RACE: Well ... that was a bizarre race.

TRACK: Normally it's the street circuits that suffer from yellow fever.

PAPIS: Excellent donuts!! Alex must be proud.

GIDLEY: Once again, Memo pulls another podium finish out of the hat.

DE FERRAN: Seems like last year. Gil goes to Australia with a comfortable, but not safe, lead. Whereupon, he pulled a bonehead move, and went to Fontana with a slim lead. We'll see if de Ferran learned anything from last year, and plays it conservatively Down Under.

DIXON: He's two points away from being Rookie of the Year.

BRACK: What were you thinking?! You are in a championship fight, another guy is right next to you, wheel to wheel even with you, and you turn into him?! On the first lap?!

TRACY: Okay, let's get this out of the way now. And we don't care what kind of wrath we receive from Tracy fans. Face it folks. Paul's antics in this race -- the pit lane incident (it might be debatable, but Tracy did cross the lane marks, not Castroneves), knocking around Takagi, childish behavior in the Penske pit stall, and totally losing it in front of the microphone, show once and for all that Paul Tracy will never, ever win a championship. He simply doesn't have the psychological makeup to do so, no matter how talented he is. Quite frankly, he is the Eric Lindros of CART.

CASTRONEVES: Having said that, Helio was doing a fine job playing bad boy himself during the afternoon.

ANDRETTI: Well, that takes care of that.

HERTA: The King of the Hills put up quite fight to prevent his castle from being invaded.

CARPENTIER: Rats!

FORSYTHE: That was the definition of not having a good weekend.

SERVIA: Anybody, or any sanctioning body, that still believes the HANS Device needs more testing is simply clueless. UPDATE -- We discovered that Servia was not wearing a HANS Device. Well, now we're scratching our heads. How did he come away with no injuries? Sometimes, it's just dumb luck. And one shouldn't rely on that in place of the HANS Device.

DA MATTA: Sorry, but Dario had the corner.

FERNANDEZ: Picking up Don Halliday as their technical director, and partner, should mean even better things for this new team next year.

PITS: Breathtaking action.

CART: Yes, Herta's car did fail tech. But why is it that CART always seems to make the wrong move, whether they are or not?

HONDA: Is this the beginning of the end for CART, or the dawn of a new era?

STAT OF THE WEEKEND: Max Papis, who went from a 24th starting position to win, passed just one car on the track (not including those that spun off the track).

HISTORICAL STAT OF THE WEEKEND: Champ cars did once run at Sears Point back in 1970. Dan Gurney won.

QUOTE OF THE WEEKEND: Memo Gidley on what he thought when he left the pits with his car on fire (which the wind would eventually extinguish), "I wasn't going to stop and let the heat catch up to me."

QUOTE OF THE WEEKEND RUNNERUP: To Bryan Herta for being blunt and to the point when asked what he took away from the weekend, "...one point because we finished 12th."

SCHEDULE: Australia is always a wild time with a great crowd. And great sights -- know what I mean, nudge, nudge, wink, wink.

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