Monday, Sept. 13, 2004 | 10:10 a.m.
MONTEREY, Calif. -- Patrick Carpentier certainly has a dramatic sense of timing.
Carpentier, a Las Vegas resident who is in the process of mulling job offers for next season, dominated the second half of Sunday's Grand Prix of Monterey Champ Car World Series race at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and earned his first victory of the season.
The victory, Carpentier's second in a row on the 11-turn, 2.238-mile road course on the Monterey Peninsula, no doubt will raise the stakes in his favor when he resumes negotiations with Forsythe Championship Racing, his current team, and an unidentified pursuer in the rival Indy Racing League.
The last time Carpentier was in danger of losing his ride with Forsythe, in 2002, Carpentier went out and won two mid-season races and solidified his future with the team.
"I don't know why that is," Carpentier said of his knack for posting timely victories. "Honestly, to have offers and have somebody that's really interested in running you takes some sort of a weight off your shoulders ... it gives you something that you don't have -- confidence, or whatever it is -- and you go and enjoy yourself."
Carpentier may have been enjoying himself a little too much after taking over the race lead on lap 41 (of 79) and bolting out to a commanding lead. After the final caution period of the race tightened the field with 21 laps remaining, Carpentier jumped out to an 8-second lead before dipping two wheels into the sand and nearly losing both his lead and the race just seven laps from taking the checkered flag.
"I almost lost it seven laps from the end because, for some reason, I lost a little bit of focus," Carpentier said sheepishly. "You're by yourself like that, you have a tendency to wave off with the mind -- and I waved off a little bit too much.
"I hit the brakes and I had two wheels in the sand. I thought I was going to go off the track; it was really close. The team said 'focus, focus,' right after that -- I was hoping that nobody would see it, but they saw. But after that, I tried to really focus."
Carpentier maintained his focus long enough to post a hefty 5.395-second victory over Bruno Junqueira for his fifth career victory. Oriol Servia was third and Michel Jourdain Jr. and Ryan Hunter-Reay rounded out the top five.
Carpentier inherited the lead on lap 41 after Jourdain, who led for four laps, pitted, and never was challenged in the final 39 laps.
Carpentier's task Sunday was made somewhat easier when series points leader and pole-sitter Sebastien Bourdais and early race leader Paul Tracy fell out of contention before the midway point in the race.
Bourdais and Tracy made contact on the first lap of the race and Bourdais was forced to pit a lap later with a flat left rear tire. Bourdais fell to 14th after the stop but eventually salvaged an eighth-place finish.
"Paul rubbed my left rear tire real hard with his wing and it put a big hole in (the tire),"' Bourdais said. "After that, we were trying to get back to the front and were stuck behind (lapped traffic) and the struggle continued.
"It was a very frustrating race; the result didn't equal the potential."
Tracy, on the other hand, remained in the lead for the next 27 laps before making his first scheduled pit stop. He was running third when a flat tire on lap 38 damaged his car's front wing and he had to make a lengthy stop to replace the tires and wing. Tracy finished 10th.
Junqueira, who entered the race trailing Newman/Haas Racing teammate Bourdais by 34 points in the championship, took advantage of Bourdais' rough day and pulled to within 24 points of the lead heading into the Sept. 25 race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
"We had great expectations coming here this year after running well last year," Junqueira said of his second consecutive runner-up finish at Laguna Seca. "We started eighth, which wasn't really good, so we knew it would be hard.
"My PacifiCare team had good strategy and we had good fuel mileage and we were strong at the end. I am happy to finish second. The championship is still wide open and I am still fighting hard. This really gives us a boost for us to do well in Las Vegas and keep fighting."
Junqueira, who has finished second in the championship each of the past two seasons, posted the top speed during a one-day test session last month at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
archive
