Champ Car Hands Out Unusual Awards, Including ‘Best Confrontation’

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Although announced attendance figures always have to be viewed with a degree of skepticism, the Champ Car World Series claims its numbers were up 16 percent this year compared to 2006 heading into the Grand Prix of San Jose.
On Saturday at San Jose, Champ Car greeted Storm Vanderzee as the millionth fan to witness the turbocharged open-wheelers on site in 2007. Vanderzee, who attended the event with John Walsh and their family, was greeted at the gate by Champ Car luminaries, and they enjoyed lunch with Team Australia prior to being treated to pace-car rides.
Champ Car’s television ratings are up 11 percent this year through seven races, despite averaging only a .62 Nielsen rating for four races spread among three network channels and .26 for the three races broadcasted via channels available on cable or satellite only.
Although final numbers were not available, the San Jose race attendance this year appeared to be an increase over 2006, when the wildly optimistic announced weekend total of 155,934 was later amended at a City Council meeting to 83,248.

• Champ Car announced a mid-season “Fan Favorite” contest with voting on the Internet, and awards were presented Friday in San Jose. The biggest cheer went up when Paul Tracy and Alex Tagliani took the honors for Most Interesting Confrontation for their mid-race fistfight at San Jose in 2006.
“I’ve won a lot of trophies in my life, but never for a fight,” Tracy remarked. “I’m just glad that Alex accepted the trophy with his helmet off!”
“Thank goodness Paul was paying enough attention that he didn’t hit me on my way up here,” retorted Tagliani.
Tracy also won Best Finish for his victory at Cleveland earlier this year, while other key award winners included Sebastien Bourdais (Best Donuts and Best Pit Stop, shared with Tracy), Katherine Legge (Best Crash for Elkhart Lake 2006), and Cristiano da Matta (for Best Podium, San Jose 2006).
“I’m really happy that the fans choose me for these awards,” Bourdais said. “I think it’s a spectacular idea that San Jose had to give the fans the chance to vote for their favorite racing moments.”
Race Director Tony Cotman also received a Best Start award for successfully transitioning the series from rolling to standing starts.

• Da Matta was on hand to accept his Fan Favorite trophy at the venue where he competed in his last Champ Car race in July 2006 before being critically injured when his car struck a deer in testing at Road America. The diminutive Brazilian said he is scheduled to visit Dr. Steve Olvey this week for a collision test, and he hopes to resume his racing career as soon as possible if Olvey gives medical approval.

• At the July 26 Women in the Winner’s Circle luncheon in Indianapolis, Champ Car announced the inception of the Vicki O’Connor scholarship. Named in honor of the managing director of the Atlantic Championship, the scholarship will be awarded to a female driver who will have the chance to attend the Lyn St. James Driver Development Program this November.

• Rookie Graham Rahal led a Champ Car practice session for the first time in his career before qualifying sixth. He matched that result in the race despite stalling during his first pit stop on lap 40.
“We don’t know exactly why it happened, but it seems it could be the torque position slot,” Rahal said. “It basically just didn’t have enough RPMs. I don’t believe it was anything that I did because it was the same routine as normal.
“It’s a disappointing result because I thought we were a strong contender for a podium finish.”
Rahal finished directly behind  Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing teammate Bourdais. The Frenchman briefly held the lead on the first lap, but he made an uncharacteristic mistake and stalled his car while running under yellow, dropping to eighth place.
“I got a little greedy, I guess,” Bourdais said. “I tried to save too much fuel and stayed in seventh gear with low revs at the hairpin, and when I released the clutch, the car died.”
Bourdais arrived in San Jose with a 24-point championship lead, but Robert Doornbos cut the margin to 10 points with his victory. Will Power ranks third in the standings, 18 points behind Bourdais.

• The San Jose event featured one of the closest road-racing qualifying sessions in Champ Car history. The top-11 drivers ran within .231 second of Justin Wilson’s 49.039-second pole-position lap, with seven drivers clustered in the 49.1-second bracket.
Wilson’s luck ran out on race day. After regaining the lead from Bourdais after two corners, Wilson was hit from behind by Dan Clarke while running behind the pace car a few laps later. The RSPORTS driver lost 20 laps and finished 13th.
“It looks like ‘Desperate Dan’ just ran into the back of him,” lamented team manager Phil Howard. “To have something like that happen is just crazy.”