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Back On Track
"During the first laps I was pressed by the car behind me," said Pantano. "I had to push hard and maintain the maximum concentration. This track in hard on tyres so I knew I had to do my best to preserve them for the second half of the race. The Team is doing an excellent job and this result makes me happy also for them."
Qualifying demonstrated Pantano's liking for the circuit, taking pole position. Wirdheim was five hundredths behind in second with Jaroslav Janis a surprise third. Ricardo Sperafico qualified fourth with Vitantonio Liuzzi and Tony Schmidt making up the third row. Last start winner Enrico Toccacelo had a poor qualifying, ending up fourteenth. Phil Giebler qualified sixteenth, but pulled out of the race after aggravating his pre-existing shoulder injury.
Pantano got the jump at the start and led Wirdheim and the field away through turn one. All of Janis's qualifying work was thrown away as the Czech stalled, finally getting away at the tail of the field. His race though would last only three laps. Sperafico slotted into third ahead of Liuzzi, Schmidt and the second Astromega car of Jeff van Hooydonk, and the gaps started to grow between the front-runners.
Wirdheim's second position limited the damage to his championship, actually increasing his lead by six points with Enrico Toccacelo collecting no points from Magny-Cours. Pantano moves into second position, sixteen points behind Wirdheim and two ahead of Toccacelo, with Liuzzi and Sperafico each a further point away. The battle for second position is close, but can anyone catch the fleeing Swede? There are only forty points left in the series as it makes its only trip across the waters this year to Britain and the wide expanses of Silverstone.
Result of FIA International Formula 3000 Championship, Round 6 of 10; Magny-Cours, France:
Standings: Bjorn Wirdheim 42, Giorgio Pantano 26, Enrico Toccacelo 24, Vitantonio Liuzzi 23, Ricardo Sperafico 22, Nicolas Kiesa 19, Jaroslav Janis and Yannick Schroeder 13, Raffaele Gianmaria 11, Patrick Freisacher 8 etc.
Formula 3000 points distribution
La Marseillaise On Independence Day
"It feels good to win obviously," said Bourdais. "The car turned red for this event with the arrival of McDonald's to complete the Lilly partnership. I'm very glad of that because it looked like the black car was a synonym of bad luck and now it's gone. When we decided to short fill and to use the set of tires we had we really put everything together and that worked well. I did a very great stint pushing as hard as possible. As Paul said, we were able to create a gap and after that the race was pretty much done."
In the first qualifying session, Paul Tracy was fastest, securing a front row qualifying position, which was fortunate, as Tracy spun in the final session, causing a red flag. Under CART rules he lost his best time and ended the session second to last. Bourdais, four tenths clear of Patrick Carpentier, secured pole. Third fastest, and fourth on the grid, was Oriol Servia. A second covered the field down to Jimmy Vasser, who would take up tenth place on the grid. Tiago Monteiro was withdrawn from the event after the Portuguese driver crashed heavily at turn eight in the morning warm-up. Medical officials, diagnosing a mild concussion, did not clear Monteiro as fit to race.
After opening a gap, Bourdais closed back in on Tracy and was within striking distance when the yellows came out for Roberto Moreno who had been punted by an overly optimistic move from Jimmy Vasser. Tracy led the field down pit lane as the field took the opportunity to make their first compulsory stop. The race went green for a lap and a half before the Safety Car was back. Gualter Salles had stopped dead in turn four with broken suspension.
Tracy led the field away at the restart from Bourdais, Junqueira, Carpentier and Servia. The front three cars sprinted away, regularly shaving tenths and hundredths from the fastest lap as they charged towards the second round of stops, which Tracy triggered on lap 41. The top five settled down again, screaming around the wide tarmac of the airport facility. Jourdain moved into sixth position on lap 51, clawing back what was lost when the start gone wrong.
The yellows were back again on lap 57 for Rodolfo Lavin after he spun in turn eight. As the field restarted, Servia faltered on the second lap under greens, running wide, and Jourdain needed no second invitation, pouncing on his hapless countryman. Mario Dominguez rubbed salt in, following Jourdain through.
