LONG BEACH (April 18, 2004) - Paul Tracy (#1 Indeck Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) started his championship-winning campaign a year ago with a three-race win streak in the Bridgestone Presents The Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford, building early-season momentum that he had rarely enjoyed during his previous 13 seasons.
The impetus provided by that opening stretch of wins worked so well in earning Tracy his first Champ Car title, that when the opportunity came to start 2004 in a similar fashion, he took it right on the first lap.
It took just one lap for Tracy to storm to the front, using the same approach that has made him the winningest active driver in Champ Car. He locked in behind the polesitting car of Bruno Junqueira (#6 PacifiCare Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) as the field buzzed toward the first turn, then with the extra boost given by the use of the new push-to-pass button on the Ford-Cosworth XFE engine, slipped to the inside of the corner, outbraked Junqueira, collected the car after a wobble, and sluiced through the turn with the lead.
The move gave Tracy a lead that he would yield only briefly on the day as the Canadian scored his 27th career victory and fourth in the streets of Long Beach. Tracy paced 78 of the 81 laps on the day in capturing the win, picking up the lead in the championship by three points over Junqueira after the year’s first event.
“It’s a great way to start the season and for us to come out of here with the championship is a big lift for us,” Tracy said. “The team is really working well together and it was important for all of us to come out of here and run well right out of the box. The car was so good all day that we didn’t really have to push very hard to be fast.”
Junqueira would settle for second on a day where he spent all of his energies in pursuit of Tracy. The Newman/Haas Racing driver never let Tracy slip out of sight, and was usually able to chop away at any lead that the defending champion would build, but could never get close enough to make a serious move for the lead. Twice during the event, Junqueira was able to whittle a three-second lead down to under one second, but Tracy was equal to the task every time he got close.
The day’s only incident came right after Tracy made his daring pass for the lead as four drivers tangled in Turn One, prematurely ending the season opener for three of them. The race restarted after a brief cleanup period, but Tracy would get a good jump on the field and establish himself as the man to beat.
The top two drivers fought their own private battle nine second ahead of the rest of the field, but the secondary war was equally fierce as Alex Tagliani (#8 Johnson Controls Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone), Sebastien Bourdais (#2 McDonald’s Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) and Mario Dominguez (#55 Herdez Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) went at it hard for the third through fifth spots.
The order changed little through the first round of green-flag stops, with Dominguez making the biggest jump as he gained a pair of positions to climb into the fourth spot. Bourdais soon rolled up on the Mexican and both of them reeled in the Canadian Tagliani for a battle leading into the second round of stops.
Tagliani would see his podium bid end during those second stops as a problem with his right rear wheel nut cost him five positions in the pits. Bourdais was the immediate benefactor as his Newman/Haas squad was able to promote him to third, while Dominguez fell into a tug-of-war with Patrick Carpentier (#7 Indeck Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) for fourth. Those two drivers will run literally nose-to-tail for a number of laps but Dominguez would be unable to make the pass and settle for fifth while Carpentier claimed the fourth position. Carpentier snared an extra point during the day, staying out to lead the other two laps that his teammate Tracy did not pace during the race.
Tracy Wins Long Beach
Justin Wilson (#34 Mi-Jack/Conquest Racing Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) had a strong debut in the series, earning the point for making up the most positions from his starting point, climbing from 11th to sixth to finish as the highest-placing rookie in the event. Ryan Hunter-Reay (#4 Herdez Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) would end the day in the seventh spot in his first run with Herdez Competition while Tagliani settled for eighth after his pit road trouble.
Mario Haberfeld (#5 Cummins Ford-Cosworth/Reynard/Bridgestone) came home in ninth, setting the standard for Reynards and earning his 12th top-10 finish in his 19 Champ Car starts. Rodolfo Lavin (#3 Corona Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) rounded out the top 10 in his first start with the three-car Forsythe Championship Racing team.
Tracy holds the championship lead by three points over Junqueira and five over Bourdais, who scored an additional point for setting the race’s fastest lap time. The series will now prepare for the May 23 Tecate/Telmex Monterey Grand Prix at Fundidora Park in Monterey, which will be the second event of the 2004 campaign.
Quotes From The Top Three Finishers
PAUL TRACY: You know, our strategy, we just said, well, we were just going to take our chances and flip the coin and try as long as we have fuel to go; and the track was green, we were going to stay out there and not pit at set times.
BRUNO JUNQUEIRA: I think it's going to be a great year. I think there's going to be a big fight between me, Tracy and Sebastien. I believe that there's going to be other drivers that are going to be fast, as well. But for sure, you will have to be consistent to win the championship With Tracy and Sebastien, and some of the other guys, you have to concentrate all the time if you are going to do well.
SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS: After the way we started last year when we won the pole in St. Pete but didn’t score any points, this is very important for us and it is nice to come out of here with some points.
NOTEWORTHY
The victory for Tracy is the 27th of his career, moving him into a tie for eighth in the all-time Champ Car records with Johnny Rutherford. He is third in the CART/Champ Car era beginning in 1979, and is just four wins behind second-placed Al Unser Jr.
Patrick Carpentier’s fourth-place finish is the best result of his eight Long Beach start. He joined Tracy and Junqueira as the drivers to gain points by leading laps during the event.
The podium finish for Junqueira is his 17th in 58 career starts, meaning that he has finished on the podium in 29.3 percent of his career starts.
Award-winning actor Tom Cruise bolted himself into the two-seat Champ Car prior to the start of today’s event, riding along behind former Champ Car driver Roberto Moreno. Cruise along with former Beatle Paul McCartney and his wife Heather attended the race as guests of Newman/Haas Racing co-owner Paul Newman.
Courtesy of CART
