LONG BEACH, Calif. -- As late as a month ago, there was considerable doubt that the Champ Car World Series would be able to come up with enough cars to have a season this year -- let alone open on time this weekend.
When team owners Bobby Rahal, Pat Patrick and Adrian Fernandez left the open-wheel series formerly known as CART for the rival Indy Racing League last month, Champ Car's critics were ready to bury the series. Even its strongest supporters were left wondering if new series owners Paul Gentilozzi, Kevin Kalkhoven and Gerald Forsythe would be able to resuscitate the struggling series.
Less than a month after suffering the defection of three high-profile teams, however, the 2004 Champ Car World Series season officially got under way this morning as 18 cars took to the streets of this oceanside city to practice for Sunday's 30th annual Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.
Defending race winner and series champion Paul Tracy, a Las Vegas resident, said he was more than ready to put the turbulent off-season behind him and finally begin his title defense.
"For sure, it was a long winter," Tracy said. "The hard part was just hearing the rumors -- and a lot of them are fabricated from the other side -- that the series wasn't going to be here and this and that. It's tough not to get wrapped up in that but I had confidence in what (Forsythe) was doing -- and I have confidence in what (the new owners) are doing."
Forsythe and his partners in Open Wheel Racing Series LLC purchased CART's assets out of bankruptcy in January -- despite the fact that IRL founder and owner Tony George had tendered a larger offer during bankruptcy proceedings. Tracy, for one, said he was relieved that the court accepted OWRS' offer.
"Everybody was saying a month ago that this wasn't going to happen," Tracy said, referring to this weekend's race. "Now that the ball is rolling ... I hope that it's going to snowball and start to grow again.
"This is a series that's a road-racing series, predominantly, and it would be a shame to kill off road racing in the United States -- but that's what Tony George wants to try to do and he's in bed with the Frances (owners of NASCAR and a rival road-racing series); they want to control the racing in the United States and make oval racing the most important thing.
"I guess, in one way, it's flattering that they're putting so much focus into trying to destroy this (series) because if it wasn't a threat to them, they wouldn't put so much focus towards it."
But it is Sunday's running of the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach -- the series' premier event in the United States -- and not the politics of racing that now has Tracy's focus. Tracy won here last year when race leader Michel Jourdain Jr. suffered a gearbox failure during a pit stop with seven laps remaining.
Tracy, 35, doesn't apologize for the way he won last year's race, which capped a three-race winning streak to open the season.
"Sometimes you need some luck, that's for sure," Tracy said. "I've had my fair share of bad luck and it's nice when you get a little help. Hey, we were in the thick of things all day and we were right there at the end."
Tracy held the points lead after 15 of 18 races last season while winning a career-high seven races and pushing his career win total to 26. Because the Champ Car World Series will be running 14 to 16 races this season as opposed to the 18 it contested last year, Tracy said it is even more important to get off to a good start this season.
"With as short a schedule as we have, 14 or 15 races, it's going to be real important to finish all the races and not get into any trouble," Tracy said. "You just don't have as much time to bounce back if you have a couple of bad races.
"My goal is to try to get off to a good start, but the most important thing is to finish it. We started off last year with three wins and then followed it up with three bad races. If we can just be a bit more consistent than last year, we should be pretty strong."
For the third time in his 13-year Champ Car career, Tracy will be a part of a three-car team with Forsythe Championship Racing. For the second consecutive year, Tracy will be teamed with fellow Las Vegan Patrick Carpentier while second-year driver Rodolfo Lavin joins the team this season. Tracy said he has mixed reactions to the three-car team concept.
"I hope it doesn't effect the team as a whole, but it's always difficult to say," Tracy said. "I've been in three-car teams before with Team Green and with Penske Racing, and it always seems to effect one person or another. Maybe the situation is a bit different but, before, when I was with Penske, you had three pretty much leading drivers with me, Al (Unser Jr.) and Emerson (Fittipaldi), and then the same at Team Green -- three guys all fighting to do well with Michael (Andretti), myself and Dario (Franchitti).
"I hope it doesn't affect our team but for us, we've kept my whole crew the same. It's quite a lot different than the last couple of teams I've been on where it has been three top-flight drivers. I think it's difficult sometimes when you have three guys all fighting each other. When everybody wants to win, it's tough to say who gets what."
Tracy said he sees teammate Carpentier and Newman/Haas Racing's Bruno Junqueira and Sebastien Bourdais as his biggest challengers this season for the championship.
"This year, coming in, I think the competition is going be tougher," he said. "For sure, Newman/Haas is going to be tougher and there are some newer guys who have been running quick all winter.
"But I feel good about our chances. Everybody on the team is firing on the same cylinders, we know what our plan is and we've just got to go out there and start trying to do it."
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