Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Vasser on the verge of sitting in a milestone starting grid

Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2004 | 10:20 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 will again add his name to the Champ Car record book this weekend when the series visits the streets of Denver for the Centrix Financial Grand Prix of Denver.

Vasser, a Las Vegas resident and the 1996 series champion, will tie Al Unser Jr.'s record of 192 consecutive starts when he takes the green flag for Sunday's race.

The streak began in 1993 at Laguna-Seca Raceway in 1993 -- his second season in the series -- when he was driving for team owner Jim Hayhoe. Vasser now is in his first season driving for PKV Racing, of which he is a co-owner, and is seventh in the championship after 8 of 16 races.

"It's not an accomplishment of tremendous skill -- it's just longevity," Vasser said of his impending record. "It's an awful lot of races consecutively, but it doesn't feel like that. I still get antsy with anticipation the same way I always did.

"What it really says is that, knock on wood, I haven't had an injury along the way. Other guys could have had streaks, but they have had injuries."

Vasser is coming off an eighth-place finish at Road America and has posted six consecutive top-10 finishes.

Rice said the upcoming stretch of three races in three weeks -- starting with Sunday's event at Kentucky Speedway -- would be critical in determining the 2004 IndyCar Series champion.

"These three races are very important towards the championship," Rice said of the races at Kentucky, Pikes Peak and Nazareth. "Vitor (Meira) and I were able to split up our recent testing; I was at Nazareth and Vitor was at Kentucky for Honda. Both tests were very good and I know we'll have good cars for the three races.

"We have been able to close in on Tony's point lead a little so far. But he is tough and hasn't finished out of the top five since the opening race. We have to do our best job and go to win races now. There are six races left and we'll be right there to challenge for the win at each race."

Rice, who drives for Rahal Letterman Racing, has three victories this season. Kanaan, who drives for Andretti Green Racing, also has three victories.

Raphael Matos of Brazil earned the pole for Saturday's 30-lap race on the 2.5-mile, 10-turn road course and then scored the team's first podium finish with a third-place effort in the race.

Hearn, a former CART and IRL driver and a Henderson resident, put together the Star Mazda team earlier this year and Mosport marked the fifth race in which Hearn Motorsports had competed.

"We're extremely pleased and relieved that we finally got it put together," Hearn said. "Third place is good for us because it's our first time on the podium. Raphael never put a wheel wrong all weekend. So, all in all, it was good for us. This is the first step, getting on the podium. But winning the pole is a big boost."

Hearn also has fielded a second car, for Southern Californian Brian Thienes, at the past two events. Thienes finished 12th in Saturday's race at Mosport.