Denver race weekend thread (Includes RACE RESULTS)

[luke]

Round 8 of 14 Centrix Financial Grand Prix of Denver presented by PacifiCare Streets of Denver, CO, USA


Friday, August 12 - Sunday, August 14








www.gpdenver.com


Weekend schedule:

P1 - August 12, 12:15 pm ET

P2 - August 12, 4:00 pm ET

Q1 - August 12, 4:25 pm ET

P3 - August 13, 12:30 pm ET - Race Director audio and video available

P4 - August 13, 4:00 pm ET - Race Director audio and video available

Q2 - August 13, 4:25 pm ET - Race Director audio and video available

W1 - August 14, 11:30 am ET

R - August 14, 3:45 pm ET - Race Director audio and video available




Weekend weather forcast:

Friday
86°F (30°C) | 58°F (14°C) Thunder

Saturday
86°F (30°C) | 58°F (14°C) Part Cloud


Sunday (Will add when available)




TV:


U.S. Race Live on Speed Channel at 3:30 pm ET

U.K. Race Live on Eurosport at 8:45 pm GMT

Canada Tape Delay on TSN 8:00 pm ET


Live Timing



Support series:


» Toyota Atlantic

» Trans-Am

Formula BMW USA

SPEED World Challenge



Track length: 1.647 mile street course

First Champ Car race: 2002

Total Champ Car races: 3

Defending champion : Sebastien Bourdais

[marcus]

This will be the 4th event at the new Denver track allthough they raced here (on a different layout) back in the early 90's.

PREVIOUS WINNERS

1990 Al Unser Jnr
1991 Al Unser Jnr

2002 Bruno Junqueira
2003 Bruno Junqueira
2004 Sebastien Bourdais

Qualifying lap record is held by Sebastien Bourdais with a time of 59.9420s set last year (2004)
He also holds the race lap record set last year as well with a time of 1m 1.2560s

[luke]

If this race is anything like last year. We are in for one.

[Hazza]

Gah lets hope I can beat my unbeaten run so far of forgetting to record the race or recording the wrong channel.

I think I missed the race here last year as well...and maybe the year before. My only memories of this race are PT taking out Dario on the first lap and Scott Dixon's podium...

[Omega99]

Dixon had the faster car, just couldn't find a safe way around Bruno. And Chip would have been pretty upset if he'd taken him out trying.

Bourdais' drive from the back last year was amazing!

[Flatspot]

Bring your umbrellas! Forecast calls for rain Sunday.

[Hazza]

Tell a lie I do remember last year's race.

I can't wait to watch my first Non-Pit window race in what seems like ages...wait...erm I mean surfers last year

[D.R.T.]

Originally Posted by Flatspot

Bring your umbrellas! Forecast calls for rain Sunday.

Excellent as we have not seen a wet race in a little while. Hopefully everyone can keep their heads together on the slippery streets and we''ll have a good race

[mountainstar]

Remember in Colorado weather forecasts are absolutely useless. But it probably will be cooler than normal, so we'll see.

[Snrub]

P1:

1 1:00.281 S. Bourdais
2 1:00.576 P. Tracy
3 1:01.032 M. Dominguez
4 1:01.388 O. Servia
5 1:01.415 C. da Matta
6 1:01.446 N. Philippe
7 1:01.649 A. Allmendinger
8 1:01.659 J. Wilson
9 1:01.678 R. Hunter-Reay
10 1:01.746 T. Glock
11 1:01.748 R. Lavin
12 1:01.872 J. Vasser
13 1:01.912 A. Tagliani
14 1:01.984 R. Sperafico
15 1:02.246 R. Bremer
16 1:02.426 B. Wirdheim
17 1:03.328 A. Ranger
18 1:03.618 M. Marshall

They're off to a quick start this year compared with previous years.

P2 was slower.

[Snrub]

Q2:

1 0:59.759 P. Tracy
2 1:00.213 M. Dominguez
3 1:00.347 S. Bourdais
4 1:00.612 A. Allmendinger
5 1:00.697 J. Wilson
6 1:00.957 T. Glock
7 1:00.980 B. Wirdheim
8 1:01.029 R. Lavin
9 1:01.043 O. Servia
10 1:01.214 C. da Matta
11 1:01.257 A. Tagliani
12 1:01.342 R. Hunter-Reay
13 1:01.389 J. Vasser
14 1:01.434 N. Philippe
15 1:01.630 R. Bremer
16 1:01.745 R. Sperafico
17 1:02.235 A. Ranger
18 1:02.651 M. Marshall

A big gap for PT on provisionsal pole.

