Notes from the Champ Car World Series Las Vegas Grand Prix

Notes taken during the NBC coverage of the Champ Car World Series Las Vegas Grand Prix on April 8, 2007.

Welcome to Las Vegas and the start of the 2007 Champ Car World Series. Some of us wondered if the cars would actually hit the streets this year, but there they are. All 17 of them. Action is stopped briefly until the Las Vegas police determine that, yes, the course can hold 17 whole cars.

Since we're in Vegas, the pressdog beer of the race is Rogue American Amber Ale.

Unidentified announcer guy: "Las Vegas is always filled with stars. Today they shine on a sunny afternoon on the streets of downtown." Stars shine on a sunny afternoon. Hmmmm.

Opening montage. "Full-throttle excitement." (At first I thought he said "full-frontal excitement, which would fit with Vegas.) The obligatory video from last year showing Alex Tagliani and Paul Tracy getting into a scuffle in the pit at San Jose. Bourdais pushes Tracy. Dogs and cats, living together.

Vegas montage. Sebastien Bourdais on camera -- It's a new era in Champ Car. Tracy -- Youngsters are fast. Tagliani -- Very excited. Drive with your knife between your teeth (like a pirate!) all the time. Never give up.

New chassis. Panoz DP01. New faces. New street circuit.

Marty Snider, pit reporter. With pole sitter Will Power, who I think looks like Will Farrell. Marty -- can you win?  Power -- Ready on pace. Tires go off around here badly.  Uh oh, more trouble for those wacky Bridgestone reds.

Cameron Steele (finally, someone I recognize) -- With Paul Tracy. Sponsored by Monster energy drink. PERFECT sponsor for him. Tracy is fired up to have a new sponsor and be racing in his home town of Las Vegas.

Bill Stevens, pit reporter. Bourdais hit the wall in qualifying. Mechanical difficulties. Will start 16th. NUTTY. Bourdais -- Really quick yesterday. My very costly mistake. Crashed on lap 2. Tires go off really fast here. But we'll do our best.

Michelle Beisner takes a shot at being a Pit Hotty. No more nutty "lifestyle" stuff or Beisner. She's a pit reporter now, baby. She's with Graham Rahal. Rookie sensation before he even turns a lap. Video of Rahal crashing yesterday morning.

Booth guys on camera. Bill Weber, Wally Dallenbach Jr., Jan Beekhuis. No Derek Daily and Rick Benjamin. Bubbies. We miss ya. I wipe a manly tear that they are gone for this season.

Wally -- former driver. Widest street course he has ever seen. Drivers all dig it. Straightaway is wicked fast. Up to 185 mph. Corners 1, 2, 3. Bumpy. "Braking issues, especially on braking." Rookie mistake there, Wally. Wally says the chicane is nutty. It's basically a series off rumble strips on the street they have to swerve through. Some run up on the strips and get airborne. Drivers run it like a skier runs a slalom. Kind of try to left, right, left through it quickly.

Wally in a Mazda, running the course. Giving us some color as he runs through the course in a Mazda. Am I evil for hoping he slides it into the wall? Sorry, suddenly I'm all like, "Wouldn't it be hilarious if he put it into the tires?" But it's on tape so no chance they'd show it even if it did happen.

Jan -- Rookies can be fast in qualifying, but this is a street course. Hot day. Have to manage tires. Tough for the rookies.

Jay Leno is in the house. John Bon Jovi. Some group called the Teddy Bears. Men with large bear heads on their heads playing instruments. Must be a Vegas thing.

Flash Back segment. There's Wally Dallenbach driving an open-wheel car in undated footage. I sense they're trying to convince me that Wally used to drive.

Weber -- "You guys were both rookies before you were veterans."

Video of practice. Tracy thinks Pagenaud blocked him on a fast run. Tracy would know blocking. Video of Tracy going over to talk to him about it. Will they brawl? Will we have Silicone Valley Slap Down II? No. Just some discussion. I think Tracy just doesn't like "French guys."

