Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Champ Cars bosses won’t cave on demand for more Vegas speed

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. He can be reached at [email protected] or (702) 259-4089.

Despite the protestation of at least one of the series' drivers, the Champ Car World Series has decided not to alter the aerodynamic package the team tested at Las Vegas Motor Speedway last month in preparation for the inaugural Champ Car race at the 1.5-mile oval.

John Lopes, the series' executive vice president of operations, said Champ Car officials looked at alternative aero packages but ultimately decided against speeding up the cars for the Sept. 25 race here.

"We met with some of the team engineers and many of the drivers," Lopes said. "We specifically had a meeting about it last week and the teams were unanimous that we would run the package that we tested (at LVMS)."

Bruno Junqueira posted the fastest lap of the Aug. 18 test session at 203.482 mph.

Defending series champion Paul Tracy, a Las Vegas resident, complained that series officials were "dumbing down" the 750-horsepower Champ Cars by using the aero package as tested. Under optimum conditions, the Champ Cars could turns laps at close to 230 mph on the LVMS oval.

"Paul Tracy really made a strong argument -- and I spent a lot of time on the phone with Paul over this issue," Lopes said. "A couple of days after the test, we had a talk and he made a very well thought through, articulate argument on his position.

"Perhaps next year, we might try something different. But for this year, in order to get prepared in a short amount of time for an event of this magnitude ... we decided we're going to go with the package as published."

Series points leader Sebastien Bourdais, who set the second-fastest speed (203.114 mph) during the seven-hour test at LVMS, said the teams would work with the aero package in the month before the race and speeds would be slightly faster when the cars qualify on Friday, Sept. 24.

Lopes agreed.

"From what we've seen, the teams with the ability to figure out the academic challenge presented to them have already gone out and figured out, A, how to go faster and, B, how to free up the car a little bit to create passing," Lopes said.

"Really, it's something that had to be learned after the test. It's a little bit of a different and unique challenge and it's going to be a different kind of oval race than we've had before -- but probably will look much like the EuroSpeedway event that we had last season, which was our best race of the year."

In that race, held on the oddly shaped 2.023-mile, three-turn oval in Lausitz, Germany, Bourdais waged a spirited, last-lap battle with Mario Dominguez before emerging with his second of three victories last season. The race produced 13 official lead changes among five drivers and Bourdais and Dominguez swapped the lead twice on the closing lap.

Lopes predicted a similar type of race the 166-lap event at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

"After taking a look at the test and seeing the development the teams have done since the test, we think it's going to be a great race and we do believe there's going to be passing and we think the fans are going to be on their feet for 400 kilometers," Lopes said.

"It's not like you're going to see a pack of 18 cars going around together, although I think you are going to see cars racing together and I think you're going to see some three-wide (racing). And I would submit to you if the fans took a vote, that's what they'd tell you they'd like to see."

IRL ADDS ST. PETE: The Indy Racing League on Thursday announced the addition of a street race in St. Petersburg, Fla., to its 2005 schedule.

The race, to be held on a 14-turn, 1.806 temporary circuit, will be run on April 3, 2005 and will be the first street race in the IndyCar Series' history. The IRL also will race next season at permanent road courses in Sonoma, Calif., and Watkins Glen, N.Y.

CALIFORNIA DREAMIN': Las Vegas native Kurt Busch returns to the West Coast this weekend for the inaugural NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race on Labor Day Weekend at California Speedway. The race, which starts at approximately 4:30 p.m. (PDT), will finish under the lights at the 2-mile oval in Fontana.

Busch, currently sixth in points, said the race will be important to solidify his standing in the top 10 and a berth in the 10-race "Chase for the Nextel Cup." Sunday's Pop Secret 500 is the penultimate race in the Nextel Cup "regular-season."

"This (race) definitely is going to have a different value to the normal races that are held at California Speedway," Busch said. "It's the first time that we're going there for a second date, as well as prime-time television on a Sunday evening where everybody is going to have a chance to watch our race on NBC.

"But, of course, we can't get caught up in that and lose track of our chase for the Cup and getting locked in as well as the past that we've had there. We've run well in the past; a great finish (13th) my rookie year, to finish second my second year, to win last year. We just stumbled a little bit on our new setup (in May), but we'll probably go back to some of our roots for this fall race to make sure we've got a great solid finish ahead of us."

Busch battled an ill-handling car in the spring race at California Speedway and had to settle for a 23rd-place finish.

HOT SEAT: Brendan Gaughan, the other Las Vegas native competing regularly in the Nextel Cup Series, earned a career-best sixth-place finish in the spring race at California Speedway, but missed the post-race rookie press conference because he was treated for heat exhaustion and blisters on his "tailbone area."

Gaughan vowed after the race to have his Penske-Jasper crew install heat shields in his No. 77 Dodge -- something he had shunned in the past.

"I used to think I was too tough for certain items in the cars, like heat shields," Gaughan said this week. "Our race (at California Speedway) was so hot, I was sweating profusely before I even got in the car. Then trying to race 250 laps, while boiling in my seat, wasn't any fun.

"All I know is I am a fan of heat shields under the seat, under my feet -- wherever they can put them, I want a heat shield."

CRAVEN OUT: PPI Motorsports announced Thursday that Bobby Hamilton Jr. would replace Ricky Craven as driver of the team's No. 32 Chevrolet in the Nextel Cup Series beginning with Sunday's race at California Speedway.

Hamilton had been hired to take over for Craven next year, but team owner Cal Wells opted to buy out the remainder of Craven's contract this season to get a "head start" on the 2005 season.

Craven will return to the No. 32 Chevy for one more race, Sept. 19 at his hometown track, New Hampshire International Speedway.

NICE DEBUT: NHRA Funny Car driver Ron Capps sat on the pole and drove to a 7-second victory in his first-ever road race last Saturday in the Skip Barber Regional Race Series event at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

Capps lost his lead only once during the 12-lap Sportsman race, but quickly got back in front on the same lap.

The following day, Capps moved up to the faster Expert class and, despite starting last in the 14-car field, drove to a fourth-place finish.

Capps, who drives the green Skoal Racing Funny Car for team owner Don Prudhomme in the NHRA Powerade Drag Racing Series, is competing in the 50th annual U.S. Nationals this weekend at Indianapolis Raceway Park.

SCORE MOVIE PARTY: In conjunction with next weekend's ninth annual SCORE Las Vegas Primm 300 desert race, Buffalo Bill's Resort in Primm will be the site of a pre-launch party for the movie "Dust to Glory," a full-length documentary on the world-famous SCORE Baja 1000.

The function, which is open to the public, will feature a screening of the "Dust to Glory" theatrical trailer and a short-subject piece on the making of the film. The event runs from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 10, in the Star of the Desert Arena at Buffalo Bill's.

The ninth annual SCORE Las Vegas Primm 300 will be held the following day.

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