ROUND 3 - Long Beach, CA

MIRACLES IN LONG BEACH

It was a day of miracles at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach on April 5.

First, a day that was forecast to be miserable and wet thanks to El Nino, turned out to be a perfectly sunny one. And then, Alex Zanardi won the race for the second time in a row.

That shouldn’t be a big surprise, as last year’s CART Champion thrives on street courses. But to win with a bent front suspension, after having made an extra pit stop because of it, and after being a lap down at one stage - that is pretty impressive.

But his Target-Ganassi team had the right tire and fuel strategy, and when he got new rubber and a full tank with a quarter of the race left to run, he was in good shape for one of his patented charges back to the front of the pack from the 13th place in which he found himself.

The first half of the race had been a cautious one, with a record number of yellow flags for various incidents. Notable among the early retirements were Canada’s Patrick Carpentier and Paul Tracy, both after contact with other cars.

Pole sitter Bryan Herta set the early pace, showing the continued early-season strength of his Reynard-Ford combination, but the last two thirds of the race was dominated by Gil de Ferran, the third year in a row he has led at the Beach, and the third race this year. Like all the other times, though, he failed to win, dropping out late with a transmission full of neutrals.

With all the caution periods earlier, most of the teams had their pit stop strategies based upon another one occurring in the last twenty laps or so. In that event, they could pop into the pits for a splash and dash, and not lose much position on the track.

But there were no more cautions after Lap 61 of the 105 lap race, and one by one, the front runners had to come in under green flag conditions within the last 10 laps for enough fuel to make the finish. Herta, Pruett, Franchitti, Fernandez, Moore - all dashed in for fuel, but none dared take the extra time to get new tires, even though they could have gone faster on them. And that played right into the hands of Zanardi, who, remember, did have good tires under him.

And he was sure using them. With two laps remaining, he was right on the tail of Herta and Franchitti. Could he pass them both? They were defenceless without grip, and Zanardi first took Franchitti with five laps remaining, and then Herta with the kind of daring move that the still-winless American is all-too familiar with.

Greg Moore had to do some charging of his own, after falling way back to 21st after a major traffic jam at the infamous hairpin turn. He actually led a lap late in the race before diving in for his top-up, but that pit stop was nearly disastrous, as his Player’s car ran over a crew man as it accelerated away.

That, and/or speeding in pit lane, caused the officials to force him to pit once more for a stop-and-go penalty that cost him a chance to possibly contend for victory. The end result was a sixth place finish that left him with 37 points after three races, and solidly in contention for the Championship, in second place.

The leader is Adrian Fernandez, who drove a strong race to finish fourth. His team, Patrick Racing, has a history of starting seasons strongly, and it will be interesting to see if they and their suddenly hot driver can sustain the pace.

Long Beach was the first street race of the season, and now the drivers get four short ovals in a row before they return to the twisty tracks at Detroit in June. As we stated last week, if this race was any indication of how the season might go after the ovals are done with, Zanardi is going to be a big factor if he can make it through the roundy-round races with a few good finishes.

On the other hand, it looks like drivers such as Moore, Fernandez, De Ferran and Michael Andretti, who crashed after a flat tire in Long Beach, might have a good combination for any kind of track.

As long as the Goodyear and Firestone tires stay as nearly equal as they have been, anything can happen.

This site uses sound, java and DHTML. Best experienced with

Unless otherwise noted Article and Photographs ©1997, 1998Gerry Frechette. All rights reserved.
For permission to reproduce, contact Gerry Frechette

Unless otherwise noted the INFOSTUFF! and CarStuff pages and their contents ©1996, 1997, 1998ad.net international.
All rights reserved. For more information, please contact our Webmaster