No trash talk for Tracy this year

No trash talk for Tracy this year
Canadian driver keeps low profile by fighting with car, rather than opponents

TORONTO -- For the first time in four seasons, driver Paul Tracy will spend the Champ Car race weekend in his hometown without a target on his back.

That's because the Forsythe Championship Racing driver has been too busy trying to find speed in the new Panoz DP01 chassis this season to have any spare time to irritate his foes.

"I've kind of been off the hot seat this year," Tracy said with an uneasy laugh.

"[Sébastien] Bourdais has now focused his attention on [Robert] Doornbos and it seems every year whoever he's in a battle with, that's who he's focused on discrediting. If it wasn't me, it was [former Forsythe teammate] A.J. Allmendinger or whoever. He's set on Doornbos right now, so I'll leave it to those two."
Three-time reigning champion Bourdais accused Minardi rookie Doornbos of blocking his way to the win in last weekend's rainy race at the Mont Tremblant circuit just north of Montreal. While Bourdais fumed on the podium and refused to shake hands with the Dutchman, Doornbos mocked the Newman/Haas/Lanigan driver by feigning a pout.

Although not being at the centre of a storm in the run-up to Sunday's Steelback Grand Prix of Toronto might be unfamiliar territory for the 38-year-old Tracy, fans will probably be surprised to read his Autosport magazine column this week, which criticizes Bourdais for complaining but also agrees with the French driver's assessment of Doornbos.

"I know what he means about Robert Doornbos," the 2003 Champ Car champion wrote. "He does block a lot. Lots of people have pointed it out. In fact, he's held me up four times in qualifying this year -- once in Las Vegas, twice in Cleveland and once at Mont Tremblant."

Seeing eye-to-eye with Bourdais hasn't been the case in Tracy's past two trips to the 11-turn, 2.825-kilometre street circuit at Exhibition Place.

Last season, the pair traded insults in the days leading up to Toronto after a clash on track in Cleveland. That ongoing battle ultimately led to a shoving match last August after an accident in Denver.

It was no different a year earlier after Bourdais accused a "selfish" Tracy of ruining his qualifying run at the previous race, again in Cleveland.

Bourdais escaped Tracy's wrath in 2004 when the Forsythe driver engaged in a war of words with Alex Tagliani after on-track incidents in Portland and Cleveland.

Unfortunately for Tracy, he's been almost controversy free this year mostly because he hasn't had the pace to stay with the leaders to fight for wins.

"On high-grip road courses - smooth and fast - we are struggling as a team with this car," he said.

"I think we are pretty good on street courses and temporary tracks that are quite dusty and slippery. So, we can be more competitive [in Toronto] because our street-course set-up has always been better."

On his "roller-coaster ride" this year, the low point was the second race at Long Beach where Tracy fractured a vertebrae in a crash during practice.

The accident came on the heels of a promising third-place finish in the season opener at Las Vegas in April. He missed eight weeks and two races because of the injury.

Tracy returned with a 10th in Portland before celebrating his first win in two years at the late June race in Cleveland. In Mont Tremblant last weekend, a cloud of engine smoke ended Tracy's race early and he was classified 15th.

"If the cycle keeps going the way it's been going, hopefully this weekend will be good," he said.

"But you have to be realistic: We are pretty far out of the championship and it will be very hard to make up that kind of points gap."

Tracy is 10th in the drivers' standing after six of 15 races. He has 74 points, 71 fewer than Bourdais and Doornbos, who are tied for the lead with 145. Will Power of Team Australia is third with 131.

The main problem for Tracy and teammate Oriol Servia of Spain has been an incurable case of understeer in the new DP01 chassis.

"It just doesn't want to rotate through the centre of the corner, so we have to over-slow the car on the entry to get the car to turn and we are losing time in the braking zones," Tracy said.

While Tracy continues to fight the car, the move to the new Panoz continues to pay dividends for Tagliani, the only other Canadian in Sunday's race. The 34-year-old from Lachenaie, Que., is fifth in the championship with 122 points, one behind RSport teammate and 2006 championship runner-up Justin Wilson of England.

Last year's winner, Allmendinger, will not be back in Toronto to defend his title after signing with the Red Bull Toyota squad in the National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing's Nextel Cup Series. In another switch this season, Sunday's race will run for 1 hour 45 minutes rather than have a set number of laps.

source : www.theglobeandmail.com