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Atlas F1 Magazine Writers
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Kenseth Goes Back-to-Back
Last year Matt Kenseth won one race on his way to clinching the series title. This year, he has doubled that total just three races into the season after winning at Las Vegas on the weekend. For weekend's win was not only back-to-back wins this year for Kenseth, but also back-to-back victories at the track, as this was the venue of his solitary win last year.
The field pitted, with Kahne leading Busch, Tony Stewart, Jamie McMurray and Elliott Sadler out of the pits. Johnson was no longer near the front after suffering damage to the front right of his car as he exited his pit stop. The race restarted on lap 46, Stewart moving into second on lap 52, before taking the lead from Kahne on lap 55 and pulled away. Meanwhile Jeff Gordon was in the top 20 after a dreadful weekend leading up to the race, including a crash in qualifying and a blown engine in practice.
Lap 88 and Ryan Newman brought out the caution after spinning off turn four but somehow missing the wall. More pit stops, with Stewart leading Kenseth, Busch, Kevin Harvick and Sadler back on to the track. Back to green on lap 93, with Kenseth taking the lead two laps later. Dale Earnhardt Jr's day, which hadn't got off to a good start when he was lapped so early in the race, had become worse after twice pitting early to correct his car's handling problems, only to still have an ill-handling car and for cautions to come out before everyone else pitted. On lap 107 Earnhardt Jr had enough and took his car to the garage to see if the problem could be cured, the first of what would be several visits to the garage by Earnhardt Jr.
The next caution came out on lap 138 after Jeff Green hit the turn two wall. Once again the field headed to the pits, with Kenseth leading Harvick, Stewart, Kahne and Busch out of the pits. Racing resumed on lap 143, with Stewart retaking second soon after. Not much happened before Michael Waltrip hit the turn four wall (with a little help from Bill Elliott in one of his rare 2004 appearances) to bring out the caution on lap 166.
The field returned to green flag racing on lap 192, Kenseth moving back into fifth on lap 195 before debris brought the caution flag out once more on lap 202. Despite cars having pitted just over ten laps earlier, the field pitted once more as this year's softer tyres and the possibility of making it to the end without pitting again loomed large. Harvick won the race off pit road to lead Stewart, Johnson (who only took two tyres), Kenseth and Busch as the race restarted on lap 207.
The pace which saw Kenseth lead earlier in the race was still there as he moved quickly up to third. With 50 laps remaining in the 267 lap event he was with Stewart for second place, taking the place soon after. Around ten laps later on lap 231 Kenseth took the lead from Harvick, with Harvick alone among the leaders in wondering if he could make it to the end with the fuel in his tank.
Late in the race early leader Kasey Kahne charged through the top five, taking McMurray with 11 laps remaining for fourth place and third from Stewart five laps later. With five laps remaining, Kevin Harvick's crew chief's words rang true as, as predicted, he ran out of fuel, Harvick finishing the race in 21st place. Unlike the previous round at Rockingham, Kahne couldn't catch Kenseth but they did finish one-two again, as Kenseth went on to take the victory, with Stewart, McMurray and Mark Martin rounding out the top five. Meanwhile points leader (at the start of the race) Dale Earnhardt Jr finished 35th, his multiple visits to the garage probably costing him only one position and 3 points compared to where he may have finished had he stayed on track with his ill-handling car (and not crashed).
Result of NASCAR Nextel Cup, Round 3 of 36, UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Nevada, United States:
Standings: Matt Kenseth 523, Tony Stewart 435, Elliott Sadler 405, Jeff Gordon 404, Kurt Busch 400, Kevin Harvick 399, Dale Earnhardt Jr 398, Kasey Kahne and Jamie McMurray 385, Casey Mears 367 etc.
Bright Start To 2004
It was a bruising weekend, with several cars damaged in a series of scrapes through Albert Park's concrete canyons, the most serious being a clash between five time champion Mark Skaife and Formula Holden champion Simon Wills after Wills spun in front of Skaife during the third race start of the weekend. In other incidents, Russell Ingall and Bathurst winner Rick Kelly collided, ending with Kelly in the wall at turn 16, while Wills's new teammate Dale Brede crashed around the back of the course in a single car incident.
Bathurst dominator Greg Murphy won the first race of the weekend, leading home Bright, Garth Tander, Steven Richards and Paul Radisich in the first Ford, the first official outing for British outfit Triple Eight Race Engineering in the series. Defending series champion Marcos Ambrose was third behind Bright for much of the race but spun back to sixth trying to avoid Bright who braked early for a corner.
The battle between British tuners Triple Eight and Prodrive was comprehensively claimed by Triple Eight, with Craig Lowndes and Glenn Seton off the pace all weekend in Prodrive's Ford Performance Racing Falcons. The teams will compete for the first round of the championship in two weeks on the shortened version of the former Adelaide Grand Prix circuit.
