Notes from the 2006 Champ Car World Series Race at Cleveland

Notes from the CBS broadcast of the Grand Prix of Cleveland presented by U.S. Bank 6/25/06.

Welcome to Cleveland, home of the Airport Grand Prix which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. Since 1982, great names in CART have raced at Cleveland. Why? Because it's a 185 mph festival of speed, baby. It's the Bridgestone Presents the Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford (BPCCWSPF).

A.J. Allmendinger montage. To recap: AJ fired. AJ engaged. AJ hired. AJ wins. Bonus Father's Day reference! The 128 Father's Day references they had last week weren't enough. Squeeze another in.

Rick Benjamin and Derek "They're Always After Me Lucky Charms" Daly ON CAMERA. Hold onto your hollyhocks, Derek and Rick are on camera at the same time. Fab. Double D is looking fit. Rick declares this perfect day for Champ Car racing. Paul Tracy won last year. Let's not hold our breath for a repeat.

A.J. "World Swinging from My Man Parts" Allmendinger is on the pole. Why not? DD on how Paul Tracy has been struggling to find speed. Video of AJ turning his car into a "high speed lawn mower." Video of people sliding around and doing crazy shit.

Down to Jan Beekhus with Tracy. Tracy crashed his primary. Pushing to the limit. Hope today to beak out of the funk. Nothing to do with AJ winning on his first try in a Forsythe car.

Cameron Steele with AJ. Recapping the 10 days (fired, engaged, hired, win). Red Bull and Forsythe get another shout out. I bet AJ gets out of the shower in the morning and says "I'd like to thank Forsythe for giving me the opportunity to grab this towel, and for Red Bull for sticking with me when it didn't look like I would have shampoo ... "

Rick: Sebastien Bourdais always a factor.

Ford Bold Moves Commercial Number 1. I've seen this commercial so many times I'm now LESS likely to buy a Ford Fusion. Way to go Ford! I'll see it another six times today.

Michelle "Guns" Beisner is in the house. But I think she's actually wearing sleeves today. What the? She's packing concealed weapons (guns) today. There she is with Bobby Rahal who is sitting in the car he drove to win the first Cleveland race. He's happy that he can still fit in it. Michelle says Cleveland loves Bobby, Champ Car loves Bobby. Bobby offers Michelle a seat driving a car in the Atlantics where she can go for a couple of years, win no races and move up to the IRL. (OK, I made that part up. Couldn't resist it.)

Starting lineup: AJ Humdinger, Sebastien "Fits of Rage" Bourdais, Justin "World's Tallest Open-wheel Driver" Wilson, Oriol "Shake Well Before" Servia, Tracy, Nelson Philipe, Bruno Junqueira, Alex Tagliani, Will Power, Christiano "What's" da Matta, Speedy Dan Clarke, Andrew "the Lone" Ranger, Chuck Zwolsman, Katherine "Show Some" Legge, Nicky Pastorelli, Jan Heylen, Mario Dominguez, Tonis Kasemets.

Race peeps have slapped a row of cones down to make the run into turn one 60 feet narrower than normal in an effort to limit the circus-like behavior. DD says it will still be circus city as they come into that corner.

Jan -- Mario had a huge crash wherein he smucked the wall in practice.

97 laps, probably three pit stops.

Let's light this candle. Green-green-green.

Holy jail break. We're about 10 wide headed for turn one. Hold your breath.

What the F? We're through turn 1 although Ranger gets spun like a top. On the exit of tiurn one Tracy tries to go between Junk and Bourdais and gets into both. He's OVER THE TOP of Bourdais' car. Much slow mo. Much looking for a better shot of it. Nasty stuff of Tracy's car coming up and over the side of Bourdais like jaws coming out of the water to eat a skier. Bruno's rear wing goes flying into the air.

AJ gets his nose smucked. We got people taking the grass. Circus music in full effect. A small car pulls up and 43 clowns get out of it.