With the fourth round of stops completed on lap 92, Bourdais raced away towards the win. With only a few laps remaining Bourdais made contact with Adrian Fernandez, the Mexican spinning off into the grass, Bourdais continuing with some damage but not with any reduced speed. Tracy meanwhile had other concerns. The field went briefly under yellow after Vasser spun with two laps to go. The marshals got Vasser restarted just in time to race the last lap under green. Bourdais was gone, but Tracy fell victim to Junqueira, diving underneath at turn three. It wasn't good enough though as Tracy regained second on the switchback to turn four. The scare was enough for Tracy and he held second to the flag.
Carpentier ran home in fourth place ahead of Mario Dominguez, who had vaulted past Jourdain at the last pit stop. Jourdain then came under fire from Servia, the pair dicing almost until the flag with Servia making sixth stick on lap 104. Alex Tagliani was next ahead of Ryan Hunter-Reay having the best result of his short CART career with Darren Manning completing the top ten.
With Bourdais well down on Tracy, no real damage was done to the Canadian's points lead. Tracy is now eight points clear of Junqueira and 20 points clear of Jourdain. The consistency of Carpentier has him placed next, some 35 points adrift. CART's next stop is Canada and the street of Toronto.
Result of Champ Car World Series, Round 9 of 19; Burke Lakefront, Ohio, United States:
Standings: Paul Tracy 117, Bruno Junqueira 109, Michel Jourdain Jr 97, Patrick Carpentier 82, Sebastien Bourdais 74, Oriol Servia 66, Adrian Fernandez 65, Mario Dominguez 61, Alex Tagliani 51, Darren Manning 45 etc.
Biffle Brilliant
The two Richard Childress Racing cars of Steve Park and Kevin Harvick filled the front row, with race favourites, the DEI duo of Dale Earnhardt Jr and Michael Waltrip sharing row three. Meanwhile the Roush Fords all started thirtieth or worse, points leader Matt Kenseth forced to take a provisional. At the start Harvick quickly swept to the front as Park soon fell victim to the raging pack behind. For a change, the DEI duo of Earnhardt Jr and Waltrip were not able to make it to the lead, though they were part of the leading pack. Though they didn't qualify well, the Roush cars were making their way up through the field in the race, with Kurt Busch in the top ten before the field made their first pit stops beginning around lap 35.
Harvick retook the lead after the stops as the order remained fairly static, though some of the order shuffled as some drivers took two tyres versus four with the smaller fuel cell in use. The big loser was Tony Stewart who fell from the top five to 41st after running out of fuel on the way to his pit stop. The DEI duo were looking for a way past Harvick, Earnhardt Jr getting alongside before Waltrip pushed Harvick back ahead, before a few laps later Waltrip took the lead in some dicing down the frontstretch. Kenseth, Mark Martin and Busch all sat inside the top ten after their poor starting positions, showing that their qualifying pace was no reflection of their race pace.
This brought out caution number two for the night on lap 75. Some of the leaders, including Earnhardt Jr, Waltrip, Sadler and Harvick stayed out, while drivers further back in the field pitted, Jeff Burton best placed of those who did, restarting ninth. Some of those who didn't pit knew they would need to stop twice again if it stayed green, while some of those that did stop did so hoping they could do it on just one more stop, some even coming back in and topping off on the one to go signal before the green. Either way, the race got back to green on the halfway lap, lap 80 of 160, with the DEI duo of Earnhardt Jr and Waltrip at the front, these two running 1-2 as the rest of the field diced behind them.
Despite his earlier pit mishap, Kenseth was soon back in the top ten. Lap 102 and those who didn't pit under the previous yellow began making their stops. Once these stops were over Kenseth led from the brothers Burton, Ward and Jeff, these new leaders moving almost onto the tail of some of the cars who had just pitted and were now almost a lap off the race lead. Bobby Labonte's charge through the field continued as he moved into the top five, and then into second just behind Kenseth and just ahead of Jeff Burton. Lap 116 and Kenseth was the first of the front runners to pit with Ward Burton. Next lap Jeff Burton was in. Lap 119 and Bobby Labonte pitted, along with Terry and Bobby Labonte, Greg Biffle and Ricky Rudd. Could any of these guys make it, or would they fall short or pit again like the rest of the field needed to if there were no more cautions?
