The Champ Car World Series is already three races into its 2005 season, but the price to stay at the big boys table is about to go up dramatically as this weekend's trip to Portland starts a stretch that will go a long way toward determining who lifts the Vanderbilt Cup in November.
A mettle-testing stretch of four races in five weeks kicks off with the Champ Car Grand Prix of Portland this weekend as drivers and teams fight the summer heat and some of the series' toughest tracks in their quest for the Champ Car title. To this point in the season, predictions have meant little as some of the series stalwarts and former champions have had their hands full battling each other as well as the litany of young talent making their way up the ladder.
The first three races have seen three different winners, three different polesitters and seven different drivers occupying the nine available podium spots. The point standings echo that diversity as defending series champion Sebastien Bourdais leads RuSPORT new boy Justin Wilson by just seven points and Milwaukee winner Paul Tracy by eight.
Bourdais, who scored a win in the Long Beach season opener, could be perfectly positioned to make his move on the field as the series heads to Portland, much like he did on his way to last year's title. His dominant win in the 2004 Rose City event propelled him to consecutive wins in Cleveland and Toronto - a three race victory run that paid big dividends at the end of the year. Bourdais led 85 of 94 laps in last year's victory and has led in each of his two visits to Portland.
"Our weekend in Portland last year put the McDonald's team on a roll, it was the beginning of a very good summer," the Frenchman recalled. "It was definitely a great stretch for us we won in Portland, we won Cleveland and Toronto and had a very good summer. Portland is a track where you can have a great weekend. The car can be perfect and the flow is very important. If you don't have the flow it's a real struggle.
"I was very happy with the balance of the car last year. The McDonald's car was up front the whole day and Newman Haas Racing felt very dominant; we nearly lapped the whole field except Tracy so it was quite an impressive performance. I think the changes they did on the race track are interesting and probably safer for the start. Everybody was fighting at a very, very slow speed at the apex of turn two and now it's a bit smoother. Everybody can keep the speed so we shouldn't see a big pile of cars at the start. We should have a clean start, keep all the cars on the race track, put on a good show and have a good day."
On the other side of the ledger is the veteran Tracy, who has won at nearly every Champ Car circuit on the planet except for Portland. The Canadian star has had some successes at Portland, winning the pole in 2003 and scoring four podium finishes in his twelve previous starts, but has had more than his share of trouble at the 1.969-mile Portland International Raceway course, finishing 17th or lower in half of his career trips to the Oregon city. Tracy however, does come into Portland with a fair share of momentum, having romped to his fourth Milwaukee win just two weeks ago in a performance that moved him to third place in the points.
"Portland is a fun track to drive that puts a premium on placing the car really precisely on a line," he said. "With the changes they've done to the Festival Curves I think you're going to see everybody willing to take a bit more risk at turn one, and that should be entertaining for the fans. With that runoff area paved instead of gravel hopefully we'll see fewer caution periods and have a nice clean race. I'm looking forward to backing up our win at Milwaukee with a win here in Portland."
Wilson, who has finished fourth in each of the previous three events this season, returns to a Portland track that saw him serve notice to the field last year that he would be a contender for many years to come. The RuSPORT pilot earned his first top-five finish a year ago in Portland after winning a stirring race-long battle with AJ Allmendinger for fifth spot. The two are now team-mates and while Wilson stands in second place despite not having made it to the podium this year, Allmendinger comes in with the momentum of the best performance of his burgeoning Champ Car career. The reigning 'Rookie of the Year' matched a career-high by starting second in Milwaukee and set a new personal standard on Race Day when he finished second to Tracy. The performance vaulted him into fifth in the series standings and put him position where he could conceivably leave Portland with the championship lead for the first time in his career.
