Staying on Course

If the new owners of Champ Cars succeed in breathing life into the seemingly moribund remnants of CART, they may view the defining moment as the decision by Michel Jourdain Jr. to turn his back on a lucrative Indy Racing League offer and remain with Champ Cars.

Only a month before the season’s opening race, Sunday’s 30th annual Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, total capitulation seemed imminent. Open Wheel Racing Series had obtained control of CART’s assets and announced plans to continue but already the dominoes were falling.

Pat Patrick, one of CART’s founders and one of its staunchest backers, revealed that he was taking his team to the IRL. Adrian Fernandez, one of Mexico’s most popular sports personalities and an 11-year veteran of CART, announced that he too was defecting to the IRL.

Then, in what could have been the final bombshell, Bobby Rahal, only two years after having served as interim president of CART and a three-time series champion, went to the IRL. Presumably, this meant that Jourdain, his No. 1 driver and the winner of two CART races last year, would go with him.

Not so fast, said the 27-year-old Mexican whose father and uncle had both raced with CART. He and his sponsor, Gigante, a discount company based in Mexico, informed Rahal that they were not going with him.

“It was a terrible thing for me when Rahal called and told me we were going to the IRL,” Jourdain said. “We had both been [in Long Beach] for the spring training session a week before and we had talked about our plans to run for the championship this year. It was a total shock.

“What I don’t like is that all the time we were here, he must have had the idea [of moving] for some time. Until that time, I was thinking it was going to the same as last year, winning races, being really competitive and working with the same guys. It was really, really hard and really sad to see them leave, but [Champ Cars] is where I want to be and these are the races I want to win. I decided to stay because this is what I thought was best for me and my career.”

When Gigante chose to stay with Jourdain and a Champ Car schedule that included races in Mexico City and Monterrey, it was the most positive news for new series owners Jerry Forsythe, Paul Gentilozzi and Kevin Kalkhoven since they’d taken over CART assets and liabilities in January.

Driver Paul Tracy, the outspoken Champ Car champion from Canada, was not as politic in his comments as Jourdain.

“Someone, I don’t know if it’s Tony George [owner of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and founder of the IRL] or Honda, or both of them, are trying to break Champ Car by buying us out,” he said during the Grand Prix media day last Tuesday. “How else could Rahal turn his back on a lucrative sponsor like Gigante if he wasn’t getting it from somewhere else?”

Honda, which left CART two years ago after a dispute over engine regulations, was furnishing engines for seven IRL cars, including Andretti Green Racing, before it added the Rahal and Fernandez teams. The IRL race this weekend in Japan has three Rahal and two Fernandez cars, all powered by Honda.

“It’s flattering, in a way, to have them so obsessed with breaking us by buying guys out,” Tracy said. “I think they feel the only way they can get strong is to kill us off. I had some good offers too, but I want to stick with where I am.”

Jourdain said his decision was based on several factors: he wanted to drive in a variety of races, not exclusively oval events as in the IRL; he didn’t want to join the IRL season in its third race, he wanted to be in the two Mexican races, and he wanted another chance at Long Beach.

“Champ Cars has the best concept in racing with races on ovals and road courses both,” he said. “It is what open-wheel racing should be. If I had gone with Rahal, and he tried to talk me into it, the timing was not good. I would already have missed two races [at Miami and Phoenix] and I would not get to race in Mexico.

“For me, as a driver, I believe I get 80% of my value for running the Mexico races. Both are very popular and I would not want to miss them.

“And, for sure, I would miss Long Beach. I came here first when I was about 2 when my father was driving in the Super Vee race. Of course, I do not remember it, but I do remember watching many times on television and to race there the first time [in 1996] was unbelievable. Then last year, when I came so close, I have to have another chance.”

Jourdain was still looking for his first win as a CART driver when he won the pole at Long Beach last year and had a substantial lead when he pitted his Lola-Ford for the final time, six laps from the race’s end. When the Rahal crew finished refueling and changing tires, Jourdain tromped on the accelerator, and nothing happened. The car wouldn’t move, an apparent gearbox failure.

Tracy, as surprised as the rest of the 95,000 on hand, moved into the lead and won the race, his third victory at Long Beach.

“I don’t know if this is the best or worst day of my life,” Jourdain said at the time. “It is by far the best car I have ever had and it was just easy to pull away from everybody. I don’t know what was the trouble, but I just couldn’t get it in gear at the end.”

