Las Vegas driver Tracy knocked out of title race

Monday, Oct. 30, 2000 | 9:45 a.m.

FONTANA, Calif. -- And then there were three.

Paul Tracy's bid for his first CART championship ended prematurely when the engine in his Team Kool Green Reynard/Honda let go just 23 laps into Sunday's Marlboro 500 at California Speedway.

Tracy, a Las Vegas resident, dropped out of the championship battle at that point, leaving Gil de Ferran, Adrian Fernandez and rookie Kenny Brack to race for the title and the $1 million bonus.

"I don't really know what happened; there was no warning," Tracy said of the engine failure. "We were just cruising, kind of taking it easy, and all of a sudden we lost the engine.

"I looked at the car when I got out and the top of the engine was gone. It's a disappointing day, but I can't complain. There's no reason to be upset ... everyone involved in Team Kool Green has done their best and you can't foresee something like that happening."

Tracy won three races this season, had a series-high six podium finishes and was tied for third in points with Brack going into Sunday's season finale.

Although Tracy's hopes of a championship disintegrated along with his engine, the Canadian driver remained optimistic about the 2001 season.

"We had a good season, we've got a lot to be proud of and we've got some good momentum to carry into next year," he said.

When Tracy's engine expired, pieces of the carbon fiber engine cowling appeared to blow off the car. Cristiano da Matta, who was running about 200 yards behind Tracy, ran over a piece of the debris with his right-front wheel.

Da Matta's front suspension broke, sending him hard into the turn 4 wall. Da Matta was not injured in the accident.

* CART SPRING TRAINING: Despite efforts by Las Vegas Motor Speedway general manager Chris Powell to land CART's annual spring training, the open-wheel series will hold its 2001 preview event at California Speedway.

CART has eliminated on-track activities for next year's spring training and instead will make drivers available to the media for two days. CART also has renamed the event, to be held Jan. 16-18, "Sneak Preview 2001."

This year's spring training was held at Homestead-Miami Speedway in Southern Florida and included one day of media interviews and one day of on-track testing.

* CART IN VEGAS: Although CART and LVMS officials have not yet agreed to stage a race in Las Vegas in 2002, as is expected, CART team owner Bobby Rahal and drivers Max Papis and Kenny Brack are scheduled to visit the Speedway Tuesday to take a look at the track.

Rahal, Papis and Brack will tour the 1.5-mile superspeedway to get an idea of what setup the Champ Cars will require to run at LVMS.

Sources told the Sun that Team Rahal also plans to test at LVMS in February.

* OOPS: Prior to the start of Sunday's Marlboro 500, one of the CART pace cars spun and hit the wall in turn two while conducting a guest ride.

CART Toyota Atlantic driver Andrew Bordin and his passenger, Yoshimichi Inada, both suffered injuries and were transported to a local hospital.

Bordin sustained a fracture and dislocation of the fourth cervical vertebrae and was hospitalized overnight. Inada, a senior managing director at Pioneer Electronics, was unconscious when rescue workers arrived on the scene. Inada was hospitalized overnight with an undisclosed head injury.

* SERVIA FINED: CART rookie Oriol Servia was fined $20,000 and docked four championship points for on-track infractions stemming from separate incidents during the Oct. 15 race in Australia.

CART cited Servia for unjustifiable risk, unsportsmanlike conduct, violation of the yellow-flag rule and short-cutting the course.

Servia's unjustifiable risk and unsportsmanlike conduct penalties occurred when he made contact with Paul Tracy on lap 59 of the event, knocking Tracy out of the race.

* INDY LIGHTS: Scott Dixon of PacWest Racing led all but one lap and won Sunday's Dayton Indy Lights 100 and the season championship.

Dixon, who held a four-point lead over Townsend Bell entering the season finale, finished with 155 points to Bell's 146.