Edmonton Journal from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada • 36

D4 EDMONTON JOURNAL SPORTS SATURDAY, JULY 14, 2001 Tracy MOTOR SPORTS ready to turn year around Slumping, angry CART veteran back home in TO PIERRE LiBRUN The Canadian Press TORONTO As though racing in his home town wasn't enough, Paul Tracy has no shortage of incentive this weekend at the Toronto Molson Indy. The 11-year CARTveteran is not happy with owner Barry Green and is battling a slump in which Tracy has failed to finish his last five races and has dropped from a tie for first in the overall standings to 11th heading into Sunday's race (11 a.m. MDT, Global) "A lot of things have been disappointing," Tracy said after Friday's practice in which the Team Kool Green driver was sixth fastest "We want to get it turned around this weekend. This is a good spot to do it" An angry Tracy finds himself segregated in pit row from his teammates, Michael Andretti and Dario Franchitti. The Canadian and his crew are several cars down from the other two Barry Green drivers, clearly a disadvantage when the team's top engineers exchange information at the AndrettiFranchitti location.

"I'm down here and they're choosing his words carefully. "That's really all I can say. It's not my decision to make. It's Barry's decision. "I'm not happy about it," he added when pressed.

Green, until this week, had all three cars together in the pits. According to CART rules, the top qualifying times from the previous race determine the order of selection for pit placements for the next race. With Tracy aalifying last in the previous race, at Cleveland, Green, not wanting to have one of the last pit selections, decided it would hurt the team in pit lane by taking in Tracy's qualifying time from Cleveland. Green de- out from under his helmet during afternoon practice at the CART Molson THE CANADIAN PRESS Indy in Toronto on Friday. "I haven't physically spoken to (Green) myself about it because I don't want to deal with the issue this weekend," Tracy said.

"My manager is here and hell talk to him about it" "A lot of things have been Toronto's Paul Tracy Gil de Ferran, the defending CART series champion from Team Peruke, had the fastest time in Friday's practice, posting a lap of 58.400 seconds around the 1.72-mile, 11-turn street course at Exhibition Place. CART decided this year not to have provisional poles on theline Friday. Should today's qualifying be wiped out by rain, the grid order would be determined by the current overall CART standings. Franchitti says the three-driver team has been a delight, not a problem. The Italian-born Scot is third in the overall standings.

"It's been great," Franchitti said. "We've been working together. 'It gives you more information. It gives you an extra person to learn from and to push. Michael and Paul, we're pushing each other all the time." When asked about Tracy's beef with the pit situation, Franchitti drew a blank.

"There was that particular thing New names dot front row for new track John Short Sports Comment Trappers manager remains upbeat As manager John Russell explains it, the current Edmonton Trappers and their fans are paying the price for being part of a sucxessfulbaseball organization. "Our job is to develop players who can step into the major leagues and help the (parent) Minnesota Twins," he said. tWe've been doing a good job of it" SomeTrapperfans maysaythe job has been done too well. One brief year after the Twins' top farm team at Salt Lake Gty dominated the Pacific Coast League, Edmonton's edition has not ventured out of the Northern Division basement since the first few days of the 2001 season. It's impossible to imagine feeling the pain of this disappointment more than the manager, but Russell stays upbeat in almost every conversation.

I at times," he confirmed before the Trappers took on the Calgary Cannons at Telus Field on Friday night, "but one of the greatest satisfactions in the entire organization comes when players we havedeveloped in our own farm system are called up to Minnesota and help out when they get the chance." Hisprideinthefactthateightof the nine current Twins starters came through the system helps to explain Russell's ability to keep his players hustling on the field although, at times, his roster has been down to one non-pitching reserve in case of physical need or tactical opportunity. "We're not the only team in the minor leagues to be left short of players," Russell said. "We're getting some help now," he added. "A couple of our injured players (notably sluggers Matt LeCroy and John Barnes) missed a lot of time but they're backnow and contributing; other players have been sent to us, too. It's probably too late to make a move (in the standings) but we're playing a better brand of baseball." Smcethestartoftheseason.re-lief pitcher Jack Cressend, starter Kyle Lohse, infielder Casey Blake and outfielder Quinton Mc-Cracken have flown from Edmonton to Minneapolis apparently to stay.

