Franchitti's best performance of 2000

[KC]

We saw a little of the Franchitti of last year at Motegi. Will he be able to use this as momentum to gather up the points chase? Both he and Andretti earned some points they both have been missing. Franchitti chalked it up to the 5 weeks of testing he lost and said that he is just getting comfortable in the car again.

[Neil C]

I hope he's back in winning form. I am a fan of his AND Team Kool Green, but I cant bring myself to take any satisfaction in Paul Tracy's success.

[slicktoast]

Yes, it was good to see him pulling himself up to the front. Being one of the pre-season favorites & then having that nasty impact put him in a tough situation.

[Roy]

Neil C
It's nothing personal, but if that's the way you feel and Tracy has the season I hope he has, then hopefully you will have a very unsatisfactory CART year.

Who is your guy, so that in a weak moment I can say something gratuitously negative about him?

[Liz]

Our Paul doesn't care if he's Mister Popularity - he just wants to be on that podium!

GO PAUL!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh, wait, this is a Dario thread!

Um, go Dario too. Good to see him back in top spots again as long as he doesn't bump Moreno down too far. The more competition for top spot, the better the racing!

[Neil C]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Roy:
Neil C
It's nothing personal, but if that's the way you feel and Tracy has the season I hope he has, then hopefully you will have a very unsatisfactory CART year.

Who is your guy, so that in a weak moment I can say something gratuitously negative about him?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Interesting, Roy. A little touchy? I cant have an unsatisfactory CART year because I do not have "a guy". You seem to tolerate gratuitously negative comments about other drivers. My remark is mild compared to the "gratuitous negativity" in the "Something I just realized" topic. Check it out Roy.

I take no satisfaction in Tracy's success because he is a boor and a spoiled brat (kinda like Mikey). I've seen him punt Kanaan in Detroit and Andretti in Fontana last year. I also saw him shove his own team owner who I consider one of the classiest men in the sport.

I was a Tracy fan for his first two seasons. Success has spoiled him. I just dont want him to be spoiled any further.

In his defense, PT was polite and gracious in the paddock at Detroit last year, just before race time when most drivers get "inside themselves". I had to credit him that.

I'm a Jaguar F1 fan. If you feel the need to kick me where it hurts, have a go mate.



[This message has been edited by Neil C (edited 17 May 2000).]

[Roy]

Neil C
Yes, perhaps a little touchy. In a thread about Dario's recent success someone takes a gratuitous swipe at Tracy. It goes with the territory, I know, but it gets a little old.
If you take no satisfaction, and you're not neutral, (obviously you're not),and if Tracy has a successful year, then you'll experience some dissatisfaction. The more the better if that's the way you feel, because I want Tracy to succeed.

I tolerate negative comments about other drivers (although I don't make them) because I'm not a fan of other drivers. I notice that the Andretti fans stick up for their guy, and so they should. If anyone takes up your challenge in "Something I just realized"
I'll ignore them.

Tracy punted Fittipaldi in Detroit, Kanaan in Vancouver, both in 1998. He tangled with Andretti (not at Fontana) and his own teamate in 1999 (Gateway & Chicago?), but in both instances it was a matter of it taking two to tangle. I don't think you saw Tracy shove Barry Green in Houston '98. The pit reporter, Jon Biekus, yelled that Tracy shoved Green. On the TV news that night it was clear that he didn't. Green grabbed Tracy's arm while giving him the "use your head" gesture. Tracy tried to remove his arm from Green's grasp, without shoving him. That's all there was to it, but the Tracy haters preferred to believe their ears instead of their eyes.

I can't comment on the boor and spoiled brat charge. If he was guilty as charged, and I don't know that he was, and if he was decent at Detroit, then mabye he's trying to clean up his act off the track as well as on it.

I don't want to kick you where it hurts. I just reacted to what seemed to be another instance of the knee-jerk anti-Tracy cheap-shot.

[Crash Test]

And you've got to remember he would have absolutely walked in the 1993 had it not been for him hitting every solid object within a five mile radius of the track. It is no doubt that he is good, but still he has hit too many things in the past. So what he is leading the championship at an early stage, remember Greg was winning it at the same time last year.

If it is his fault or not, he still seems to get stuck in the middle of carnage. It's one thing to be taken out by another competitor, but it is entirely different for a driver not to give in a little and let someone else have the corner.

I don't think i will ever forget the Gold Coast on 1997. He stacked it twice in the early stage of the race. Remember 1996? With Newman Hass at the start of the season he just kept wrecking cars.

