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2006 CHAMP CARS         

ROUND 6: June 25 Burke Lakefront Airport Cleveland, OH

RACE RESULT

FORSYTHE RACE REPORT     (TOP OF PAGE)

• Second Victory in a Row for Allmendinger
• Cleveland, Ohio - June 25th, 2006 ; American Forsythe driver A.J Allmendinger claimed his second Champ Car Victory in a row today at the Grand Prix of Cleveland Presented by U.S. Bank. In what turned out to be one of the craziest races in recent history, Allmendinger managed to recover from a first lap spin through the grass which damaged his front wing and sent him to the back of the pack. Things didn't go as well for Paul Tracy who was involved in a spectacular first lap crash in which he ended up flying through the air and landing on top of Sebastien Bourdais. Amazingly, the Forsythe crew managed to do some repairs to the #3 car and send Tracy back on track, but unfortunately the damage affected the handling of the car and Tracy ended his day after making contact with the Turn 8 wall.
• A.J. Allmendinger: "I have got to thank the whole Forsythe team, everyone that was a part of it. They gave me absolutely a fantastic race car throughout the weekend. I thought last week's car in Portland was really good. This one topped that one. I tried to do as much as I could to not get the victory because I spun out in turn two. Oriol made a great start, dove under me. I thought I saw him twitch a little bit and I panicked because I didn't want to get clipped. More than anything, I threw it away and spun out. Fortunately enough, yellow came out. We were able to come in and fix the wing. From there it was just a dogfight. The first 20 laps was probably some of the worst 20 laps I've ever driven in my car. I think one time I went to go to the 'push to pass', I hit the hit speed limiter, so that doesn't go very fast. I think I tried to hit a couple people when they spun out. The first 20 laps, I had to settle myself back down and get going. The car was just absolutely brilliant, and the whole Forsythe team. I knew the crew is the best in the game so I knew I was going to make up a couple spots in the pits no matter what. If I could make some up on the track, I could at least get back in the top five. The way the yellows fell, it got me back in the lead, I was able to pull a huge gap because my car was so good. But so many times I thought I had the race won, a yellow would come out at the wrong time, I thought it was over for us. We'd get back in the lead, the yellow would come out again. The last 20 laps I was just saving as much fuel as I could because it was going to be close. Just thanks to Forsythe and the whole crew, especially my engineer Mike Cannon. He's the best in the game right now, just giving me absolute perfect race cars both weekends. Thanks to Red Bull and Bridgestone and Cosworth, everybody that's a part of this series, to make my dreams come true right now. Absolutely amazing."
• Paul Tracy: "I came out of Turn 1 and was racing the Newman-Haas cars down the back straight and I got squeezed in between them and the next thing I knew I was flying. The team did a great job repairing the damage but the car was very hard to drive afterwards. I hit the wall coming out of Turn 8 and it ended my day. I'm glad the weekend is over, I'm just going to forget about it and move on to Toronto, my home town, and chase my first Victory of the season."

JUSTIN WILSON RACE REPORT     (TOP OF PAGE)

• Cleveland podium chase ended by mechanical failure
• Justin was on target for another podium finish at an incident-filled Grand Prix of Cleveland when he suffered mechanical failure with 18 laps to the chequered flag. While Justin ended up classified 13th, A.J. Allmendinger won his second successive race for Forsythe and Bruno Junqueira and Oriol Servia took surprise podium spots for Newman- Haas and PKV respectively. Justin's RuSPORT team-mate Cristiano da Matta finished the race 20 laps down after making repairs for a broken throttle cable and was classified 14th.
• At the start Justin had steered clear of the traditional turn 1 carnage. Amongst other incidents, this brought about the early retirement of Sebastien Bourdais who was fortunate to escape injury when Paul Tracy's Forsythe landed on his cockpit. The stop-start race was riddled with yellow caution periods, but Justin ran consistently amongst the leading pack aided by excellent pit work from his CDW crew. In the closing stages of the race he had saved enough fuel to avoid the need for a final pitstop, but all that was academic when the car suddenly veered off track on lap 77.
• "I'm very disappointed because I thought we could have put the #9 CDW car on top of the podium today", lamented Justin. "We had a good car and we were saving fuel. It was going to come down to who could make the mileage at the end and finish without making that last pit stop. I had just got the message that we could make it so it was looking good. But unfortunately something broke in the front of the car and stopped the steering from working."

