Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Las Vegas’ Tracy to return to scene of the ‘crime’

Wednesday, July 11, 2001 | 10 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. Reach him at bh@lasvegassun.com or 259-4089.

After consecutive podium finishes in the Molson Indy in 1999 and 2000, Paul Tracy of Las Vegas is eagerly awaiting this weekend's return to his hometown of Toronto.

It is doubtful, however, that the local police are as enthused about Tracy's return.

During a promotional appearance last month for the race, the mischievous Tracy got behind the wheel of a fire-engine red Dodge Viper and entertained the assembled media with several tire-smoking doughnuts at Exhibition Place -- the site of Sunday's Molson Indy street race.

The police were not amused. When Tracy was asked if he had a permit to perform stunts at Exhibition Place, Tracy said he was sure the event organizers were on top of things and would have the proper permits.

Tracy, who has failed to finish in the points in each of his past five starts, is hopeful he can turn around his season this weekend in his hometown race.

"It has been a tough stretch for us lately but we turned things around at Toronto last year with a podium finish," Tracy said. "We have had strong cars everywhere we've been this year but racing luck has been holding us back.

"Toronto is a tough street track with a great atmosphere and I expect us to turn this luck around."

Mears, who was one of the drivers IRL team owner Sam Schmidt considered hiring to replace the injured Davey Hamilton, completed 52 laps in Walker's Toyota/Reynard and posted a quick time of 70.5 seconds with no incidents.

"Casey has shown in the past that he has the ability to drive any number of racecars," team owner Derrick Walker said. "We wanted to give him a chance to see what he could do in a CART car.

"This is the time of the year when we're very active in talking to potential sponsors for next season. It was a good opportunity to demonstrate Casey's capabilities to help us in our sell. We're also grateful to CART that we were given permission to do this test due to the limited testing rules during the race season."

The 23-year-old Mears made his CART debut at last year's season-ending race at California Speedway and finished fourth for Team Rahal.

Bobby Rahal, who runs the Jaguar Formula One team, said he would like to see the series try a night race.

"I think it would be spectacular to see the brakes glowing and all the flames coming out from the exhausts; it would be cool," Rahal said.

Minardi, who helped found the Italian team in 1979, recently confirmed that he and team accountant Stefano Sangiorgi were being investigated by tax authorities. Minardi denied all the charges, which cover the period of 1993 to 1996, when he was principal owner of the team.

"Anybody who is capable of spinning out off the pole like he did (on) the first lap at Indy obviously doesn't have his act together. (I don't like being) within a country mile of Scott Sharp on the track."