.' He's trying to act as an intermediary and I'm all for anyone who can move the process forward."
A GOOD START
It's no secret that the first four races of the 2006 have been four to forget for Bruno Junqueira. Punted out at Long Beach at the first corner, he finished 10th at Houston after a fuel miscalculation cost him a likely top-five finish. Then he "scored" another 10th at Monterrey after he was assessed a controversial penalty for "blocking" Paul Tracy and at Milwaukee he crashed in practice on his own then was taken out of the race in the opening laps in a crash with Mario Dominguez.
Meanwhile, Newman/Haas Racing teammate Sebastien Bourdais has gone four for four, winning every race so far this season. Small wonder Newman/Haas Racing came to Portland this weekend on a mission, namely to revitalize Junqueira's disastrous '06 season.
It's a little too soon to say mission accomplished. It is only Saturday after all. But Junqueira earned his first pole of the season, indeed his first pole since last year at Long Beach not to mention since he suffered serious back injuries in a crash during last year's Indianapolis 500.
"I'm very happy for myself and for the whole Newman/Haas team," said Junqueira. "It's been a difficult two years . . . I'm quite happy with the result to be on the pole after long time. After my accident, it's the first time I'm on the pole, so I'm quite happy with that. Very happy the work the whole Newman/Haas team did for me, especially after a very difficult weekend in Milwaukee, very difficult day yesterday. Very nice to came here, rebound, come off with the pole."
As he suggested, Friday was a particularly difficult day for Junqueira. With everyone on the team pulling so strongly for him, Junqueira had one of his worst days of practice and qualifying on the season, winding up a rather uninspiring 11th on the grid nearly 1.2sec off A.J. Allmendinger's pace, not to mention 1.1sec off the pace of teammate Bourdais.
"Yesterday was really bad," said Junqueira. "When we tested here in April I wasn't very happy with the car. I was three-10ths down on Sebastien, so when we came here for the race we decided to put on the exactly the same setup we'd used when I won the pole here in 2004. The car was very good in 2004 but yesterday the conditions were really strange and the car was just horrible, it just had no grip.
"So last night we went back to the standard Newman/Haas setup, with a few changes based on what Sebastien and his guys learned yesterday. This morning in practice, after I got heat in my tires, on my first flying lap I was three-10ths faster than my best time yesterday. I thought, 'Whoaa!' There was so much more grip. Then all we had to do was work on the balance of the car.
"Then in qualifying we tried to improve a little bit more. My first run was good, but I knew that the car still had a little bit of under steer. I did some changes. The second run, my first flying lap was 7.9. I said I knew that 7.7 was the pole. I said I'm 2/10ths off of it. I really pushed everything, took all the risks. The lap was great. Ran a 7.6. I was quite happy with that. Very happy because the next one supposed to be the last one, I couldn't make Turn 12 very well. I lost 2/10ths there. I said no way that I can recover."
Most have long since counted Junqueira out of the championship reckoning . . . he lies 15th in the standings and has so far amassed 35 points, make that 36 with today's pole (compared to Bourdais' hefty tally of 136 markers). While Junqueira is realistic about his position, he isn't about to give up on the 2006 season.
"I'm going to drive like normal," he said. "I still want to do well in the championship. You never know what can happen. If I win four or five of the next races everything can change!"
THIRD TIME'S A CHARM ?
Oriol Servia and PKV Racing hope so. Roughly 24 hours after writing off his primary chassis in a high-speed crash at Turn 11 Servia heavily damaged his spare car in the waning moments of this morning's practice session. Once again the site was Turn 11 - the
second part of the high-speed chicane at the end of Portland's back straightaway. Indeed, Servia impacted the tire wall on the outside of the corner in roughly the same place he hit yesterday, although today he went in nose first and remained upright. In contrast, yesterday's crash saw him back into the tire wall and roll over, albeit gently.
Yesterday Servia indicated his crash resulted from a failure in the car's steering, similar to what happened to him at Milwaukee, although the team found nothing wrong with the steering mechanism. Not surprisingly, perhaps, Servia was rather tight-lipped about today's shunt. The video replay showed his car clobbering the curbing on the inside of Turn 11 but when asked if that caused of the crash he would only say, "What happened happened before I hit the curb."
With two cars out of commission, the PKV Racing mechanics hurriedly changed over Katherine Legge's back-up car for Servia, who duly took the car out and posted 12th-fastest time at 58.830.
"It was (my) third car of the weekend," he said ruefully. "It's hard to get (the setup) exactly right. And here with the long corners from Turn One to Turn Eight, if you are just a little bit off you are off by a lot.
"My crew has been working very hard this weekend already, but the main thing is to continue to work on this car, make it better and we will be fine in the race."