Starting lineup -- Will Power, Tracy, Robert Doorenbos, Tagliani, Simon Pagenaud, Bruno Junqueira, Mario Dominguez, Justin "World's Tallest Open-Wheel Driver" Wilson, Neel Jani, Graham Rahal, Tristan Gommendy, Speedy Dan Clarke, Katherine "Show Some" Legge, Matt Halliday, Ryan Dalzeil, Sebastien Bourdais (!), Alex Figge.

Holy Wholesale Changes. Nine returning drivers. EIGHT new ones. It's a Festival of Rookies. I'm sure there are NO ride buyers in the group. NONE.

UNLV cheerleaders are in the house. Let's cut to a hockey report. Hockey and Champ Car (or the IRL for that matter) may have about the same audience size on TV. Nope, hockey has more. Plus hockey players don't buy paces on their teams. Stanley Cup coming up. Tune in for that. NBC is fully deployed.

Behind the scenes in Bourdais McDonald's trailer. What happen to Bourdais former engineer guy Craig "Hyper Optimistic" Hampson? GONE. No explanation that I caught. Maybe he's there, but just way behind the scenes.

Jan runs through the DP01 chassis changes. Raised nose. Uses air passing under the car to give it more downforce. Let's the wings be smaller and less critical so the cars can run together better. In theory, at least. Paddle shifter on the steering wheel. On-board starter.

Flyover. Appear to be F-15s.

Bourdais montage. Won 7 of 14 races last year. Major bitchslapping of the field. Tracy and Tagliani brawl in the pits gets more air. Derek Daly announcing gets air. As Derek would say, that's good stoof right there.

Graham Rahal is 18. This is about the third time I have heard he is 18. I believe you, guys.

Weber -- "Speed meets greed as the Champ Car World Series comes to Vegas." Props for the speed-greed thing. Might be the pressdog quote of the race, only because there is a serious dearth of colorful stuff here.

We got cars on the track. 2.4 mile circuit. Barely room for 17 cars. They're handing out books and magazines in large sections of the course for those 45-second spans when NOTHING is going by them. Nine returning drivers. 8 rookies. For 7 it's their first appearance in a Champ Car race. 12 turns. 22-25 lap fuel windows expected.

New rules. All races are timed at 1 hour 45 minutes. Could change pit strategy. Champ Car throws the white flag into the toilet.

Justin had a fuel leak this morning. They think they have it fixed.

Champ Car is going to a staggered start to try and avoid the Lap 1, Turn 1 carnage this year. Staggered start means rows of two, but P 1 is head of P2 and P2 is ahead of P3. Yeah, that's going to work. When you have about seven spare cars, you're going to need to go to this artificial stuff to reduce the brain lock some how. Why not just start them single-file?

Let's light this candle. Cue the circus music for Lap 1, Turn 1 of any road/street race.

Yellow-yellow-yellow. The lineup for the start sucked. SHOCKER. At least we're all professionals here. Tracy in P2 didn't get the "staggered" memo, apparently.

Let's go all the way around and try again. Here we go -- Green-green-green.

Yellow-yellow-yellow. Rookie Sensation Graham Rahal is in the wall. Went into it about at the start-finish line. Replays. Speedy Dan got a little nutty on the restart, but Rahal got into the dust and dirt and lost it into the wall.

Rahal interview -- We weren't all packed up at the start. Trying to catch up. Dan jumped the start. They got squirrelly.

Cameron -- Derrick Walker says Tracy jumped the start and passed his guy, Power. Tracy jumping a start? Naaaaaaa. Never happens. Tracy probably knew Champ Car wouldn't wave off a second start because people like me wold ridicule them without mercy.

Coming around under yellow. The circus may be coming to town if we don't get it going this time. Holy Brain Fade! Figge spins under yellow. He's in the middle of the track. We're going GREEN anyway. This is starting to have the smell of a quarter-midget race for 7 year olds.

