Race No. 15

Target Grand Prix
Chicago Motor Speedway — Cicero, Illinois
August 20-22, 1999

The Windy City is Calling CART

By Greg Spotts

The CART carnival debuts in a new market this weekend: Chicago. This new event is the culmination of efforts by Chip Ganassi and his partners at Target to bring open-wheel racing to the third-largest city in the country, a positive development for the Champcars, especially in light of CART's loss of the Cleveland race to the IRL. Chicago's smooth one-mile oval features low banking like the famed Milwaukee Mile, promising multiple racing lines and lots of passing. The brand-new track should be the perfect battleground for the remaining championship contenders Dario Franchitti, Juan Montoya, Michael Andretti and Paul Tracy.

Somehow the brilliant four-way championship chase has been nearly overshadowed by a daily barrage of business news: Roger Penske signing Greg Moore and Gil de Ferran to fat three year contracts prior to Detroit, the collapse of Swift's effort to build a sustainable business in CART amid plans by Newman Haas to return to Lola, and the looming Labor Day deadline for success or failure in negotiations to merge CART and the IRL for the 2000 season.

With six races to go, the field has separated into the haves and the have-nots, with almost nobody in the middle. The lion's share of the championship points this season have been scored by only three teams: Target Chip Ganassi Racing, Team Kool Green, and Newman/Haas. With superior engineering car preparation and racecraft, these three teams have left other well-financed operations like Team Rahal, Players, and PacWest in the dust. Team Patrick's championship effort has been derailed by a wrist injury suffered by Adrian Fernandez at Detroit, and Derrick Walker's impending loss of sponsor Valvoline and driver Gil de Ferran for next season has reduced his once-promising PPG Cup chase to a lame-duck effort.

Meanwhile, Montoya's win last weekend at Mid-Ohio marked his fifth visit to victory lane in only fourteen career starts, and he has won on ovals (Nazareth, Rio) road courses (Mid-Ohio) and temporary street circuits (Long Beach, Cleveland.) The young rookie has triumphed in all conditions: from the pole, from mid-pack, in the rain, wrestling with the speedway wings at Nazareth ... and yet he trails Dario Franchitti in the championship race by one point. While Dario has won only two races this season (Toronto and Detroit,) his team has set the benchmark for race strategy and execution, making far fewer mistakes than Montoya's Target team.

Nearly thirty points behind the young leaders are veterans Michael Andretti and Paul Tracy, two of the three active drivers in CART with more than ten career wins. Both have finally overcome their prior tendencies to overdrive the car, and have been successfully controlling their aggression, avoiding the walls, and finishing races all season. Christian Fittipaldi would have been a fifth contender for the championship, but his head injury while testing at Gateway has him watching from the sidelines until Houston at the earliest. With the championship race this close, Montoya, Franchitti, Andretti and Tracy will be under enormous pressure to qualify well and drive mistake-free races: a single DNF could make the difference between champion and first loser.

Expect lots of action in the middle and back of the pack as well, since a number of pilots will be driving their hearts out in search of a ride for next season. Al Unser Jr, Bryan Herta, Roberto Moreno, PJ Jones, Jan Magnussen, Luiz Garcia Jr, Naoki Hattori and Shigeaki Hattori will be looking to impress on the track, whileMemo Gidley, Gualter Salles and other hopefuls network around the paddock in street clothes. Keep an eye on Robby Gordon, who tends to do well on ovals and will be driving a Toyota/Eagle/Firestone package, the first time All American Racing has supplied an Eagle chassis to one of their competitors. Nobody has tested at this new track, so every team will be dialing in their setup on the fly, using the extrapractice sessions on Thursday to get up to speed by Sunday.

A quick look at who is running at Chicago this weekend, and where they may be next season:

TARGET GRAND PRIX PRESENTED BY SHELL - PROGRAM OF CART EVENTS

Thursday, August 19, 1999
10:00 A.M. - 10:45 A.M. Champ Car PRACTICE - Group 1
11:00 A.M. - 11:45 A.M. Champ Car PRACTICE - Group 2
2:15 P.M. - 3:00 P.M. Champ Car PRACTICE - Group 1
3:15 P.M. - 4:00 P.M. Champ Car PRACTICE - Group 2

Friday, August 20, 1999

10:30 A.M. - 12:00 P.M. Champ Car PRACTICE
2:30 P.M. - 3:15 P.M. Champ Car PRACTICE - Group 1
3:30 P.M. - 4:15 P.M. Champ Car PRACTICE - Group 2

Saturday, August 21, 1999

9:00 A.M. - 10:15 A.M. Champ Car PRACTICE
1:15 P.M. - 2:45 P.M. Champ Car QUALIFYING
5:00 P.M. Champ Car DRIVERS AUTOGRAPH SESSION

Sunday, August 22, 1999

10:00 A.M. - 10:30 A.M. Champ Car Warm Up
1:15 P.M. GRID Champ Cars
2:00 P.M. START OF TARGET GRAND PRIX PRESENTED BY SHELL
(Race Number 15 of the 1999 FedEx Championship Series) 225 laps