Paul Tracy is the first Canadian-born driver to win Champ Car races twice in his homeland during the same year. Now the Thrill from West Hill will try for the naturally Canadian hat trick next month in Montreal.
The hard-charging Tracy, the focus of prerace controversy, easily captured the Molson Indy Vancouver yesterday for a second time and only two weeks after the Player's/Forsythe Racing team's top gun drove a similarly impressive race in Toronto, not far from his Scarborough upbringing.
The Montreal race Aug. 24 on the Gilles Villeneuve road course could easily see Canadian racing history made, with Tracy having already equalled his best season with five victories.
"We would love to do that," Tracy said, "but we can't make any mistakes or it's really going to cost us."
He was won 24 times during his Champ Car career on the circuit directed by Championship Auto Racing Teams and celebrated yesterday by doing the customary donuts in front of a wildly appreciative crowd.
Americans Al Unser Jr. and Michael Andretti (twice) are the only drivers to have won Champ car races in Toronto and Vancouver in the same season, with this being only the second year of the Montreal event in the Champ Car World Series.
Tracy finished a whopping 17.820 seconds ahead of runner-up Bruno Junqueira of Brazil on the temporary street course near downtown Vancouver, but not until after an illegal start by Junqueira that was a continuation of controversy following qualifying runs earlier in the weekend.
The Canadian driver claimed the provisional pole Friday, then had it revoked and given to Junqueira when CART stewards determined Tracy had blocked other cars during the first qualification run.
Tracy reclaimed the pole Saturday with an even faster time and after a heated confrontation with CART president Chis Pook the night before in which he said he felt betrayed by CART after supporting the series in times of financial difficulty.
"I feel that I always perform well when I'm under pressure," Tracy said yesterday. "The more pressure, the better.
"It's pretty well documented [that]every time I'm under probation or have a problem, that's when I seem to come alive. I kind of like the heat on a little bit and that's what makes me tick."
The anxious Junqueira jumped the beginning of the race and was more than a car length ahead of Tracy when he crossed the start line.
CART officials quickly handled a Player's/Forsythe protest and Junqueira was ordered to move aside and let Tracy pass, with the Canadian taking the lead on lap 24.
Tracy easily held the advantage the rest of the race, except for a brief moment when he was in the pits for refuelling, and now is 20 points ahead of the second-place Junqueira in the driving standings with the next race, the Grand Prix Road American, on Aug. 3 at Elkhart Lake, Wis.
Leading rookie Sébastien Bordais of France finished third in Vancouver to fill out the podium.
The pro-Canadian crowd had visions early in the race of an all-Canadian podium, but that possibility ended when Montrealer Alex Tagliani of Rocketsports Racing went out on lap 30 in a collision with Tiago Monteiro.
Tracy teammate Patrick Carpentier of Ville Lasalle, Que., was running second when his race ended on lap 60 as Carpentier, on cold tires after pitting, collided with Mario Dominguez.
Tracy, meantime, kept building his lead and his crew made only minor adjustments during three uneventful pit stops.
"It's an unbelievable feeling," Tracy noted. "To win two races in a row is very difficult anywhere and to do two races in a row in Canada, being a Canadian and driving for a Canadian team, the pressure is always very high.
"We were able to focus this weekend and replicate what we did in Toronto and score maximum points. There's a long ways to go in the championship and the races coming up, I feel I do very well at."
Cars owned by Dale Coyne Racing didn't reach the start line when drivers Geoff Boss and Gualter Salles were involved in separate crashes during the prerace lap.
Then it was Junqueira, starting in the lead grid beside Tracy, who got everyone's attention when he zoomed past the Canadian on the run-up to the start line.
"I came out of the corner in second gear and waited for him to get lined up and make it a nice even start," Tracy explained. "I was in second and I think Bruno went by in fourth. I wasn't happy about it and we made a complaint to CART.
"I knew that the call was coming and he was going to have to let me by, so I slowed down. I backed off a little bit and cooled my tires down just a touch and didn't run the corners so far. Once we switched positions, I pulled away. From there, we had it under control."
Junqueira and Tracy rarely made eye contact during the postrace news conference, even though sitting beside each other. It was obvious the rivalry has gone to another level after weekend developments.
"When the [Newman/Haas Racing]team told me I had to let Tracy by, I couldn't believe it," Junqueira said. "It was a really strange feeling [and]I got really disappointed."
Tracy led 77 of the 100 laps on the 1.781-mile course that had 12 turns. There was little passing, especially near the front. Only four cars were on the lead lap when the race ended. Tracy's average speed as 90.632 miles an hour.
Attendance yesterday was 66,077 to run the three-day total to 162,271.