Only time would tell.
Biffle got shuffled back a few places just before the leaders began to pit again for their final stops with just over 20 laps to go. Now Biffle led Kenseth, Spencer, Mayfield and Elliott, with Bobby Labonte in sixth, while the former leaders sat fifteenth or further back, over half a lap behind, moving up a place or two here and there as a few of the 'new' leaders made pit stops, the lead pack thinning out to just two cars, Biffle and Kenseth, with Bobby Labonte, in third and by himself the only hope of beating Biffle, that is if either of them could actually make it to the chequer...
With ten laps remaining Biffle and Kenseth caught Bobby Labonte's teammate Tony Stewart and Elliott Sadler, who were the last runners on the lead lap and were good to go for the flag, and sat in their draft. Not only should this pull Biffle away from Labonte, it should save him a little bit of fuel along the way as he didn't have to push a hole in the air. Biffle then passed Sadler and moved in behind Stewart. But it wasn't quite working, as Labonte first matched Biffle's pace despite running all alone, and then began catching him! With seven to go he was part of the lead pack, just behind Kenseth, while Stewart was now drafting Ryan Newman.
Three to go and they stayed the same. Two to go and it was still the same. One to go and Labonte was still there as Biffle still led. Into turn one Labonte went high then tucked back in. Except he didn't. Labonte was dropping back. He was out of fuel! With Labonte coasting back to the finish, Biffle had no last lap attack to worry him, and he took the chequered flag to win his first ever Winston Cup event in his first (full) season. Teammate Jeff Burton finished second ahead of Ricky Rudd and Terry Labonte, who had also gone on economy runs, with Labonte coming around to finish fifth. Next home was late stopper Kenseth, while Earnhardt Jr in seventh was the best placed of those who had stopped much earlier.
Result of NASCAR Winston Cup, Round 17 of 36, Daytona International Raceway, Florida, United States:
Standings: Matt Kenseth 2551, Dale Earnhardt Jr 2371, Jeff Gordon 2348, Bobby Labonte 2296, Michael Waltrip 2159, Jimmie Johnson 2079, Kurt Busch 2067, Kevin Harvick 2049, Rusty Wallace 2019, Sterling Marlin 1998 etc.
Herta Wins Kansas 200
Bryan Herta, who was hired to replace the injured Dario Franchitti, was the tortoise, driving a Dallara-Honda to a 7.32-second victory over Brazilian Penske teammates Helio Castroneves and Gil de Ferran in a Dallara-Toyotas.
Herta's new teammate, Tony Kanaan, another Brazilian, was the hare as he pitted on lap 139 and had a strategy to run in a fuel economy mode to avoid a late race "splash and go" which kept him in front on the track. All of his challengers had to pit as Herta took the lead on lap 195.
"From the last pit stop, (team manager) Kyle Moyer and the crew set me up for the win. We were just lapping out there and trying to save as much fuel as we could," Herta said.
"I'm not in the points championship, so we didn't have any reason not to gamble and win the race."
Moyer added: "I don't think we had a first-place car even though it handled really well.
When we got to the front with the good pit stops we figured we should gamble and try and finish the race on only three stops."
Kanaan finished fourth after making a late race stop for fuel but extended his points lead (279-248) over New Zealand's Scott Dixon who finished sixth in another Dallara-Toyota ending the Kiwi's two-race winning run. Castroneves is third with 247.
Andretti, who retired from racing at the Indy 500 in May, said: "Those guys needed it really bad because of the stuff they've had to go through with Dario and everything. Kyle made a great call in the pits with the strategy...I'm just so proud of them. Then having Tony come home ahead of Scott Dixon to increase his points lead, it was like a huge day today for our team."
