Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Vasser looking forward to racing on home track

Wednesday, Sept. 8, 2004 | 9:12 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.

Las Vegas resident Jimmy Vasser will have a unique comfort level during the next two Champ Car World Series races, which will be contested on a pair of tracks with which he is very familiar.

This weekend, the Champ Car World Series is in Northern California for the Bridgestone Grand Prix of Monterey at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. In two weeks, the series heads to Las Vegas for its inaugural race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Vasser, 38, is a former Northern California resident and still operates an automobile dealership that bears his name in Napa, Calif.

"Returning to my home track is always the highlight of the season for me," Vasser said about Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. "My memories of Laguna Seca extend all the way back to my childhood. I used to go there with my dad, and that track is really what sparked my interest in road racing."

Vasser, the 1996 series champion, said he experienced some of the most memorable moments of his racing career at the 11-turn, 2.238-mile permanent road course near Monterey.

"I won my first big Formula Ford race there in the 80s, in addition to winning an Atlantic race there in 1987," Vasser said. "In 1996, I clinched the (CART) title there and my good friend and teammate Alex (Zanardi) made "The Pass" on (Bryan) Herta. The next year, I won the race and Alex won the championship there, which was pretty cool.

"It's a special place with a lot of meaning for me."

Vasser is co-owner of PKV Racing, which fields the No. 12 Ford-Cosworth/Lola he drives. He has posted seven top-10 finishes in the past eight races and is ninth in Champ Car points after 10 of 16 races.

CHAMP CAR POINTS: Sebastien Bourdais holds a 34-point lead over Newman/Haas Racing teammate Bruno Junqueira heading into Sunday's Bridgestone Grand Prix of Monterey, but the top 12 drivers in the standings -- including all four Las Vegas residents in the series -- remain in contention for the championship.

Reigning series champion Paul Tracy is third in the championship, 55 points behind Bourdais, Alex Tagliani is fourth and Patrick Carpentier is fifth. Vasser is ninth in the championship, 112 points out of the lead with six races remaining.

Carpentier is the defending race winner at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.

MR. CONSISTENT: With his victory in the most recent race, in Montreal, Junqueira became the first Champ Car driver since Bobby Rahal (1982-1985) to win at least one race in each of his first four seasons in the series.

Junqueira, who has finished second in the series championship each of the past two seasons, has six career victories.

IRL POINTS: Tony Kanaan holds a 72-point edge over Andretti Green Racing teammate Dan Wheldon with three races remaining in the Indy Racing League IndyCar Series season.

Kanaan can clinch his first IRL season championship by finishing fifth or better in the final three races. The series is at Chicagoland Speedway Sunday for the Delphi Indy 300. Kanaan finished sixth in last year's race at Chicagoland.

RACE CANCELED: The Motorock Trans-Am Series season finale, scheduled for Oct. 10 in San Juan, Puerto Rico, has been canceled, the series announced Monday. No reason was given for the cancellation.

The series will end its season Saturday at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.

Paul Gentilozzi, one of the co-owners of Champ Car and the Trans-Am Series, leads the Trans-Am championship by 11 points over Tommy Kendall and 20 points over Randy Ruhlman.