Notes from the 2006 CCWS Grand Prix of Denver

Notes taken during the SPEED broadcast of Denver Grand Prix sponsored by Bridgestone on Aug. 13, 2006.

"Under Pressure" montage. Dan pounding steering wheel. Pitting action. Cars going everywhere. Katherine Legge gets air. Lots of drivers walking after the crash. Speedy Dan Clarke kicking his tires after his car roasted. Video of Paul Tracy putting it into climbing gear over Bourdais at Cleveland. Pretty good montage from Champ Car. May be giving ABC/ESPN a run for their money.

Replay of The Fight in San Jose. Pressure led to the fight, get it?

Recap of the season. Bruno Junqueira hasn't had it this year. Michelle Beisner deployed! With Bruno. Bruno feels good. Good track for him.

Bridgestone Presents the Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford (BPCCWSPF) Grand Prix of Denver. Street course around the Pepsi Center.

Rick Benjamin -- Two weeks ago. San Jose. "Huge" crowd. Great event. Bourdias Wins number 5. Boxing match breaks out. Tracy and Tag go all Death Match on pit row.

Replay of The Fight number 2.

Denver is race round 10 of 14 for the season.

Rick Benjamin on camera. Wonders if there will be Round Two of Tag vs Tracy. Maybe a steel cage match. Goes over the penalties handed out by Champ Car.

Tony Cotman VP of operations for Champ Car on camera – Tony says it was two seperate things. On track and off track. Paul took a large risk on the track and got the penalty. Lost seven championship points. (That will sting since he's way out of the championship race.) Paul was clearly in the wrong. Off track Alex is angry and came after Paul. Tag initiiated. Paul retaliated. Cost them both some money. No mention of Katherine Legge getting put on probation for crazy driving.

Derek Daly on camera with Rick. He doesn't condone the smackdown. But he understands the emotion. Athletes have so much at stake in these deals. Every performance is a judgement on them.

Replay of Dan Clarke kicking the tires from San Jose. Ranger gesturing to Katherine Legge after she punted him into the tires. Tracy assaulted Alex Tagliani on the track. Podium could have put Tag fourth in points. Fight replay number 3!

Jan Beekhuis in the pit with Tracy. Tracy says he took the blame pulling out into Alex. Was wrong. Made bad choice. Pit fight costs them both some money. "I just hope the next time someone wants to fight they take their helmet off." Tracy is all class. I could see him in pro wrestling trunks and boots. It would be humorous, perhaps, if one of the skinny drivers came up to him and went all Jet Li on his ass with some nasty marshall arts stuff or something.

Tag – thinks the penalties were fair. Series have to "put their fist down" for what happens in pit lane. Surprisingly calm interview.

Jan -- Cristiano da Matta report. SPEED doesn't tell us what happened to him, just that he was injured a few weeks back. Assumes, I guess, that we all follow this closely. FYI, he hit a deer (WTF? A deer? That's nuts.) during a test at Road America in Wisconsin a few weeks ago. Can you imagine coming around a corner at about 130 mph and seeing a fricking DEER standing there? Recovering. Stickers on the cars in his honor. Progressing pretty well. Medical peeps in Wisconsin were fully deployed. Got into surgery fast to relieve bleeding on his brain. Tag montage.

Rick --Sebastien Bourdais wins the pole. Sixth pole. Clinches the season pole award.

Starting lineup: Bourdais, AJ "The Lone American" Allmendinger, Justin Wilson, Tracy, Alex Tagliani, Andrew Ranger, Bruno, Oriol Servia, Mario Dominguez, Nelson Philippe, Will Power, Charles Zwolsman, Dan Clarke, Jan Heylen, Katherine "On Probation for Driving like a Wanker" Legge and Nicky Pastorelli. 16 cars!

Derek covers the track for us. Fairly difficult. Low grip.

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

Cue the circus music. At least this start wasn't waved off! Progress. Who will lose the Champ Car Turn 1 Lotto? We're going into turn one. Contact! Tag and Tracy. Tag on the inside drop-kicks Tracy. Holy role reversal. Tracy is stalled. Tag continues on.

Derek Daly – Tag trying to be a bit tooooooo brave. Tag brakes too late. Tracy was already on his turn-in line and got collected. On-board with Tracy. DD -- Man I want to see Tracy have a fair run.