DAN CLARKE RACE REPORT

• CLARKE SHOWS RACE WINNING POTENTIAL IN CLEVELAND CHAMP CAR RACE
• Dan Clarke continues to impress the motorsport fraternity on both sides of the Atlantic. The young Brit started from 12th place in today’s Champ Car World Series race in Cleveland, Ohio and was in third place until the penultimate lap. It was only a brave last gasp overtaking manoeuvre for second that caught Clarke out, when he lost the rear of the car after the pass. Although the record books will show him classified as finishing seventh, they don’t tell all the story. Clarke had limited running in the sessions leading up to the race, but by this afternoon he had got to grips with the track and the handling of the car on the bumpy temporary airport circuit at Cleveland. An off-course excursion early in practice resulted in damage to the engine, prompting a change which delayed his track time in the following session. The CTE HVM driver may not have had as much time to learn the track as the other rookies, but he was second fastest newcomer in qualifying to line up 11th on the grid for the race. First lap incidents shook up the grid with Clarke making a leap towards the front by clever driving and avoiding the many incidents. At the end of the opener Clarke was lying fourth, a position he held until the first round of pitstops, in which the field opted for varying strategies. Sitting comfortably in ninth spot in the mid stages of the race, the CTE HVM team worked hard to optimise race strategy, capitalising on safety car periods and stretching fuel economy. As the race reached its closing stages, Clarke was lapping in second, but needed a ‘splash and dash’ to reach the end. In the final 20 laps, two cars dropping out ahead of Clarke lifted him to fifth place. Under the final yellow flag, other drivers needed to pit for fuel top-ups, while Clarke had enough to reach the end of the race, so stayed out on track to lie third for the restart. On the penultimate lap in the first turn an overtaking manoeuvre from his third place podium position on second placed Mexican Mario Dominguez ended with Clarke losing the rear of the car, sending him into a spin, which unfortunately also took out his rival, ending the race for both drivers. Classified seventh at the end of the race, Clarke was relieved to have scored points and extend his lead in the Rookie of the Year standings. “I fought hard throughout the race and had got myself into a podium position, but then the car just got away from me after I’d passed Mario (Dominguez),” says Clarke. “I’m sorry that I caught Mario and ended his race as well – it’s been a bittersweet experience this weekend, but we take away many positives. “We know we have strong race pace and are a match for any our rivals and we’ll come back to the next race just as strong and in the hunt for another top ten, if not top five, finish. I’m at the top of the Rookie of the Year standings and that’s where I aim to stay.”

QUALIFYING

NEWMAN-HASS QUALIFYING REPORT    (TOP OF PAGE)

• McDONALD DRIVER BOURDAIS TO START SECOND IN THE CHAMP CAR GRAND PRIX OF CLEVELAND; JUNQUEIRA QUALIFIED SEVENTH
• *Bourdais' fastest lap of 56.520 was taken away due to running one lap more than the 15 lap allotment due to a miscommunication. His second fastest lap was still the second fastest of the session.
• Sebastien Bourdais, No. 1 McDonald's Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone: "I guess we lost our best lap for running too many laps. Kenny (Siwieck) called me on the radio that I was out of laps when I was already on the wrong side of the track coming into pit lane. I guess it really didn't change much of anything anyway, but I guess today we just missed it. The McDonald's car was good, but not good enough, just a great job from A.J. and he just put a very strong lap together. We seem to be struggling a little bit in qualifying on the second day. Every year it's the same, we just ; we lose a little bit the balance on the car. We're trying to get rid of the understeer that we build up. We just don't seem to find a really good way, so the car is a little harder to drive and we just don't go as fast ; we don't make as big an improvement as the others. It's a little tough, but yeah, we're right there and we'll start from the first row tomorrow and hope to have a solid start without any incidents and if that's the case, then we'll go racing."
• FAST FACTS: Will be his fourth race here. Started third, ran as high as second and finished fifth here last year due to the timing of the caution flag and his final pit stop. Started third, led 88 laps and won back-to- back races here in 2004 after having provisional pole taken away on Friday. Won from pole in his rookie race here in 2003 after having led 33 laps to earn his first win in the U.S. in the debut of having McDonald's on his race car...Currently leads the series point standings with 163 points to Justin Wilson's 132...Will attempt to become the first open wheel driver to win three consecutive championships since Ted Horn did so from 1946-1948.
• Bruno Junqueira, No. 2 Hole in the Wall Camps Ford-Cosworth/Lola/ Bridgestone: "Maybe I could have picked up a couple of positions, maybe fourth or fifth fastest, but that is all we were capable of. I have never qualified well here. I'm good on Friday, not on Saturday but I always race well here. Traffic caught me out on the second run when I was behind A.J. and he slowed on my good lap but overall we didn't have enough speed. We'll try to put together a good race tomorrow and get some points."
• FAST FACTS: Will be his fifth race here. Missed the 2005 event due to injury sustained in the Indy 500. Started sixth, dropped to 13th, came back to set the fastest race lap and finish second in 2004. Started fifth and finished third in 2003. Started eighth and finished 13th after mechanical failure in 2002. Started 16th and finished 23rd in rookie season here in 2001 after contact with C. Fittipaldi entering the pits...Is ranked 10th in the point standings after begin taken out of the race on Lap 1, Turn 1 in Long Beach, ran out of fuel due to miscalculation in Houston, was penalized for blocking in Monterrey and was taken out of the Milwaukee race on the first lap. He started from pole in Portland and finished fourth.
• NEWMAN/HAAS RACING FACTS: NHR has won FOUR races at this track (Bourdais 2004 & 2003; Michael Andretti 1991; Mario Andretti 1988) and FIVE poles (Bourdais 2003, da Matta 2002, Mi. Andretti 1989, Ma. Andretti 1984 & 1983). They have earned a total of 14 podium finishes (2nd ; Junqueira 2004, Mi. Andretti 1998, Mansell 1994, Mi. Andretti 1992, Ma. Andretti 1989; 3rd ; Servia 2005, Junqueira 2003, Mi. Andretti 1999, Mansell 1993, Ma. Andretti 1986). In 2005: Bourdais started third, ran as his as second and finished fifth due to timing of caution prior to his final stop. Servia started sixth, set the fastest race lap and finished third.

