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Thursday, August 30
Castroneves leads points for first time
Associated Press
| |  | | | Castroneves |
VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Helio Castroneves is enjoying
life more than ever these days.
The Brazilian with the ready smile and the fast quip is leading
the CART FedEx Series championship for the first time in his career
heading into the Vancouver Molson Indy.
Granted, his lead is only five points over Kenny Brack and 11 in
front of Marlboro Team Penske teammate and defending series
champion Gil de Ferran , but Castroneves couldn't be much happier
with the way this season has gone.
"Everything I wish for has been coming true," Castroneves said
earlier this week while traveling by limousine to a photo shoot for
Cosmopolitan magazine in his adopted hometown of Miami.
"There's some beautiful girls here, too," the 26-year-old
bachelor said. "I'm having so much fun that I almost can't believe
it."
Besides the personal appearances and perks of being a star,
Castroneves has had a career year on the race track. For starters,
he gave Roger Penske his 11th Indianapolis 500 victory.
In CART, he has earned three victories -- matching Brack for the
series lead -- and added five more top-10 finishes in 13 races.
"It's been great but, at the same time, I've worked very hard,
too," said Castroneves, whose first two years in CART were spent
with low-buck teams with virtually no chance to win races. Helio
showed him promise by coming up with a second-place finish for each
of them.
At the end of the 1999 season, he was looking for a new ride.
Greg Moore, who had signed to drive for Penske the next season, was
killed in the season finale, and Penske called Castroneves.
"I would not have wanted to get the ride that way, but I could
not turn down such an opportunity," Castroneves said. "I have
dedicated what I do with the Penske team to Greg."
Winning here on Sunday, in Moore's hometown, would be sweet for
Castroneves and the entire Penske team.
Meanwhile, Brack, who led the points most the season before
losing the lead two weeks ago at Road America, needs to get back on
the upswing for Team Rahal.
"We've let them get back into this point race," he said. "Now
we have to score well at Vancouver and then keep it going. This is
a tough place because there is no room for error. The walls are so
close that a little mistake becomes big and the walls don't give."
De Ferran comes into Vancouver with three straight top-five
finishes and, with seven races remaining, considers himself solidly
in the championship battle.
"We're right there in the point standings so we need to keep
doing what we're doing," he said. "As the season starts to wind
down, you don't have as many opportunities to make up points
deficits and the list of championship contenders starts to
decrease, so it's important to keep putting points on the board."
Michael Andretti, who loves racing in Canada and has earned nine
of his 41 career victories north of the border -- three in Vancouver
-- is also lurking.
With a maximum of 22 points per race -- one for the pole, 20 for
a win and one for leading the most laps -- Andretti is just 21
behind Castroneves. In fact, defending Vancouver winner Paul Tracy ,
46 behind, doesn't consider himself out of the title chase.
"I love racing in my home country," the Canadian driver said.
"This track changes every year but, if we can win again, we can
get right back into this thing. It's definitely not over."
Practice on the 1.781-mile temporary road course at the edge of
downtown Vancouver will begin on Friday, with qualifying Saturday.
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