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Bogota bash Colombians celebrate countryman Montoya
Posted: Monday May 29, 2000 10:03 AM
BOGOTA (Reuters) -- Hundreds of Colombians waving black and white checkered flags thronged Bogota's streets Sunday evening, noisily celebrating the Indianapolis 500 victory by the country's top racing driver, Juan Montoya. Montoya, who was second off the starting grid at the legendary track known as “the Brickyard,” became the first Colombian to win one of motor racing's most grueling events with a performance that kept even President Andres Pastrana glued to his television set. “All Colombians are very happy and very proud that Juan Pablo is the country's standard bearer on the race tracks of the world,” Pastrana told the Caracol radio and TV network minutes after Montoya took the checkered flag in the 200-lap, 500-mile race. “As soon as I heard Juan Pablo was in the lead I was stuck to the TV set,” he added. Live televised broadcasts showed Montoya punching the air as he crossed the finish line while race commentators described him as “the monster of Colombian motor racing.” In the bars and restaurants around a park in an upscale district of northern Bogota, fans unfurled checkered flags hastily made from bed sheets or waved Colombia's tricolor yellow, blue and red national flag. Street vendors also made a brisk trade selling smaller plastic checkered racing flags. Bogota-born Montoya, 24, winner of Europe's Formula 3000 and a former test driver for the Formula One Williams team, became a national hero last year when he won the U.S. CART series title in his rookie season. His victories provided Colombians with a welcome escape from the daily ravages of this Andean nation's long-running guerrilla war and the deepest economic recession on record. Montoya had suffered repeated mechanical problems in this year's CART races, finishing just twice in five starts after his Chip Ganassi Racing Team switched from Honda to Toyota engines. But there were no such problems Sunday as Montoya led the pack in a G Force Oldsmobile for 167 of the 200 laps to become the first Indy 500 debutante to win since Briton Graham Hill in 1966.
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
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