TRACK: What's with this track that cars always seem to want to mate with each other?

RACE: Thank goodness there were 25 other cars in this race, because if you were too busy paying attention to Montoya pulling away, you missed a ton of action and thrilling passes amongst the rest of the field. Then, the drama really started to build when Juan's gearbox started to head south. Then, just at the climax ... it's time for Heidi!

FITTIPALDI: May have finally gotten rid of the "most overrated driver in CART" label. Maybe.

ANDRETTI: This is a man driving exactly the way one needs to win a championship. There's just one problem -- a certain Colombian thorn still stuck in his side.

NEWMAN-HAAS: As long as they keep the pit snafus out of their repertoire, this team stacks up against the best of them this year.

MONTOYA: Simply a natural, only stoppable by acts of the mechanical gods. He even has the F1-style first corner start perfected -- barge your way to the front no matter what and never look back.

FERNANDEZ: Drove like a madman. But he did end up on the podium.

VASSER: The reorg seemed to work despite his uncharacteristic off course exit. But, one still has to wonder what is really wrong here, and is this the last change to kick start Jimmy's season.

JOURDAIN: Sure there was a lot of attrition, but Michel performed well the whole weekend. Are we finally going to see that promise displayed a few years ago?

GIDLEY: Learning the lesson of hard knocks.

FORD: Honda, meet the blue oval. Ford is back.

LOLA: One would think this track with its high speed corners would suit the exceptional downforce of the Lola. However, the speed necessary on the long straights apparently is a weakness of this chassis.

TOYOTA: Getting back into the mosquito eradication business.

RED FLAG: CART took a page out of the NASCAR book -- a totally unnecessary red flag whose only purpose was to refill the field on a "do over." It would ultimately come back to haunt CART.

ABC: Do I really need to say anything?

QUOTE OF THE WEEKEND: Patrick Carpentier describing his wild barrel roll ride during the first qualifying session, "...all I saw was gravel, sky, gravel, sky six times."

QUOTE OF THE WEEKEND RUNNERUP: Michael Andretti on what one needs for a hot lap at Road America, "You close your eyes, hold your breath, brake as late as possible and carry as much throttle as you can off the corners."

SCHEDULE: If Long Beach didn't exist, Toronto would probably take the title as the exotic city street race on CART's schedule. Instead, they will have to "settle" for 100,000 fans, cars blasting down Lake Shore Boulevard, and a race that has produced some exciting surprises the past few years.

Deep Throttle

Copyright © 1999 by Deep Throttle. All Rights Reserved.