Cressend has two wins and one loss in middle relief; undefeated Lohse, a mid-season visitor in Edmonton from Double-A New Britain, has won three of five starts since joining the parent team. Offensively, the biggest loss was Quinton McCracken, the stocky speedster who led the league in ratting when his call came. Speed andintelligence make him a valuable reserve despite a .236 batting average. I Third baseman Casey Blake was fielding brilliantly and hitting well above .300 when injuries prompted general manager Terry Ryan ta send him a plane ticket. He has not played much in linnesota, largely because Anola, product Corey Koskie has a lock on the third base job, but Russell says "Casey has contributed, too." -'Although Blake's departure left Edmonton without a bona fide third baseman for about six weeks, the loss of Cressend may have been most crippling of all.

He was a key man in the bullpen, where repeated failures gave signs of destroying team morale before burly Lee Marshall arrived from New Britain to help heal the wounds. Russell recognizes that some members of the Trapper roster have been rushed. "Maybe weVe promoted several players a little too early," he conceded. "Some have had problems because they've been moved quickly, but they also show signs of progress. "As long as they aren't totally overmatched and they haven't been there are good reasons to push players as fast as Softly but firmly, Russell men-ticed the probability Bobby Kkl-ty, Ken Pumphrey, Todd Sears, Danny Mota, Matt Kinney and other hot prospects will hone thek skills stiD further in Edmonton nmseasOTi.

If so, patient fans wiE reap the benefit. Sportttalk With John Short is heard Monday through Friday from 9 p.m. to midnight on 1260 CFRS-MI Radio. Bodine, Spencer take top two spots forTropicana400 MIKE HARRIS The Associated Press OL1ET, ILL. It's only fitting that a new race track spawned a very unfamiliar front row for the inaugural Trop-icana400.

The Fords of Haas-Carter Mo-torsports teammates Todd Bod-ine and Jimmy Spencer swept the top two spots for Sunday's race at the new Chicagoland Speedway. "Our cars are very different," pole-sitter Bodine said. "Jimmy and I have the setups just the way we like the car to feel. But there happens to be a common de-nominatorunder the hood. "With those Robert Yates engines, we've got a lot of horsepower, and you're in the throttle 90 per cent of the time on this racetrack." Bodine, whose only previous Winston Cup pole came on the i a qualifying lap, taking the pole for D-shaped tri-oval was just 0.049 seconds.

In fact, the 36 drivers who made it into the 43-car field based on qualifying speeds were separated by just 0.692 seconds. "Jimmy tested here, and I think that helped get us a jump start over our competitors," Bodine said. He said his brothers, Brett and Geoffrey, also tested here and Team Kool Green's Paul Tracy peers cided to average the Cleveland times by Franchitti and Andretti, which is an option under the rules. As a result, Franchitti and Andretti got a better selection in pit row here and Tracy is on his own at the far end. Tracy was the slowest qualifier at Cleveland because of a team decision to wait for rain to let up before sending him out The rain never stopped and Tracy was placed in die last row.

Tracy suddenly feels like he's the third cog in the unusual three-driver team (Andretti officially drives for Team Motorola, which also is owned by Green). Tracy's business manager, Dave Stevenson, has arrived from California to work on the situation. Todd Bodine hits the finish line on road course in Watkins Glen, N.Y., in August of 1997, led the way Friday with a lap of 183.717 m.p.h. Spencer, who won a pole on the short track at the now-de-funaNorthWilkesboro facility in 1994 and hadn't qualified better than fifth this season, was ri" it behind at 183.41L The time difference between the two fast laps on the lte-mile, THf ASSOCIATED FttSS his ytllowjersey on Friday. 1 in Cleveland where Paul qualified right at the back," Franchitti said.