Rocketsports looks near decent and Glock and Wirdhiem put in some nice times.

[Liz]

Lavin is running pretty well too. But Nelson is not so fast today. Does he not go well on this track?

[mountainstar]

So heres my report for today:

It was supposed to be cool and rainy. NOT! More like hot and humid. As I said before, Colorado weather forecasts are worthless. Still wanting to believe the weatherman for once, I wore a heavy, black Team Kiwi shirt suitable for sub arctic New Zealand, no hat and no sunscreen. I was panting like a half dead dog in a Alabama heatwave and now have a painful sunburn. Surely tomorrow, I shall dress for the tropics and end up soaked and freezing to death.

There were more people there than I expected. Because today was GA only and you could go anywhere except the paddock with a GA ticket, people seemed to be more content with walking around, then plopping in the grandstands the whole time. As a special treat for all our attendance conspiracy theorists out there, all the tickets on entry were being scanned with a palm pilot thingy, so I'm sure whatever number is, it will be accurate.

Trans-Am: Time for a new formula. The ASA cars are not going to save it.

From where I was watching the Atlantics, Katherine Legge seemed to be carrying more speed into the corner than anyone. She's very smooth. She's got it, I don't care what anyone says.

Al Unser was very ragged. Maybe he needs a good coach.

Of the champcars, Forsythe seemed to be hooked up better than anyone as evidenced by their times. Bourdais and the Rusport boys also seemed to be right on the pace. Servia made some boo-boo's, but still had some pace.

The rocketsports cars seemed to be a mess. Glock must be damned good in order to set those times.

HVM had a steady pace going. They may be able to grab a good result on Sunday.

Conquest, Team Australia and Coyne have some work to do. We'll see if they improve tomorrow.

Corona is on Lavin's car, still with the usual HVM paint scheme though. AMR is on both of Coyne's cars. By the afternoon the Sonny's BBQ livery on the transporter had been covered with a AMR banner. When I passed the Coyne team in the paddock it looked as though they were entertaining a number of AMR guests. Liquimoly is on Wirdheims car. Centrix is on the Newman Haas cars. Intel is back on Wilsons car, Western Union on Dinger's. Cytomax is not on RHR's car, but they seem to be doing a lot of promotion at the race.

After the Atlantics finished, who did I hear on the track PA but a familiar voice? Yes, Paul Page is with us as track announcer this weekend. The play-by-play announcer, whoever he is, needs to be fired. I tired of his flippant remarks quickly.

And last but not least, it looks like Jimmy Vasser will in fact retire at the end of this year, Alex tagliani is scared of fans and Mario Dominguez needs to slow down his scooter before he squashes someone flat.

See y'all tomorrow.

[Liz]

Thanks for that great summary! Cytomax is a company owned by one of the Trans Am drivers, I think Greg Pickett. There are photos of a guy on a skateboard jumping Pickett's car; maybe they are for a commercial?

Why do you think Tag is afraid of fans? What was he doing?

[enemy-ace]

Originally Posted by mountainstar

Of the champcars, Forsythe seemed to be hooked up better than anyone as evidenced by their times. Bourdais and the Rusport boys also seemed to be right on the pace. Servia made some boo-boo's, but still had some pace.

It's good to see Dominguez on the pace, if I recall correctly he was quick in Denver last year as well. From reading his report he wasn't quite happy with his car. I hope he get's it sorted as I would like to see him challenge for the win. When I was watching the timing from practice 1 Bourdais was consistently going quicker while Tracy seemed to just put in one quick lap at the end. I don't know if this has changed, but that indicates to me that Bourdais may have the more consistent pace needed for the race. Early days yet, of course!

Originally Posted by mountainstar

The rocketsports cars seemed to be a mess. Glock must be damned good in order to set those times.

I recall watching his onboards from Portland and his car was absolutely evil then as well. He did a great job, but it was almost like watching a Rodeo Cowboy riding on the edge of the abyss. Rocketsports really need to step it up. They have been a major dissapointment.

Originally Posted by mountainstar

Conquest, Team Australia and Coyne have some work to do. We'll see if they improve tomorrow.

Any ideas on why Ranger has been struggling. He seems to be on a bit of a downward spiral. Here's hoping he can pull out of it.