DD struggles to find better video of Tracy driving over Bourdais. "No, that's not it." Also, DD is maybe the worst telestrator in sports. He's always trying to use the telestrator to point out something and almost always the video moves before or after he marks the spot and it's way off. Or he marks it right as they change shots so you end up with random white slashes across the screen that mean nothing. I'm beginning to think that the director guy cuts to a new camera the second Daly starts to make marks. It's a game to him, perhaps.

Video of Bourdais sitting on the infield, not moving. Maybe the safety crew will get their eventually. Hard to say.

Daly guesses Tracy "gets squeezed."

Bold Moves Commercial replay number 2.

Down to Jan -- Christiano has a broken throttle cable. More slow mo video that shows Tracy trying to wedge it between Bruno and Sebastien.

Restart -- Forsythe cars in to top off. Pit strategy is what this league is all about. Short fill. Full fill. Early window. Late window.

Down to Jan with Neil Mickelwright, AJ's boss. Can you make the race in two stops? Not sure. Neil lost a bet with AJ and had to bleach his hair after AJ won. If Tracy wins, he'll have to shave his head.

Restart time. Green-green-green. Chuck Zwolsman spins. Stalls it. We're back to yellow-yellow-yellow.

We're all the way up to 10 laps and only two yellows. Very NASCAR-ish.

Close up of Bourdais' dead car. Bourdais is on his way to the hospital to get checked.

Lap 12 . Restart. Green-green-green. DD - Servia is in a car that was built Tuesday after he rolled both of his practicing for Portland and had to borrow one of Kathy Legge's cars. Speaking of, Legge is 7th.

Tracy is behind Legge. That's like jaws being behind a catamaran with a torn sail. I'm wondering if he'll pass Katherine or just force her viciously into the wall. Probably both.

Bruno is still on the lead lap. Got a new wing and got back out there during the extendo-yellow.

Lap 15 -- Legge does a spin-o-ramma and keeps it going.

Lap 16 -- Legge in for a cut tire. As Katherine exits, KK gets air! There he is in Katherine's pit. Proud poppa.

Power and Clarke battling on the course.

I'm not really familiar with who is leading right now.

Speedy Dan montage. Shows all kinds of the ways he's knocked himself and others out of races. Dan just did a 59.073 lap. Fastest of the race.

Down to Keith Wiggins, Speedy Dan's boss. Keith says two years ago Speedy Dan was doing Formula Fords. The guy was in the deep end and just needed time to get used to it.

Oriol must be leading, because he's 1.6 seconds ahead of someone. Speedy Dan Montage 2 -- Here he is sliding into a bunch of water.

Tracy is in second. Here comes Nicky. He looks like he may think he can pass Tracy on the inside on national TV. Cue the jaws music. dun-da-dun-da-dun-da. Chop city. Nicky, you'll get nothing and like it. Tracy slams the door on Nicky's front wings. That's like a rookie point guard driving the lane on Shaq. Welcome to the house of pain.

Beisner has been re-deployed to more race-related segments, as opposed to scenes of playing volleyball and poker. First, the ever-grinning Rahal and now she's talking to Jimmy Vasser who is the V in PKV racing. Talking about what it's like to be team management rather than team driver. Jimmy has a 2006 Ford GT. Jimmy agrees to give Michelle a ride.

Bold Moves Commercial 3.

Lap 26 -- Down to Cameron Steele with Paul Gentilozzi owner of Rocketsport. What up with Nicky getting smacked by Paul? "Obvious to Nicky that Tracy was wounded. Nicky tried to go inside and Paul doesn't' give up real estate very easily and Nicky got the worst end of it."

Restart. Junk in P1. Green green green.

Dominguez around Servia. Servia doesn't want the Bruno treatment from Mario so he'd be smart to let him go.

DD -- Allmendinger in a "straight fight" with Junk.

