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Rookie Junqueira wins Motorola 220
Updated: Monday August 20, 2001 2:45 AM
ELKHART LAKE, Wis. (AP) -- Bruno Junqueira decided to let Michael Andretti lead the way. It proved to be a winning decision when Junqueira took advantage of a collision between Andretti and former teammate Christian Fittipaldi, as well as a very fast pit stop. Junqueira give team owner Chip Ganassi his first victory of the season Sunday in the chaotic Motorola 220. The rookie from Brazil was trailing Fittipaldi late in the race with Andretti bearing down on them. "I tried to pass Christian a couple of times earlier and he was blocking and we nearly crashed," Junqueira said. "When I saw Michael was there, I thought, 'I'm going to let him pass me and when he passes Christian I'm going to follow him.'" Instead, the two former Newman-Haas teammates banged wheels as Andretti tried to take the lead. As Fittipaldi pulled off the track and Andretti slowed, Junqueira shot past into the lead and stayed there. "I had a nice clean pass going and he turned right in on me," said Andretti, who managed to stay on track and finish second. "He obviously didn't see me, but I don't know how."
Fittipaldi, a former Road America winner, was surprised. "I wasn't even expecting him there," he said of Andretti. "I think it's a little optimistic to pass there." Junqueira became the sixth driver to earn his first CART victory on the long, hilly road course and the ninth different winner in 14 races this season. The race, scheduled for 55 laps, was stopped 10 laps short after a series of crashes extended the event to its two-hour time limit. And that didn't even count a 48-minute red-flag stoppage while workers stemmed a heavy flow of water at a critical point on the 4.048-mile, 13-turn circuit. Junqueira, last year's European Formula 3000 champion and the replacement for former CART champion Juan Montoya, now in Formula One, has been something of a disappointment this season with a fourth place at Milwaukee his only top-five until Sunday. He began this race knowing that Ganassi, whose team won an unprecedented four straight CART titles from 1996-1999, has signed Kenny Brack as his No. 1 driver for 2002. Junqueira knows he probably is competing with teammate Memo Gidley for the No. 2 spot. "I just try to do my job," Junqueira said. "I had a lack of experience on this track, but the car was good and I really pushed hard and I won the race." Meanwhile, Gidley escaped serious injury in a horrendous crash, getting a wheel off the track and slamming into a bridge abutment. He was briefly unconscious, and later was diagnosed with a hairline fracture of the right leg.
With a number of drivers in the 26-car field out because of crashes or mechanical problems, and everyone else using a variety of fuel strategies, the 24-year-old Brazilian got his shot at victory late in the race and was able to make the most of it. Fittipaldi, Junqueira and Andretti moved to the front of the field on lap 36 after a group of top entries, including Helio Castroneves, Gil de Ferran, Cristiano da Matta and Patrick Carpentier, made final pit stops. Junqueira was in the lead by the end of that lap and his Toyota-powered Lola stayed there the rest of the way. Adrian Fernandez, trying to squeeze out enough fuel to get to the end, was lurking behind him when Junqueira pitted for a splash of fuel on lap 42 and somehow managed to make it back onto the track just ahead of his closest pursuer. Andretti was able to pass Fernandez for second, but never was able to mount a threat on the leader, who won by 2.607-seconds -- nearly a full straightaway. Scott Dixon followed Fernandez across in fourth, with de Ferran, da Matta, Castroneves and Carpentier close behind. Brack, who lost ground after making a fuel stop on the same lap as Junqueira, wound up 14th and fell from a two-point lead over Castroneves to a five-point deficit in the championship battle with seven races remaining. Heavy rain in the hour before the race began soaked the track and prompted CART to start the field single file and under a yellow flag. With most of the track drying quickly, the green flag came out for the start of the sixth lap, but the first trip around the picturesque course at speed was more like a demolition derby than a race. Dario Franchitti and Oriol Servia banged together and spun, rookie Tora Takagi slid and hit the wall, and, in the worst of the accidents, rookie Max Wilson ran into the back of Bryan Herta's car and was launched right over the top of the Herta's open cockpit, barely missing the driver. Paul Tracy, the defending Road America winner, got caught up in the crash and was knocked out of the race. The last two of those crashes took place in the area around the flowing water. During the ensuing caution, several of the drivers chose to change from grooved rain tires to slicks. The green came out again for lap 10, but within seconds Andretti had spun and, in a separate incident, Mauricio Gugelmin, who had changed to slicks, slid through the running water and slammed into the wall. "Those are race cars, not power boats," Gugelmin said. "When you get there, it's just like glass." CART finally red-flagged the event after 14 laps in order to stop the running water by digging under the wall and using sandbags to stem the flow. By the time the racing resumed, the sun was out and the track was dry. Junqueira became the 19th different driver to finish in the top three this season as well as the 19th different driver in the 26-car field to win a CART event.
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