Derek covers the race strategy -- 1) Save your tires. 2) Watch the Wild West. 3) Tracy’s fighting form off the track and on the track (be aware that Tracy may drive over you at any time).

Tag is done. Out of the car. Left front wheel askew. Damaged suspension. Forsythe gave Team Australia a bunch of parts for this race. Only fitting since Crash Tracy took him out last week. Most of what you see on the front of Tag car was given to Team Australia by the Forsythe team.

Tracy in for a splash.

Lap 2 – restart.

Cue the circus music. Everyone gets through the turn single-file. Onboard with Justin Wilson. Suffering from rear traction issues.

Jan – with Tag – left rear suspension is completely broke. Tag -- Got pretty tight there Paul was on the outside ended up touching. Out of the race. I was pretty late on the brake yes, but was planning on following Justin through the corner.

DD – Balance on the black Bridgestone tires have been better for some than others. Red sidewall tires have more grip but some teams don’t have the right balance.

Lap 5 -- Tag montage. Houston. Gets into Oriol. Then he goes into the tires in to the run off with a stuck throttle or some craziness. Monterrey smashes it in practice. Milwaukee warm-up smash. Cleveland. Teammate Will Power goes into the grass and plows up dirt with the front wing. Toronto morning warm-up nose into the wall. Will Power in Edmonton going ass-first into the barrier, hard, scaring the camera guy. Champ Car TV loves this replay. Camera man had to dive for cover. San Jose Tracy darting Tag like a heat-seaking missile hitting a helicopter. Then it's GO time in the pit.

Back to Denver. Bourdais leads – 1.2 seconds after 5 laps.

Lap 7 – Tracy up to 8th. Started at the back of the pack. Fastest car on the race track right now. DD – Tracy absolutely flying.

Cameron – Tracy is changing from a right-foot braker to a left-foot braker. AJ is a left-footer and he's faster so Tracy is trying to change braking technique.

Lap 12 -- Tracy around Nelson. Up to 7th. He was 0.9 second quicker on every car on the track this morning.

Video of Tracy spinning in qualifying. Loses rear wing. Goes around in practice. Now he’s on fire. More fuel than everyone else thanks to the splash after the turn 1 accident. So he will run longer.

DD – Said earlier Tracy very good keeping the engine running when he spins. Replay of the turn-one unpleasantness. Suddenly Tracy stalls it. Derek thought he had his foot on the brake instead of the clutch.

Lap 12 – Ranger around Nelson. Into 8th. Nelson lets him go.

Cameron – Andrew Ranger has the black sidewalls. Blacks seem quicker. Replay of Ranger’s pass. Ranger’s pit tells him to take care of his tires.

Lap 15 -- Wilson almost spins. Bruno closing in. Dominguez does a spin-o-rama in turn 9. Back underway. He’s on the reds. Replay. Tracy coming under Dominguez. DD says when Tracy is saving himself on the turn he ended up going wide and drop-kicking Dominguez.

Lap 16 – Bordais, AJ, Wilson, Junk, Servia, Tracy, Ranger, Dominguez, Zwolsman.

Oriol in early. DD – Did they tell them Tracy was coming up from behind so he pitted? (Attempt at humor here.) Oriol getting out of the car. Appears to be done. Speculation that maybe it was Tracy's drop kick.

Michelle Beisner is deployed. When you hear Cedric the Entertainer say “yo yo" you know he’s giving someone a shout out but when you hear Dan of Cedric's team say "yo-yo" he’s doing something different. Dan is a yo-yo nut.

Lap 20 -- Ranger dead on the race track. In the run-off. Turn five area. Something broke. Just rolled to a stand still. It's BLOWN UP, sir! Pushing the cars out of the way.

Philipee and AJ have pitted. (AJ on lap 18.) AJ is on the black bridgestones. Chasing down Dominguez.

Lap 21 – Nicky spins but keeps going. Bourdais pits. Going with the reds. Justin Wilson in. Wilson stays on the blacks. Much pitting. Junqueira takes the lead.

Tracy is second. From a spin to front in 24 laps. Tracy pits. DD -- thinks it was just to get the blacks (since the reds are showing signs of sucking).

Tracy gave up second to get the blacks. Bruno leads. Mario's car has a broken suspension. Legge is up to P6.