Welcome to the block party! Doorenbos pulls a total F1 move and blocks somebody. We got a yellow-yellow-yellow. Figge is still stalled. So much for those onboard starters in the DP01. Replays show Figge getting into the back end of someone then locking it up or swerving and losing control. Nutty.

Right now I'm happy I'm watching this on tape so I can deploy the fast-forward button.

Bourdais in to top off and get the Bridgestone blacks on. Drivers say the reds have the durability of wedding cake out there.

Figge in to top off. Jan says that teams have been having fuel cell issues. Tough to fill the car full.

Cars go into the tunnel, which is just after the slalom chicane. Looks like the Abutment of Death to me. I'd sure like to go into that tunnel about 95 with Paul Tracy beside mee. Right tunnel to pit, left tunnel to stay out.

Let's try to actually make a full lap under green, shall we? Pop open Rogue number two, because we are ...... GREEN.

Into turn 1. Through turn 1. Wilson got assed by someone in turn one. Whole front wing up the butt. Jan talks about Power to Pass. Hit the red button and you get 60 seconds of extra horse power in 18-second bursts.

Replay of a Minardi car hitting Justin in the ass. So that's how it's going to be, huh? Prison rules racing? Fair enough.

Tagliani made a huge move on turn 1. Bourdais is up to 12th. Marty -- Bourdais last to first many times. Tires are an issue today, though.

Bourdais' first Champ Car race as father. Just FYI. Power and Tracy for the lead. Welcome to the Block Party! Tracy "slams the door." Must not know blocking is illegal. Power still gets around Tracy. Too much for him. Power is wired up. (I think Champ Car put Doorenbos back a spot on the restart for his earlier block party.)

Lap 12 -- Power, Tracy, Tag, Junk, Wilson, Doorenbos, Clarke, Dominguez, Pagenaud, Jani (master of the pan flute), Bourdais, Gommendy, Legge, Dalziel, Figge, Halliday, Rahal in the Wall.

Lap 13. Bourdais is now 11th. Charging.

Jan -- Tracy doesn't like the reds.

Holy shit! Wilson has it in reverse. Something is nutty with his car. Getting passed two at a time. Jani gives Dominguez a little ass check out of the way. Cheeky rookies. Bourdais goes around Wilson who is clearly having issues.

Lap 14. Yellow-yellow-yellow. Car in the tires. Speedy Dan was too speedy and put it into the tires. Much motioning. Dan thinks he can continue. Needs a push start. Replay. Dan into the corner about 43 mph faster than he should have  been. Ass sliding out and he's into the tires. THUNK.

Yellow is out. Full course. Can't get Dan out of the tires. Pitting. Tracy and Power stayed out. Tag pit replay. Bourdais pits and gets new blacks. Tunnel Cam activated. Speedy is walking back to the pits. Apparently all his motioning couldn't fix the bent car.

Marty -- Bourdais right rear tire has a cut. In to replace.

Lap 18 GREEN.

Bruno takes a look, but no. Marty -- Paul Tracy claims Will Power jumped the start. Yeah, I'm sure the penalty is forthcoming. Or not.

Lap 19 -- Wilson did pit. Got blacks.

Lap 20.  Jan -- Tracy last year went from a right-foot braker to a left-foot braker. Big change for him.

Tracy, Junk, Doorenbos, Jani, Dalzeil, Bourdais, Tag, Wilson, Dominguez.

Turn 1. Justin Wilson is parked. Radio "Yeah, it's dead." Replay. Sound tells you the gearbox is gone. BLOWN up, SIR!

We stay green. Justin parked it in a safe place, apparently. Props for keeping the course green.

Interview with Matt "It's a Jolly" Halliday who is done for the day. Rahal hit the wall on the outside. Three cars got crowded. Got hit. Bent suspension.

Lap 23 -- Power, Tracy, Junk, Doorenbos, Bourdais (!), Jani, Dalzeil, Tag, Dominguez, Pagenaud.