FORSYTHE QUALIFYING REPORT     (TOP OF PAGE)

• Allmendinger Captures Bridgestone Pole Position With a New Lap Record At Cleveland
• Cleveland, Ohio - June 24th, 2006 ; A.J. Allmendinger captured the Bridgestone Pole Position today for the Cleveland Grand Prix Presented by U.S. Bank in style by setting a new lap record and clearing his nearest rival by a whopping .355s. It is Allmendinger's second career pole and the first of 2006. Paul Tracy was not able to improve his time from Friday's qualifying session after having to jump into his back up car due to contact with the wall during the pre-qualifying practice session. The crew of the #3 Forsythe car managed to adjust ride heights, suspension settings, attach a rear wing, swap seats, adjust fuel quantities, and warm up the backup car in only a few minutes which allowed Tracy to have almost a full qualifying run. Tracy and Allmendinger finished 1-2 in last year's race and will be looking to repeat the same feat tomorrow.
• A.J. Allmendinger "I think the whole Forsythe team today was quite amazing. In practice we were fairly close, but by everybody seeing the times, everybody was really close, and my engineer Mike Canon just kept fully working on the car as the practice went on. We kept getting it better as the practice went on. But we never got to really do a new tire run to see what the car was like so in qualifying, the car was really good on the blacks. I didn't get the lap that I needed on the blacks, even though it was fairly quick. Then in the reds the car was just about the same and a little more grip from the red tires, and it was just kind of a pretty stable lap and it was really good. I was nervous I knew Sebastien was out there, so I had one more lap to go. I was on a big quicker lap and I ran out of fuel, but fortunately enough, we were able to hold onto it and I really think the car is going to be pretty solid for tom orrow's race."
• Paul Tracy "First of all I have to thank my crew guys because they did an amazing job. I hit the wall coming off the chicane during the brief pre-qualifying practice session and we had to go to the back up car, they really hustled and managed to have the car ready to go in a matter of minutes. It was really difficult once I got in the back up car, even though the cars were set up almost the same there's always differences. I'm very disappointed because we had a great car and we were never able to show our speed. We have a good set up for tomorrow and I know that I'll be challenging for the win."

JUSTIN WILSON QUALIFYIHG REPORT

• Justin qualifies 3rd for Grand Prix of Cleveland
• Justin was 3rd fastest in final qualifying for Sunday's Grand Prix of Cleveland with a time of 56.651 seconds (133.830 mph). A.J. Allmendinger grabbed pole for Forsythe, beating Jimmy Vasser's 1998 lap record with a time of 56.283 (134.705 mph), while Sebastien Bourdais was 2nd fastest with a 56.638. Justin's RuSPORT team-mate Cristiano da Matta set the 9th fastest time with a 57.570.
• Justin lines up on row 2 for the race, alongside PKV's Oriol Servia. Turn 1 at Cleveland is rarely without incident, but Justin is hoping for a clean start and a competitive race. "I'm very pleased to be third quickest today", said Justin. "I'd have liked to have been quicker, but we've got a little bit more work to do to find some more speed. But it gives us a good starting position for tomorrow. We're around our main competitors, so hopefully the CDW team can have a good, strong race and be on top of the podium tomorrow."

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