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You cannot write - or think -- about auto racing this week without thinking about Adam Petty, dead in a NASCAR crash at New Hampshire International Speedway on Friday last. How does an auto racing fan deal with that sort of thing, the ugly side of the sport? What can you do, if you're a fan who can't wait 'til the next race?
Fittingly for this sad weekend, the CART race at Twin Ring Motegi in Japan seems to have impressed fans stateside not at all, with little on-track passing for the lead. Juan Montoya and Kenny Brack had to wait 24 hours to lead the pack into the race when heavy rains hit the area, which meant a delay of the tape-delayed telecast here in North America, and, for the second consecutive race, rookie Oriol Servia managed to crash on the first lap. And then Juan Montoya - last year's champion and this year's also-ran - began to dominate the race, leaving his teammate Jimmy Vasser to suffer the Toyota troubles that previously plagued Montoya. In fact, Montoya was well on his way to a win when, as Seventhgear reports, "Drama struck the Ganassi crew 2 laps later however, when Montoya returned to pit row with problems with a pop-off valve problem from the recent stop. The air jack line had become wrapped around the valve and when they pulled it off, they pulled off the electrical lead that regulates the boost. After a quick stop to re-connect the lead, the Colombian, who had dominated the entire race, was dropped down to 8th position." This left the win in the capable hands of Michael Andretti, who was able to deliver Lola's first win since 1996. In fact, Mikey may have been the one doing the rain dance. Excite-Reuters reports, "The race was to have taken place on Saturday but rain forced its postponement. The respite allowed Andretti's team to replace a throttle sensor in his Ford-Cosworth/Lola. "The rain may have been a blessing in disguise," said Andretti, who averaged 157.154 miles per hour on the 1.549-mile oval. "There was a 90 percent chance that we would be OK but you don't want to mess with the 10 percent of a problem." The home crowd had little to cheer about, for only Shinji Nakona of the two Japanese nationals in the CART series was able to finish, and he did that two laps down to the leaders. Go To Page: 1 2
The copyright of the article Japanese Anti-Climax in CART Auto Racing is owned by Gary Presley. Permission to republish Japanese Anti-Climax in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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