Down to Jan in Mario's pit for more. – Engine shut down. Crew looking at back to see if they can fix it. Bad break, but lucky it was close to pit row. Cowling coming off. Video of the left side busting and the right front sticking up in the air. Jan. Nut on top of the rocker popped off.

Junk leads by 12 seconds.

Cameron with Oriol who is out of the car and one. Oriol -- had the oil pressure going down. Not sure what was up with it. Getting great mileage. Next three races are the best three for Oriol.

Junkie out in the lead right now. Lap ?? Champ Car's TINY lap numbers on their graphics make it hard to read.

Lap 25 (I think). Wilson in front of Tracy. Power to pass graphic. Unreadable. Seriously. No way you can read it.

Lap 30-ish. Junk, Bourdais, Allmending, Wilson, Tracy, Nelson, Zwols, Power, Clarke, Legge.

Neil Mickelwright, Forsythe boss – impressed with Tracy doing the left-foot breaking.

Jan Heylen about to be a lap down. Blue flag. Heylen is ahead of Wilson and Tracy.

Jan -- leader on pit road. Bruno. Tire pressure change. 9.3 seconds for the stop. Jan guesses he comes out in fifth.

Lap 33 – AJ up behind Bourdais. AJ on blacks. Bourdais on reds. Will Bourdais get passed on track?

DD only a matter of time before AJ passes. Jan – according to the team Craig Hampson says AJ is not saving fuel and Bourdais is.

Lasp 35 -- Yellow Yellwo Yellow for "debris."

Lap 35 – Andrew Ranger is out. Cameron -- What happened? Andrew – thinks it’s the gear box. Zwolsman had same problem this morning. Gear parts just explode. Beginning of race car pretty fast. Just exit off 5 and gearbox explodes. (It's BLOWN UP, sir!)

On board with Paul Tracy. Camera looking back at Tracy's head. Paul is not flipping anyone off or tossing stuff at other cars.

Ford Bold Moves Moment – Rick -- Montage of bold passes from the season.

DD with a telestrator tour of Wilson’s helmet. Tear off is here. Drinking tube is here. DD says we can see Wilson's chest pounding in and out if we look close. First race of the season in a similar shot of Katherine Legge Derek told us to "LOOK AT HER CHEST."

Lap 38 – Restart. K. Legge in top 10. DD -- Straight fight here now. See how good Tracy is. Bourdais is running away.

Bourdais, AJ, Wilson, Tracy, Bruno, Nelson, Zwols, Power, Clarke, Legge.

In-car with Tracy and the picture is breaking up a bit. Tracy can’t stay with Wilson on the straight away. Tracy jamming his nose under Wilson on the turn. Can’t catch Wilson on the straight.

Jan says RuSPORT is happy with Wilson's car.

Lap 42 --AJ catching up to Bourdais.

SPEED shows section time graphic. This means zero to the average viewer. But it does take up some TV screen space so we can look at it rather than the actual race. So that's nice.

Lap 44 -- Tracy dives under Wilson and got him. Diving into turn 9. Wilson back at him. Can’t get it back. Lets him go. DD that was the move Paul Tracy was thinking about. That was a really risky move. Now "Left-Foot Tracy" is after AJ Allmendinger.

Power to pass graphic. Unreadable again. Tracy is out of power to pass, that we can tell.

AJ pressure on Bourdais. DD -- "This is good stoff here." DD -- "Has to be careful that the door is open before he sticks his nose down the inside of the Frenchman." (!!) Seems only polite to make sure the door is open before you do something like that, I guess.

DD – AJ looks a bit faster. Really close right now. Rick -- Why would AJ be pushing so hard? DD -- Because he’s a racing boy and lives just down the road. Rick -- Is Grandma here? DD-- Grandma’s on the water this week. (Last week Derek spent all race saying stuff like "Grandma is on the whiskey" about AJ's grandmother who was in the stands whenever AJ made some bold move. Clearly joking, I guess. I thought it was funny, anyway.)

Lap 46 – Nelson Philippe is fastest lap on the race track. AJ pressuring Bourdais. DD is going crazy about it. DD says it’s a street fight here.

Lap 47-ish. AJ takes Bourdais on the inside going into turn 1. Televised pass for the lead! Tracy is out of Power to Pass.

