AJ Allmendinger finally wins one
LAT for Champ Car
A huge breath…maybe a stiff breeze of fresh
air’s been pumped into the Champ Car World Series this week
as the tour prepares for the 25th Anniversary running of the
Champ Car Grand Prix of Cleveland. Of course I’m referring
to the stunning run to victory last Sunday by AJ
Allmendinger, which capped one of the wildest rollercoaster
rides any driver’s faced in years.
By now you probably know the
story….Allmendinger, the remaining full-time American pilot
in Champ Car, had gone from being fired by RuSPORT to
getting engaged to being hired at Forsythe Championship
Racing in the span of five days….then came to Portland, took
Friday qualifying honors, and rolled to a dominant win
Sunday afternoon.
As shocking as his dismissal from RuSPORT
was, AJ’s strong win Sunday was even more of a shock. We’ve
seen the 24-year old Allmendinger at his best and worst over
the past couple of seasons and have long respected his
talent and vibrant personality. No one has doubted his
considerable ability. He’s been a winner at every level
until coming to Champ Car in 2004. And with RuSPORT having
been built around AJ word of his release in the days leading
up to Portland constituted one of the biggest shocks I’ve
seen in racing in a long time.
The move by Forsythe Championship Racing (FCR) to boot Mario Dominguez and
bring in Allmendinger alongside Paul Tracy was also a major
surprise. Dominguez has been fast, scoring his first career
pole just a month ago in Houston. Mario’s as personable as
they come, a driver with a winning pedigree in Champ Car.
And as the tour’s lone Mexican national, his value from a
marketing standpoint is considerable. Add to that the
potentially volatile mix of putting Allmendinger on the same
team as Tracy and you have a scenario no one could have
anticipated.
But all that seems insignificant now, in the
wake of Allmendinger’s heroic drive. Racing these cars is
difficult. Many drivers have come to Champ Car with
considerable talent only to find themselves overmatched by
the speeds, the physical demands, and the pressure. And
candidly many observers were starting to think that perhaps
AJ was overmatched as well. The memories of the several
occasions last year when he tossed away potential victory
were still strong.
Last Sunday’s dominant run by Allmendinger puts all that to
rest. AJ withstood considerable pressure from his former
teammate Justin Wilson, and had to know that Sebastien
Bourdais was lurking in the shadows hoping to get a chance
to draw close and try for his fifth straight Champ Car win
to open the ’06 season. Allmendinger was more than equal to
every challenge and certainly earned plenty of respect for
his win.
As surprising as AJ’s divorce from RuSPORT was to those of
us on the outside, this could turn out to be the kind of
“trade” in sports that, as the cliché says, truly helps
both teams.
Both the driver and his former car owner Carl Russo now
acknowledge that their partnership had gone sour and that
many times the only real answer is for the parties involved
to part ways and, as they say, “seek other opportunities”.
More importantly Allmendinger’s victory put Champ Car in the
forefront of US racing last week in a way not seen in
months. AJ bagged the first victory for an American driver
in more than two years in a fashion that suggests it won’t
be his last. And that, too, is great news for Champ Car.
This week, Allmendinger comes to Cleveland expecting further
success. He ran second last year. More importantly his
Forsythe team clearly knows what their cars need here, as
Paul Tracy was the dominant winner at Burke Lakefront
Airport 12 months ago. All of this should add up to an
effort that can present a major challenge to the dominant
Newman/Haas squad…and will make for a very entertaining
afternoon on CBS Sports this Sunday. Hope you can join us,
starting at 2:30 Eastern. I suspect it will be a terrific
battle.
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