The Toronto Star from Toronto, Ontario, Canada • 67

THURSDAY, JULY 8, 2004 TORONTO STAR E3 Toronto Indy Tagliani: Tracy gave up too fast Says Torontonian can still win the title Champ Car racers battle over tactics CLAUDIO CRUZAP Tagliani is from Lachenaie, Qua, but like Tracy and Patrick Capentier, the third Canadian driver on the circuit lives in Las Vegas. He said while he and Tracy dont socialize in Vegas "We each have our own group of friends they are not unfriendly away from the track. He can be a cool guy off the track, but every time theres something that doesnt go his way in a race he gets so frustrated. Then he says a lot of things that arent nice to other people. He comes off even mean.

You saw him come out of his car in Montreal last year. He was blaming his team for not telling him he was going to run out of fuel. "Every driver has races that he wish he didnt have, but you dont see all these kinds of comments coming out of those guys. Whatifeveryguy who was (upset) in Cleveland came out a freaking comment in the papers? It would be like a circus. Tagliani, who joined Rocket-sports Racing last year after losing his ride at PlajrsForsythe Racing to Tracy, said he sympathizes with Tracys plight "I fully agree that he was a victim.

The poor guy, he had to sit there ana watch the race knowing he probably had one of the fastest cars. It's hard to feel that Fve felt it myself six or seven times in my career. I saw TYacy win in Elkhart Lake when my car was the quickest I saw Roberto Moreno win in Vancouver when my car was the quickest And what did I do? Did Ijump out of my car and say it was Paul Tracys fault?" Tracy had also accused Tagliani of blocking him for 12 laps in Portland last month. He said the flagman should have waved a blue flag forcing Tagliani to move aside, and added that both the flagman and chief steward Chris Kneifel should be fired. He was fined $10,000 (all figures USJ for that comment and an additional $5000 for showing the finger to the flagman.

He said I cost him the win in Portland, Tagliani said. "Well, the answer to that is that everyone is laughing because he finished like about 45 seconds behind the pace. He said in the press conference that I cost him nine or 10 seconds. So if he thinks I cost him nine or 10 seconds how come he finished 45 seconds behind (winner Sebas-tien Bourdais)?" RICKMATSUMOTO SPORTS REPORTER Alex Tagliani isnt surprised that Paul Tracy blames him for a first comer crash that knocked the Scarborough native out of last Saturdays Grand Prix of Cleveland. He says thats the Torontonian simply being himself.

What did surprise Tagliani is that Tracy, in a column for the Star, seems to have written off his chances of defending the Champ Car drivers championship, which he won for the first time last season. The most surprising thing of all in the newspaper articles is not the things he says about me, but rather that he says he has no more chance to win the championship, Tagliani said yesterday. Tm kinda surprised how easy hes given up. Im one point ahead of him and my team thinks we still have a chance to win it, especially with the way the new points system is this year. The top six, seven or eight drivers still have a chance, mathematically, to win.

He's only 50 points behind (current points leader) Bruno Jun-queira. So how can you see your chances being completely over? "Giving up that quickly is what surprised me most of all in his article. Tracy wrote on Tuesday in the first of a series of exclusive columns for the Star this week: Less than 10 seconds into the Cleveland Grand Prix and it was all over my race, and more than likely, my shot at winning the championship again this year. Maybe after four years in Champ Car, Tagliani was frustrated that he hadnt won a race yet, so he saw what he thought was a golden opportunity and he took it Tracy, who was the pole sitter at Geveland, got off to an excellent start and wentwidetocatch the apex of a 135-degree first comer. However, Justin Wilson tried to duck inside Tracy, and in the process touched wheels with Tagliaiu.

Wilson spun into Tracy, knocking them both out Tracy said had Tagliani not been speeding up the inside the accident wouldnt have happened. But race officials disagreed, and neither Tagliani nor Wilson were penalized. Tagliani responded to many of Tracys allegations in a column for a Toronto paper yesterday. Every time theres something that doesn tgo his way in a race he gets sofrustrated. Canadian Champ Car driver Alex Tagliani on defending series champion Paul racy Champ Car series rolls dice with night race at Vegas oval rickmatsumoto on the famed Stria However, SPORTS REPORTER The race will return Champ Today's 5 to 8 p.m.

Fan Festival. National Exhibition 7 p.m. Black Dinner. events Molson Indy MotorFest, Trade Centre, Place and White Gala Liberty Grand, Exhibition Place. Call 416-966-6213 8:30 p.m.

Molson Canadian Blow-Out Bash. Montanas, 145 John St. Weekend event schedule in Indy preview section Toronto Indy Cars to a superspeedway after California Motor Speedway was dropped from this years calendar. The only other oval race on the schedule was at the Milwaukee Mile in earfy June. As recently as 2001 CART ran nine of its 20 races on either short or superspeedway ovals.

"We need a few more orals and this is one more, said Vasser. Tagliani said while tourists mainly go to Las Vegas to gamble, many also spend a night at one of the glittering shows. 1 think Champ Cars will be considered one of the shows for that weekend, he said. Champ Car's other TEA date, the season finale in November, could be announced in two weeks, with speculation the race will be in St Petersburg, Fla. when those negotiations made little headway in staging a race for this season.

Champ Car officials turned to the Speedway. Champ Car's rival, the Indy Racing League, held races there from 1996 through 2000, but this is the first time the more powerful and faster Champ Cars have raced on the L5-mile superspeedway. Im speaking for not only myself) but the other residents who are Champ Car drivers when I say were very, very excited to be racing here," said Trary; who attended the press conference in Las Vegas before catching a flight to Tbronto and this weekends Molson Indy. Tve talked to CART in the past about, 'Why dont we race in Las Vegas? I guess the opportunity wasnt right." Paul Tracy, Patrick Carpentier and Alex Tagliani now have a second home race on their calendar. The Champ Car series said yesterday they've filled one of two TEA (to be announced) dates on this years calendar with a Sept 25 night race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

The race will be part of a doubleheader with a NASCAR Craftsman Truck series event Tracy hails from Scarborough, while Carpentier and Tagliani are from just outside Montreal, but all three live in Las Vegas. A fourth driver, veteran Californian Jimmy Vasser, also calls Las Vegas home. Originally, Champ Car was seeking to run a street race in Las Vegas with part of the track L'ATEl NIGHT! GOLF. 2 Hrs. for $34.00 Unlimited Balls Max.

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