Jan says he thinks Bourdais is out of tires and Forsythe is not. DD says the rear tires go off and then you are hosed (loose).

Beisner – Celebrity driver go-kart race recap. Sebastien had fastest lap. Beisner says were not sure who won it. I have some idea, however.

Lap 53 – AJ off to the races. Best lap of race. Tracy all over the back of Bourdais. DD wonders if Tracy has the confidence in the left-food breaking to make a move. Bourdais is holding Tracy up. Confidence is usually not a problem for Tracy.

Lap 54 -- DD -- I think he’s going to go. I think he’s going to go. Hang on. Tracy goes for it, doesn’t make it. Locks up and Wilson goes under him. Wilson into 3rd. Tracy back to 4th.

Halfway home recap. Tag spins Tracy. Tag is out. Tracy dives under Mario. Taps him. Marco is done shortly after. Tracy under Wilson for third. AJ under Bourdais. Wilson under Tracy in 1. That's like a year's worth of on-track passing for a street race. The red tires may suck, but at least they create some passing.

Wilson passes Bourdais for second. Not televised.

Bourdais is screwed. Tracy goes under him because he’s out of grip. Junk working on Bourdais and Bourdais gets passed AGAIN. WTF? Bourdais has to be screaming some French obscenities. What's French for "F*cking red tires!" ?

Jan – Pit road is calling in Bourdais. Need to get him out of the reds because they suck. Bourdias comes in, stops, throws his hands in the air Bourdais knows he’s screwed. Back on the blacks. Back out.

39 to go. – Boudais is in trouble. AJ is nine seconds ahead of Wilson. Then Tracy and then Junk and then Zwols (!) and Power. Clark. Legge. Bourdais. Nelson.

Hampson (ultra morose) says it’s damage control right now. Trying to save our life at this point get a third, fourth, didn’t set it up right. Red tires at a bad time. Championship damage control now. Get points you can.

Lap 60 -- AJ coming in. Cameron. Forsythe had the right tire strategy today -- "Have rolled the dice and it has come up Yattzi." Pressdog quote of the race award winner right there.

Lap 60 – Wilson leads. Still has to stop. When he stops he’ll have to go with the reds. Not a good thing. Wilson coming in on Lap 62. Laps Zwols on the way in. Adding 1.5 turns of front wing to compensate for the red crap tires.

Lap 63 -- Bruno pits. And out. Nelson and Katherine battling for 8th. Katherine’s dad is here. Back when Katherine was 9 Jenson Button’s dad built her go kart engines. This vital tidbit brought to you by Derek.

Katherine – video – How has season gone? K -- Been really tough. Harder than expected. Very up and down. If we can get the qualifying thing sorted out I think we could be in our top 10 most weekends. Just about moving that forward. (I love how British people use "sorted out." Striking.)

DD – Give Katherine laps. Couple of times she has set fastest laps of the race. DD thinks we haven’t seen all Katherine can do yet. Qualified 15th this weekend.

Onboard with Wilson. 10.5 seconds behind AJ. Tracy way back in third.

30 to go. DD – AJ very hard to catch aj right now. But how long will the reds last for Wilson in second?

Jan – Jeremy Dale – president RuSPORTT. First of all, hearts with Cristianio and family. Red tires. I think the temp cooler and track different than all weekend. Trying to take care of the tires. Think we got the best guy in the car right now. Reasonable track position. See what happens.

Rick – Cristiano. Oriol Servia concerned. Video of Oriol. Every day they call. Doing much much better every day. "He’s a tough little man and he’s showing us all how to do it" and going to be OK very soon.

Dan Clarke 6th in front of Will Power. Trying to track down Bourdais in 5th. Don’t hear that every day.

Lap 70 – Power leads rookie of year with 123 markers. Dan Clarke. DD --We have seen speed with Dan Clarke before. Drives it over the limit and over the top and bangs it off the walls every now and then, but he does have speed.

Dan montage. San Jose. Car really good and then it crashed. Kicking the tires. DD gives him a shout out for the kick.

Rick -- Dan been a carnival all by himself. (Close second for pressdog quote of the race award.)