RuSPORT FORTUNES IMPROVE
RuSPORT enjoyed an altogether more successful time of it today than yesterday when Justin Wilson started off as the pacesetter in practice but slipped to sixth in qualifying, while Cristiano da Matta could only manage 10th-quickest time in his first day of running with the team. Today found Wilson and da Matta fourth and fifth on the grid and, if it was a far sight less impressive than last year's one-two start for the team here, it represented solid progress.
"Today was a lot better than yesterday,"confirmed Wilson. "The balance of the car is much closer to what we need, so we've made progress. I think we've got a reasonable starting position. We still need a little bit more rear stability, but the CDW No. 9 team is working hard, and I'm sure we'll work it out."
"I'm happy with the result," echoed da Matta. "Of course, the first weekend with a new team isn't always easy, and there are a lot of things to learn. We went back-and-forth with the car setup and the car build, yesterday and today, and I think we've finally got it. Our best session was qualifying, and while we train for our best session to be the race itself, we have some time to do that for tomorrow. But we were at our best so far in qualifying, so there's obviously a trend of improvement, and I think we'll keep getting better."
NO MIDDLE GROUND AT FORSYTHE
Things were at once better and worse for Forsythe Championship Racing than for RuSPORT. While new-boy and provisional pole-winner A.J. Allmendinger continued his impressive form to set second-fastest time of the day, veteran teammate Paul Tracy struggled for balance throughout the session and wound up a mystified 10th.
"I just couldn't go any faster," he lamented. "I thought that we had improved the car from yesterday, and it felt better, but we just didn't have the speed at all. The overall problem was the balance, I would go into the corner and it would push and then get loose then push again, we just couldn't carry enough speed through all the long corners here."
Eighth is no longer enough for Philippe. (LAT photo)
GOOD TO BE MAD ABOUT EIGHTH
It is a sign of the rapid progress made by Nelson Philippe that he was disappointed, angry even, to qualify eighth fastest here at Portland.
In his first two stabs at PIR in 2004 and '05, Philippe qualified 18th and 17th, respectively. But this season has seen him make rapid strides with CTE/HVM Racing, highlighted by his strong - if adventuresome - drive to third place a fortnight ago at Milwaukee.
Today he was atop the time sheet for much of the first half of qualifying, admittedly before the likes of Bruno Junqueira, A.J. Allmendinger, Sebastian Bourdais, Justin Wilson and Cristiano da Matta got down to business. Still, he was frustrated to wind up eighth on the grid.
"I have mixed emotions on qualifying today," he said. "I know I have a very good race car for tomorrow and I know that we are much faster than P8. I think I could have easily been in the top five if there wasn't so much traffic. People don't know how to get out of other people's way. I understand it on the back part of the track but there's no reason not to be courteous in Turn One (the Festival Chicane). I'm not blaming anyone, but I think the guy with the blue flags should do a better job. I'm sure you'll hear the same up and down pit lane."
MULTIPLE STRATEGIES ?
If there is one constant up and down pit lane at PIR it's that tomorrow's race could have some surprises in store. After all, Cristiano da Matta came through from 10th on the grid last year to win the race for PKV Racing, largely thanks to clever strategy by then general manager Jim McGee. Knowing that da Matta had a very fast car in race conditions and seeing da Matta bottled up in traffic, McGee brought da Matta in for an early pit stop that enabled him to subsequently run most of his second stint on a clear track, unhindered by traffic. And when a timely full-course yellow enabled him to make his second stop without losing any track position, da Matta was home free.
Portland has long been a race where "out of the box" strategies have paid dividends, so many a driver at the front - and not at the front - is expecting the unexpected tomorrow.
"I'm fairly confident with our chances to fight for the win once again," said Sebastien Bourdais, who starts third. "It's a tough one. I think anything can happen tomorrow with the windows the way they are and everything. We'll see where we're at the end of the race. You could see another da Matta win from P10 or P15. So we'll see what happens."
"It's going to be a long race," said Paul Tracy, who starts, er, 10th. "Because of the way the fuel windows work here depending on what happens on the start we might be able to get creative with our strategy and try to win the race."
STRATEGIZE LIKE IT'S 1999 ?
Derrick Walker knows a thing or two about "out of the box" strategies at Portland. In 1999 Gil de Ferran won at Portland by overturning conventional wisdom and running flat out to the finish after his first stop for fuel while the competition wheezed around running lean fuel settings.
That was back in the day when Walker Racing ran a full-fledged Honda-supported effort sponsored by Valvoline and Cummins Diesel. Cummins Diesel CEO Tim Solso was in attendance at the race and Walker always joked with him that he -- Solso -- was the real reason the team won that day.
Solso is expected to attend tomorrow's G.I. Joe's Presents the Champ Car Grand Prix of Portland. And in recognition of that fact -- and in the hopes of catching lightning in a bottle a second time -- Walker is placing some modestly-sized Cummins decals on the Team Australia Champ Cars of Will Power and Alex Tagliani as well as the Champ Car Atlantic cars of Simon Pagenaud and James Davison.
