Race Day, 4/8/2007--Easter Sunday
Greetings from the race course. Our day began early with Mass at the Golden Nugget; the Vegas Grand Prix had Mass and a non-denominational service at 6am local time. Props to them for remembering what is truly important today; we hope all who could were able to celebrate. We hope they remembered the men and women who are in harm's way holding our enemies at bay, so we can do all of our celebrating without fear.
Will Power (one of auto racing's best names) was fastest in morning warmup for the Champ Cars. Sebastien Bourdais' team sorted out the qualifying problems; the three-time and defending champ clocked in 5th. The series gives no points for practice; I still think the race will be between Bourdais and Tracy. But that's why they run races...we'll post a few snapshots and results later.
Posted at 10:38 am local time
Bobby Rahal (yes, the father of Graham Rahal, 3 time Champ Car/CART era champion and the Rahal in the Rahal-Letterman IndyCar series team) won the Historic Grand Prix for old time Formula One and Indy style cars. But wait, there's more (on the way)!
Posted at 12:07 pm local time
Late pre-race observation
Art doesn't feed the bulldog. While this weekend had everything go about 85% right, the people (or lack thereof) watching in the stands will tell a different story. You will see every fancy camera angle NBC Universal can muster to show people in the stands if you watch the broadcast/replay. From our observation point (16th floor of the World Market Center) we don't see many people in the stands, but we see clusters of people on top of parking ramps, etc. We wonder whether this race fits the old bromide about sports car racing, where (unlike NASCAR) the drivers know the fans by name. We'll cut through the spin later.
Posted at 1:02 pm local time
Top Three from the Champ Car Season opener & musings
Photo--left, 2nd place finisher Robert Doornbos, center, winner Will Power, right, 3rd place finisher Paul Tracy.
Power and Tracy dueled back and forth for the lead...F1 test driver Doornbos snuck ahead of "hometown hero" Tracy. Power brings Derrick Walker his 2nd Champ Car win since 1999. Today was also Mr. Walker's birthday.
Graham Rahal and Matt Halliday crashed on lap 2; Rahal ended up against the wall, just like in Saturday practice. He was credited for last place.
Katherine Legge finished 6th, on the lead lap, equalling her best Champ Car performance.
The veteran motorsports writer for the Las Vegas Review Journal, Jeff Wolf, estimated the crowd at 20,000. The Vegas Grand Prix erected 28,000 seats. So NBC TV anchor Bill Weber's bleating about a sell out was specious.
The new DP-01 Champ Cars really look sharp, and there's no sound in racing quite like a turbocharged Cosworth V8. You have to like the fact that all the chassis are made in the USA.
We'll join you next week from the mother of all American street races, the Long Beach Grand Prix.
Thanks for putting up with our learning how to 1) use the autofocus point & shoot camera and 2) figuring out a somewhat attractive layout for the pictures we upload.
Posted at 5:32 pm local
Paul Kaminski
