Race No. 3

Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach
Long Beach — Long Beach, California
April 16-18, 1999

Car Number 4 Back in Winner's Circle
Rookie Montoya wins another one for Ganassi
By Greg Spotts, Photo by Phil Sedgwick

©1999 SpeedCenter

Montoya arrives in winner's circle

Rookie Juan Montoya drove away from the field in his bright red Honda-Reynard Sunday at Long Beach, extending owner Chip Ganassi's oceanside winning streak to four and announcing the arrival of a new contender for this season's PPG Cup.

The race started amid fears of a major opening lap pile-up at the first turn, due to a course change that created a narrow corridor of turns for drivers arriving in pairs at almost 200 miles an hour.

The task of leading the field through the dangerous concrete ravine was awarded to twenty-four year old Tony Kanaan, a second-year driver who had never led a lap in his twenty-one Cart races. With the fastest lap in qualifying, Kanaan won not only the pole and his crew's wristwatches, but also the attention of his competitors, who engaged Kanaan in a series of mind games that ultimately were his undoing.

During Saturday's post-qualifying press conference, third-place qualifier Bryan Herta attempted to get inside Kanaan's head with some trash-talking worthy of Michael Jordan:

"I was just mentioning to Tony that I think he's got a decision to make tonight about which side you want to be on for the pole position: the left side of the track you have the inside under braking for turn one, but you gotta go around the long side for [turn two], so being right behind him I have a vested interest."

Kanaan was still wavering on his decision when the green flag flew, blasting down the very middle of the front straight. Second-place qualifier Dario Franchitti, who had spoken to the pole sitter in private about their hopes for a clean start, was respectfully positioned behind and to the right of Kanaan, leaving an open lane for the more experienced Herta to dart left, taking control of the inside line and the lead.

Herta was the craftiest but not the fastest, and was passed within the first three laps by Kanaan and then Franchitti, re-establishing their original starting order. Having recovered from his initial blunder, Kanaan led the field admirably for the initial 30 laps of the 85-lap race, maintaining his position through the first round of pit stops on lap 24.

Then the mind games began again, this time in the form of a familiar red and yellow car that used to be driven by you-know-who. Last year there were two cars you didn't want filling up your mirrors: the black spector of Michael Andretti and the red rocket of Alex Zanardi. Both drivers shared a visceral need to lead, enough to make moves that could punt you off the course if you didn't cede them a contested corner.

Montoya, Zanardi's twenty-three year replacement, is quickly establishing an intimidating reputation of his own. Last week Montoya was chastised for dangerous driving by none other than fellow bad-boy Andretti, who took exception to Montoya's practice pass at Motegi that sent both drivers into the wall.

Montoya started the Motegi race under a cloud of probation and a $5000 fine, but provided the only legitimate challenge to leader Adrian Fernandez until their dogfight ended with Montoya running out of gas. Five days later, the paddock at Long Beach was abuzz with reports of crackling tension on the Ganassi in-car radios, as champion Jimmy Vasser complained about his young teammate's hogging of the track, the second champion to bristle at Montoya's brash ways.

Montoya started in fifth position and was fast from the outset, passing Max Papis on the fourth lap and Herta on the 22nd. The top of the leaderboard now showed Kanaan, Franchitti and Montoya: three Honda-Reynard-Firestone drivers between the ages of 23 and 25. Montoya nicked Franchitti on the lap 31 restart, making it the second time Franchitti had been snookered at turn one. The rookie in the champion's car now set his sights on the leader Kanaan, and the mind games were in full swing.

Montoya: "I was pushing him quite hard. I really started pushing, pushing trying to show him the nose, and he started making a couple of mistakes."

Kanaan ran his fastest lap of the day on lap 41, in a desperate attempt to hold off the charging Montoya. Four laps later, the leader cracked under the pressure, missing the turn-in point at turn six and drifting into the concrete barrier, ending his race and relinquishing the lead and the eventual victory to Montoya.

Kanaan: "I was trying too hard to pull away from Juan. Unfortunately I put one wheel on the rubber and the car just slid. I made a mistake. It's not going to happen any more, it happens just once."

Montoya proceeded to leave the rest of the field in the dust, at one point opening a gap of ten seconds on Franchitti, who finished in second (his fourth consecutive top-two finish on a temporary street course.)

Franchitti was not smiling during his post-race interview, visibly disappointed by the handling superiority of Montoya's similarly-equipped car: "I gave it everything: we didn't have the car today which was unfortunate." Herta, who finished in third, also lamented his setup. "We probably had the third-best car, I didn't have anything for Dario or Juan, they we clearly much faster.

Credit for Montoya's premium ride sits squarely with ace engineer Morris Nunn, who may represent the most valuable element of the championship team Zanardi bequeathed to Montoya.

Adrian Fernandez finally took the shrink wrap off his '99 Swift chassis and finished in fourth position, an impressive showing for the Patrick team that has run competitively with a '98 Reynard, a '97 Reynard and a '99 Swift in the first three races of the season. The top four finishers were exactly the same as last year's race, with Montoya filling in for Zanardi at the top of the podium. Christian Fittipaldi was fifth, his second consecutive top-five finish, and the consistent Gil de Ferran followed in sixth.

The series now heads to the one-mile oval at Nazareth with a wide open battle for the championship. Greg Moore leads the pack with 39 points, but his championship hopes are seriously jeopardized by Mercedes' inability to tune their engine for road courses (the wonderfully light and small Mercedes IC108E has not yet achieved a podium finish at a road course since its debut last year.) Fernandez and de Ferran are tied for second with 33 points, followed by Andretti with 32, Franchitti with 30, and Fittipaldi with 28. The upstart Montoya is now in seventh place in the championship standings with 23 points, one slot ahead of his teammate Vasser who has 16.