Absolutely great CART race at Fontana capped three excellent days of practice, qualifying, and racing. Da Matta won by .007 second over Papis. CART record 73 lead changes at start-finish line, many more on track. Virtually the whole field was a train the entire race. Many in contention at end. Maybe the best race I've seen in my life. All were on a 250 lap fuel strategy when the race was shortened to 220 laps because of darkness. The race was delayed one hour because of AM rain. Mostly sunny in PM.

Crowd was way down -- estimated 70,000 vs. 100,000+ in previous years because of (1) weather, (2) security concerns (huge multi-agency police presence), (3) economy, and (4) CART's hamhanded, blundering actions this season. Speculation that this would be CART's last appearance at Fontana. What a terrible, terrible shame.

I've been a big racing fan all my adult life, but if CART goes away from Long Beach and Fontana, I may just lose all interest in motor racing.

 

Yeah, it was a terrific race Very competitive and action-packed. Losing CART or even just the races at Fontana and Long Beach would truly be a shame. They are some of the best venues out there!

 

I watched it on TV and like most ovals I found it less than thrilling. All afternoon, driver after driver fully acknowledging that they were all sandbagging (yes, even at those speeds) and absolutely no one stupid enough to want to stay in the lead for long -- like I said, that type of racing is not my cup of tea. Finally, at the end after two changes in the race distance, we had a real race to the finish. . . and that was great and worth the wait.

Penske is going to announce that he's pulling completing out of CART and taking both drivers to IRL per MoNunn. Everyone thought he'd play in both games next year.

IRL and ovals -- that sucks. F1 and no American drivers -- that sucks. CART and road racing going in the shxter -- that sucks. NASCAR and ovals -- that sucks. I can hardly wait for the 2002 racing season to start.

 

Support your AMLS. They'll be at all the great tracks in the US next year (Road America, Mid Ohio, Road Atlanta, Sears Point, and Laguna) and the tickets are cheaper than CART. As much as I love CART they have screwed the pooch.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by dlq04
[B]IRL and ovals -- that sucks.

 

Watching a high speed CART oval race on TV is like watching a football game from the 50 yard line through a marble, with ear and nose plugs. You've got to be there -- up high in the stands to see all the way around the track, down low in the straight and coming out of turn 2 or 4 -- to appreciate the speed. TV does it no justice. Zot!

To say the racers were sandbagging is unfair. I was there, the multiple passing every lap was intense. They were runnung a 250 lap fuel strategy. They could all go balls to the wall and all run out of fuel. Now wouldn't that be cool?

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by The Raptor
[B]Watching a high speed CART oval race on TV is like watching a football game from the 50 yard line through a marble, with ear and nose plugs.

 

I'm making plans to try and be at Fontana next year for CART's final season with the turbo V8's and Honda. I've never been to an oval race before and would like to see a super speedway race in person (IRL doesn't count). I was pretty excited to see the Texas race earlier this year, but after getting up at 5:00 AM and driving for three hours, it was canceled. So it looks like I'll be headed out to California next fall to watch Honda's last race in CART.

I'll probably also drive out a week early for S2K days to attend the Laguna Seca Race on June 16th (That schedule worked out perfectly! ). My buddy also wants to attend Long Beach, but that might be stretching both the budget and vacation time so I'm going to have to think about it. Maybe I'll see some of you guys out there.

Mark

 

Dang it. I just looked at the CART schedule and my friend got the dates mixed up. Looks like Laguna Seca is two weeks before S2K days. I guess that ruins those plans. I guess I'll have to fly out for that race. Too bad.

Mark

 

Raptor,

I tuned in to watch it on TV and they were showing some kind of Indy Lights race first. Maybe if they would've just raced the CART cars, they would've gotten all 250 laps in.