| | LONG BEACH, Calif. -- Where's the sun?
Usually we can count on some nice weather out here in Long Beach. But after snow in Nazareth, Pa., last week, rain greeted us Wednesday night in California when we got off the plane. I need a jacket. It's foggy. It's gray. Who says it never rains in California?
Oh well, at least they'll race Sunday on wet streets. Snow? Well that's another matter, as we found out last weekend when the Bosch Spark Plug Grand Prix was postponed until May 27.
|  | | Paul Tracy just might have the right stuff to win his first CART championship in 2000. |
No offense to Max Papis, but with the long offseason and last week's spring snow storm, it really doesn't seem like the season has started. But the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach will change all that on Sunday. I've always felt the season really kicks off in Long Beach. And from here, it's a race every two weeks -- taking us to Rio, Japan and then back to Nazareth, which by the way now falls just a day before the Indianapolis 500.
For a series that started later than any other in the world, the CART FedEx Championship Series squeezes plenty of racing action into the next month and a half.
While Long Beach comes early each season, it's the first true indication of what we can expect when the season heads into its second half. Why? Because it's held on the streets of Long Beach. And on the street is where the FedEx championship is decided at the end of the season. Ten of the final 14 races are held on either street or road courses.
So, look for the guys who do well on the streets of Long Beach to do well at the end of the season. And you can almost predict the top finishers on Sunday to be near the top of the points standings at the end of the season.
Defending series champion Juan Montoya immediately comes to mind when you talk about street and road courses, and it was in Long Beach a year ago where he served noticed that he was going to be tough. You could say his win at Nazareth on the mile-oval was more impressive, but Long Beach was the wake-up call for everyone to know what was in store the rest of the season from Montoya.
Montoya comes to Long Beach fresh off winning the pole last Saturday before the snow started falling in Nazareth. The thing about that Chip Ganassi team is even with the new Toyota engine it's using this season, everyone knows it's going to win sooner, rather than later. But for Montoya to rattle off the pole in Nazareth and be fast all week was still impressive. He was the favorite going into the Bosch Spark Plug Grand Prix. He's also the favorite to win in Long Beach.
The driver who was aided the most by last week's race at Nazareth being postponed was Dario Franchitti. He's never really been that great on the short ovals and now the second race of the season is going to be on a street circuit, where he is just a master.
While he did leave the 1.5-mile oval at Homestead with a respectable 11th-place finish in the opener, he really needs a good race Sunday to boost his confidence. No doubt, Franchitti will be a player for the championship. But after sustaining non-displaced fractures of the left hip and pelvis and multiple small contusions of the brain when his Reynard-Honda struck the concrete wall during practice at Homestead in February, Long Beach is going to be a very good measuring stick to just how much we can expect from Franchitti over the next 18 races.
Long Beach should be a good indication where he is both in regards to his health and mental outlook to the 2000 season. It's been a tough offseason for Franchitti to say the least. Not only did he go through extensive rehab following the crash just to race in the opener, but he lost engineer Don Halliday when he left for Team Rahal.
Injuries and CART's new restrictions on testing prior to the season means Franchitti has had very little seat time in 2000. But in Long Beach, he'll be on a level playing field because teams aren't able to test on street courses. Franchitti can simply get in the car this weekend and after a few laps know where he stands.
Both Montoya and Franchitti, along with Paul Tracy and Michael Andretti, will be near the front Sunday. And as I said before, that means each will be near the top of the championship points standings. But while he may not win Sunday, I like Tracy to win the championship come October 29.
I don't want to use the word "mature" in this situation. It's been overused when it comes to Tracy's past. But Tracy does have a couple of years under his belt with Team KOOL Green. And quite honestly, his head is in the game. I think he's gotten to the point in his career where he knows what it takes to win a championship.
Another interesting story line in Long Beach is Bryan Herta's return to the track. This is a huge opportunity for Herta to show teams he deserves a full-time ride. This is the first of two races that he'll fill in for the injured Shinji Nakano at Walker Racing. It's a chance to let people know he's still around.
Last year, he kind of a got a bad rap after he left Team Rahal. Herta basically didn't have a place to fall as teams filled their cars with drivers. He ended up going to Forsythe Racing, but that door closed when CART didn't allow a third team to be run by Forsythe. People who are looking for drivers for next year, and the cry for more American drivers in CART, should mean an opening for Herta if he gets the job done in his home state and then in Rio. | |
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