Result of Indy Racing League, Round 8 of 16; Kansas International Raceway, Colorado, United States:
Standings: Tony Kanaan 279, Scott Dixon 248, Helio Castroneves 247, Gil de Ferran 239, Kenny Brack 217, Al Unser Jr 203, Scott Sharp 176, Sam Hornish Jr 167, Felipe Giaffone and Tomas Scheckter 159 etc
Report provided by Reuters
Formula 3000
For pre-season favourite Giorgio Pantano, the last two months have not been what the Durango driver must have envisioned. Pantano had dropped 18 points behind runaway series leader Bjorn Wirdheim. Magny-Cours though was just what the Italian needed to get his championship aspirations back on track, taking victory over Bjorn Wirdheim by almost five seconds with Ricardo Sperafico third.
Pantano was pushing extremely hard to break Wirdheim's pursuit, but the Arden driver fell away only gradually. It was enough though and Pantano became the first driver this year to win two races, adding Magny-Cours to his earlier victory at Catalunya. Sperafico and Liuzzi followed in, while interest in the race built over the battle for fifth as Patrick Friesacher closed on the two Astromega entries. Friesacher though was pushing beyond his abilities and spun making a desperate lunge at van Hooydonk. This allowed Raffaele Gianmaria into the points in eighth behind Yannick Schroeder.
Pos Drivers Team
1. Giorgio Pantano Durango Formula
2. Bjorn Wirdheim Arden International
3. Ricardo Sperafico Coloni Motorsport
4. Vitantonio Liuzzi Red Bull Junior Team
5. Tony Schmidt Team Astromega
6. Jeff van Hooydonk Team Astromega
7. Yannick Schroeder Superfund-ISR-Charouz
8. Raffaele Gianmaria Durango Formula
9. Zsolt Baumgartner Coloni Motorsport
10. Derek Hill Super Nova Racing
CART
The thing with young drivers is they can be a real hit and miss for team owners. After some blindingly quick qualifying times early in the year failed to convert to good race results, it seemed that Sebastien Bourdais might very easily be tarred with that brush. The races in Europe however showed Bourdais in another light, and on CART's annual visit to the slightly odd surrounds of Burke Lakefront Airport in Cleveland, Bourdais drove an intelligent race, and with the help of his Newman-Haas pit crew, vaulted past Paul Tracy to take his third victory since joining CART from Formula 3000.
Coming under the green flags, Tracy led Bourdais side by side with the fast starting Bruno Junqueira moving up into third ahead of Oriol Servia and Patrick Carpentier. Where was Jourdain? The Mexican title aspirant had spun on the opening lap without hitting anything or incurring a yellow. He returned to the race at the tail of the field.
The turning point of the race came on lap 68. Tracy again led the field down pit road for the third stop of the race with Bourdais breathing down his neck. The Player's/Forsythe and Newman-Haas pit crew hurled themselves into action on the two cars. The Newman-Haas team, sensing Tracy was holding up Bourdais, short fuelled their charge. Bourdais screamed out of the pits first to the delight of his crew. In the meantime, Jimmy Vasser, who wasn't due for a stop, now led the race from Bourdais who immediately started sprinting away from Tracy, and started swallowing up the gap to Vasser. By the time Vasser pitted on lap 83 Bourdais' lead over Tracy had blown out to seven seconds. It was clear now that Tracy would be fighting for second.
Pos Driver Car
1. Sebastien Bourdais Newman-Haas Racing Lola-Ford
2. Paul Tracy Player's-Forsythe Racing Lola-Ford
3. Bruno Junqueira Newman-Haas Racing Lola-Ford
4. Patrick Carpentier Player's-Forsythe Racing Lola-Ford
5. Mario Dominguez Herdez Competition Lola-Ford
6. Oriol Servia Visteon/Patrick Racing Lola-Ford
7. Michel Jourdain Jr Team Rahal Lola-Ford
8. Alex Tagliani Rocketsports Racing Lola-Ford
9. Ryan Hunter-Reay American Spirit Team Johansson Reynard-Ford
10. Darren Manning Walker Racing Reynard-Ford
NASCAR
It was supposed to be another DEI one-two, with Dale Earnhardt Jr or Michael Waltrip taking the win, the duo having scored eight of the past ten restrictor plate wins, including taking one each in the two 'plate' races so far this year. But an awkwardly placed caution period, ironically brought out by one of the winner's teammates, caught DEI (and several other teams) out. And so it was that Greg Biffle was among a few drivers in contention for victory if they could make the fuel gamble pay off, and pay off it did, Biffle taking his first Winston Cup win just under halfway through his debut season, having fought off 2000 series champion Bobby Labonte during the closing laps. Those fighting for the title all had to make an extra stop, and the best placed of these was Matt Kenseth, who extended his lead over the field as Dale Earnhardt Jr snuck back in front of Jeff Gordon in the battle for second.
