The Champ Car World Series has competed in Monterrey for each of the last four seasons, drawing large crowds and providing exciting and challenging racing for not only the fans, but also for the teams and drivers.
But for all of the history of Champ Cars at Monterrey's Fundidora Park, this year's fifth anniversary of the Tecate/Telmex Monterrey Grand Prix promises to carry some of the most intriguing subplots of any race on the 2005 calendar.
The driver roster for the May 20-22 battle on the 2.106-mile Fundidora Park road course features a driver that has never lost in Monterrey, one that has never started anywhere but on pole at the Monterrey track, and another that set a Monterrey record in a race that propelled him to his only Champ Car title. In addition, the line-up is loaded with young talent fighting for their elusive first wins, as well as veterans looking to stake their claim in the chase for the 2005 series championship.
As it did most of last year as well as in the first race of 2005, the battle starts with defending series champion Sebastien Bourdais. Bourdais took the early series lead with his Long Beach victory and heads to a Monterrey track where he is also the defending race winner. Bourdais has started on the pole in each of his two previous Monterrey visits, setting a new track record en route to the top starting spot a year ago.
But just as Bourdais is unaccustomed to failure in qualifying, Cristiano da Matta is unfamiliar with anything other than victory in the race. The 2002 series champion won the inaugural Fundidora Park event in 2001 and followed that with a victory from the fifth starting spot in 2002. da Matta returns as the career leader in laps led at Monterrey, but has not seen the challenging layout since his win three seasons ago.
Sandwiched between wins by da Matta and Bourdais was the dominant 2003 performance of Paul Tracy, who paced 69 laps to set an event record on his way to Victory Lane. Intent on returning to his 2003 championship-winning form, Tracy comes to Monterrey holding the second spot in the points chase after a strong Long Beach weekend that saw him score his 23rd career Champ Car pole.
The hometown fans will look to cheer a Mexican driver to Victory Lane for the first time in Monterrey, and will be pinning many of their hopes on the shoulders of Mario Dominguez after his podium finish from a season ago. Dominguez earned the best starting spot of his Champ Car career in last year's Monterrey race, gridding on the outside of the front row, and battling back fiercely after an early spin to score a third-place finish. He showed well in his first race after joining Forsythe Championship Racing in 2005, scoring a top-five run in Long Beach in his debut outing with the Indianapolis-based squad.
Dominguez will have some help in Monterrey as he looks to propel Mexico to the top of the competitive Nation's Cup standings as former Indy Lights competitor Jorge Goeters will make his Champ Car debut in Fundidora Park. The San Luis Potosi native has had a long career in many different forms of motorsports, including a full season of campaigning in Indy Lights in 1998 when he competed against Dominguez and da Matta. Most recently, Goeters made headlines when he became just the seventh driver ever to win a NASCAR Busch Series pole in his debut, when he led qualifying in Mexico City. Goeters will run a third PKV Racing machine overseen by Russell Cameron.
Bruno Junqueira carries a remarkable string of improvement to this year's Monterrey event, but the only way he can leave Mexico with that streak intact is to finish on the very top of the podium. Junqueira has improved his finishing position in each of his previous four Monterrey starts, capping that string with a second-place result last season. He enters the weekend in third place in the season standings and also has an active streak of seven consecutive podium finishes.
