Cleveland Plain Dealer coverage in the run up to the race

[Napoleon]

Beating the boys
While the IRL's Danica Patrick is getting all the attention, Champ Car's Katherine Legge just wants to win some races
Monday, June 19, 2006
Tim Warsinskey
Plain Dealer Reporter
Open-wheel racing is coming to town, and so is a hot, young, female driver.

No, not that kind of hot, and no, it's not Danica Patrick.

Better, some might say, it's Katherine Legge, the former Chardon resident who is beginning to do for Champ Car what Patrick did for the rival Indy Racing League. Legge is a rookie giving her frequently ignored circuit a boatload of publicity because, quite frankly, she's a woman -- the first woman with a regular ride in the Champ Car series (or its predecessor, CART).

Granted, Legge is a fairly promising driver, too, as she showed at the Milwaukee Mile, which she led for 11 laps, and finished sixth on June 4.

Legge, a 25-year-old Brit, moved up to Champ Car this year despite just one year of seasoning with Chardon-based Polestar last year in Toyota Atlantic, which is the Class AAA minors of open-wheel racing. She is driving for PKV Racing out of Indianapolis and will be here to race in the Grand Prix of Cleveland on Sunday.

Legge tested with PKV's Champ Car team in January -- and did quite well by all accounts -- and was signed in February. There was speculation PKV co-owner Kevin Kalkhoven might have hurried Legge into Champ Car as an answer to Patrick, who has brought a lot of attention to the IRL. Kalkhoven is also a co-owner of Champ Car.

Patrick had two years of seasoning in Atlantic in 2003 and 2004. In 24 races, her best finish was second (twice). But Legge won three of 12 races last season and became the first woman to win an open-wheel race in the United States. Patrick also gained notoriety for posing while scantily clad in FHM magazine in 2003 and now has numerous major endorsement deals.

Legge said she doesn't understand the Patrick comparisons. She said instead of being measured as a driver against Patrick, who placed fourth at the Indy 500 in 2005, Legge said it should be the other way around. Patrick has never won an open-wheel race.

"At the end of the day, I've won three races," Legge said last week in a phone interview from Portland, Ore. "People ask me about her and I don't get it and don't understand the comparison because we're racing in two completely different series. Hopefully, one day we'll get to race against each other.

"If you ask me, I'll say I'm better, but who cares? I've got bigger fish to fry than Danica Patrick, like Sebastien Bourdais and Paul Tracy."

Kalkhoven, who sponsored Legge's ride with Polestar last year, said Legge earned her shot, but he allowed that Legge being a woman played a role in promoting her.

"I would be lying to say it didn't, but it wasn't the deciding factor," he said in a phone interview. "If another guy had done as well as she did in Atlantics, we'd have taken a serious look at him, too."

There was some initial trepidation about moving up to Champ Car so quickly, according to Polestar co-owner Jim Griffith. Champ Cars have about 500 more horsepower and weigh about 300 more pounds than last year's Atlantic cars. "She knew, physically, she wasn't ready," he said.

Veteran Champ Car driver Mario Dominguez said recently he had similar concerns about Legge.

"I think her real problem is going to be physical because, naturally, women have less strength than men," he said. "You can overcome it, but she's going to have to work very, very hard for that. She can be quick . . . but I think the most important thing is the physical aspect of it."

[Napoleon]

Junqueira arrives Prix-determined
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
Elton Alexander
Plain Dealer Reporter
Bruno Junqueira hopes his last Champ Car outing is a harbinger of good things to come. His teammate, Sebastien Bourdais, hopes his next outing, this weekend for the 25th annual Grand Prix of Cleveland, is a return to normal.

Bourdais, the two-time defending series champion, saw his winning streak snapped at four last weekend at Portland. So he would like to start another streak at the 10-turn Burke Lakefront Airport course, where he had a two-race winning streak snapped last year.

"We had a great first time in 2003," Bourdais said by phone Monday. "But since then we've been struggling in Cleveland a bit. We won in '04, but we didn't have the quickest car. And last year we were a top three, but certainly not a winning car, either. So we'll see what we can get out of it. We'll find out pretty soon."

Bourdais, a native of France, will arrive in Cleveland with a solid 30-point lead in the points race over Justin Wilson.