"It had nothing to do with him. It was just the circumstances of the qualifying session. But no, I haven't spoken to him about it." Tracy, meanwhile, hopes Sunday's race will be the cure to his recent slump. Fifth in the overall standings last season, Tracy got off to a good start this year, placing third in Mexico, fourth in Long Beach and third in Nazareth. Butthenhehithis slump, mostly due to mechanical problems.

"That's just racing," he said. 'You can't control a lot of things. "That's just misfortune. If nobody's fault. But we need to go out and win a couple of races." Crew chief Larry Carter helped Bodine keep his focus, though, telling the driver his first-lap speed was third overall.

"When I heard that, I knew if I didn't mess up again, we were going to be good," Bodine said. Ricky Rudd, who drives for Robert Yates Racing, made it three Yates engines and a trio of Tauruses at the front of the field with a lap of 183.156. Some of the more high-profile drivers were farther back in the pack, and one, Shawna Robinson, failed to make the starting lineup. Trying for her second Winston Cup start, Robinson was the 40th of 47 drivers to take to the track and wound up with the slowest qualifying lap of the day at 175.285. "I'm extremely disappointed," she said.

Robinson, who will have at least two more chances this season as she gears up for a run at rookie of the year in 2002, also failed to make the field at California Speedway before earning her Cup debut last month at Michigan Speedway. forme. "Ludovic Capelle (his teammate) patted me on the behind 500 metres from the finish and said, let's added. Damien Nazon of France finished second and Jan Svorada of the Czech Republic was third, both in the same time as Kirsipuu. Tom Steels of Belgium was dropped to 160th place from fourth in the stage for irregular riding in the final sprint Steels moved abruptly fromleft to right, causing Germany's Erik Zabel to wobble.

Zabel raised his hand and pointed to the Frenchman to signal a fouL Bybeing dropped, Steels didnot lose time but missed a chance to improve his ranking in the competition to determine the best sprinter of the Tour. The route took riders on their first mountain pass, the Col du Donon in the densely wooded Vosges mountains, in which they dimbed some 300 metres over four kilometres. TOUR DE FRANCE Armstrong still waiting in the weeds in 15th THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Sunday's Tropicana 400. told him the key was not to overdrive the race track. "You feel like you can just wheel it through the turns.

But you're carrying way too much speed coming in." In fact, Bodine thought he had made a crucial mistake on the first of his two qualifying laps. "I messed up in three," he said. "The car turned so good that I drove across the apron." Armstrong is still favoured to re-tain his tide but is not expected to bid for the lead until next week. The Tour arrives in the Alps on Tuesday and two days later, moves to the Pyrenees near the Spanish border. lance is really well positioned going into the mountains," said MarkGorski, general manager of the U.S.

Postal Service team. Armstrong and Ullrich, 19th overall, can easily strengthen themselves in the mountains, an arduous stretch that forces many riders to abandon the race. Kirsipuu, who rides for AG2R, won Friday's stage in a mass sprint He completed the 211.5-kilometre stretch from Commercy to this town near the German border in fours hours 50 minutes 39 seconds. It was the second time in his career he won a Tour de France stage. Tm happy I won today," said Kirsipuu.

"The team worked hard O'Gradyholds on to yellow jersey for fourth day MICHAEL MCDONOUGH The Associated Press STRASBOURG, FRANCE Lance Armstrong remained in 15th place in the famed Tour de France cycling competition Friday but still in good shape with the demanding mountain stages ahead. Armstrong recorded the same time as Stage 6 winner Jaan Kirsipuu of Estonia. Armstrong was placed 48th, but heUa27-seoond advantage over his main rival, Germany's Jan Ullrich, in the overall standings. Australian Stuart O'Grady finished with the main pack in fifth place and retained the leader's yellow jersey for a fourth day. Armstrong is one minute behind the Aussie.

NjfoH' Sruajt O'Grady of Australia shows off.