Allmendinger takes the lead. Actual televised pass for the lead -- on the track. Presses are stopped. If this was F1 and someone passed for the lead -- ON THE TRACK -- the crowd would have to be evacuated to deal with the shock of it.

Allmendinger gave Bruno a bit of a hip check to get by. We got Wilson in the grass.

AJ sets the fastest lap of the race. Dominguez in third behind Junk. DD says Allmendinger now knows he can do it, so more victories should come.

Video of Dominguez smacking the wall in practice. His front wings turned up and he "abbbbbbsolutely lamBASTed the waaaaaall" according to DD.

Wilson has had four second-place finishes already this year. On board with Wilson. Derek is talking about the "boomps" (bumps).

Jan with Al Speyer, Ex. Dir. of Bridgestone Motorsports. -- Al says unfortunately there's not much difference between the reds and the blacks in this race. Going to work on it. Bridgestone has a bunch of people in seating section for the race. Much cheering.

Lap 34 -- AJ, Junk, Mario, Tracy, Servia, Wilson, Tracy, Tag, Speedy Dan, Nelson.

AJ is now one second faster than Bruno.

Michelle Beisner Cam -- Michelle says Cleveland has an awesome atmosphere for the race. She's wearing a shirt with sleeves again. Guns covered! The video shows that Cleveland also has some kind of hotty contest. Much strutting on the stage.

Yellow yellow yellow. Caution number 4. Kasemets spins and stalls. Pits will open and AJ will come in. This is really going to help AJ.

Lap 39 -- AJ, Bruno, Mario, Tracy. All pitting.

Dominguez gets a little wing. Tacy lost a lot of time in the pit. Dig the Left Front Tire Changer Cam! A camera on the tire changer's helmet. Cool.

Lap 40 - Tag, Nelson, Justin Wilson, AJ, Junk, Power, Servia, Tracy.

Nelson locks up the left front on the track.

Lap 41 -- Yellow yellow yellow. Tracy "gets 'er sideways" (Derek!) on the track. Goes ass-first into the wall. The shark has been bitten by the wall. Maybe the wall tried to pass Tracy and he chopped down on the wall.

Replay shows Tracy missing the apex and being history after that. Rick keeps calling Tracy "The Thrill from West Hill." Everyone is amazed how far the car made it after driving directly over the top of Bourdais. Bourdais' head must have caused some damage to the underside of Tracy's car. How unfortunate for Tracy!

Bold Moves Commercial Number 4.

Lap 45. Fifth yellow. Bourdais report -- doesn't remember accident. Just remembers someone on top of him. Has tire marks on his helmet.

Neil Mickelwright -- says Tracy's car broke because of the previous accident.

Lap 47 -- Pay attention, because Double D says "This is about to get good here, boys."

Onboard with Tag. Restart. No. Yellow yellow yellow. Restart waved off. Hey, we're all professionals here. Maybe someone got a huge-ass jump and was going 9-wide coming off of the final turn. Hard to say.

Carl Russo from RuSPORT gets air. Carl says the decision to can AJ is looking better and better (he was being sarcastic). Hopes to come down to a Wilson/AJ battle again. Carl says of the first-lap accident "We didn't think anyone had takeoff clearance at the airport here today." Pretty good line, Carl. Only missing a sponsor mention.

Jan Heylen spins after diving in like Greg Louganis on turn one. Rick -- "They never seem to get the idea that diving into turn 1 doesn't work here."

Local yellow for that one. Trying to get Heylen bump started.

Allmendinger and Bruno pass Wilson after a spin. Jan reports that Wilson doesn't like the red tires.

Beisner Cam -- Got the guns out this time. Spaghetti straps and the whole bit. Talking about the great tunes at Cleveland including the lead singer for Bad Company.

Lap 56 -- Nelson Philipe leads.

Derek Daly tells us the results of the heart monitoring from last week. Nelson had a heart beat of 203 during qualifying which seems right since that's where about three quarters of the race is determined. Last week his average heart beat was 175 beats per minute.