[Tim Northcutt]

Originally Posted by mountainstar

Remember in Colorado weather forecasts are absolutely useless. But it probably will be cooler than normal, so we'll see.

I can vouch for that...I went to Denver one time over a Labor Day weekend...forecast was for partly cloudy skies...woke up on Saturday morning to find 6 inches of snow on the ground....

and the past two days, their daytime temperatures have set record lows...30 degrees below normal for this time of year....I believe that it was in the 60s????

[Tim Northcutt]

Originally Posted by mountainstar

So heres my report for today:

It was supposed to be cool and rainy. NOT! More like hot and humid. As I said before, Colorado weather forecasts are worthless. Still wanting to believe the weatherman for once, I wore a heavy, black Team Kiwi shirt suitable for sub arctic New Zealand, no hat and no sunscreen. I was panting like a half dead dog in a Alabama heatwave and now have a painful sunburn. Surely tomorrow, I shall dress for the tropics and end up soaked and freezing to death.

There were more people there than I expected. Because today was GA only and you could go anywhere except the paddock with a GA ticket, people seemed to be more content with walking around, then plopping in the grandstands the whole time. As a special treat for all our attendance conspiracy theorists out there, all the tickets on entry were being scanned with a palm pilot thingy, so I'm sure whatever number is, it will be accurate.

Trans-Am: Time for a new formula. The ASA cars are not going to save it.

From where I was watching the Atlantics, Katherine Legge seemed to be carrying more speed into the corner than anyone. She's very smooth. She's got it, I don't care what anyone says.

Al Unser was very ragged. Maybe he needs a good coach.

Of the champcars, Forsythe seemed to be hooked up better than anyone as evidenced by their times. Bourdais and the Rusport boys also seemed to be right on the pace. Servia made some boo-boo's, but still had some pace.

The rocketsports cars seemed to be a mess. Glock must be damned good in order to set those times.

HVM had a steady pace going. They may be able to grab a good result on Sunday.

Conquest, Team Australia and Coyne have some work to do. We'll see if they improve tomorrow.

Corona is on Lavin's car, still with the usual HVM paint scheme though. AMR is on both of Coyne's cars. By the afternoon the Sonny's BBQ livery on the transporter had been covered with a AMR banner. When I passed the Coyne team in the paddock it looked as though they were entertaining a number of AMR guests. Liquimoly is on Wirdheims car. Centrix is on the Newman Haas cars. Intel is back on Wilsons car, Western Union on Dinger's. Cytomax is not on RHR's car, but they seem to be doing a lot of promotion at the race.

After the Atlantics finished, who did I hear on the track PA but a familiar voice? Yes, Paul Page is with us as track announcer this weekend. The play-by-play announcer, whoever he is, needs to be fired. I tired of his flippant remarks quickly.

And last but not least, it looks like Jimmy Vasser will in fact retire at the end of this year, Alex tagliani is scared of fans and Mario Dominguez needs to slow down his scooter before he squashes someone flat.

See y'all tomorrow.

Excellent summary, mountainstar....great insight and descriptions of many facets of the action...

Maybe we can all chip in a few $$$ to send you to EVERY race for summaries like this one

[marcus]

