Notes from Long Beach

We arrived at the track with great anticipation of what awaited us, an Atlantic field nearly as large as Indy and a Champ Car field with a half dozen real contenders which would surely make for an exciting racing. As we took our seats in the dew covered bleachers across from turn one, the first time we had watched from this spot, I commented about how good of a view of turn one we had.

I couldn’t shake this feeling I had about what the day had in store for us. When a fan sitting next to us asked if we knew what the Champ Car line up was, I guess he thought we must know seeing us with our scanners and team lists, I told him we didn’t bring that with us but I said Bourdais was on pole… he wasn’t surprised. Then I said this was the first time I had more enthusiasm for the Atlantics than the Champ Cars.

After warm ups we took a stroll over by start finish to check out likely resources for lunch. There seemed to be more stands there than in the previous two years and I thought to myself just maybe this series is finally getting back on track.

Then back to our seats for the Atlantic Race. It was about a good as it could be on a street course; I still haven’t become a fan of the racing on streets. At start of the race everyone made it through turn one much to my surprise. But later during the race turn one captured and held hostage several of the drivers. I reminded myself to be ready with the new camera when the Champ Cars made their first lap attempt at turn one.

We had lunch at one of the stands just outside of the convention center after the Atlantics race and after lunch decided to have look at the displays in the center while we waited for the main event. As we started back to the track we came upon the Cosworth display. There were three engines on display, a Champ Car engine and two Atlantics engines. One of the Atlantic engines was a cut away version. This was the highlight of my day to now. I really enjoyed poking around this display.

After we returned our seats for the Champ Car start, I remembered to get the camera ready for the action I expected at turn one. When I heard the engines roar down towards turn one I raised the pre-focused camera only to find that it had gone into standby. Being new to the operation I could only fumble with it trying to get it out of standby but before I could get it aimed the expected event was over.

There sat four of the top contenders out of the race before completing even one turn of the race. The rest of the race I spent keeping track of Katherine Legge’s progress because it was obvious who the winner was going to be.

Congratulations to Bourdais on a good start to the 06 season.
Congratulations to Legge for finishing 8th, the highest finish for a female driver ever in Champ Car.
Thanks Cosworth, your display saved my day!

Oh and the other half of we in this story………my son-in-law Dan, thanks for coming along a listening to my ramblings. Perhaps if I’m in the mood we’ll do it again next year!

Yawn.............