Sébastien Bourdais, Ryan Hunter-Reay &
Patrick Carpentier
© Oak Park Journal photo by Dan Peters
Ryan Hunter-Reay Dominates on
The Milwaukee Mile....Sets New Single-Event Champ Car Record
by Dan Peters
Milwaukee, Wisconsin... Last year's Champ Car
event at the Milwaukee Mile resulted in what was termed a dominant performance,
but second-
year pilot Ryan Hunter-Reay came up with a
new definition of the word Saturday night at Milwaukee in front of a strong
race-night crowd.
Ryan Hunter-Reay Car before Race
© Oak Park Journal photo by Dan Peters
Hunter-Reay rolled from the pole as night fell
on the Milwaukee Mile,
and never looked back to claim to the Time
Warner Cable Road Runner 250 Presented by U.S. Bank. The Herdez driver
surged to the front on
the very first lap and became the first Champ
Car driver in 12 seasons
to lead every lap of a series oval event,
pacing a Bridgestone Presents
The Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford
record 250 laps.
“What a day! It was tough battle with
all the traffic, I couldn't relax one-second. It was a great team
effort. We stayed sharp all night long, had excellent pit stops,
and a great car setup. It is a terrific day for the Herdez Competition
team and all my sponsors.” Said Reay.
He showed his strength early and often, taking
just 14 laps to start
lapping cars and ripping off to a 20-second
lead after 50 laps to put the entire 18-car field in danger of going a
lap down.The field got a break
on Lap 50 when points leader Sébastien
Bourdais had a brush with the
turn four wall and bent his suspension.
.. His misfortune. also tightened the championship points race.
The resulting restart ended the night for another
favorite as Paul Tracy tried to pass his teammate Patrick Carpentier on
the outside of Turn Two. The move pushed Tracy high into the marbles in
the corner and into the wall, ending Tracy's evening.
The middle part of the 250-lap event saw more
of the same dominance
from Reay as he pulled out to a 10-second
lead while Carpentier and defending race winner Michel Jourdain, Jr. battled
for second and third. Jourdain had a strong run in his new RuSport Machine
and threatened
for third after making his way through the
field from his ninth-place
starting spot.
Last Year's Winner Jourdain.. “It is great
to be on the podium. Ryan
made me look bad from my win here last year,
but he did a fantastic job
and I am happy for him. Third is so
good for the RuSPORT Team and
my sponsor Gigante. The team is just
unbelievable. We are making
great improvements and becoming strong.
The car just got better over
the weekend and we had a good car for the
race.”
The fifth caution flag of the night came when
debris was found on the
front stretch, opening the pits first only
for the cars on the lead lap. But
a miscommunication caused Carpentier and Jourdain
to miss their chance to pit with Hunter-Reay and the two decided to pit
with the remainder of
the field, which was a violation of Champ
Car rules. The penalty sent both cars to the back of the restart line...which
effectively ended any chance
for running down the leader. The battle for
second place went all the way
to the finish, with Carpentier holding off
Jourdain to claim the second
spot.
“I tried really hard to catch Ryan, but it
was almost impossible because
he had an excellent car. We had a good
car and a clean race. I figured
that I would have to settle for second when
I knew that I wouldn't be
able to catch Ryan. It is a good day
for the Forsythe Championship
Racing Team and Indeck.” Said Carpentier
There were plenty of competition deeper in
the field despite the fact
that the majority of the field was at least
one lap down. Former series champion Jimmy Vasser turned in a strong performance
after scoring
an eighth-place starting spot. Vasser ran
in the top five for the last half
of the race and scored a fourth-place finish,
giving PKV Racing its best finish of the 2004 season.
The RuSPORT Team completed its best-ever Champ
Car night with Jourdain taking third and rookie A. J. Allmendinger scoring
his first
Champ Car top-five. Allmendinger gained eight
spots in climbing to
the fifth spot, scoring the championship point
for most laps gained in
a race and putting himself back in the thick
of the Rookie-of-the-Year race.
Bruno Junqueira kept had a clean run all night
and brought his Newman/Haas Racing machine home in sixth place, giving
him the series points lead by one point over Carpentier. Junqueira takes
the top spot in the championship for the first time this year and the second
time in his Champ Car career.
Rodolfo Lavin was in line for the best finish
of his Champ Car career
after running in the top five early in the
race, but ended his night and everyone else's night when he put his car
in the fence with two laps to
go. The resulting caution meant the race would
end under caution, and dropped Lavin to ninth.
Oriol Servia scored his best finish of the
year in the Dale Coyne Racing machine, moving up four spots to place seventh
while Mario Dominguez scored an eighth-place finish. Mario Haberfeld led
the three-car
Reynard brigade and rounded out the top-10
with his 10th-Place finish.
The series takes a week off before heading
to Portland International Raceway June 18-20 for the Champ Car Grand Prix
of Portland for
Round 4 of the 2004 campaign.
Notes from the "Mile" .....
Ryan Hunter-Reay Holds the Winning Cup
© Oak Park Journal photo
Ryan Hunter-Reay’s victory marked the first
time since 1992 that a
driver led every lap during a Champ Car oval
event. The last driver to accomplish the feat was Bobby Rahal, who led
all 200 laps in a Phoenix win.
The attendance for the three-day event was
46,532, an increase of 29 percent from 2003.
Ryan Hunter-Reay, Jimmy Vasser and A. J. Allmendinger
scored top-five finishes Saturday night, marking the first time since 2001
in Cleveland when Memo Gidley, Bryan Herta and Vasser finished in the top
five.
Canada takes over the lead in the Nation's
Cup standings, leading Brazil 82-74 after three races. The top-five countries
in the Nation's Cup are covered by a scant 17 points.
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