Audi_A4
07-12-04, 10:14 AM
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Toronto's race ace writes for the Star
PAUL TRACY
Toronto's Paul Tracy, the defending champion, finished fifth after two penalties for bumping other cars. Here he explains a wild afternoon on the Exhibition Place track:
Aggressive driving and the potential it brings for cars to bang into each other are part of what makes racing on street courses exciting. From where I sat, there was no shortage of that in yesterday's Molson Indy.
When you consider how chaotic the race was, I think my fifth-place finish is better than what might have been.
Sure, I would have liked to take home the first-place trophy from Toronto, but with all the carnage on the track during the race, I think the end result for me was not too bad.
I needed points to stay in the running for the championship, and I got them.
Though I got my knuckles rapped over a couple of dust-ups on the track, I certainly wasn't alone. It seemed like drivers all through the field had their share as well.
But I have to watch what I say about the race officiating. At the Portland race, I was told that if I bad-mouth the officials again I could lose another 10 points. So I can't get into too much detail about the two penalties I was given in Toronto.
In the first case, Justin Wilson and I were going neck and neck down the Lake Shore straightaway and into the tight right-hander at the end. He braked really late and kind of slid past me, missing the apex of the turn. I went for the apex and then he started coming back on to the racing line.
At that point we just barely touched, which sent him spinning around.
I was given a penalty — I had to drive through the pits, which cost me valuable time and track positions. I battled my way back up the field in the laps that followed — passing six cars on one lap — all the way to the lead at one point.
I wasn't able to use that prime position to my advantage, though. I couldn't go any quicker than the traffic in front of me, so I couldn't make up ground before I had to pull into the pits.
Also, at this point, the car wasn't handling as well as it had been. I had bent one of the front steering arms when I brushed against the wall trying to get past Wilson.
Several laps later, I was handed my second drive-through penalty after Michel Jourdain Jr. and I collided.
In this case, I was coming out of the pits with cold tires, so I had less grip than usual. Jourdain came way over from the far side of the track in my blind spot.
I went into the first corner, sliding on cold tires and we basically met at the same spot in the corner. I never even knew he was there — it was just one of those things that happens in racing.
Anyway, there's nothing I could do but serve the two drive-through penalties, which set me back. Before the first one I thought I could have kept up the pressure on Sebastien Bourdais and placed second on the podium.
As it is, with my fifth-place finish, I have 108 points in the series standings, behind Bourdais with 164, Bruno Junqueira with 136 and my teammate Patrick Carpentier with 129.
The championship is still winnable for me. Right now, Bourdais is on a hot streak where everything seems to be going his way. Last year, I had a hot streak where everything seemed to go my way — that's how it goes.
All I can do is take each race as it comes and try to qualify well. Once you're out in front, you can control the pace and aren't threatened by anybody.
In the races to come, my team will have to come to grips with one interesting change in strategy. In yesterday's column, I pointed out that the Newman-Haas team typically ran a conservative pit strategy, which has allowed me to stay out for three or four laps longer than either Bourdais or Junqueira and make up any lost time.
But in yesterday's race, Bourdais actually stayed out on the track a lap longer than I did before making his first pit stop. That switch to a more aggressive pit strategy surprised me a bit. It's something to keep an eye on in the races to come.
Next up is Vancouver in two weeks. We've got a good setup for that track, one that won us the race last year. So I'm looking forward to repeating my victory.
Toronto's race ace writes for the Star
PAUL TRACY
Toronto's Paul Tracy, the defending champion, finished fifth after two penalties for bumping other cars. Here he explains a wild afternoon on the Exhibition Place track:
Aggressive driving and the potential it brings for cars to bang into each other are part of what makes racing on street courses exciting. From where I sat, there was no shortage of that in yesterday's Molson Indy.
When you consider how chaotic the race was, I think my fifth-place finish is better than what might have been.
Sure, I would have liked to take home the first-place trophy from Toronto, but with all the carnage on the track during the race, I think the end result for me was not too bad.
I needed points to stay in the running for the championship, and I got them.
Though I got my knuckles rapped over a couple of dust-ups on the track, I certainly wasn't alone. It seemed like drivers all through the field had their share as well.
But I have to watch what I say about the race officiating. At the Portland race, I was told that if I bad-mouth the officials again I could lose another 10 points. So I can't get into too much detail about the two penalties I was given in Toronto.
In the first case, Justin Wilson and I were going neck and neck down the Lake Shore straightaway and into the tight right-hander at the end. He braked really late and kind of slid past me, missing the apex of the turn. I went for the apex and then he started coming back on to the racing line.
At that point we just barely touched, which sent him spinning around.
I was given a penalty — I had to drive through the pits, which cost me valuable time and track positions. I battled my way back up the field in the laps that followed — passing six cars on one lap — all the way to the lead at one point.
I wasn't able to use that prime position to my advantage, though. I couldn't go any quicker than the traffic in front of me, so I couldn't make up ground before I had to pull into the pits.
Also, at this point, the car wasn't handling as well as it had been. I had bent one of the front steering arms when I brushed against the wall trying to get past Wilson.
Several laps later, I was handed my second drive-through penalty after Michel Jourdain Jr. and I collided.
In this case, I was coming out of the pits with cold tires, so I had less grip than usual. Jourdain came way over from the far side of the track in my blind spot.
I went into the first corner, sliding on cold tires and we basically met at the same spot in the corner. I never even knew he was there — it was just one of those things that happens in racing.
Anyway, there's nothing I could do but serve the two drive-through penalties, which set me back. Before the first one I thought I could have kept up the pressure on Sebastien Bourdais and placed second on the podium.
As it is, with my fifth-place finish, I have 108 points in the series standings, behind Bourdais with 164, Bruno Junqueira with 136 and my teammate Patrick Carpentier with 129.
The championship is still winnable for me. Right now, Bourdais is on a hot streak where everything seems to be going his way. Last year, I had a hot streak where everything seemed to go my way — that's how it goes.
All I can do is take each race as it comes and try to qualify well. Once you're out in front, you can control the pace and aren't threatened by anybody.
In the races to come, my team will have to come to grips with one interesting change in strategy. In yesterday's column, I pointed out that the Newman-Haas team typically ran a conservative pit strategy, which has allowed me to stay out for three or four laps longer than either Bourdais or Junqueira and make up any lost time.
But in yesterday's race, Bourdais actually stayed out on the track a lap longer than I did before making his first pit stop. That switch to a more aggressive pit strategy surprised me a bit. It's something to keep an eye on in the races to come.
Next up is Vancouver in two weeks. We've got a good setup for that track, one that won us the race last year. So I'm looking forward to repeating my victory.