Left--Champ Car point leader Will Power (3rd place finisher) and Center--race winner Sebastien Bourdais, who won his 3rd consecutive Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. Oriol Servia, who replaced the injured Paul Tracy, finished second, 2.61 seconds behind Bourdais, who led 58 of the 78 laps run.

Long Beach Impressions--a typically good Long Beach crowd, so the "bulldog" was fed very well. If the series can get past next week in Houston to that 6 week break until Portland, then they can work a little on the chassis. What looked like a lazy hit for Paul Tracy certainly wasn't--and the series can ill afford to have their series "bad boy" and leading active open wheel driver in terms of starts, victories and laps led on the sidelines. However, Tracy is just shy of 40, and recuperative powers diminish with age.

Cristiano da Matta continues to make progress from his head injuries suffered last summer at Road America; he was roaming the paddock this weekend.

Rookie Graham Rahal kept his nose out of trouble; the son of legend Bobby Rahal finished 8th. Graham (like it or not) has big shoes to fill; it would also help the series to have a credible American born contender. One does not become a contender by crashing, but completing laps, and learning how to go faster.

The Champ Car field needs at least 20 starters. That's a rough number to make when the DP-01 production line is shut down. To attract sponsors, you need "buzz" and it can be created with visuals like those which came from Las Vegas and Long Beach. The product must sustain the "buzz", somewhat like sourdough bread starter.

Next on-scene blog will be at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in May. We'll check in with comments before then, to be sure.

Posted at 4:48 pm local time

Left--A look into the driver's "office", a/k/a cockpit of the Panoz DP-01 Champ Car. This is chassis number 001, which is used as a demonstration unit.

Right-- The pole winning car of Sebastien Bourdais after the morning warmup. The three-time and defending series champion won the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach in 2005 and 2006. His speed in the warmup was 102.8 miles per hour.

Posted at 10:22 am local time

Day Two, "Glitter Gulch", April 7, 2007

Top Left--Will Power, polesitter for the Vegas Grand Prix Champ Car season opener.

Center--The Vanderbilt Trophy in the Champ Car Paddock. The trophy goes to the series champion at season's end.

Right--The Newman-Haas Lanigan Team working on rookie Graham Rahal's #2 DP 01 Champ Car during morning practice. He smacked the wall after setting 3rd fast time. The team likely would go to a backup.

04/07/2007--10:40 am local

Sophomore Will Power is on the pole for the Champ Car Vegas Grand Prix, with a speed of 113.154 miles per hour. It's the second pole for the Australian driver, who drives for Derrick Walker. Paul Tracy is 2nd thanks to yesterday's run; rookie Robert Doornbos starts 3rd. Sebastien Bourdais starts 17th, because he brought out a red flag with a gearbox problem and his time was negated. Rookie Graham Rahal recovered from the morning crash; he'll start 10th. This is the first time in the last 54 races that Bourdais has started in a position outside the top 10.

Two thoughts: Will the Golden Nugget post a number on how quick Tracy might snooker Mr. Power on the start (first turn, methinks) and how many laps before Bourdais gets to the front? The race is a timed, 1 hour 45 minute event.

Happy Easter Vigil

Paul Kaminski

04/07/2007--4:08 pm local

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