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"Send in the Clowns!"


Read the full news release at CART's Web site.

You've got to like a guy who says what he thinks, and, if you're a racing fan, you've got to like the race you saw at Laguna Seca. Smart driving, smart pit strategy put Team Rahal's Max Papis in the winner's circle with Team Target Chip Ganassi's Memo Gidley earning a well-deserved second place.

The scariest incident came when Oriol Servia ran over the rear wheels of Maurico Gugelmin and found his car imitating a NASA rocket. It landed nose first and did three complete flips before coming to rest upright. Servia didn't walk away, but he gave a thumbs-up as he was put in the ambulance on a stretcher, and he was released after being briefly hospitalized for tests.

From crushable front panels to HANS device, the safety equipment did its job.

Race Recaps

Max Papis wins slugfest at Laguna Seca
Max Papis piloting the #7 Miller Lite car took the win in a real crash fest today at Laguna Seca. Memo Gidley was 2nd and Gil de Ferran 3rd. Scott Dixon and Jimmy Vasser rounded out the top five.
Full story on Autoracing1

Eight Cautions Give Papis Gift Win At Laguna
Monterey, Calif., Oct. 14 — Well, I guess Max Papis drew the winning numbers in today's CART FedEx Championship Series "lottery."
Get the full story on Speedvision

Order of Finish

  1. Max Papis, Miller Lite Team Rahal Ford/Lola
  2. Memo Gidley, Target Chip Ganassi Racing Toyota/Lola
  3. Gil de Ferran, Team Penske Honda/Reynard
  4. Scott Dixon, Powerware PacWest Racing Toyota/Reynard
  5. Jimmy Vasser, Visteon/Patrick Racing Toyota/Reynard

There's still no reason to believe Team Penske won't pull off a championship repeat and grab the 2001 Borg-Warner Trophy. The series next moves to Australia, and there's no way Kenny Brack can score sufficient points to retake the lead. Brack will be strong at the big oval at Fontana, true, but he's got to be in reach to take the championship.

De Ferran is tough and cautious, just the qualities necessary to pull out a couple of decent finishes and go home with his second consecutive championship.

Season Points Standings

  1. Gil de Ferran
  2. Kenny Brack
  3. Helio Castroneves
  4. Michael Andretti
  5. Dario Franchitti

The ranking remains the same, although de Ferran now has a 26 point lead over Brack.

Sayonara

If the CART brass wanted hand out fines for bad-mouthing the series, they probably

The copyright of the article "Send in the Clowns!" in CART Auto Racing is owned by Gary Presley. Permission to republish "Send in the Clowns!" in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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