Vasser turns in season-best finish in Long Beach event

Monday, April 14, 2003 | 9:32 a.m.

LONG BEACH, Calif. -- Las Vegas resident Jimmy Vasser overcame a rough weekend and made the biggest move of the race in Sunday's Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.

Vasser and his American Spirit Team Johansson crew chased the setup on his car after he qualified a disappointing 14th. Vasser made up 10 spots in the race and finished fourth -- his best result of the season.

"It's a great result for us, especially considering the weekend we had," Vasser said. "We couldn't buy a break all weekend and our strategy really worked out for us today.

"On top of that, we had great pit stops all day. It's really nice to walk out of here with those points today."

Vasser climbed from ninth to fifth in the CART Champ Car standings and is 18 points behind second-place Bruno Junqueira after three races.

Las Vegas' other two drivers in the race, Patrick Carpentier and Alex Tagliani, saw potentially solid finishes ruined by various problems.

Carpentier was running second prior behind Adrian Fernandez before his final pit stop but stalled his car in the pits. He finished sixth.

"Under the circumstances, it's disappointing," Carpentier said of his finish. "The car was excellent and I was conserving fuel as much as I could by running in fifth instead of fourth gear.

"(Our) strategy was working well until the last pit stop, when I put the car in gear, gave it the fuel and it stalled. We've had a good enough car to potentially win in the first three races, but it hasn't materialized."

Tagliani was running in the top five for much of the day until his car developed a fuel pump problem late in the race. He finished 10th after qualifying third.

"I felt a sudden change in the car and a dragging feeling," Tagliani said. "It just didn't have the pick-up it had when I first set out.

"The pick-up wasn't strong enough and I spent the rest of the race just trying to hang on to the position I was in."

"I don't think I've ever driven a race that's had as high a pace as that for such a long period of time," Tracy said.

Minden-based Sierra Sierra Racing had a rough day as drivers Ryan Dalziel, who qualified third, and Marc DeVellis were involved in a three-car accident on the seventh lap and were unable to continue.

Danica Patrick, the only female driver in the feeder series, made contact with a tire barrier on lap 20 and finished 14th in the 16-car field.