Tracy passes Wilson without Power to Pass. Reds suck. In-car between turn 4 and 5. Tracy goes by inside and locks up the rears. Wilson lets him go. DD – Wilson is in trouble from here on in. Grip is going away. Sawing like a dirt-track driver.

Tracy has clear road. Can he catch AJ? Don’t change that channel.

Beisner. As da Matta recovers. Fans get da Matta stickers. Sign huge cards.

Onboard with Wilson skating around. DD -- All arms and elbows in this car. Jan -- been on the radio. Out of rear tires. Boudais behind him like a shark.

Derek telestrator on the “graining” on the back tires. Wilson has to decide if he’s going stop and get some new tires or just grit his teeth.

20 to go.

Bourdais looks loose. Set-up may be crap. Turn 9. Bourdais is on Wilson. Inside turn one. Rick -- Wilson has to dirt track it around turn 1. Love the dirt track reference, Rick.

In-car with Wilson getting taken inside by Bourdais. Wilson serious fishtailing.

AJ is in front by about 71 seconds. (AJ is in front by 13 seconds, actually, only seems like 71.)

17 to go. Tracy lost 0.8 seconds last lap to AJ. AJ’s dad fell out of a golf track and got a fractured skull. True story. Went to the hospital. Going to be OK. May need to get into the whiskey. (Made the whiskey thing up. Sorry.)

Dan Clarke is 6th.

15 to go. Pit doesn’t think that Tracy will make it all the way. Fuel pickup problem in his car when fuel gets low.

Beisner. Team Australia is all about it. Entries in Champ car, Atlantic, Formula BMW.

Flashback to the Panoz DP-01 release party. Paul Newman in the car. Everyone there. Testing the new car at Road Atlanta Tuesday of this week. DD – built to a racing philosophy. Lighter, better areo, safer. Cosworth engine.

Shout outs to Nelson. Milwaukee finish. Hasn’t rolled it very often.

10 to go. AJ is ahead by about 32 seconds. (OK, actually a 12.8-second lead.) Boudais has fastest laps. He's in fourth place. 23 seconds back. Video of Paul getting sidewise. Sliding. PT -- Left-foot braking gets is sideways manages to gather it up.

DD -- advises he should take it easy and preserve the silver. Last year just short of half way in Denver he goes into the wall. Video.

8 to go. Will Tracy stop for fuel? AJ up by 14 seconds. He'll win barring air strike. Tracy knows with a few laps to go he’s not going to run down AJ. DD -- Do not be a hero, Paul, you’re not going to run him down.

AJ montage – First burn out. Getting weepy in the car. Cleveland. Two in a row. Toronto. We got a hat trick sign.

7 to go. DD – team is good for AJ. Great atmosphere that fits AJ's personality.

Speedy Dan is 5th. Justin is screwed in 6th. Tires are totally junk. Have to stay out and salvage what you can. Will Power closing in on Wilson. Power has him in his sights.

Bourdais working on Junk. Bourdais sets fastest lap again. Stalking Junk. Power around Wilson in Turn 9. Almost gets sideways in the break zone. Bourdais takes Bruno in turn 1.

4 to go. DD said Bourdais might have given him a “French love tap.”

Bourdais closing on PT. Slow mo on the Bourdais-Bruno pass. Can’t tell if they touch.

Boudais all over Tracy. Tracy in deep trouble. Two to go.

White flag. DD -- "This is good stoff." Boudais looks inside. Almost gets chopped off.

Radio to Bourdais -- Set him up for the main straight got your push to pass. Here it comes. Boudais goes around Tracy. He's passed. Tracy coming back. DD – "Oh no no no." Tracy locks them up and totally SPEARS Bourdais in the side. Major ram job.

Bourdais is flailing around. Didn't stall it but can't get going again. Tracy is done. Toast. Bourdais smoking the tires over there trying to get going but something is junk. Can’t get the car to move. Bourdais is out of the car and he’s done. Stalking toward Tracy. DD -- "He wants Tracy." Rick -- "Oh boy, here we go again." Bourdais cuts across the tracffic (has to wait for Will Power to go by). Much gesturing to Paul. Gives him a two-hand-to-the-chest hand shove. Tracy gives him the "come on, come on" gesture. Rick -- Tracy is on probation. (Like that will matter, Rick. 16 cars going into Canada to race. Paul is Canadian.) Bourdais goes back to his dead car.

