Blizzards to Beaches

Well, we're a month into the Champcar season now, what do we know? Max Papis won Homestead following a few great Sportscar drives in the CART off season. We now know you cannot race champcars in the snow as well. We know there is still a reliability void with a few of the new engines for 2000. Homestead seemed almost like a first F1 race of a season. Most all the major CART players had troubles of some sort. If you led the race, you broke, and parked it early. Max had em all covered in Homestead. Great win for him and team Rahal/Letterman. At Long Beach however, Papis backed it into the tire barriers hard after a loss of traction to end his day

I think this year the Champcars have gone to an entirely new level of complexity rivaling that of Formula One. Racing software has become such that a simple burp in a program can cost you the race. Is Tag in CART yet?

The new guys are showing us some great racing. Nakano the former F1 back marker has been very fast, as have Oriol Servia and Roberto Moreno. Long Beach was all Moreno's till his gearbox broke. Then there's Kurosawa, yet another hot rookie who led a few laps at Long Beach. Kenny Brack had a great drive going too. He was making daring outside passes on cars until he got a bit too close, made contact, and found the tires. The talent pool went up a notch with this years crop of newbies, and that's good for CART.

The Ganassi empire is still sorting out the Toyota bugs, and Penske is showing signs of a great season too. Don't count them out yet folks, they will be heard from this year.

I see a new respect among drivers this year. Might this be due to the loss of two of their fellow drivers last year? Perhaps, perhaps not, but I do see cleaner on-track racing so far this year. I mean, when was the last time you saw Michael Andretti and Paul Tracy work together during a race? These two, these unlikely two, hooked up and carved through the field and went to the front. They pitted together and raced like team mates. While it was odd to watch, it did signify a new maturity level in two of CARTs most notorious hotheads. Andretti went up in flames, Paul Tracy went to the top of the podium.

Paul Tracy's Long Beach win was well deserved. He drove a great race, perhaps one of his best ever. I wonder if he is really a renewed man, or is the same ol Tracy waiting in the wings. It's still to early to tell.

Pack up the whole show and ship it to Rio's Fittipaldi Speedway.

I can be reached by email here.

See you next time.