In the past three years, second place in Champ Car has been the sole possession of Junqueira, Bourdais' Newman-Haas teammate. But until Portland, it appeared the native of Brazil was about to give that up without a struggle.

It has been 13 months since the start of a very promising 2005 season for Junqueira came to a crashing end. Before race driver A.J. Foyt IV touched wheels with Junqueira in the 2005 Indianapolis 500, sending him into the wall and then to the hospital with fractures in his back, Junqueira was leading the Champ Car series points race.

He would spend the rest of 2005 recovering from a concussion and surgery on his back, then rehabilitating for 2006.

"My body is OK," Junqueira said by phone recently.

"My back, which is the most important thing, I am OK with that. I did a lot of physical therapy, 3½ months after the accident. Now I'm swimming a lot, doing a lot of biking and some weight training as well."

But going into the race at Portland, the 29-year-old Junqueira couldn't catch a break on the track. A driver with a reputation for being clean and finishing more than two-thirds of the races he started, he was knocked out of two of the first four this season. He had finished no better than 10th until finishing fourth at the Grand Prix of Portland.

"It's been an unusual situation for me this year," Junqueira said. "Normally my car is really strong, we can finish races and I can stay out of trouble. But now in four races this year I have had problems."

Junqueira is the first driver since Bobby Rahal to win races his first five seasons in Champ Car. But if his luck doesn't change, he will struggle to win in his sixth season.

"I just have to pick up and keep going," he said before Portland. "One thing I have shown is I have qualified really well this year. Now I have to translate that into good races."

In the four races prior to Portland, the native of Brazil started second, third, fourth and seventh. But when the race started, it seemed he barely got up to speed before mayhem hit.

"There are no words to explain it," Junqueira said.

"I tried to be cautious and still got into a crash," he said. "It would be different if I were going crazy and got into a crash. Then I could say, OK, I can explain it, my fault.' But I'm trying to stay out of the way early, be careful, and still crash. It just happens. I have to move on to the next one."

Junqueira won the pole at Portland, but still had some bad luck early. Junqueira and his race team mixed signals at the start. By the first turn, he was a distant fourth, but he held that position and finished the race.

Now he comes to the Grand Prix of Cleveland, where the wide-open runways and taxiways of Burke Lakefront Airport are perfect for cars with speed.

"Getting my first pole since the accident and after such a disappointing season so far is like getting a win," Junqueira said in Portland.

At Cleveland, he will look to get the real thing.

[Napoleon]

Polestar positioned for jump
Chardon-based racing group could climb into Champ Car
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Tim Warsinskey
Plain Dealer Reporter
Racing is all about opportunities, and that includes team owners as well as drivers.

For 15 years, Polestar Racing Group owners Jim and Pam Griffith and Bruce Potter have been based in Chardon, quietly operating one of the Atlantic series' top teams. Next year, the developmental series' parent organization, Champ Car, might be in for a major expansion and overhaul, including the introduction of a new car. Several teams are considering making the jump to the senior circuit.

That could create the best circumstance yet for Polestar to move up from Atlantic to Champ Car, potentially becoming the first major open-wheel team based in Greater Cleveland in decades.

"The amount of opportunities that are available and the timing is the best it's ever been," Jim Griffith said.

The Griffiths and Potter have been part of three Atlantic season championships and have developed several drivers who have advanced to Champ Car or the Indy Racing League, including Indy 500 winner Buddy Rice and current Champ Car driver Katherine Legge. Their latest protege is 18-year-old Californian Alan Sciuto, who was fourth last week in the Atlantic race in Portland, Ore.

The team has discussed making the leap before.

However, it does not have the financial wherewithal to do it on its own, and will require a major cash commitment from either current sponsors Sealy and The Room Store or new sponsors. Budgets for Champ Car teams range between $4 million and $6 million, while Atlantic team budgets usually are under $1 million.

"We are in deeper negotiations with the [Champ Car] series and our sponsors, and the series wants to know where you're going," Griffith said. "One thing is interesting is they're coming out with a new Champ car in 2007. In some ways, the table has been cleared, and it wouldn't be a bad year to come in. You'd have to have the right people and personnel to do it, and it would be a bit of a more even playing field."

