After 13 years of having its grandeur ruined by the open wheel split, we have finally gotten EVERYONE -- Penske, Ganassi, the Andrettis, and Tony George along with all of the old Champ Car folks (Gerry Forsythe notwithstanding) -- back to the harborfront at Long Beach. Yes, America's premier street show is back on top of the world.
I must say that this is easily my favorite street course to be found anywhere -- even better than Monaco. Monaco has the harbor, the celebrities, the sunshine (for the most part), and the noise of the cars. Long Beach has all of this, plus a couple of prime passing zones. It also doesn't have the bourgeois exclusivity of Monaco. At Long Beach, the fans are everyday Los Angeleans and didn't have to take out $10,000 from their Swiss bank account to attend the race. Regular Joe Race Fan can come down to the paddock and check out the cars being worked on and interact with the crews and drivers. No way in hell can you do that in Monaco. Plus, watching the overhead shot as the cars zoom along Shoreline Drive with the R.M.S. Queen Mary in the background ranks just below 33 cars coming across the Yard of Bricks on Memorial Day Weekend.
The mondo-major story of the weekend has got to be the #3 car, which will be piloted by Helio Castroneves. Helio, after being acquitted of conspiracy to commit tax evasion, hopped aboard a plane and headed for Southern California. He says he wants to drive and Roger Penske has the car ready for him, so he'll be putting it in the show tomorrow. Many felicitations to Helio for making it through this case in one piece. Now he can go back to climbing fences instead of climbing through the muck of legal proceedings.
My pick to win: Will Power in his new #12 Verizon car. He won the last Champ Car race ever held last year in Long Beach, and it's obvious that, even though the car is dramatically different now, he hasn't lost any of the skill that won him last year's event. He led the second practice time sheet and sat fourth on the sheets in the first practice. It doesn't hurt that he has a rejuvenated Penske team and two spectacular teammates backing him up.
Dark Horse: Helio Castroneves. Some out there are saying that it's not the right time to put Helio back in a car, with the race coming almost exactly 48 hours after his acquittal on the other side of the country. However, it's still Helio. He's a fantastic driver and I'm sure he can make some magic happen after he gets some laps under his belt in practice. He might come out with something to prove and use the emotions of the court case to blow the field away. Plus, like Power, he's got the best organization in the business backing him up.
Ninja Dark Horse: Ryan Hunter-Reay. I really should give Ryan a better chance based on his result last week, but I'm mostly basing this on practice times, and his aren't terribly impressive. But he is probably the best road racer in the IRL and he's got a pretty decent team behind him to boot. Plus, he got engaged before Friday practice, so what better gift to give (apart from this, I guess) than a big, shiny trophy and a winner's check?
Danica watch: She'll end up in the same place she was at St. Petersburg. In both practices, she was just ahead of the two worst road racers in the league (Carpenter and Barrett) and I'm fairly certain she'll get punted into the wall again.
Race coverage starts at 3:30 on VERSUS on Sunday. Get your remotes out, kids!
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