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2002 Cleveland Thoughts

TRACK: Burke Lakefront Airport once again shows its stuff with a lot of great moves throughout the field, and hard nose driving during the whole weekend.

RACE: Some drivers complained about the extra 15 laps added to this year's race. Some even went as far to say that it was done just for TV and the fans. Well, duh! That's exactly why it was done, and that's exactly why it's a good idea to extend some of the races this year. Granted, there are exceptions, and perhaps Cleveland is one that should be shortened back to it's original 100 laps. But only because Cleveland is very hard on the drivers.

CARPENTIER: A fantastic run. Sure, da Matta and perhaps Franchitti may have been faster. But, this is racing, and Patrick put himself in the right place, and ran a great race. A well deserved victory.

ANDRETTI: Another wonderful run, especially after the dismal Toronto weekend.

TRACY: You can't complain about the podium finishers. They all worked hard for their spots.

DA MATTA: What a way to end the streak. It's one thing to be simply outrun and beat, but to dominate yet another weekend and once again start running away from the field during the race, and then have the car let him down, is a tough way to miss out on a record.

BRACK: The lone Target survivor.

TAGLIANI: Off the pace relative to his teammate. And, nice "tag" there on Dixon, Tags.

VASSER: Perhaps retook the lead for the hard luck award only because he was once again taken out in the first lap. True, he did make a great drive back up through the field, and he did beat out Kanaan. A tough call to make for this dubious honor.

KANAAN: Tony was quite quick all weekend, but you knew everything wasn't going to go perfect for him.

TAKAGI: With all the Bell shenanigans recently, we all forgot about Tora's propensity to bang competitors out of races.

BELL: Speaking of Townsend, here is a question no one apparently asked -- did Bell have to abandon the car after the shunt? It was a very light hit (Bell himself said maybe only 20 mph), if the nose cone/front wing was damaged, that was replaceable, and no one was near the car at the time to tell him it was beyond repair, so how did Bell know the car was not runnable unless he spotted suspension damage from the cockpit which is a possibility. Otherwise, even though this crash was not at all Bell's fault, he may -- emphasis on the word "may" -- have still pulled a bonehead move.

DOMINGUEZ: This is becoming a rip-roaring battle for Rookie of the Year...

FITTIPALDI: Talk about being stranded in the middle of nowhere. Where's a policeman when you need one?

FRANCHITTI: One of those character building weekends.

GREEN: Once again, poor pit stops cost their drivers. First, Franchitti, which lost them first place since it allowed Carpentier to run a bunch of laps on low fuel to pull away from Dario. Then, Tracy lost three spots on his first spot. To give them credit away from pitlane, they did incredible work to keep Franchitti's car as fast as it was all weekend despite changing engines five times.

FERNANDEZ: An utterly horrible weekend for the whole team.

CBS: Just when you thought they couldn't outdo themselves, they did it again at Cleveland. From the great opener to the in-car camera coverage to the audio (never has the sounds of these cars been so accurately captured as they were in Cleveland, virtually exactly the way they sound in person, especially the acceleration and upshifting coming out of Turn 1), CBS once again puts together one slam bang production.

WEIGHT: Why is it that just about every series in the world is able to handle the weight issue, but CART appears to be in the dark ages over this simple problem?

STAT OF THE WEEKEND: Cristiano da Matta's 50 point lead is the largest ever after nine races since the point system changed to the current one in 1983.

HISTORICAL STAT OF THE WEEKEND: This race helped kickoff Bobby Rahal's career as he gained his first CART victory in the event's inaugural year, 1982, en route to second in the championship behind Rick Mears and the Rookie of the Year title.

QUOTE OF THE WEEKEND: Tony Kanaan on his strange behavior to try to change his luck, "I can't check what's going on in his [da Matta's] team, so I decided to find out what is happening at his house. You can hardly walk through there because of all the trophies!"

QUOTE OF THE WEEKEND RUNNERUP: Patrick Carpentier on the race length before the start, "As far as the race distance goes, this is a long one at 115 laps. Fifteen laps would be enough for me."

SCHEDULE: We never realized (okay, we're a bit slow) how many races on CART's schedule are run right on a shoreline. There is of course Long Beach and Surfers Paradise. Toronto and Cleveland are both on the shores of their respective Great Lakes. There will be Miami and Montreal and next year St. Petersburg. And next week, there is Vancouver.