Tag gave Nelson room to pass in a very un-Tracy-like fashion.

Lap 57 -- AJ leads. Half second faster than Junk. Wilson and Junk battling for second.

Bruno probably happy to be second given his rear wing went off like a kite when Tracy put it into climbing gear on the start. Wilson has five consecutive top fives.

The obligatory mention of Bruno's 18 screws in his back from the Indy crash. Oriol and Speedy Dan fighting for 5th. Will Power is 4th.

AJ told to get on it. He's 6.7 seconds in front of Bruno.

Lap 67. Serbia in a car that has only raced 19 times.

Speedy Dan leads standings for Rookie of the Year.

Lap 63 -- Yellow yellow yellow. Ranger is toast. Hit a big "boomp" (bump) and got himself in trouble.

Lap 63 -- Who will pit? Wilson coming in for black sidewalls.

AJ in. Beats Wilson out. Junk leads. Speedy Dan second. Legge 12th.

Restart. Yellow yellow yellow. Again, we're all professionals here.

Michael Cannon (engineer) and AJ have chemistry.

Green grene green. AJ fifth and working on Tag.

DD asks how will this play out? Stay tuned!

Local yellow. Zwolsman spins. Looks like a broken steering arm puts him out.

Beisner Cam -- she is again wearing sleeves.

Lap 75 -- Pit stops. Nelson leads.

Lap 76 -- Power takes the grass in the final corner. Hits some boomps and gets airborne. We got dirt flying everywhere. His front wings are gone.

Nelson Philipe is dead on the course. Much speculating as to if he ran out of gas.

Lap 79 -- Wilson through the grass and kisses the wall. Looks like a steering arm broke. RuSPORT ain't that happy.

Video of swerving on the yellow line up. Power swerves toward Nelson like he's pissed about something. Looked like Nelson thought he should be ahead of Power.

Wilson is out. All the really quick guys are out. Should be a major challenge for AJ.

Nelson -- Not sure what is up with it. Instruments show he should still be good for fuel, yet he's dead on the course. Word is it's an electrical problem.

15 to go. Green green green. Mario second. Legge 9th.

DD -- Dominguez may not make it all the way without pitting.

Speedy Dan in third.

Cameron down to Dale Coyne -- will Speedy have enough fuel? Since it's a timed race, yes. Dale informs us that it's a timed race as opposed to the announcers informing us. I think the booth is the last to know.

Will Power is off the course and back on the course.

Ford Bold Moves commercial #5

Wilson says his steering busted.

AJ could be the first American to win back-to-back races since 1996.

Nelson penalized for avoidable contact. WTF? That's lame. Probably could have given that flag to Tracy about five times during this race.

DD is impressed with Dominguez and Dan Clarke.

White flag. Dominguez has got stuff to prove.

Dan Clarke makes a "bonsai move" on the inside of turn 1, passes Mario, then lights the tires and spins in front of Mario taking them both out. Double D says "it's the dunce's cap for Dan Clarke" and that Mario was "trapped in Dan Clarke's brain fade." Maybe some poetic justice to have Mario trapped in someone else's brain fade.

AJ wins. Many donuts. AJ says his crew rocks. Thanks everybody including Forsythe, Red Bull "for sticking with me" and Puma and Bridgestone.

Bold Moves Commercial 6

Over to Cameron with Bruno. First lap tore off the back wing and mangled part of Bruno's side pod. He's happy to come home second with that kind of smashed up car.

Jan with Mario. Had a podium, maybe second and got smacked. Mario says he struggled with the gearbox all race. Says Dale Coyne is the "greatest guy I ever met" and the team is the hardest working.

Final order: AJ, Bruno, Oriol, Alex Tagliani, Heylen, Mario, Speedy Dan, Katherine Legge, Will Power, Nelson.

Tune in for the race in Toronto on July 9 at 12:30 eastern on CBS.