Rookie Hunter-Reay Has a Veteran Performance

Jimmy Vasser is supposed to have the kind of day he had on Sunday, the 12-year veteran moving 10 places through the field to finish fourth in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.

But Ryan Hunter-Reay?

The 22-year-old rookie from Boca Raton, Fla. -- the only American rookie in the field -- had by far his best showing as a pro in the Champ Car World Series, finishing seventh.

It made for a happy mood in the hospitality tent of American Spirit Team Johansson, where team owner Stefan Johansson was feeling especially chipper about the performance of the only two Americans in a 19-man field.

“It was a big breakthrough for Ryan, and I think he realizes he can mix it up with anyone out there,” Johansson said.

“We had a horrible weekend until 10 minutes before the race. We were struggling with both cars.”

Hunter-Reay, who spent last season driving for Irvine-based Hylton Motorsports in the Toyota Atlantic Series, qualified 12th.

“We expect that [moving through the field] of him,” Vasser said. “This is the big leagues. I’ve been with rookies [Alex Zanardi, Juan Pablo Montoya] in the past and they won races. If you handle him with kid gloves, maybe that’s not the best environment to grow.”

Hunter-Reay was the highest finisher among nine rookie drivers, and his race engineer, Graham Taylor, said he was running laps at the end of the race that were faster than veteran Patrick Carpentier, who finished sixth. Carpentier is a Player’s/Forsythe teammate of Paul Tracy, who has won the series’ first three races.

“It would have been nice to finish ahead of Carpentier because we’re driving his old car,” Taylor said. “He’s driving a shiny new Lola. We have his old girlfriend.”

Vasser and Hunter-Reay were the highest-finishers among the six Reynard chassis. As a gauge, Hunter-Reay finished ahead of English rookie Darren Manning, a former Formula One test driver for BAR/Honda who also drives a Reynard; Manning started 10th and finished eighth for owner Derrick Walker.

Vasser took advantage of pit strategy when Roberto Moreno brought out a yellow flag.

He topped off with fuel on Lap 34 while the leaders stayed on course, then jumped from 13th to seventh after cycling through the next round of pit stops.

“The pits worked in my favor,” Vasser said. “The car wasn’t all that fantastic. I got good track position, made a couple of passes.

“It’s a big day for the team to have both cars finish in the top 10, one in the top five. Ryan had a great race.”

With Vasser’s performance, he moved into fifth place in the series standings. Hunter-Reay is 13th.

“We had some pretty important prospective clients here, and they were pretty excited,” said Johansson.

“This is probably the biggest race of the season for CART and for us.”

The team will test on the road course in Portland on Tuesday and Wednesday, which should help it in the European leg of the schedule, beginning on the historic Brands Hatch, England, road course on May 5.

“We need more testing time,” Taylor said.

“More investment is going to help us along. There’s no reason we can’t achieve the same as the Player’s team when we get everything ironed out.

“The crew’s getting faster and faster, the team feels like it’s jelling more. It was our best day yet.”