Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Tracy on verge of title

Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2003 | 9:46 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.

Paul Tracy has been racing in the CART Champ Car World Series long enough -- 13 seasons -- to know how important it would be to clinch the series championship this weekend in Australia.

Tracy, a six-year resident of Las Vegas, holds a 29-point lead over Bruno Junqueira going into Sunday's race and could clinch his first CART championship by leaving Australia with at least a 22-point lead.

Although there is one race remaining after Sunday's Lexmark Indy 300 on the streets of Surfers Paradise, Tracy does not want to have a situation where his championship hopes rest on next weekend's 500-mile season finale at California Speedway in Fontana.

"It would be nice to clinch it in Australia," Tracy said. "I wouldn't want to go into a 500-mile race (with the championship on the line) because there are so many things that can happen -- engine problems or an accident or whatever -- because it's such a long race. If we can get it wrapped up (this weekend), that would be fantastic."

Tracy speaks from firsthand experience. In six career starts on the 2-mile California oval, Tracy has failed to finish a race. He was leading the 1998 race there with five laps remaining when he spun out on a restart, crashed and finished 14th. His past four trips to Fontana have resulted in DNFs for electrical, engine and mechanical failures.

"Fontana hasn't been very good to me ... so I'd like to get it all wrapped up in Australia if we can," Tracy said. "If not, we'll just keep racing until the checkered flag comes out at the end. That's all you can do, is do your best."

Australia has been only slightly kinder to Tracy. Although he finished third there last year and won the race in 1995, Tracy has been running at the finish of only four of his 10 career starts in Surfers Paradise. Nonetheless, Tracy is coming off a dominating victory in Mexico City -- his series-leading seventh of the season -- and said he is confident going into the weekend.

"The team has got some momentum now and we just try to go in there and do the best we can," Tracy said. "The most important thing is just to beat Bruno and then we've got it. As a team, you just try to keep the same intensity level up.

"I think our approach really is just the same as we went into Mexico; just go in there and try to win the championship by winning (the race) and keep the same intensity up. I think if you start to freewheel and try to coast into the rest of the deal, then maybe you can make a mistake."

By the same token, Tracy said he is trying not to put too much pressure on himself or his Forsythe Racing crew.

"I think we put too much pressure on ourselves at Miami and that's why we faltered there," Tracy said of his mid-race crash there that resulted in a 16th-place finish. "As a team, we sat down on Thursday (before Mexico City) and had a dinner and just talked it over. We said we've got to do what we know how to do -- we've won six races this year and let's get back to what we were doing earlier in the year.

"We did that the whole weekend (in Mexico City) and we had a perfect weekend. We've just got to keep everybody low-key."

Brack, 37, remained in satisfactory condition following surgeries Oct. 12 and 13 at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas to repair fractures to his lower back, right thighbone, sternum and both ankles.

Unser, a two-time winner of the Indianapolis 500 and a part-time Henderson resident, remained hospitalized Tuesday in Albuquerque and was upgraded from serious to satisfactory condition.

"He's thinking it'll be two months before he can drive again," Albert Unser told The Associated Press. "This shouldn't affect him at all. He's planning to drive next year."

The elder Unser said he planned to return to the Indy Racing League in 2004, although the team for which he has driven the past two seasons, Kelley Racing, does not have the funding to field a car for him next season.

"As far as my future, we'll see," Unser said following the IRL season finale earlier this month. "I'm still enjoying what I'm going and I'll definitely have an IndyCar ride -- I just don't know where I'm going to land but I'm sure it will be with a great team because I'm not doing anything that isn't a winning combination."

Unser won one race this season and finished sixth in the final points standings.

Kinser, the defending series champion, needs only to finish 18th or better in the final four races to clinch his 18th WoO championship. Kinser has finished worse than 18th in only five features this season.

The Outlaws conclude the 2003 season Oct. 31 and Nov. 1 at the dirt track at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.