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Sunday, September 2
Andretti hot on de Ferran's heels
Associated Press


	Andretti

VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- A familiar face is suddenly back in the CART FedEx Series championship race: Michael Andretti.

The second-generation open-wheel racing star drove to a determined but quiet third-place finish Sunday in the Vancouver Molson Indy and now finds himself fourth in the standings, trailing leader Gil de Ferran by just 13 points with six races to go and 132 points still up for grabs.

"We're quietly trying to get ourselves right back in this thing," said Andretti, who left his longtime home at Newman-Haas Racing for a ride with the new Team Motorola this season. "The last couple of races we've just been trying to claw our way back into it. And don't make any mistake, this team is definitely capable of doing it."

Andretti, whose only CART championship came in 1991, is still a force to be reckoned with at 39, second only to 42-year-old race winner Roberto Moreno in the Champ car series.

A conservative strategy worked for Andretti on Sunday in a race marked by considerable banging, bumping and crashing on the narrow downtown street circuit.

"It was just a day I was trying to stay out of trouble," he said. "A lot of people were driving really desperately out there, looking for new jobs next year. I knew there was going to be a lot of aggression.

"I kept our race clean. I don't think we had a mark on the car."

His only victory this year came in Toronto, where he rallied to win after falling to last place.

Double trouble
Paul Tracy and Helio Castroneves, expected to be factors in Sunday's race, wound up struggling through a difficult day.

Tracy, the defending race champion in Vancouver, started eighth but wound up last in the 26-car field, completing only 69 of the 98 laps before his car slammed into a tire barrier.

"Everybody was bunched up on a restart and it was just one of those things with everybody on cold tires and trying to get an advantage," the Canadian driver said. "But that's the way our season is going.

"We struggled on Friday in practice, had a pretty good qualifying session Saturday and got some momentum going, then we got our legs cut out from underneath us on Sunday. It's been a challenging year."

Castroneves started the day with a five-point lead in the championship and came away trailing teammate de Ferran by five. It could have been worse considering he never had a chance to score any points after being hit in the rear by Kenny Brack at the start.

The car stalled and he lost one lap in that incident, then lost two more when an electrical problem shut off his engine later in the race. Despite running the fastest lap in the race and soldiering on to the end, the Brazilian driver finished 18th -- six places out of the points.

"That's just racing," he said. "I could have been much worse with respect to the championship standings. At least we are still in the game. Our team needs to keep focused and move forward."

Canadian disappointment
After having two Canadians start on the front row, the home fans were disappointed when neither finished in the top 15.

Pole-winner Alex Tagliani led the first 69 laps before what his team said was a broken gearbox put him out of the race in 23rd. Team Player's teammate Patrick Carpentier was third late in the race when he was hit from behind by Brack and wound up a lap down in 16th.

"I'm sorry for the contact with Pat," Brack said. "I went over and apologized to him. It was a misjudgment on my part. I locked up the brakes. It was a scramble.

"I didn't have anything to gain by hitting Pat. In fact, it hurt me, too," added Brack, who is tied with Castroneves for second in the season standings, five points behind de Ferran.

Carpentier said, "That's racing and I guess I owe him one. Alex should have won this thing because he was faster than anybody else. I didn't have the car to win today."

Spark plugs

De Ferran, the defending series champ, is the third points leader in three races, following Brack and Castroneves.

Moreno, who led only 10 laps, including the final nine, averaged 80.543 mph in the race slowed by four full-course caution flags.

Michel Jourdain Jr. gave himself a 25th birthday present with a sixth-place finish, only his second top-10 this season.

Moreno's best previous finish in four races in Vancouver was 10th.

The victory was Patrick Racing's 45th, but its first here.

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	Moreno scores emotional victory Oh Canada: Canadian duo takes front row