Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: LV’s Jaskol makes first trip to victory lane

Wednesday, June 16, 2004 | 9:26 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.

Matt Jaskol, a 19-year-old Las Vegas native, scored his first Formula BMW USA Championship victory of the season before a crowd estimated at 100,000 Sunday in Montreal.

Jaskol qualified fifth for the race, which was a support event for the Formula One Canadian Grand Prix, but worked his way into the lead by the end of the second lap. Jaskol held onto the lead for the remaining 10 laps and finished .473 seconds ahead of pole-sitter James Hinchcliffe.

"I could not (pass) anyone on the start because of the very low grip," Jaskol said. "But I was able to make some very good passes on the opening lap.

"To win here -- in front of so many people -- is fantastic. I am very happy that my father was here to see this. There is nothing better than to take a win going into the U.S. Grand Prix."

Rounds 5 and 6 of the 14-round Formula BMW USA Championship will be Saturday and Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway -- the site of Sunday's U.S. Grand Prix.

Jaskol, who drove for Paul Tracy's karting team before moving up to the Formula series, now has three podium finishes in four races this season. He earned a second-place finish in the second round, at Lime Rock Park in Connecticut, and finished third in last Saturday's race in Montreal.

Schumacher and Montoya had finished second and fifth, respectively, while da Matta and Panis were eighth and 10th.

A BMW official said after the inspection that the team would not appeal the decision. Toyota officials disagreed with the decision but failed to meet the FIA deadline for filing an appeal.

"We intended to appeal against the disqualification imposed by the Stewards of the Meeting; however, we were unable to meet the FIA appeal deadline," John Howett, president of Toyota Motorsports, said.

"I must stress that the alleged technical infringement resulted in absolutely no increase in our performance level during (Sunday's) race. The brake ducts on our racecars were still within a generally accepted tolerance level."

"We have a list of potential drivers (and) Jacques is on the list," Williams told Montreal's La Presse newspaper. "There has been no offer and no negotiations; we are not ready for that. It's a long procedure and we are in no hurry. We will speed things up in August."

Williams is looking for a replacement for Montoya, who is leaving the team at the end of the season to join McLaren.

Villeneuve, the 1997 World Champion with Williams, has not raced this season after being replaced at BAR by Japan's Takuma Sato.

Chesson turned his first laps in the No. 76 Mo Nunn Racing Dallara/Infiniti during an IRL Open Test Tuesday at The Milwaukee Mile.

Mo Nunn Racing also fields the No. 12 Dallara/Toyota for Tora Takagi in the IRL IndyCar Series.

Donny Schatz is third in the standings, 172 points behind Kinser.