For me it is just hard to forget the past, just like it is hard to forgive Schumacher for the final races in 1994 and 1998.

[Liz]

Well, if people can't be allowed to live down their past mistakes, then why don't we all blow our brains out right now?

Our Paul has had a couple of bad years and he is now making up for them. Repentance is not only saying "Sorry" - which you'll notice Mikey never ever does (how can he when nothing is ever his fault?) but is changing the behaviour that got you in trouble to begin with. It must be double hard to change when everyone around you is saying that you'll never be any good no matter what you do ... and I give full marks to anybody who keeps his head down and keeps trying no matter how many people are jeering at him and saying he can't do it. Barry Green is indeed a class guy, and Barry Green believes 100% in in Paul Tracy and has said so on many occasions in private and in public. He sees gold and he calls it forth. And Paul is responding by giving him the rewards he is due. Look at the difference in Frenzy; when he had a persistently negative chorus behind him at Williams, he was a failure. At Jordan, where they believe in him, he shines. Barry Green believs in Paul. So I believe in giving him the chance to be right.

[Crash Test]

Got to remember that he gave Max a swift drop kick in Japan...oh well, wait for the next race i guess....

But i am willing to say right here and now that Tracy wont win the title....

keep smiling

[Roy]

I've really got to stop having that 4th cup of coffee in the afternoon. Reading this over, I can see that I didn't just react, I over-reacted.

Neil C was entitled to his comment, and a reasonable response on my part would be to ask him why he took no satisfaction, and then we could discuss it.

I do think that some of Tracy's reputation is undeserved, but I have to admit that to some extent he's brought it upon himself. His rep is such that people not favorably disposed towards him tend to assume he's the one to blame in any contretemps. For example, the shoving thing with Barry Green. For another example, Gold Coast '97.

There, Zanardi and Tracy were on the front row. Alex led early and when his tires went off, Tracy passed him in one of the 90 degree left-handers. They pitted under yellow, and came out in the same order, behind Arndt Meir who had stayed out. After the restart Meir took Tracy extremely deep into one of the chicanes. Tracy, with Zanardi right on him, stayed on it and passed Meir,at the price of bouncing over the curbs. Zanardi pressing Tracy hard, passed him under braking into the same turn (I think) where Tracy had passed him earlier. Zanardi had braked too late however and when Tracy began to repass him inside, to prevent it, Zanardi banged wheels with him. They drove side by side down the straight, neither willing to concede the next corner, touched, and both went off.

Those are the events behind Crash Test's comment that Tracy stacked it twice at Gold Coast '97. Now what was he to do, concede the chicane to the backmarker Meir with Zanardi all over him? Or concede the issue to the rough driving Zanardi who had started the wheel banging? It was terrific racing while it lasted, Tracy did what he had to do, but it's remembered as another Tracy screwup.

Anyway, sorry Neil C. I can't really get at you with Jaguar F1, as long as I'm pulling for Prost F1 that is.

[Roy]

Liz
That couldn't be truer or better said. Good on you!

[Crash Test]

Well actually the first time he crashed out of the race was on the first start, when he hit the wall on the second chicane on the second lap, and got to the next corner and half of the car fell off. But nobody paid any attention to this because at that very moment Christian had his big stack.

The Zanardi crash was a 50/50 thing. Saying that, had he waited a few corners, he would have been able to get past Meir, no problems. There was no way Zanardi could have made it past Paul until he was past Zanardi...
The contact between the two was very avoidable, had he just backed off a little, he would have been able to get past again if he had the faster car.

Also i can't forget his antics the following year...classic stuff there...swerve swerve swerve...Mickey hits him...if he kept driving like that he would have been black flagged anyway..

I also not standing up for Michael, he has made a lot of mistakes in his career, but he has also developed out of sight as driver. Have a look at a video from the early 90's (i am taking my reference from a 1991 tape) and compare his driving style to that of today...so much smoother and controled, and i doubt that you could claim that entirely on todays cars either..

[Neil C]

Fair enough Roy. Well said.

I defer to you on the dates of incidents in 98 but I saw (in person) the incident w/ Kanaan in Detroit last year. Since there was "no harm, no foul", it probably went unreported and untelevised.

If Barry Green stands by Tracy, who am I to argue? Although I've never been a M. Andretti fan, I sometimes feel the need to defend him from some of the slaps he takes in this forum. So...I know how you feel Roy.

I guess we all choose heroes and villians to help make the sport more interesting. Perhaps it's time to recast Paul Tracy.