Champ Car To Hold Race In Seoul For First Time
By Lewis Franck
The Champ Car series will visit five countries this year and includes a street race in Seoul, South Korea for the first time. Open Wheel Racing Series LLC, the new owners of the series, announced a 16-race schedule at a news conference on Monday in Long Beach, California - the site of the opening round.
OWRS is operating the series after purchasing the assets from the bankrupt company previously known as CART and will keep its headquarters in Indianapolis.
"We are very excited about our entire 2004 schedule and are especially happy with the diversity of challenges it presents to our teams and drivers," said Champ Car president Dick Eidswick.
The revamped series includes visits to Mexico and Australia as well as Korea but most of the races are scheduled for traditional venues in North America, including Canada. England and Germany have been dropped from the schedule.
The open wheeled Champ Cars will race on a mix of temporary street circuits, permanent road circuits and one oval. The new street race in Seoul will be held on October 17.
Two additional events are still to be announced, including the season ending race in November.
The first race will take place on April 18 at the site of the former Formula One race in Long Beach. Canada's Paul Tracy will return to defend his title with additional driver and team announcements due to be made on Tuesday in Long Beach.
2004 series calendar:
Note: Late September and late November are both slated for additional events,
with OWRS preference appearing to be for an event in South Africa and
Las Vegas Motor Speedway respectively.
Report provided by Reuters
Valentino Rossi has been circulating faster at Phillip Island than last week when the majority of the MotoGP field was in Australia. He trimmed his times to be on a par with lead Ducati rider Loris Capirossi and the back of the Hondas who dominated the test, with Max Biaggi leading the way.
At Valencia, Nicky Hayden set the fastest times on the factory Repsol Honda, just ahead of Ducati pairing Capirossi and Troy Bayliss and HRC's Alex Barros. Kenny Roberts was next quickest but the factory Suzuki was only just within a second of Hayden. Kenny's brother Kurtis sustained a dislocated shoulder after falling from his Proton.
NASCAR
Kasey Kahne sat on the front row with Kurt Busch alongside, with Kurt Busch taking the lead at the start of the race before Kahne surged into the lead on lap 5. Back in the field Jimmie Johnson was charging, having started outside the top twenty to move into second in less than 20 laps. On lap 24 points leader Dale Earnhardt Jr was lapped by Kahne, while just over 10 laps later Johnson took the lead from Kahne. Not long after the first caution of the day came out on lap 40 when Scott Wimmer lost an engine.
More pit stops, with Stewart leading Kenseth, Bobby Labonte, Harvick and Busch out of the pits. Lap 173 and the race restarted, with Kenseth taking the lead straight afterwards, Harvick up to third soon after. But it was back to caution on lap 184 when Kevin LePage had an engine failure. As with every other caution, the field headed pitward, with Harvick leading Stewart, Busch, Mark Martin and Jamie McMurray off pit lane, as a 'poor' stop dropped Kenseth from first to seventh.
Pos Driver Car
1. Matt Kenseth Ford Taurus
2. Kasey Kahne Dodge Intrepid
3. Tony Stewart Chevrolet Monte Carlo
4. Jamie McMurray Dodge Intrepid
5. Mark Martin Ford Taurus
6. Elliott Sadler Ford Taurus
7. Casey Mears Dodge Intrepid
8. Bobby Labonte Chevrolet Monte Carlo
9. Kurt Busch Ford Taurus
10. Rusty Wallace Dodge Intrepid
V8 Supercar
The V8 Supercar season opened with three races on the Australian Grand Prix support program, and PWR Racing lead driver Jason Bright came away with the biggest smile of the weekend, finishing second in the first race and following it up with two wins.
Ambrose's luck did not improve with an engine overheating in the longer second race which saw Murphy fade with tyre troubles, leaving Bright to the win ahead of Perkins Engineering racer Steven Richards. Murphy was third, ahead of Tander who was displaying some early promise for Garry Rogers Motorsport, with Jason Bargwanna the best Ford in fifth. The final sprint race saw little change in the top order with Tander and Murphy swapping places. Ambrose climbed from the tail of the field to finish sixth behind Bargwanna and ahead of Steven Johnson.
CART
Date Track
April 18 Long Beach Street Circuit, California
May 23 Fundidora Park, Mexico
June 5 The Milwaukee Mile, Wisconsin
June 20 Portland International Raceway, Oregon
July 3 Burke Lakefront Airport, Ohio
July 11 Toronto Street Circuit, Canada
July 25 Vancouver Street Circuit, Canada
August 8 Road America, Wisconsin
August 15 Denver Street Circuit, Colorado
August 29 Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Canada
September 12 Laguna Seca, California
October 17 South Korea
October 24 Surfers Paradise, Australia
November 7 Mexico City
Briefs
Date Track
May 2 Enna-Pergusa, Italy
May 30 Estoril, Portugal
June 6 Jerez, Spain
June 27 Monza, Italy
July 18 Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium
August 30 Donington Park, Great Britain
September 12 Dijon-Prenois, France
September 19 Zolder, Belgium
October 31 Cagliari, Italy
November 28 Dubai, United Arab Emirates
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