Rookie Bruno Junqueira take first

[MountaineerTom]

From CART.com

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ELKHART LAKE, Wis.--Sunday's Motorola 220 was wet and wild in the best Elkhart Lake tradition. At the end of a strange race, rookie Bruno Junqueira joined Hector Rebaque and Jacques Villeneuve (the 1995 CART Champion's uncle of the same name) as unlikely first-time Champ Car winners at the scenic Road America circuit in central Wisconsin.

Junqueira and the Target Chip Ganassi Racing crew played the changing wet-to-dry conditions to perfection to earn the team's first win of the 2001 season. They endured a major scare on the way, however, when Memo Gidley had a huge accident on the 21st lap that left his Target Toyota/Lola upside down after it collided with a concrete bridge abutment at 140 mph. Gidley sustained a small fracture to the non-weight-bearing portion of his right femur. He was expected to be released Sunday night and planned to meet with Dr. Terry Trammell in Indianapolis on Monday.

Heavy rain caused the start of the race to be briefly delayed, and the first five laps were run under yellow due to a stream of water running across the track in Turn 11. On the first green lap, a chain reaction collision ensued as drivers slowed for the Turn 11 river and Max Wilson's Driving 101 Ford-Cosworth/Lola was launched over the top of Bryan Herta's Forsythe/Indeck Ford-Cosworth/Reynard. No one was hurt, but the accident also eliminated Paul Tracy.

Earlier in the lap, Junqueira had dropped from 10th to 20th after bumping wheels with Christian Fittipaldi and spinning at Turn 5. Meanwhile, pole man Kenny Brack led in the Shell Ford-Cosworth/Lola over Alex Tagliani, Gil de Ferran, Cristiano da Matta and Helio Castroneves.

On the ninth lap, Junqueira was one of the first drivers to stop for slicks. But it may have been too soon, because two of the others who did (Mauricio Gugelmin and Tora Takagi) spun at the Turn 11 river and clouted the wall.

That was enough for CART Chief Steward Chris Kneifel to call for the red flag, which came out at the end of the 14th lap. The Simple Green Safety Team went to work digging trenches and building a dam to stop the flow of water at Turn 11, while the teams went to work on their cars. That left some teams­-notably Team Rahal­-upset. That's because one by one between Laps 9 and 14, almost all the leaders pitted for slicks-­except for Castroneves, Patrick Carpentier and Michel Jourdain Jr., who now led Brack, Tagliani and de Ferran.

On the restart, Carpentier fell back to fourth when he banged wheels with Jourdain at Turn 6. Fittipaldi now ran third, and the order remained the same until Gidley's big crash at the Billy Mitchell bridge, which also involved Scott Dixon. The PacWest rookie had faded after starting a career-best third before clashing with Michael Andretti. After pitting to repair a broken right front toe link, Dixon was running well behind Gidley, but debris from the accident managed to put a gash in Scott's helmet and knocked off his rear wing.

As the field ran under yellow, Dixon stopped lap after lap as the PacWest crew chipped away at repairing the damage and mounting a new rear wing.

By now it was apparent that the race would not go the scheduled 55-lap distance. So the calculations began. About half the field pitted under yellow on Lap 23; Adrian Fernandez stopped again on Lap 28, as did Dixon for the final installment of his wing repair.

Castroneves led from the Lap 29 restart from Carpentier. Then on Lap 33, de Ferran forced Carpentier off the road as he made a pass at Canada Corner.

Next time by, the Penskes and the rest of the leaders who hadn't stopped during the Gidley yellow pitted, and de Ferran seized the advantage from his teammate. Da Matta came in at the same time behind the Marlboro cars but split them after a quick stop.

Leading the other group was Fittipaldi, but he and Andretti banged into each other in Turn 5 and Junqueira nipped past. Now it was Junqueira over Andretti, Alex Zanardi, Brack, Fernandez, Shinji Nakano, Jourdain and Dixon. Then came de Ferran, da Matta, Castroneves and the group who just pitted. But everyone ahead of them except Fernandez and Dixon would have to pit again.

Andretti came in on Lap 41 and Junqueira a lap later. And then the race finally gained some clarity, as Junqueira emerged with a comfortable lead that he was able to hold to the finish. Fernandez moved up to third, with Dixon an amazing fourth after making no fewer than seven pit stops.

"I'm really happy," said Junqueira, whose last race win came on the way to the FIA Formula 3000 championship last year. "It was a really difficult race for all the teams. The conditions were very difficult early in the race, with a lot of water at Turn 11.

"At the end, I didn't know how many cars were running or where they were running," he added. "I just pushed as hard as I could. The Target team gave me a great splash-and-go pit stop, and luckily I came out in front of Michael."

Junqueira said the key to his race was letting Andretti past because it led to Michael's accident with Fittipaldi. Bruno noted that he had several problems with Christian on the day.

On the first (green flag) lap, I was inside Christian and he completely closed the door," he said. "Five corners later, I was inside him again and he did the same thing. That put us both last.

"Later, Christian was running in front of me and I could see that Michael wanted me to try to pass him," Junqueira added. "Instead I basically let Michael past and figured I'd follow him. Michael got inside him, then he just hit Michael."

"I think Bruno and I had the same problem with Christian," Andretti said. "Either he's wearing blinders, he can't see out the side of his car or he's angry at us all."

Fernandez has developed a reputation for faring well in tactical races. Sunday's third-place finish marked his second podium as a team owner.

"My car was really good in the dry, so it's a shame that I spun off in qualifying and started at the back," said Adrian. "I went for a full dry setup in the race and that really didn't pay off because everyone was able to work on their cars during the red flag as well as change tires, which we had already done.

"With all the yellows, my engineer John Ward made all the right calls and we were able to run to the end," he continued. "I take my hat off to all the guys because we never gave up."

The same could be said for Dixon, who drove seven laps under the yellow without a rear wing.

"The crew did an unbelievable job keeping me on the lead lap," he said. "Every time we came in for more repair, we topped off the fuel. So I knew I could race the rest of the way."

De Ferran, da Matta and Castroneves finished fifth through seventh, with Castroneves earning the bomus point for leading the most laps. That, combined with Kenny Brack's 14th-place finish, puts Castroneves in the lead of the FedEx Championship Series for the first time in his career.

"We got lucky on our strategy by staying out when the leaders pitted for slicks on Lap 11," Helio said. "That put us in the lead and we were then able to refuel, put on slicks and work on the Marlboro car under red flag conditions. At this time in the season, every point is important."

Brack was upset that the red flag rules allow the cars to be worked on.

"I think we got screwed on the red flag," he stated. "How can four guys who didn't pit for slicks get to change from rain tires to slicks while sitting in the pits on the red flag? It's an unfair advantage. They got the grace to change their tires and we went from first to fourth."

Castroneves now has 110 points, putting him five ahead of Brack. De Ferran is third with 99 points, followed by Andretti with 89 and Dixon with 82.