Jim Michaelian, president and chief executive of the Grand Prix Assn. of Long Beach, said the loss did more for the young Mexican’s popularity than if he had won.

“That picture that ran in all the papers and was on TV, showing Rahal with his arm draped around Michel’s shoulder consoling him made Michel an instant celebrity,” Michaelian said. “We are still getting calls wanting to know if ‘that guy who almost won the race last year is coming back.’ ”

When Rahal moved and Jourdain decided not to, it meant he was a free agent. It also meant he needed a ride. Offers came quickly, as might be expected for a driver who won on an oval at Milwaukee by leading a race-record 234 laps, and then won on a street course in Montreal.

The rumor mill had him going to Newman-Haas to team with Bruno Junqueira and Sebastien Bourdais, but Jourdain instead joined a first-year team that had planned to run one car, with a rookie driver: Carl Russo’s RuSport operation.

“I had some nice proposals, but when I met Carl, he impressed me so much, his whole philosophy, his approach to racing, impressed me more than anyone I know,” Jourdain said. “I knew he was planning on a one-car team, so when he said he wanted me to come and drive for him [in a second car], it meant a lot.”

Russo, whose team won the Toyota Atlantic championship last year with A.J. Allmendinger driving, had moved up to Champ Cars with Allmendinger as his rookie driver.

“We were very much a one-car team and were looking to come to Long Beach with A.J. only, but the opportunity to have Michel join us was too good to pass up,” said Russo, president of Calix, a Northern California supplier of communications solutions.

“I think it’s going to be very, very difficult. That being said, let me state the long-term goal: We’re going to win races and win the championship. I have no idea what’s the learning curve. I would be thrilled if we were able to run competitively and contend for winning races. We’re going to do our level best to put Michel in a position where he can compete for the championship.”

Jourdain finished third last year, but might have been second had the season’s final race at California Speedway not been called off because of nearby wildfires. After finishing fourth at Australia, in what turned out to be the final race, Jourdain had 195 points, Junqueira 199 and Tracy, who had clinched the title, 226.

One obstacle is that, if one of the cars is damaged, the team does not have enough chassis and parts for two drivers.

“We were definitely going to be a one-car team,” said Jeremy Dale, RuSport team manager. “We are short on cars, and Lolas are scarce. That’s what everybody [in Champ Cars] wants, so they are hard to find. Rahal and Fernandez both had cars from last year, but neither of them will sell us one.

“We have two, and we’ll have more for the next race, but for Long Beach, one big job is painting one of A.J.’s yellow cars the red, white and green for Michel.”

Jourdain has been driving since he was 7 or 8 and has been racing since he was 12. His father, Michel, raced sports cars in Mexico and drove in CART races in 1980 and 1981. His uncle, Bernard, was co-rookie of the year at the 1989 Indy 500 and drove twice in the Long Beach Grand Prix.

Michel Jr. started in Formula Junior and in a few years moved up to Formula 2, driving for Josele Garza, one of Mexico’s most popular drivers and Indianapolis rookie of the year in 1981.

With Garza’s recommendation, he came to the United States in 1996 and, in a bit of a twist, drove his first race with the IRL at Phoenix with Team Scandia. That same year he drove at Long Beach and, at 19 years 6 months and 12 days, became the youngest to start a CART race.

On Sunday he will be starting his eighth season with Champ Cars and perhaps one of the most significant in the series future.

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The Facts

* What: Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, Round 1 of 16-race Champ Car World Series and support races.

* Where: Streets of Long Beach, 1.97-mile course surrounding Convention and Entertainment Center. Start-finish line on Shoreline Drive.

* When: Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Friday: practice and qualifying, 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Saturday: practice, 8 a.m.; Toyota Pro-Celebrity race, noon. Sunday: Champ Car warm up, 9 a.m.; Historic Grand Prix, 9:45 a.m.; Toyota Atlantic race, 10:30 a.m.; Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, 1 p.m.; Trans-Am series race, 3:45 p.m.

* Defending champion: Paul Tracy.

* Television: Sunday, 1 p.m., Spike TV.

* Tickets: 3-day reserved, $74 to $110. Sunday reserved, $58 to $68. General admission: 3-days, $50. Friday-Saturday, $30. Sunday, $40.