Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Vasser: 200 career starts means I’m getting old

Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2003 | 9:35 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. He can be reached at bh@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4089.

Jimmy Vasser isn't getting overly emotional about making his 200th career Champ Car start in Sunday's Molson Indy Montreal.

"It's just a number, right?" Vasser said when asked about the significance of making 200 starts. "I had my 199th last weekend; it didn't seem that big of a deal.

"But I guess it means I'm getting old, right?"

Vasser, the 1996 CART champion and a Las Vegas resident, conceded that the milestone was "a cool thing," although he said he hasn't been counting races since he made his CART debut in 1992 with team owner Jim Hayhoe.

"When I started, you don't think you're going to race that many races," Vasser said. "When I first started, my first few years in Champ Car, I thought, 'Man, if I could have a 10-year career, that would be fantastic.'

"A couple years ago, after I achieved that, I didn't really think about the numbers so much."

If the prospect of making his 200th start doesn't have Vasser excited about this weekend's race, his recent performance in the American Spirit Team Johansson Ford/Reynard does. Vasser charged from 14th to fourth at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course 10 days ago before he ran off course and hit a tire barrier 10 laps from the end of the race.

Teammate Ryan Hunter-Reay was third and earned the first-year team's first podium finish.

"The car was fantastic up until the point where I made a mistake ... lost control and threw it away," Vasser said. "That was kind of a drag. But certainly, I thought that it showed well for the team. Obviously, with Ryan, he ran a good race and brought it home on the podium, which is a good thing for the team.

"Certainly, last weekend I think was a booster for the team. It's going to be interesting to see if that momentum gain from Mid-Ohio is something that the team can feed off of. You know, sometimes they can and sometimes they can't. It's going to be up to the team. While we wish that's the case, it remains to be seen."

Vasser heads to Montreal with 10 victories and eight poles in his 12-year Champ Car career. He finished fifth in last year's inaugural race at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, a 2.709-mile road course.

CART has not accepted the buyout offer but is in negotiations with the group, which owns approximately 23 percent of the outstanding shares of CART common stock. CART's stock closed Tuesday at $1.20 per share on the New York Stock Exchange.

"In making his decision, Mr. Walker cited that he was sensitive to the potential for an appearance of a conflict of interest in connection with decisions regarding the future of the company, and that he felt his resignation was in the best interests of the company and its shareholders," CART said in a release.

Brooke Tatnell of New South Wales, Austraila, won the inaugural Track of Dreams Nationals Monday at the Jetmore Motorplex and became the first Australian driver to win a WoO "A" feature. ...

Texas-based Boundless Motor Sports Inc. formally announced it has purchased the World of Outlaws series from series founder and president Ted Johnson. Johnson said he would remain with the series "for a couple of years."