Sebastien -- Woooooo. Onto the brakes. Right front is flat. Nursing it around. Bad tire karma for Bourdais.

Jan -- Bourdais may have rubbed the wall. No video.

Lap 25 -- Power, Tag, Doorenbos, Junk, Jani, Dalzeil, Tag, Dominguez, Pagenaud, Legge, Dominguez.

Bourdais pits. Junk is off the pace. Think it's the tires. Bill Stevens -- Legge charging. Jan -- Katherine is a great racer. Doesn't qualify well, but once the race starts, she's very aggressive.

Lap 28 -- Lapped Traffic coming up. Bourdais! Lapping Bourdais? Unheard of.

Leaders pit before they can lap Bourdais. Power in and out. Tracy holding for fuel. Holy crap, this is like a 23 second pit stop.

Lap 31 -- Tag, Pagenaud, Dalzeil, Gommendy, Legge (!), Power, Tracy, Doorenbos, Jani, Junk.

Jan -- Pagenaud is the Bourdais protege.

Boudais. -- Front left wing is mangled. Got into the wall. No replay. The wing is crumpled under the left front. His crew radios him to park it as soon as he can. "You are damaging a car we cannot afford to damage. Get to a safe haven and park it, please."

Holy attrition! "Top Ten" is going to mean much in this race.

We're green. Lap 33. Legge is 4th.

Lap 34 -- Tag, Pagenaud, Gommendy, Legge, Power, Doorenbos, Jani, Tracy, Junk.

Tracy is pitting. Didn't get it full of fuel last time. Don't want to chance that he won't have enough to the end.

Lap 36 -- Cameron says the pit is telling him that Power did get a full fill on his stop.

Beisner -- Tag has 44 seconds of Power to Pass and is saving fuel.

Lap 40ish. Pagenaud is toast! The Cosworth is having major issues. Pagenaud is going about 65 mph around the course. Staying out to get some telemetry to see what it is before coming in.

Lap 43 -- Power leads. Pagenaud finally pits. This is going to be a long one.

Lap 45 -- Power, Jani, Junk, Doorenbos, Tracy, Tag, Gommendy, Legge, Figge, Pagenaud.

Power is pitting. Probably didn't get a full fill. Basically, the pit people are lying to the pit reporters pretty much constantly today. I think one of them just said he saw Elvis in turn five.

Lap 45 -- Power pits. Power knocks down his left front changer. Pulled in a little close and popped him over. What they? Guy recovers. Luckily it takes about five minutes to fill these cars, so the tire changer can take his time. Maybe even have a beer while he waits. I can get a full tank in the minivan at the 7-11 using my credit card at the pump faster than they can fill one of these cars.

Lap 48 - Junk leads. He's going to pit soon, though.

Lap 50 -- Junk pits. Fueler is motioning a lot. No fuel is flowing. Finally they let Junk down and he takes off. Too bad he got zero fuel. He'll have to come back in. Many replays.

Lap 51 -- Tracy, Power, Tag, Doorenbos, Legge, Gommendy, Jani, Junk. Lap down are Figge and Pagenaud.

There are now eight on the lead lap. Lap 52 -- Will Power is throwing down some brutal lap times.

Lap 55 timer is up! 18 minutes to go. Tracy pits. Short fill. 9 seconds. Probably radioing lovely well wishes to Panoz for their outstanding fuel filling design.

Neel Jani joins Bourdais in the "safe haven" and parks it. Not sure why. None of my business, I guess. No replays. No investigation. With all the issues, the pit squad is likely racing up and down pit road to talk to people.

Figge spins. We stay green. Didn't hit anything. Safety posse gives him a push start. Props to them for being right on it and getting him going again before we have to go yellow.

Lap 59 -- Tag in for a splash and go.

12 minutes to go. Engineer Neil Mickelwright says, on camera, that Tracy can make it the rest of the way on fuel.

8 minutes to go -- Power, Doorenbos, Gommendy, Tracy, Legge.

