GRAND
PRIX OF LONG BEACH: TEAM PLAYER'S SETS ITS SIGHTS ON COMPLETING A RARE «
HAT TRICK »
Winning three straight races to start the season is no easy feat in any
motorsports series, but Team Player's is in a position to pull off this
rare « hat trick » at Sunday's Grand Prix of Long Beach, the Champ Car
World Series event run on the city's1.968-mile street circuit.
With victories in the first two races of the season - both by Paul Tracy
- Team Player's can make it three in a row for the first time in its
history, if Tracy or teammate Patrick Carpentier takes the checkered flag in
the 90-lap Long Beach event. Should Tracy produce another victory, he would
be the first major motorsports series driver to open a season with three
straight triumphs since Al Unser Sr. in the 1971 USAC Champ Car series.
Tracy has won three consecutive races in the Champ Car series before -
with Team Green in 1997 - but that fast start did not lead to a drivers'
championship for Tracy, who is determined to garner that elusive first
drivers' title in 2003.
"That's why, going into Long Beach, I'm not even thinking in terms
of three straight," said Tracy, who holds an 11-point lead (43-32)
over Mexico's Michel Jourdain atop the drivers' standings. "Putting
those big points in the bank early is important because I've had some slow
starts in the past, and that makes it tough to make up ground. But I just
try to take each race as it comes and deal with whatever situation occurs.
It's been such a fantastic team effort so far with Team Player's, and
there is a great air of confidence that we can stay on a roll."
Antoine L'Estage and his codriver Alan Ockwell of the Yokohama Canada Rally Team won the 2014 edition of the Rallye Defi by winning every stage of the rally.