Griffith said a decision probably would be made this summer, and if the team moved up in 2007, it would remain in Greater Cleveland but would move out of its current facility two blocks from the Chardon square. Polestar currently has 12 employees and would need to at least double the size of its team to enter Champ Car.

Champ Car series co-owner Kevin Kalkhoven has a close working relationship with the Griffiths and said he would support Polestar moving to Champ Car.

"I would love to see Polestar come up," he said. "I saw how Jim Griffith coached and mentored Katherine Legge last year."

The Atlantic series is as healthy as it has been in several years with about 30 cars running, compared to about a dozen the past few years. Several Champ Car teams have started their own Atlantic teams, ostensibly creating their own minor-league feeder team. Champ Car hopes that will lead to more cars in its series next season.

Atlantic also went to a heavier, larger and more powerful car this year to narrow the gap between Champ Car and Atlantic cars, and easing the transition for drivers and teams moving up.

"When you're rebuilding a series, you can put a Band-Aid over it, or you can rebuild it from the ground up," Kalkhoven said. "That's where future teams, drivers and sponsors come from, and unless you have a strong foundation in Atlantics, then the future will look very difficult. I'm thrilled with its success."

[Napoleon]

Allmendinger excites Champ Car series
Thursday, June 22, 2006
Tim Warsinskey
Plain Dealer Reporter
An odd thing happened after A.J. Allmendinger won the Grand Prix of Portland last week. Fans gathered around the awards podium and chanted, "U.S.A! U.S.A!"

Allmendinger is an American. Fans got excited. What's so

strange about that?

Americans almost never win in the Champ Car World Series, and the reason for that is simple. Allmendinger is the lone American driver, and last week was his first victory.

The last American-born driver to win was Ryan Hunter-Reay two years ago.

This is Allmendinger's third year in Champ Car, and he has been hailed since his days in Barber Dodge and Atlantic developmental series as the next great American driver.

The 24-year-old Californian often teased, finishing in the top five 11 times in 27 races in 2004 and 2005. He was the 2004 rookie of the year and he placed second four times in 2005.

"Everybody wanted me to win earlier. Heck, I wanted to win earlier," Allmendinger said.

But the prodigy named after A.J. Foyt didn't win, not until last week in Oregon at the end of one of the most bizarre 10 days any driver has ever experienced.

He was fired June 9 by his team, RuSport, which had

developed and promoted him. Cristiano da Matta was hired to replace Allmendinger. While neither side got into specifics, Allmendinger said there was no "team chemistry."

In a phone interview this week, Allmendinger sounded almost relieved to have been fired by longtime supporter Carl Russo, owner of RuSport. "He did make the right choice," Allmendinger said. "I wasn't happy and I wasn't having fun."

When he received word of his firing, Allmendinger was in Niagara Falls planning to propose to his girlfriend, Lynne Kushnirenko, a Toronto chiropractor he met when she was a race beauty pageant queen. He proposed anyway, and despite the fact he was unemployed at the time, she said yes.

Forsythe Racing owner Gerald Forsythe contacted Allmendinger almost immediately and he was signed June 13 to drive for one of Champ Car's top teams.

Last Sunday, five days later, Allmendinger snapped Sebastien Bourdais' four-race winning streak to win the Grand Prix of Portland.

"It was a long time coming," said Allmendinger. He was speaking of his own experience, but his words also summed up Champ Car's quest for an American driver. "Now all that does is make me want to go out and win more races, because now I know how it feels."

Nothing would make Champ Car happier.

Allmendinger is a huge story for the series, which is in town this week for the Grand Prix of Cleveland. However, the bump the series is receiving from Allmendinger's 10 strange days in June will fade unless he wins again and again. Champ Car has known for years it needs more American drivers if a series with eight of 15 races in the United States is to thrive.

"It's really important because this is an American-based series," Allmendinger said. "It's definitely an international series among fans and drivers, but it's based in the States, and to hopefully have an American star and have an American who is winning races, it brings a fan base."

The last American to win the Grand Prix of Cleveland was Al Unser Jr. in 1994.

[Napoleon]

Rahal can watch son's career rise from Atlantic race series
Thursday, June 22, 2006
Elton Alexander
Plain Dealer Reporter
Bobby Rahal has heard the whispers, in his own race camp no less at Rahal-Letterman Racing. This is a camp that includes 2004 Indy 500 winner Buddy Rice, and arguably the hottest property in auto sports, Danica Patrick. Yet it's an open secret what they say with a touch of envy, a touch of pride and also the prick of a needle when Rahal is not around.