LONG DISTANCE START
The start of tomorrow's G.I. Joe's Presents the Champ Car Grand Prix of Portland will be given by Brigadier General Douglas Pritt via a live feed from Afghanistan. General Pritt is commanding officer of "Task Force Phoenix V," which consists of 900 members of the Oregon National Guard serving in Afghanistan. Also on hand at PIR will be Colonel Cameron Crawford of the 41st Infantry Brigade Combat Team, representing Task Force Phoenix V in person.
As well, the Heritage Flight Museum of Northern Seattle will do a flyover featuring World War II warbirds flying the Missing Man formation to honor pilots lost in combat.
THE FROGS HAVE IT
All 18 cars in tomorrow's race will be running special "frog" decals. What's with the frogs? They're a nod to the recent comments of Arizona state senator Robert Blendu regarding the proposed Champ Car street race in Phoenix. Earlier this month, Blendu wrote an op-ed piece in The Arizona Republic in which he was sharply critical of the proposed event, siting the notoriously unsuccessful Formula 1 street races in Phoenix in the early '90s and suggesting the Champ Car street race was simply "revisiting a failed street-race concept."
Later, when speaking on the Arizona state senate floor with regard to legislation that would have effectively banned street races in the state (legislation that, in the opinion of Champ Car and the proposed race's promoters, was drafted at the behest of lobbyists working at the behest of Phoenix International Raceway, the International Speedway Corporation and NASCAR), Blendu changed his tune. Saying he had been fed "rhetoric" about the evils of street racing when he wrote his op-ed piece, Blendu has since reversed field and now supports the efforts of Champ Car and promoter Dale Jensen to stage the race as part of a $300 million investment in downtown Phoenix.
"As far as I'm concerned, I don't care if he (Jensen) wants to race frogs," said Blendu.
Hence the decals.
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Why don't this guy just crawl back in his hole somewhere in the wilderness and just leave and go to ALMS. LEAVE CHAMP CAR ALONE!!!!!   |
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Zamboni25
champcarguru
Joined: 08 Nov 2005
Posts: 1207
Location: skating on thin ice at Lake Placid
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| Posted: Sun Jun 18, 2006 8:54 pm Post subject: |
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| David Phillips of SPEEDtv wrote: |
Allmendinger Takes First Win on Forsythe Debut
Allmendinger held off former teammate Justin Wilson in the race's late stages. (LAT Photo)
A.J. Allmendinger got off to a flying start with Forsythe Championship Racing at the Portland Champ Car race. After qualifying second fastest in his debut as Paul Tracy's teammate, Allmendinger took the lead on the opening lap and ran off to a convincing victory, leading 100 of 105 laps en route to his much- anticipated first Champ Car win. That he lead former RuSPORT teammate Justin Wilson and championship leader Sebastien Bourdais home made the win all the sweeter.
"This is absolutely amazing," said Allmendinger. "I still don't really understand it and believe that it happened . . . It's just absolutely amazing. I can't thank Forsythe and the whole team enough for everything they've done for me this weekend."
But it was the way the race started that had some people talking, mainly those wearing Newman/Haas Racing uniforms. Polesitter Bruno Junqueira was borderline apoplectic about the start, which came after a ragged first attempt was waved-off. When the field filed around again starter J.D. Wilbur waved the green flag well before Junqueira -- and most everybody else -- expected it.
"In the meeting with the starter I told him where I was going to accelerate and I was not at full throttle when race control decided to throw the green flag earlier than we talked about," said Junqueira in a statement issued by Newman/Haas. Junqueira was not alone in his anger. Sebastien Bourdais came to Portland looking to set a Champ Car record fifth straight victory and, to his mind anyway, saw his hopes dashed by the confused start.
"I think it was probably the most frustrating race I've ever been a part of right from the beginning," said Bourdais. "You know if the first start was ugly, the second one was probably about the worst thing I've ever seen in my life. From there on, after that, you're trying to make up for mistakes that people did to you and the entire line (the side of the grid behind Junqueira) I was part of."
The net result was a topsy turvy run to the Festival Chicane that saw Allmendinger emerge in the lead from "Speedy" Dan Clarke -- up from sixth -- Wilson, Junqueira, Paul Tracy (up from tenth), Cristiano da Matta . . . and Bourdais. Within a very few laps the frontrunners were already into maximum fuel conservation mode, lifting-off 100 yards early on the run to the Festival Chicane and short shifting throughout the rest of the 1.9 mile lap.
