2003 Cleveland Thoughts
TRACK: An already exciting track was made even more so by a thoroughly successful night experiment.
RACE: For the first time this year, Bourdais and Tracy raced each other to the very end, an end made all
the more nerve wracking thanks to Fernandez and Vasser.
START: Through the first turn without a scratch. Wow!
BOURDAIS: Those were some world class donuts. Give Sebastien the Alex Zanardi award.
TRACY: His daring, and great, move around Junqueira on the last lap was vintage Paul.
JUNQUEIRA: Once again outpaced by his teammate. Don't get us wrong, Bruno is very fast and very good,
but...
CARPENTIER: Very close escape on the first lap. And an even closer escape the week before on the road.
Patrick, stay off the bicycle.
DOMINGUEZ: Mario is back to surprising us with a return to a very strong run.
SERVIA: Looked good, but it still seems that Oriol doesn't have that flair we've seen from him the past
two years.
JOURDAIN: An excellent run up through the field after first lap run.
TAGLIANI: Pretty darn fast considering they had a bent toe link.
HUNTER-REAY: Not a bad run.
FERNANDEZ: After winning a race, nearly became the most hated man in the Newman-Haas team.
PAPIS: Qualified next to last. Got in a lot of people's way during the race. We're probably going to
start sounding like a broken record from here on out -- just how bad is this team?
VASSER: Threw away a points position.
HABERFELD: Never a contender this time around.
MORENO: Bad luck continues to strike.
QUALIFYING: It's quite ironic that so many drivers were complaining of blocking during qualifying on what
has got to be the widest track in motorsports history.
CBS: We hate to criticize anything about what has been absolutely fantastic TV coverage this year.
However, we feel the commentating was a bit too lay back. We're not suggesting they turn into bombastic idiots
like the IRL shrills, but there were a number of times were more energy would have helped convey the excitement
of the night racing at Cleveland such as when Tracy made the initial pass of Bourdais (which was totally missed)
and when flames could be seen shooting out the cars during pit stops.
OVER/UNDER: 184,205 -- number of times you will hear "eh" this weekend if you attend the Toronto race. Eh.
WORD OF THE WEEKEND: Light.
STAT OF THE WEEKEND: Paul Tracy passed the 3,000 mark for laps led. He currently has 3,064 which ties
him with Mario Andretti for 5th on the all-time list.
HISTORICAL STAT OF THE WEEKEND: The only driver to win this race twice in a row was Alex Zanardi in
1997 and 1998.
QUOTE OF THE WEEKEND: From the pit observer who was assigned to Paul Tracy's pit, "I'm either going to
learn a new language, break up a fight, be in the middle of a victory celebration, or go home with car parts."
QUOTE OF THE WEEKEND RUNNERUP: To Paul Tracy talking about his 200th start, "I'll note that it should
be my 201st start, but it's not, thanks to Wally Dallenbach."
SCHEDULE: This year, Toronto has a tough act to follow.
Copyright © 2003 by Deep Throttle. All Rights Reserved.
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