Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Junqueira ready to make run at Champ Car title

Wednesday, April 14, 2004 | 9:48 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.

After finishing second in the CART championship each of the past two seasons, Bruno Junqueira said he finally has all the pieces in place to make a run at the 2004 Champ Car World Series championship.

When the Champ Car season opens this weekend with the 30th annual Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, Junqueira said he would have a car that is tailored to his driving style -- and not that of Newman/Haas Racing teammate Sebastien Bourdais, as was the case last year.

"The first part of (last) season, I pretty much drove the car that they had in 2002 (and) that was not the best setup for me," Junqueira said. "It was a really good car but it didn't suit my driving style; it was better for Sebastien.

"When I had opportunity to do one test during the season, mid-season in Elkhart Lake, we changed a lot of things on the car and the car was much better."

Junqueira posted five podium finishes in the first eight races of the 2003 season but was able to close on eventual series champion Paul Tracy in the second half with victories at Elkhart Lake and Denver.

"I thought for the second part of the year, I was much faster, winning more poles, being up front more," he said. "Then they tried some different setups towards that direction. I'm feeling more comfortable with the car now. I think the last test at Sebring found some things that suits my driving style more and I think we're going to be a little bit better."

Despite Champ Car's struggles this winter to continue the bankrupt CART series, Junqueira said he never gave up hope that the series would continue under the leadership of new owners Paul Gentilozzi, Kevin Kalkhoven and Gerald Forsythe.

"I trust a lot in (team owners) Carl Haas and Paul Newman," Junqueira said. "They decided to stick with Champ Cars and they believe in that product. I really hope the thing is going to work. I always look forward, I don't look that things aren't going to happen.

"I still have a championship to win -- I finished second twice. Now that we're going to go on this year, I hope this year can be my year."

Each of the 18 cars in the race will be given eight sets of tires. Two of the sets will feature a softer compound that will offer more grip and potentially lead to quicker lap times and the ability of faster cars to more easily pass slower cars. Each car must use at least one set of the softer tires at some point in the race or incur a one-lap penalty.

The option tires will be specially marked so spectators easily can tell which cars are running them.

Vasser, who also was inducted following his 1998 victory in Fontana, was to have been honored last November prior to the CART season finale but the race was canceled due to the Southern California wildfires. Vasser was at the track Tuesday and today testing on the infield road course in preparation for Sunday's Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.

Each race winner at California Speedway is memorialized with a permanent plaque along the Walk of Fame, where the drivers' footprints and autographs are placed in cement.

Kinser's seventh victory of the season and 503rd of his career allowed him to increase his lead to 83 points over Lasoski in the WoO standings. Donny Schatz is in third, 85 points behind Kinser.