STARTING GRID

1. Paul Tracy 59.432 (25th Career Pole)
Forsythe Racing
232nd Career start


2. Sebastien Bourdais 59.541 (6th time starting 2nd)
Newman Haas
41st Career start


3. Mario Dominguez 59.644 (3rd time starting 3rd)
Forsythe Racing
60th Career start


4. AJ Allmendinger 59.938 (5th time starting 4th)
Rusport
23rd Career start


5. Justin Wilson 59.962 (3rd time starting 5th)
Rusport
23rd Career start


6. Jimmy Vasser 59.995 (15th time starting 6th)
PKV
227th Career Start


7. Alex Tagliani 1:00.156 (13th time starting 7th)
Team Australia/Walker racing
100th Career start


8. Oriol Servia 1:00.331 (6th time starting 8th)
Newman Haas
95th Career start


9. Cristiano da Matta 1:00.493 (5th time starting 9th)
PKV
88th Career start


10. Timo Glock 1:00.529 (1st time starting 10th)
Rocketsports
9th Career start


11. Andrew Ranger 1:00.704 (3rd time starting 11th)
Conquest
9th Career Start


12. Ricardo Sperafico 1:00.732 (1st time starting 12th)
Dale Coyne Racing
9th Career start
CAREER BEST QUALIFYING

13. Rodolfo Lavin 1:00.766 (4th time starting 13th)
HVM
33rd Career Start


14. Bjorn Wirdheim 1:00.863 (1st time starting 14th)
HVM
9th Career start


15. Nelson Phillipe 1:00.915 (3rd time starting 15th)
Conquest
20th Career start


16. Ronnie Bremer 1:01.093 (4th time starting 16th)
Dale Coyne Racing
8th Career Start


17. Ryan Hunter-Reay 1:01.342 (5th time starting 17th)
Rocketsports
41st Career start


18. Marcus Marshall 1:02.064 (6th time starting 18th)
Team Australia/Walker racing
9th Career start

[marcus]

RACE RESULTS


1. Sebastien Bourdais 14th Career Victory


2. Mario Dominguez


3. AJ Allmendinger


4. Oriol Servia


5. Rodolfo Lavin


6. Ryan Hunter Reay


7. Ronnie Bremer


8. Ricardo Sperafico


9. Nelson Phillipe


10. Andrew Ranger


11. Bjorn Wirdheim


12. Marcus Marshall


CLASSIFIED BUT BEHIND NON FINISHERS

14. Alex Tagliani


15. Jimmy Vasser





DNF'S

Cristiano da Matta

Justin Wilson

Paul Tracy

Timo Glock

FASTEST LAP

Sebastien Bourdais set the fastest lap with a time of 1:00.574 on lap 81

MOVER OF THE RACE

Rodolfo Lavin has taken the mover of the race award this time around , he qualified 13th and finished in an excellent 5th.

FALL FROM GRACE

Jimmy vasser takes the fall from grace award after starting in 6th position he finished in a dissapointing 15th place

CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS

1 Sebastien Bourdais 248
2 Paul Tracy 196
3 Oriol Servia 183
4 Justin Wilson 180
5 Mario Dominguez 152
6 A.J. Allmendinger 151
7 Alex Tagliani 131
8 Jimmy Vasser 131
9 Timo Glock (R) 117
10 Ronnie Bremer (R) 115
11 Cristiano da Matta 102
12 Andrew Ranger (R) 98
13 Ryan Hunter-Reay 90
14 Bjorn Wirdheim (R) 88
15 Nelson Philippe 82
16 Marcus Marshall (R) 76
17 Ricardo Sperafico (R) 66
18 Bruno Junqueira 59
19 Rodolfo Lavin 29
20 Alex Sperafico 24
21 Ryan Dalziel (R) 13
22 Michael Valiante (R) 10
23 Tarso Marques 10
24 Fabrizio Del Monte (R) 5
25 Jorge Goeters (R) 3

NATIONS CUP

1 France 240
2 Canada 235
3 Catalonia 180
4 USA 178
5 England 172
6 Brazil 163
7 Mexico 150
8 Germany 116
9 Denmark 109
10 Sweden 86
11 Australia 76
12 Scotland 13
13 Italy 5

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR

1 Timo Glock (R) 117
2 Ronnie Bremer (R) 115
3 Andrew Ranger (R) 98
4 Bjorn Wirdheim (R) 88
5 Marcus Marshall (R) 76
6 Ricardo Sperafico (R) 66
7 Ryan Dalziel (R) 13
8 Michael Valiante (R) 10
9 Fabrizio Del Monte (R) 5
10 Jorge Goeters (R) 3

NEXT EVENT

Montral August 28

PREVIOUS ROUNDS

RND 1 LONG BEACH
RND 2 MONTERREY
RND 3 MILWAUKEE
RND 4 PORTLAND
RND 5 CLEVELAND
RND 6 TORONTO
RND 7 EDMONTON
RND 8 SAN JOSE

[enemy-ace]

That was fast! I just turned Race Director off! Good Work Marcus!
Great qualifying runs for Forsythe. I hope Dominguez has the speed to really push Bourdais. Good time by Allmendinger as well considering he was complaining about the balance of his car. I really like this Denver circuit, especially that "Mile Wide' corner.

[Tenoch]

I'm hoping for a forsthye podium sweep, Ricardo is looking pretty good to me in the Dale Coyne Machine.

[Snrub]

I don't know what the deal is with Servia.

It's nice to see Dominguez starting to achieve some speed at Forsythe. So far this year he's been the driver I've been most disappointed in.

