Back to the Future

Paul Tracy is sure he won last year’s Indianapolis 500, even though Helio Castroneves’ name is on the trophy, and Tracy will not be trying to win the 500 again this year.

The disappointment of losing the controversial yellow flag finish -- a formal appeal by team owner Barry Green was rejected by President Tony George of the Indy Racing League -- is not the reason he is not going back, he says.

“I want to devote all of my, and the team’s, efforts to winning the CART championship,” the veteran Canadian driver said. “I really didn’t want to [drive at Indy] last year. I felt it would jeopardize the Team Green program in CART, and I feel it did.”

Tracy, in his 12th year as a CART driver -- only Jimmy Vasser can match that longevity -- is off to his finest start. He has won the season’s first two races, at St. Petersburg, Fla., and Monterrey, Mexico.

Only once before has a driver won the opening two and in that year, 1982, pacesetter Rick Mears went on to win the CART championship.

Tracy, 34, will seek a third consecutive victory Sunday when he drives a Player’s/Forsythe Racing Lola in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, a race he won in 1993 and again in 2000.

“I owe a lot this year to my Player’s team,” he said. “I had a chance to go to several other high-profile teams [after Team Green was sold to Michael Andretti and associates], but Player’s seemed like the right fit with a Canadian team and Canadian sponsor.

“They did a fantastic job all winter, getting the cars prepared, moving guys around, hiring some new people. Good chemistry is sometimes as important as good equipment, and that’s something that Tony Cicale and Todd Malloy, my engineer, have created. I’ve worked with both of them before so switching teams was kind of like coming home.”

Tracy had a feast-or-famine five years with Team Kool Green. He won six races, but typical was last year, when he had five top-five finishes but also failed to finish 10 of the 19 races.

“We had a Reynard [chassis] in the first two races last year, but after Long Beach we switched to Lola and had nothing but mechanical problems. So far this year the Player’s Lola has had no trouble at all.”

Tracy was one of the few name drivers to remain in CART this year after Andretti, Kenny Brack, Dario Franchitti, Tony Kanaan and Scott Dixon continued a trend started two years ago when Roger Penske moved Gil de Ferran and Castroneves from CART to the Indy Racing League.

“The way I feel about it, I like road racing, and I believed what [CART President] Chris Pook and [Player’s team owner] Jerry Forsythe were telling me, that CART’s future was a lot better than it looked.

“I enjoy oval racing, I’ve won my share, but from my standpoint, if you’re going to run ovals full-time, the way the IRL does, you should go where the money is. And that’s NASCAR.

“If you run ovals every week in an open-wheel car, at the speeds we’re running, you’re just asking for it. I enjoy an oval now and then, but every week, not at 200-plus all day long.

“It’s funny, Michael [Andretti] was one of the CART ringleaders saying we were going too fast on ovals, that he’d never run every race on an oval, and now look at him. He’s changed his tune. Money talks.”

Andretti, last year’s Long Beach winner, after buying Team Green’s assets last December, moved the team to the all-oval IRL. However, the second-generation champion has said that this year’s Indianapolis 500 will be his final race. After Indy, he plans to devote full time to running his Andretti Green Racing team with Franchitti, Kanaan and Dan Wheldon as drivers.

CART is a mix of short ovals, superspeedways, road courses and street courses, like the 11-turn, 1.97-mile Long Beach circuit, where drivers will race 90 laps Sunday.

“I like Long Beach,” Tracy said. “It’s where I drove my first race [for Dale Coyne in 1991], where I won my first race [for Penske in 1993], so I feel at home there,” said Tracy. “It’s a good track and it’s our marquee event.

“Look at the list of winning names and it’s very impressive. I’ve just been fortunate to have my name on it twice.”

Tracy is the active leader in champ cars with 21 wins, but the IRL race that he believes he won at Indianapolis remains a major disappointment.

The controversy centered on where Tracy and Castroneves were at the moment a caution light appeared on Lap 199, after Buddy Lazier and Laurent Redon had collided.

At that moment, Tracy was passing Castroneves for the lead. There was no doubt that he made the pass. The question was, where were the two cars at the precise moment the yellow light was flashed by Chief Steward Brian Barnhart?

Tracy’s team contended that he had forged ahead before the light came on. Castroneves’ team claimed their driver was ahead and slowed when he saw the light.

When George announced that he would be the sole arbitrator, skeptics immediately pointed out that Tracy was a one-off driver from CART whereas Castroneves was an IRL regular.

George’s decision was based, he said, on an IRL rule that said judgments made by the chief steward “could not be protested or appealed.”

Tracy’s response: “I’m disappointed, but not terribly surprised. My bank account may not show it, and my face may not be on the Borg-Warner Trophy, but in my heart I know I won the race.”

Pook and the CART board have thrown a mini-roadblock in front of CART drivers who might want to race in the 500 this year by scheduling a race in Lausitz, Germany, on the first weekend of Indianapolis qualifying.

This would give them only one opportunity to make the 33-car field, on bump Sunday.

First-day qualifying for Long Beach is scheduled Friday. The leader after Friday’s session is guaranteed a spot in the front row, regardless of what happens in Saturday’s qualifying.

That system worked well for Tracy in Mexico. After posting the fastest time on the first day, he crashed during Saturday morning practice and was unable to make another effort.

Thirteen cars posted faster speeds than Tracy’s on Saturday, but he stood on his first-day speed, started from the front row in a backup car and won.

“With so many rookies in the [Long Beach] race this year, it will take them until Friday to learn the course,” Tracy said. “That should work to our benefit, as we know the course, so we can shoot for a fast time Friday and if we’re No. 1 we can save tires for Sunday.

“Long Beach is kind of slippery and bumpy, like most street courses, but we have a common set-up that we don’t stray far from, so we’ll be ready as soon as we can unload and hit the track.”

That would be 9:30 a.m. Friday for the first practice session.

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LONG BEACH GRAND PRIX

When: Sunday, 1 p.m.

Track: 1.968-mile street course

2002 winner: Michael Andretti