That meant they had to look to the brake pedal for speed, and Clarke got his braking too late at the Festival Curve on Lap 22, severely flat-spotting his left front tire . . . which subsequently came apart and forced an early pit stop. The rest of the leaders stopped on schedule between Laps 30 and 33 with Allmendinger retaining the lead now from Wilson and Clarke. Having gotten around da Matta on Lap 31, Bourdais beat a dour Junqueira out of the pits to take over fourth while da Matta slipped to sixth ahead of Tracy and Nelson Philippe.
The 24-year old American won on his 32nd Champ Car start. (LAT Photo)
The second stint ran off with Allmendinger maintaining a comfortable margin over Wilson, initially anyway, with Bourdais gradually reeling-in the third placed Clarke and Junqueira, da Matta, Tracy and Philippe running nose to tail further back. As the second round of stop approached, Wilson began edging closer to the Forsythe Lola as Allmendinger found himself bogged down in traffic.
"It seemed like I'd always come up on two guys racing each other," said Allmendinger. "So obviously they don't want to move over because they're racing for position . . . what it came down to for most guys we were lapping, they would wait until the past possible moment til Champ Car said 'Move over or get a penalty.' That's really what we were struggling with.
"The team did a really good job reading other people's pit stop strategy. When I was in all that lapped traffic I was supposed to stop in two more laps and they called me in. If I'd stuck to the schedule I'd have lost more time and Justin would've probably gotten ahead on the stop."
The call worked to perfection as Allmendinger scrambled out inches ahead of Wilson (who'd pitted on Lap 60). But the race was hardly won. Wilson hounded his former teammate mercilessly in the ensuing laps before taking a strong look down the inside at the Festival Curves on Lap 70. Not only did the move come up short, it cooked Wilson's front tires in the bargain.
"I got close to making a run into Turn One," said Wilson. "I locked-up the right front for some reason and that pretty much put an end to my attack. I lost grip and had a huge vibration."
"I was hoping that since I switched colors, Justin would be a lot nicer to me," said Allmendinger. "But he's not. He just started running me down. "(But) my car was getting off the last corner really well, so it was going to take a mistake by me or Justin to really get a great run to get around me. I saw him lock up, and I knew that he probably flat-spotted his tire right there. So once we got through traffic, I just drove as hard as I could to get away from him."
Wilson peeled off for fuel and a set of round tires on Lap 78, while Allmendinger went all the way to Lap 85 for his final stop and Bourdais -- having been in fuel conservation mode the whole race waiting for a full course yellow that never came -- went to Lap 86. Taking on eight laps less fuel than Wilson, Bourdais returned to the track right on the CDW Lola's gearbox with Junqueira and da Matta next-up and well clear of the fierce struggle for sixth featuring Tracy, Clarke (who'd lost of couple of spots on the second stint) and Philippe.
Try as he might, Bourdais was unable to pass Wilson or pressure him into a mistake. Likewise, Allmendinger was making no mistakes up front. . . physical or otherwise.
"With seven or eight laps to go I started tearing-up," said Allmendinger. "I told myself to stop being a sissy and finish the race because I hadn't won anything yet."
Seven or eight laps later that all changed as Allmendinger crossed the line some 5.4s clear of Wilson with Bourdais another half second back. Junqueira trailed home in fourth half a minute in arrears with da Matta in his mirrors while Clarke ended his day on a successful note, passing no less than Tracy on the final lap after the Canadian flat-spotted his tires on the penultimate lap in his efforts to keep the Englishman at bay. |
For a change we had an actual race at Portland - not like years past when people fell asleep in the stands... maybe after this one we'll see it return next year - especially since we had a bigger audience than last year... 
And to top it off the TV coverage was the best so far this year -> they actually showed some passes that happened behind 'Dinger... kudos to Champ Car and our infamous "Walldinger" -> who knows, one day he may really be a star of the series... 
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whatever
champcarmanic
Joined: 01 Mar 2003
Posts: 808
Location: Tampa
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| Posted: Sun Jun 18, 2006 10:59 pm Post subject: |
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Best race I have seen in years! Normally, I like to tear the tv coverage into shreds, but I must say it was also rather good today. Amazing how much better it is when they actually show the race!! Great, competitive race with lots of teams starting to step it up, and of course, congrats to AJ!!!
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Mospeada
champcarguru
Joined: 31 Jul 2004
Posts: 1582
Location: near the fence, on the other side...
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| Posted: Mon Jun 19, 2006 7:27 am Post subject: |
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Bravo!
This was a great race and is exactly why I love this series. The TV coverage was pretty damned good (loved the cameras on the backstretch). There were a couple of times they pulled away from a couple of cars coming to turn 1 that were battling to show a pit-stop, but other than that, nice job.
If AJ can keep this up and stop crying, he'll be THE star of this series no doubt. Portland fans proved that American fans want to see the American driver win with the USA! USA! USA! chant.
Please CCWS owners, give some American drivers a chance and you'll see.
Mos
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