Just as teams were beginning to think about their second pit stops, Dave Blaney spun coming off turn two, bringing out the caution on lap 64. In came the field, people taking two or four tyres once again as they filled up with fuel, Elliott Sadler leading Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Earnhardt Jr and Waltrip off pit road, while Kenseth slid through his pit and dropped to 28th. The race went back to green on lap 69, with Johnson taking the lead on lap 70 before Earnhardt Jr took the lead from him on lap 72, Waltrip moving up to second soon after, Kurt Busch up to third. He wouldn't stay there much longer, spinning in front of the field in the middle of turn two after a rear tyre went down. Somehow most of the field missed him and each other, but Robby Gordon, Steve Park, Mike Wallace, Joe Nemechek, Jamie McMurray and Ricky Craven weren't so lucky, suffering various level of damage, some fairly major.
With these pit stops completed, the pack began to settle down again, and it was now Bobby Labonte who was the new leader ahead of Earnhardt Jr, with Biffle in third. Two of the three were gunning for the end, while Earnhardt Jr knew he needed to stop again. Earnhardt Jr knew he needed the lead to have any remote hope of winning and so on lap 126 he took it from Labonte, Labonte losing place after place as he fell down the top ten as cars freight trained by him. Biffle was in second now as the top six formed a mini breakaway, Biffle the only driver in the group who was going for lap 160 though his teammate Kenseth could almost do it. But the breakaway didn't last long and the field formed a long snake again.
Stewart passed Newman, but when Biffle looked to pass Newman, Newman tried to block and the pack behind scattered before Biffle tucked back in while Kenseth, Sadler and Labonte went three wide, Labonte taking second from Kenseth as they pushed Sadler to the back of the pack. Labonte was now on Biffle's back bumper as Biffle drafter Stewaret and Newman. Could they make it? Would experience win over youth? Meanwhile Kenseth finally pitted with four to go. Labonte kept looking high but wasn't able to make any substantial run when he did so, though it probably was distracting for Biffle.
Pos Driver Car
1. Greg Biffle Ford Taurus
2. Jeff Burton Ford Taurus
3. Ricky Rudd Ford Taurus
4. Terry Labonte Chevrolet Monte Carlo
5. Bobby Labonte Chevrolet Monte Carlo
6. Matt Kenseth Ford Taurus
7. Dale Earnhardt Jr Chevrolet Monte Carlo
8. Jeremy Mayfield Dodge Intrepid
9. Kevin Harvick Chevrolet Monte Carlo
10. Dale Jarrett Ford Taurus
IRL
Michael Andretti's new Indy Racing League team chose a tortoise and hare strategy to win the Kansas 200 and keep the series points lead on Sunday.
The race was marred by an accident on lap 56 when Brazil's Felipe Giaffone and Britain's Dan Wheldon made contact. Giaffone sufferred a fractured pelvis and right thigh. "I think Felipe just tried to dive down inside at the last minute, and we touched," said Wheldon.
Pos Driver Team
1. Bryan Herta Andretti Green Racing Dallara-Honda
2. Helio Castroneves Team Penske Dallara-Toyota
3. Gil de Ferran Team Penske Dallara-Toyota
4. Tony Kanaan Andretti Green Racing Dallara-Honda
5. Kenny Brack Team Rahal Dallara-Honda
6. Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing GForce-Toyota
7. Roger Yasukawa Super Aguri Fernandez Racing Dallara-Honda
8. Greg Ray Access Motorsports GForce-Honda
9. Tomas Scheckter Chip Ganassi Racing GForce-Toyota
10. Jaques Lazier A.J. Foyt Enterprises Dallara-Toyota
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Volume 9, Issue 28
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