Greetings from "Glitter Gulch", a/k/a Downtown Las Vegas
The Champ Cars are on track this afternoon local time. For 2007, the series will use a new chassis, called the DP-01 (DP represents Dr. Don Panoz, legendary sports car maven and owner of the company that designs and builds the cars). The DP-01 is all American built.
This is the debut for a bunch of rookies---8 of the 17 drivers will wear the rookie designator...including Simon Pagenaud and Graham Rahal, 1-2 finishers in the Champ Car Atlantic Championship in 2006. Vegas resident, bad boy and past CART Champion Paul Tracy will start no worse than second...his speed over the 2.4 mile temporary street circuit was 110.097 miles an hour. In Champ Car road/street course qualifying...the fastest in the first session is guaranteed at least second starting spot. Tracy also gets a championship point. He says a driver must be precise when setting up for corners on this circuit.
The top three were Tracy (center), Pagenaud (right) and 3-time and defending series champ Sebastien Bourdais (left). Rookie Pagenaud clocked in at 109.803; Bourdais stopped the timers at 109.530 miles an hour.
We'll share more impressions and photos tomorrow.
Paul Kaminski
4/6/2007