Copyright © 2002 by Deep Throttle. All Rights Reserved.


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RACE RESULTS
  Driver Laps
1. Carpentier 115
2. Andretti 115
3. Tracy 115
4. Brack 115
5. Tagliani 115
6. Vasser 115
7. Takagi 115
8. Kanaan 115
9. Jourdain 114
10. Nakano 114
11. Fernandez 111
12. Fittipaldi 96
13. Junqueira 87
14. Franchitti 69
15. Dixon 27
16. da Matta 21
17. Dominguez(R) 1
18. Bell(R) 1

Time of Race
2:00:05.785

Winner's Speed
120.998 mph

Margin of Victory
17.059 sec.

Caution Flags
2 for 4 laps

Lead Changes
4 among 4 drivers

Most Laps Led
Patrick Carpentier

Pole Position
Cristiano da Matta

Provisional Pole
Cristiano da Matta

CURRENT STANDINGS
  Driver Pts.
1. da Matta 120
2. Junqueira 70
3. Franchitti 64
4. Jourdain 62
  Carpentier 62
6. Brack 60
7. Fittipaldi 58
8. Andretti 52
  Tagliani 52
  Dixon 52
11. Tracy 50
12. Vasser 42
13. Takagi 36
14. Fernandez 34
15. Papis 32
16. Nakano 31
17. Bell(R) 19
18. Kanaan 17
19. Servia 13
20. Dominguez(R) 7
 
 
2008 Thoughts
Long Beach

2007 Thoughts
Preseason Las Vegas Long Beach Houston
Portland Cleveland Mont Tremblant Toronto
Edmonton San Jose Road America Belgium
Holland Surfers Paradise Mexico City Postseason

2006 Thoughts
Preseason Long Beach Houston Monterrey
Milwaukee Portland Cleveland Toronto
Edmonton San Jose Denver Montreal
Road America Surfer's Paradise Mexico City Postseason

2005 Thoughts
Preseason Long Beach Monterrey Milwaukee
Portland Cleveland Toronto Edmonton
San Jose Denver Montreal Las Vegas
Surfer's Paradise Mexico City Postseason

2004 Thoughts
Preseason Long Beach Monterrey Milwaukee
Portland Cleveland Toronto Vancouver
Road America Denver Montreal Laguna Seca
Las Vegas Surfer's Paradise Mexico City Postseason

2003 Thoughts
Preseason St. Petersburg Monterrey Long Beach
Brands Hatch Germany Milwaukee Laguna Seca
Portland Cleveland Toronto Vancouver
Road America Mid-Ohio Montreal Denver
Miami Mexico City Surfer's Paradise Postseason

2002 Thoughts
Preseason Monterrey Long Beach Japan
Milwaukee Laguna Seca Portland Chicago
Toronto Cleveland Vancouver Mid-Ohio
Road America Montreal Denver
England Miami Surfer's Paradise
Fontana Mexico City Postseason

2001 Thoughts
Preseason Mexico Long Beach Nazareth
Japan Milwaukee Detroit Portland
Cleveland Toronto Michigan Chicago
Mid-Ohio Road America Vancouver German
England Houston Laguna Seca
Surfer's Paradise Fontana Postseason

2000 Thoughts
Preseason Miami Long Beach Brazil
Japan Nazareth Milwaukee Detroit
Portland Cleveland Toronto Michigan
Chicago Mid-Ohio Road America Vancouver
Laguna Seca Gateway USGP Houston
Surfer's Paradise Fontana Postseason

1999 Thoughts
Preseason Miami Japan Long Beach
Nazareth Brazil Gateway Milwaukee
Portland Cleveland Road America Toronto
U.S. 500 Detroit Mid-Ohio Chicago
Vancouver Laguna Seca Houston
Surfer's Paradise Fontana Postseason

1998 Thoughts
Preseason Miami Japan Long Beach
Nazareth Brazil Gateway Milwaukee
Detroit Portland Cleveland Toronto
U.S. 500 Mid-Ohio Road America Vancouver
Laguna Seca Houston Surfer's Paradise Fontana

1997 Thoughts
Miami Surfer's Paradise Long Beach Nazareth
Brazil Gateway Milwaukee Detroit
Portland Cleveland Toronto
U.S. 500 Mid-Ohio Road America
Vancouver Laguna Seca Fontana
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