no words for what Junqueira did.

Having been at Miami and seeing the incident (which I fault to Tracy as
reckless and perhaps a tad desperate), it was most interesting to witness
the aftermath scene which occurred when Bourdais approached the Tracy pit
area which happened directly upon Bourdais arriving back from the crash.

After the contact, I raced back to the pit area having interest in hearing
what Paul was going to say about this one. I ended up getting close and had
binoculars on the area up until then.

Tracy, having come in well beforehand, got out of the car in a very slow,
sulking manner. His fare skin was extremely red and heated from the
conditions. CBS got a few words with him, which he implied that the move may
have not been there for him and he concluded with how disappointing the day
and weekend was. He then went under the overhead stand where the screens
(for replays) can be seen, where the team manager usually resides. (I don’t
know what they label this area.)

When Bourdais got back into the pits, he got out and came right to the Tracy
pit and looked up to find him. When he did, he immediately climbed the wall
and proceeded toward Paul. Paul made no reaction whatsoever. Paul, who
seemed to me quite guilt-ridden and humble and without any emotional
worthiness in countering the move, simply kept his head resting on his hand
(leaned over the desk) and made no moves.

After they got Bourdais away from the visual distance of Paul, which was
done only by having CBS distract him with their interview, the interview
took place directly behind Tracy’s position (covered by canvas) and Paul
remained only until the interview was over and Bourdais finally returned to
his pit area. Paul then got on his motor-scooter and was not seen again.

Later that night, I attended the CART driver’s party. I did not see Paul,
and nobody knew anything about his whereabouts. Of course, he may have been
there without me seeing him, but if so, his visibility was far less than
others. Perhaps the two would have made up, as after all, they’ll probably
be sharing more podiums and victory rides together. But for this weekend,
Paul was wearing the scarlet letter. He had some close company with him, of
course, as Bruno’s move was also a topic of heavy discussion afterward and,
Tagliani’s comments were being heard, too.

On the positive side, the Herdez camp, Moreno perhaps the most apparent, was
absolutely glee with emotion.

I’m not really sure the penalty assigned to Jourdain for the incident in
the pits was warranted.  The pits at Miami really weren’t wide enough
for the "3-lane" rule that CART wants to use, so Jourdain didn’t have
any choice but to leave the pits in the face of oncoming traffic.  The
way the rules are supposed to read, exiting cars have the right-of-way
over cars entering their pit boxes.  But CART for some reason ignored
that.  I guess they’re going to handle these things on a case-by-case
basis, which is a dangerously arbitrary approach, since every driver is
going to think they have the right-of-way from their perspective.

Doug

Please tell me that this is only a "Contracts" issue for 2004. Laguna Seca
is only listed as an "In Discussion" track! I can live with them not coming
back to Brands (Though I could suggest other tracks to visit in the UK, and
I would love them to come back again,) But I would hate not seeing the cars
flying through the Corkscrew.

Nathan.

I posted this over at rasf1.  Though some may be interested over here as
well.

http://66.137.219.241/images/racing/f1/2003usgp/2003usgp.html

Beaner

For those who missed it, here are the locations that CART plans to race
at in 2004.  Some of these are contracted, others not:

California Speedway, Fontana, Calif. (oval)
Burke Lakefront Airport, Cleveland, Ohio (temporary road course)
Denver, Colo. (street course)
Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Las Vegas, Nev. (oval*)
Long Beach, Calif. (street course)
Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, Mexico City, Mexico (permanent road
course)
Miami, Fla. (street course)
The Milwaukee Mile, Milwaukee, Wis. (oval)
Fundidora Park, Monterrey, Mexico (temporary road course)
Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montreal, Canada (road course)
Road America, Elkhart Lake, Wis., road course)
St. Petersburg, Fla. (street course)
Surfers Paradise, Australia, (street course)
Toronto, Canada, (street course)
Vancouver, Canada, (street course)

*Paul Gentilozzi said on SPEED’s "Wind Tunnel" that this might be a road
course

Additionally, discussions are under way for the following locations:

Brands Hatch, England
East Asia
EuroSpeedway Lausitz
Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca
Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course
Portland International Raceway

Obviously, not all of these will pan out.  Gentilozzi says the plan is
to run 16-18 races for 2004.

Doug

The rats continue to abandon the sinking ship rather than end up in the
courthouse.

Now that the word is in that IMS is flat broke, owing money to everyone from NASCAR to the FIA, and there is no more money from the Hulman family to support the IRL, when is the big auction of the IRL teams assets expected?

What kind of parking lot do you think they’ll turn the speedway into, a multi level one or one with a Wal-Mart?

CART overnight for Miami came in at 1.7 a full point higher than EARL’s Fontana
last week

So here we have both races on national TV…both up against football and both
up against two of NASCAR’s premier races (Dover and Talledega)

CART overnights a 1.7 and EARL overnights a .7

CART has a bunch of nobody’s according to the EARLettes and EARL has all the
superstars and superstar team as well as Indy

So EARLettes why does CART pull a 1.7 and EARL a .7?

Because nobody cares about Indy/George/EARL/Mikey/Pimski/Fatassi/Helicoil/
FagFerran/Tony the Nose/AJ Fraud/AJ Fraud #???/Fat Ass Sarah and the rest of
the EARLettes

facts are facts