Replay -- Bourdais on down the outside. Tracy goes down inside. DD declares Tracy's comeback a kamakazi move. No hope to stop the car. Slides sideway. Bashes into Bourdais.

DD -- Tracy was beaten he knew that. Bourdais goes on the outside. Now he’s home and dry. Tracy going to try it. Now lock it up. Lock it up. Bang. Smash down the inside. How he going to explain this?

Tracy hitches a ride with AJ and goes back to the pit.

DD -- Tracy has a 100% record last two races. Two crashes. Two physical altercations.

Speedy Dan gets third.

AJ wins by 15 seconds. AJ in the victory circle. Says hi to dad. Awesome Forsythe team. Every time Red Bull energy station comes to the race, I win. Need them here more. Did you see Tracy and Bourdais? AJ -- I saw nothing. I wanted a 1-2 Forsythe. Most physical Denver race been part of. Reds were bad. AJ gets smooch from the future Mrs. AJ, Lynn Kush.

DD -- Tracy had no business trying to make that move.

Finish: AJ, Bruno, Dan, Will Power, Nelson, Crash Tracy, Bourdais, Justin Wilson, Katherine Legge, Charles Zwolsman.

Mazda power play. Champ Car Atlantics recap. Stand start. Like 15 wide into turn 1! We got a car upside down and sliding down the pit road away. No injuries. Graham Rahal dominates. Start to finish. No video of Bobby Rahal, though.

Cameron. With Bruno. Bruno says this is his best track. On Bourdais passing him earlier -- He came inside of me. I didn’t want to take risk. We can’t crash each other. Tried to push hard. Started seventh. Made way up front. Pass a lot people.

Speedy Dan – He's leaving a voice mail on a phone so we have to wait to interview him. Dan -- We should have had podium two weeks ago. But it happens. Take third place like that any day. Wasn’t an easy race. Came through the last corner and Bourdais and Tracy getting out of their cars. "Cleveland was a kick in the balls, Portlan was. San Jose was. Now get we this."

Kick in the balls?

Interview with Paul Newman. Hole in the Wall gang gets $35,000 from Bridgestone. They have 8 camps here. 3 overseas. 11,000 kids last year. Paul -- If I have a legacy to leave I hope it’s this. Not sure what Hole in the Wall Camp is or what it does. None of my business, I guess.

Cameron with Tracy – Taken out in turn 1. Clearly had the best car out there. Fuel pick up issue with five gallons left. Last five laps sputtering around the track. And along came Sebastien.

Cameron -- Surprised at Bourdais’ move? “I wasn’t surprised. It was the last corner so if he’s that desperate for two points (the difference between finishing third and second) that’s the risk you take. I don’t feel sorry for him. He took me out of five races last year so I guess paybacks are a bitch. (Cameron: "Definitely true.") Surprised to him seeing coming across the track? Tracy -- “No but I like to see him come with his helmet off then we could have a real match. Next time he wants to come by he should take his helmet off. Those French guys like to keep their helmets on.” Cameron – "Definitely. Paul Tracy not fearing anything anywhere on the track."

Jan – with Sebastien – "I think if there are two sides I can’t really understand. PT was obviously in big trouble running out of fuel but that’s not an excuse to crash the competitor of your teammate. I guess all I can say, I hope it was clear enough. He tried to crash me in turn three of the lap before. Tried to crash me in the back straight when he blocks me to the inside and I had to go around him in the outside on the marbles. … He completely overshoot the breaking point, got sideways and ran into the side of the MacDonalds car. He was on probation. So on my side I just trust the race officials that they will do what’s necessary to correct that situation." (When he went over to Tracy post-crash) "I just told him 'What are you expecting? What do you want from me?' He was staring at me like 'come and get me.' I just pushed him because he was asking for it but I didn’t take it any further because he’s not worth it."

DD. "Not sure I would have tried to make that move (Tracy's coming back move). He had no hope. He was passed. Sugar Ray Tracy makes headlines again."

Rookie of the Year race. Will Power is first. 22 points ahead of Dan. Katherine third. Zwoslman fourth.

Tune in next time to see if Champ Car has any testicles and parks Tracy (he was, after all, on probation, allegely), or puts him on "double-secret probation and we mean it this time." Aug. 27, 1:30 eastern. NBC.