100 races for Tag, wow. I really think he could have a whole bunch of wins if he'd been on better teams. (or if he just wasn't so unlucky during his time @ Forsythe)

Funny comments at the post qualifying press conference http://www.champcarworldseries.com/N...le.asp?ID=9529 :

ERIC MAUK: And our polesitter, with a new track record of 59.432 seconds, 100.370 miles per hour, driver of the #3 Indeck Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone for Forsythe Championship Racing, Paul Tracy.

SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS: How come my 59.39 doesn't count?

ERIC MAUK: It counts, just not for anything really good. You'll need to take that up with somebody more strategically placed than I.

[mountainstar]

Originally Posted by Liz

Thanks for that great summary! Cytomax is a company owned by one of the Trans Am drivers, I think Greg Pickett. There are photos of a guy on a skateboard jumping Pickett's car; maybe they are for a commercial?

Why do you think Tag is afraid of fans? What was he doing?

Cytomax I do believe is owned by Pickett. They're doing a lot of promotion at the track. Unfortunately, I only saw it for sale at one spot in the track. I drink Cytomax when I go bike riding and find it is much better than gatorade.

One of my friends saw in Tags in public and began fishing for her program and a pen. As soon as he saw that he was off like a jackrabbit, nervously looking over his shoulder to see if we were going to chase him down.

[mountainstar]

So back again on Saturday,

The weather actually cooperated. Dark clouds threatened, but it never rained, at least on me anyways.

Slow start to the crowd this morning, but by qualifying the place was hopping. Huge, huge mobs of people everywhere. Anyone that thinks this is a dead or dying series needs a reality check. I thought the threat of rain might scare people off, but obviously not. Again for our conspiracy theorists out there, all tickets were being scanned on entry with a palm pilot type thing so I'm sure whatever the announced attendance is, it will be accurate.

The promoters have done an excellent job with the track and the facilities. It's definitely fan friendly as it's easy to get where you need to go, there are plenty of vendors selling drinks and food and there is plenty of action on and off the track.

So with the final qualifying today, who looks good? It's clear the Forsythe and Rusport cars are hooked up better than anyone, along with Bourdais. I pick either Bourdais or Tracy to win with Wilson as the dark horse. Bourdais I think is quite the talent. His driving is crisp and clean, with no boo-boos or squiggles.

Timo Glock is a talent that deserves a better drive. He's constantly fighting the car all the way around the track, but is still putting in the times. What exactly the issue is here I don't know.

Ryan Hunter Reay and Marcus Marshall, both sad to say lost at sea. Neither seems to have a clue as to what to do. Every lap their corner entry, apex and exit, along with braking and throttle applications are totally different with zero consistancy. What both really need are driving coaches to work with them. Even I, with my limited time behind the wheel of a formula ford can spot their amateur mistakes.

Vasser, Tags, da matta and Servia all looked okay, but one doesn't need to look at the timing screens to tell they are slower. We'll see if they come up with a solution to do well tomorrow.

Got to see Tess working on the HVM cars in the pits! Yes Sir, watching Tess wrench a champcar is a magical, jaw dropping sight.

One of my friends saw Gentilozzi in the paddock area and not knowing what to say to him, asked me for my suggestion. I said why don't you just thank him for saving our series? It makes one think that if the 3 amigos had not stepped forward, the USA would have been left with a NASCAR/Grand Am/IRL monopoly on motorsports with the ALMS nervously hiding under a table somewhere. One has to be thankful we still have some choice in motorsports.

The Speed WC races were great and I love that Cadillac CTS. What a sound that thing makes! Reminds me of a V8 Supercar and I can only imagine how much better Speed WC would be with a whole field of those. The Holden Monaros(Pontiac GTO) also sounded and looked awesome.

The Trans Am race came off better than expected and I was pleased with that.

Briefly the CCIC dinner was very enjoyable and informative. Chris Kniefel and some of the medical staff filled us in on champcar operations. It's worth joining.

So all in all, it was a perfect day and I look forward to tomorrow.

MARIO DOMINGUEZ SLOW THAT DAMN SCOOTER DOWN!

[mountainstar]

Originally Posted by Tim Northcutt

Excellent summary, mountainstar....great insight and descriptions of many facets of the action...

Maybe we can all chip in a few $$$ to send you to EVERY race for summaries like this one

Thank you Tim, that means a lot to hear you say that. You never know I may be taking Robin Miller's job soon