Results Dismay Teammates

Few teams entered the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach with higher expectations than PKV Racing, with former champions Jimmy Vasser and Cristiano da Matta forming the most formidable duo this side of Sebastien Bourdais and Bruno Junqueira.

But the two drivers, rejuvenated by their pairing, finished mid-pack on Sunday. Vasser, a team co-owner with Kevin Kalkhoven and Dan Pettit, finished ninth and Da Matta 10th.

“There was a lot more expected from us, from our peers, and from our fans, and I can tell you, we’re not proud of the way we finished this weekend,” Vasser said. “Da Matta and myself were on the front row here in 2002, so I think we still know our way around.” Da Matta agreed after starting eighth, three spots ahead of Vasser.

“We were definitely expecting better,” said Da Matta, who spent the last two seasons in Formula One driving for Toyota but didn’t get too wrapped up in the results of one race. “Getting frustrated or disappointed is not going to get you any more speed.”

PKV was consistently among the fastest teams during preseason testing, and Jim McGee -- team general manager and the most successful manager/chief mechanic in series history -- echoed Vasser’s disappointment.

“We kind of chased the car all weekend and never came up with a package that seemed to be fast enough,” said McGee, who will oversee testing Wednesday and Thursday in Portland. “It’s like a lot of things, it’s the teeny little things that make a big difference. The team performed well all weekend, we just missed on what it takes to go faster.”

Vasser topped off with fuel on Lap 9 during a caution flag, and because he was off-sequence with the rest of the field, he even led twice for a total of nine laps.

“The yellows didn’t fall in our favor, or we could have had a much better finish,” said the Southern California native and Las Vegas resident. “We had a faster pace than where we finished, but we need to come off the trailer more on the pace, and we didn’t.

“We led a bit because we were off-sequence and ran pretty strong, but my teammate was on a different strategy and didn’t finish too well either. He’s a great champion, and we certainly should be running better than that.”

Vasser finished 14.80 seconds behind winner Bourdais, and Da Matta 16.01.

The bottom line, Vasser said, was pretty simple: The cars aren’t fast enough.”

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Touted as one of Europe’s top female drivers, Katherine Legg didn’t disappoint in her debut Sunday in the Toyota Atlantic Championship. She passed Rocky Moran Jr. with two laps remaining to win the season-opening Imperial Capital Bank Challenge to become the first woman to win a Champ Car-sanctioned race in North America.

Legg was born in 1980, the last year a woman, Desiree Wilson, won an open-wheel road race of any note, the Aurora AFX Formula One race.

Legg started seventh and took the lead from Rocky Moran Jr., who was driving an older chassis that was 40 pounds heavier and hadn’t been driven since 2003, when a wheel bearing broke on Moran’s car on the 30th of 32 laps in the hairpin. Moran, one of only four drivers who weren’t rookies in the 19-car field, finished 10th.

Pole-sitter Antoine Bessette finished second and Charles Zwolsman, who qualified first but started last because his car failed technical inspection, finished third.

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Paul Gentilozzi crashed while leading on Lap 35, and Boris Said experienced a flat tire on the first lap to fall to last and a broken rim on Lap 34 after climbing to sixth. They were not factors in the 45-lap Cytomax Challenge in the Trans-Am Road Racing Series. Randy Ruhlman won in a Corvette, followed by Greg Pickett and Michael Lewis in Jaguars.