"Bobby's gone with the 'A' team."

Rahal, the race team owner, the former Indy 500 winner, the former series champion, smiles when he hears it. Because for a day or a weekend, he gets to be a dad, following has fast-rising, fast-maturing, just plain fast race-car driving 17-year-old son, Graham, in a race car.

"One [the race team] is a business," Rahal said. "One [his son] is an advocation, a dream in front of your eyes."

In a sport where the sons and grandsons of Foyts, Andrettis and Unsers are cutting their own path, young Graham Rahal is arguably the equal and potentially the best of the bunch.

Young Rahal is on a near meteoric rise right now after just four races in Champ Car's developmental series. In his third race, Graham Rahal sat on the pole and won, wire to wire, at Monterrey, Calif., becoming the youngest winner ever in the Atlantic series' 33-year history. In his fourth race, Rahal followed that up by setting a track record at Portland, Ore., to earn his second straight pole, then was punted out of the race in the first turn by rival Simon Pagenaud, who entered the race as the Atlantic's points leader.

This weekend, he will race twice in Cleveland on the same 2.106-mile temporary Burke Lakefront Airport Circuit where his father won his first ever Champ Car race. And in July he will race in the preliminary event prior to the Formula I race on the grounds of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

"Everything so far has gone pretty well," young Rahal said by phone earlier this month. "Especially after Monterrey, we've shown we've got a little speed, now. We've got an awfully good chance to do well the rest of the season. The car is a lot of fun to drive, and everything has gone smoothly. That's all we can ask for. The car is working pretty well, we've found the sweet spot in it."

No doubt his race team has found a lot in the new machines that fit Rahal's smooth racing style. But part of that "sweet spot" in the car is Rahal behind the wheel. Although only 17, he is experienced.

"I've driven about everything," he said. "I think experience is what has given me the speed I have had lately. At the same time, I see that it still has to improve. It's a very rare circumstance when a driver doesn't make many mistakes.

"In Monterrey, I made one mistake, and that rarely happens. But I know that it's very important for my future, where ever that may be, that I can be able to drive races like that. Because in the end, that is what makes the best, the best. They can drive like that all the time."

Like the more experienced drivers, Rahal does a lot of endurance training to physically be ready for the rigors of driving at circuits like Cleveland's Burke Lakefront Airport. The Atlantics will race twice in the Grand Prix of Cleveland, once on Saturday and once on Sunday.

So, being physically and mentally prepared is a big key for success.

"It's important in this sport to be mentally tough," Rahal said. "This sport is a complete mind game. If you're mentally tough and mentally strong, in the end it plays out into your favor. I just know a lot of people in these races, the more and more you drive, the more and more you get tired. And the heat really wears you out. The hotter you get you begin to lose focus on what your are doing."

Interestingly, even with a $1 million bonus toward a Champ Car ride to the Atlantic series champ, Rahal does not see himself leaping to the No. 1 road racing series. And not to the rival oval-based Indy Racing league, either. He wants to jump the pond into Formula One.

"That certainly is where I want to go," he said. "For any young, up and coming race car driver, everybody looks at Formula One as the top of the ladder. As far as the state of open wheel racing in the United States right now it's definitely not good.

"Certainly we're all praying right now that Mr. [Kevin, Champ Car] Kalkhoven and Mr. [Tony, IRL] George pull it all together [with a merger of the two series]. Then, we can go back to what it used to be. But for me [F-I] has just been a dream of mine. If things go the way I would like them to, it certainly is a possibility."

If that's his path, then short of closing up his race team and tagging along, the elder Rahal will have enjoy his time right now following "The 'A' Team."

This season is the first Rahal has split time with his IRL team to watch, and sometimes work the pit board, for his son's team. He missed Graham's first major wins in the go-cart ranks and in the Star Mazda series ranks. So, he was a bit superstitious about initially showing up. That all changed with the dominating performance in Monterrey.

Bobby Rahal told the media after the Monterrey race: "I think I feel better than anybody, knowing now I can come to these things and that doesn't mean he won't potentially win."

It may, however, mean Graham Rahal won't be racing in the states much longer.