Champ Car fans are in for a treat in Cleveland

By Flagworld (Auto123.com),

Friday, July 04, 2003

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Carpentier is looking forward to the challenge of Cleveland at night

source: cart.com

When U.S. Bank Presents the Cleveland Grand Prix over Fourth of July weekend at Burke Lakefront Airport, you'd best throw out the form book. Champ Car's Cleveland tilt is unique in any form of motorsport - an airport course that combines the best qualities of road and street racing with the panoramic view of an oval for the fans. And that view will be even more spectacular Saturday night when the Champ Cars engage in the first-ever night road race in the history of the formula.

It promises to be a huge weekend in every respect. Thursday is Champ Car's longest day, with three practice sessions and qualifying stretched out over nine hours beginning at 1:30 in the afternoon.

The reason for such a long Thursday? Long days in Daylight Savings Time. Saturday's night race is set to be green-flagged at 8:30 p.m. But sunset won't occur until 9:04 p.m., so CART has scheduled Thursday night practice sessions from 8:00 to 8:50 and 9:40 to 10:30 to help the drivers get acclimated to the changing light conditions.

Things are slightly more normal Friday, except practice begins at 4 o'clock p.m., six hours later than usual. Think of it as being on Hawaiian time.

Aside from the race being run on a Saturday night, the rest of the Cleveland Grand Prix weekend should remain much the same as it has been for the last 21 years. And that's a compliment. The racing is always fast an intense, and more often than not, there's a surprising face in the winner's circle.