Race No. 5
Rio 200
Emerson Fittipaldi Speedway
at Nelson Piquet International Raceway Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
May 13-15, 1999
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Nobody is Passing Montoya
Rookie dominates uneventful race
By Greg Spotts
© 1999 SpeedCenter
Imagine an open-wheel racing series where a select handful of drivers enjoy consistently superior cars, where the first three laps of the race provide the only opportunity to see a pass for the lead, where races are won by fuel management and quick pit stops rather than a wheel-to-wheel dogfight. Sound like Formula One? Remove the glamorous tracks, the glorious history and the world-famous drivers and you have the makings of a serious headache for the Fedex Championship Series.
May is generally a testy time for CART, forced to watch from afar the festivities of the Indianapolis 500, CART'straditional showcase event until 1996. But this year, CART's claim of superior drivers and more competitive racing than the young IRL is threatened by a profound lack of passing and the early dominance of a twenty-three year old rookie named Juan Montoya.
Montoya won his third consecutive race of the season on Saturday at the GP Telmar Rio 200, and is now threatening to win an unprecedented fourth straight championship for the Target Ganassi race team. Montoya leads the points standings with 66, seven more points than the combined total of Jimmy Vasser, Michael Andretti and Al Unser Jr, the three remaining champions still racing in CART.
The fact that a rookie driver from Formula 3000 can win three of his first five races opens a hole in CART's credibility as the premier North American open-wheel racing series. Either CART's drivers aren't as good as we think they are, or Montoya's engineer Morris Nunn knows something that the rest of the paddock doesn't.
Scottish driver Dario Franchitti came in second at Rio, his third podium appearance this year. Franchitti is quickly becoming the David Coulthard to Montoya's Mika Hakkinen, dutifully chasing the leader around the track in a similarly-equipped Honda-Reynard-Firestone while leaving the rest of the pack in the dust.
Brazilian fans had a smorgasbord of drivers to root for, as PacWest's substitution of Roberto Moreno for the injured Mark Blundell made it ten Brazilians on an entry list of twenty-seven. Christian Fittipaldi, the native son with the famous uncle, thrilled the crowd by taking his first career pole and finishing third, followed by Italian Max Papis and fellow Brazilian Tony Kanaan.
CART race weekends have fallen into a predictable and dull routine this year, with the wide-open competition for the pole providing more drama and excitement than the fast but orderly parade on race day. Of the five races run so far, there have been a total of five competitive passes for the lead, and three of these have occurred within the first few laps of the race, including Montoya's charge from third to first on the initial green flag lap at Rio. Nazareth provided the only mid-race overtaking at the front this season, as Helio Castro-Neves waged a dogfight for the lead with Montoya.
Consider this: of the 769 laps run this season, Montoya has led 343. Greg Moore won Miami by leading 96 of 150 laps, and Adrian Fernandez did the same at Motegi by leading 153 of 201. The three winning drivers have led 77% of the total race laps this season, the remainder occupied by drivers who relinquished the lead due to a crash or equipment trouble, and drivers who gain a temporary lead by pitting out of sequence.
CART's next race will take place at Gateway Raceway outside St. Louis on Memorial Day weekend, twenty-four hours before the Indianapolis 500. Robby Gordon is the first CART regular to break ranks and plans to compete in both races. Should Gateway prove to be a less entertaining race than Indy, CART faces a long hot summer of low-passing road course events up ahead. Perhaps another handfull of parades would put pressure on CART officials to make changes that would promote more overtaking.
Top-Ten Championship Standings:
1. Juan Montoya - 66 points
2. Dario Franchitti - 51 points
3. Christian Fittipaldi - 49 points
4. Greg Moore - 45 points
5. Adrian Fernandez - 43 points
6. Michael Andretti - 40 points
7. Gil de Ferran - 36 points
8. Max Papis - 26 points
9. PJ Jones - 23 points
10.Tony Kanaan - 20 points
Notes:
The start of the race was delayed for more than an hour as workers dried the track, which was dampened by rain just before the scheduled start of the event.
Montoya's teammate Jimmy Vasser qualified sixth, but continued his season of frustration by dropping out with a turbo problem early in the race.
Brazilian drivers did well in front of the home crowd, taking five of twelve points-paying positions. Roberto Moreno did an excellent job subbing for Mark Blundell, starting in 23rd and finishing 11th. Blundell is expected to be sidelined for four to six weeks with a small fracture of the 7th cervical vertebrae. During that period, Blundell will wear a cervical collar. The team will announce Blundell's replacement for upcoming races in the near future.
The Penske chassis had its best weekend of the season, with Al Unser Jr. finishing 12th and his new teammate Tarso Marques qualifying eighth and finishing ninth.
The chassis shuffling by Robby Gordon and Adrian Fernandez is starting to take a toll. Both drivers avoided their new Swift chassis early in the season in favor of older Reynards. While Fernandez has had good results in the prior three races using a '97 Reynard, he qualified poorly at Rio, starting 17th and failing to finish the race due to a crash. Team Gordon's limited inventory of one '98 Reynard and one '99 Swift forced the team to make an unpleasant choice on Friday after Gordon hit the wall in practice: either fix the damaged Swift and skip qualifying, or qualify in the '98 Reynard without any practice time. Gordon elected to start from the back in the repaired Swift and finished 14th. Gordon now heads to Indianapolis for practice in his #23 G-Force-Aurora-Firestone entry.