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| Mario Haberfeld had a great first outing in CART and finished a fine fourth place at the St. Petersburg Grand Prix. (Photo: Autostock) |
The closest call of the two and a half hour spectacle came when rookie Mario Haberfeld blocked and then forced a passing Bruno Junqueira much too close to the inside wall, a highly illegal move in which the lad should have been black flagged, and caused a rightfully angry Junqueira to arrive late on the brakes and nearly saw Michel Jourdain Jr. in half. A few milliseconds sooner and it would have been an ugly scene. He's lucky he didn't try that move on Tracy or Haberfeld would still be pulling Bridgestone's out of his teeth. All the same the rookie ended up fourth on the day, securing some valuable championship points and hopefully an even more valuable learning experience.
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| Players teammates Patrick Carpentier and Paul Tracy pit while running first and second. (Photo: Autostock) |
The race itself offered constant duels between a wonderfully competent pack of racers. While all deserve merit for making the field only one can win, and being Canadian I'm always only too happy to cheer Tracy to the checkered flag. The thirty-four year old Toronto native, piloting his Lola chassis, started "slowly" but managed to shift himself into high gear and take top spot on the podium.
Tracy, commenting on his usual gradual beginnings in the points race said, "I am usually a slow starter. Normally it takes me four or five races to get a point, and you're 60-70 points behind by then." That's obviously not the case this weekend as he ended the day with a total of 21 points; 20 for winning and 1 for leading the most laps.