Five minutes to go. Power is going to win barring air strike. Doorenbos is impressing. Had 11 F1 starts in the last two years.

Power leads by 15 SECONDS. I think he's actually drinking a Fosters on his way around the course.

Three minutes to go. Power now leads by 17 seconds. Tracy is 35 seconds back in third.

Power, Doorenbos, Tracy, Tag, Gommendy, Legge, Junk, Figge, Jani. Legge is the last car on the lead lap.

Power is about a day ahead. Last lap. Power coasts to a win. Cameron -- Team Australia's first win since 1999. Derrick Walker's birthday! Will does some donuts. Watch the car, Will. Can't afford to mash up the rear end of that thing doing donuts what with the eight spare parts that Panoz made.

Down to Mike Cannon, Doorenbos' engineer. Apparently Cannon bailed from Forsythe or something because now he's with Minardi. Was AJ Allmendinger's engineer last year. Cannon -- Walker car was very strong. Couldn't run Power down. Congrats to Derrick.

Power led 29 of 68 laps.

Video of Power pulling into the winner's circle/pit stall. The Bridgestone hat guy is HYPER aggressive. Basically can't get that cap on Will fast enough. Everyone is yanking at Power's head, helmet, neck restraint, yanking on that sock-like thing that covers his head. Give the guy a second to get out, will ya. Power -- Happy. Great car. Ever since Surfers last year he knew he could win.

Finishing order -- Will Power, Robert Doorenbos, Paul Tracy, Alex Tagliani, Tristan Gommendy, Katherine Legge (matches a career best), Bruno Junqueira (-1), Alex Figge (-5), Mario Dominguez (-11). Eight of the cars had mechanical or contact issues in the race. That, along with the slow-ass fuel filling is a bit of a shaky start for the DP01. Plenty of issues to work out. Top 5 is what you should be shooting for in this series, because top 10 out of 17 -- not so impressive, especially with the attrition. It will be interesting to see if the lack o' spare parts will hurt teams.

Tune in to NBC on April 15 (tax day!) at 4 p.m. eastern for the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.

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Comments

[Steve Barnes]

I thought the NBC coverage of the race was poor, at best. No over head shots to get a good feel for track layout, no in-car telemetry so you could get a feel for the speeds around the track (a few seconds of Tags car through maybe two corners was all they showed), no information on who/how many pit stops had occured, and where was the replay of SeaBass going into the wall? And where were the pit reporters ... no interviews about what happened to Sea Bass, no clear explanation of the fueling problem ... I guess once the race started they were off playing Keno.

Rumor I picked up ... Forsythe had a sharp shooter stationed on a hotel balcony who was taking out Sebastian's tire every 10 laps ... any truth to that ??

Thanks for another great review.

Steve

[pressdog]

Of course, an ultra-high-powered BB gun to take out the tires. BRILLIANT. That explains everything. With three pit reporters, you'd think they could get some color on the crazy fueling situation. But maybe the No Bitching edict came down from Champ Car. Was that a black helicopter that just flew over?

[Jerry]

Prison Rules Racing? Priceless.

[Mark in Bowmanville]

Another fine race report from the Dog, who once again points out the little things that I tend to gloss over in just enjoying the race. That said, you were on the money as usual.

[Pete]

Great report but you did miss the flying Elvis's that landed on the main straigh. :)

[Matt Webber]

For your beer selection for next week's Long Beach thrill show (love that hairpin) may I suggest some Arrogant Bastard. It's brewed in SoCal and quite the good ale. Thanks for the quality race report. With Brainless Bill Weber in the booth, I can't imagine actually watching a broadcast this season, so I'm relying on your reports.
"You guys were both rookies before you were veterans." WTF? Does he come up with this crap on his own or does he have a team of failed fortune cookie writers handing him little slips of paper all race long?

[Racing Truth]

I loved this:

Weber -- "You guys were both rookies before you were veterans."

My God, that's BRILLIANT Bill!!! How did he ever figure that out?

Nice job 'dog.