Hurrah For Gil! Hurrah For Brazil!

[Liz]

Congratulations to Gil de Ferran, only the 4th back-to-back title winner in Champ Car history!!!!!!!!!!

And to Cristiano da Matta, race winner in Australia!

A very proud day for Brazil.

And at 1:13 a.m. (which is really 2:13 a.m. except we're off summer time tonight) I am going to bed.

P.S. to Casey Mears. I don't think that is the way to get a full time drive......

[f1manoz]

Great for Gil and Cristiano but, being a Roberto supporter, I was very sad to see him go out with the gearbox problem. Bob was in good shape and might have taken the win, but these things happen as he said.

But what a race from Gil. So tense and tight and he had to be so careful, particularly near the end when Tags and Tracy were getting racey. But he held on and you could tell it was a relief afterwards.

Question: was he more emotional this year or last year?

[Raoul Duke]

Gil deserved the championship so much more then Brack(IMHO). Way to go for him . While Brack has clearly been strong on the ovals his race craft on the road courses was clearly not up to par, to be frank. So Gil earned this championship by being the more consistent.

[Airhead]

Some really interesting things in this race.

Gil wins two in a row.

Christiano wins two in a season.

Andretti comes second. (good to see)

Paul enters the second last lap 4th and ends the race in 14th!

Great last 20 laps though.

[Bononi]

Congrats to Gil for his bi !!!!

Congrats to Cristiano, great win.

I'm sorry for Moreno, nice guy, excellent driver...

[Crash Test]

Being there as he staggered past me into the press conference, he was quite an ill little puppy. I've never seen someone who just won the championship so downright morbid!

I don't know if the race was a classic, there have been better races...at least nearly everyone stayed clean this year, the first time in a while it hasnt been a timed race.

Anyways, it was a great 4 days (ok, friday was a complete farce....so what if it is raining- go out and do some flamin laps!)....i suppose i'll have to come up with a full report at some stage.

[craigmanning]

Crash... It was a hot day wasn't it? Perhaps he wasn't completely rehydrated? What was your take on what you saw?

[R]

Well, championships are won, not deserved. And Gil won it fair and square. Did he have a gearbox problem too, like Moreno suggested, as he was going backwards through the field, or was he just securing the championship?

Anyway, congratulations to both him and Penske. They're back where they were when I started following Champ Cars, as the dominant force of Indy Racing, that's for sure!

Good win by da Matta. He's finishing off the road course part of the season the way he started it, with a win. Good clean race, and thankfully very few yellows.

Now to Fontana - where I'm sure Brack will win and show who's the oval king!

[Crash Test]

I don't know if it was that hot...Surfers is always about that warm this time of the year. I think that if he was that tired/sick, that would explain the dropping off in the closing stages. I don't think Gil would pack off for anyone.

Paul didn't win, Paul didn't crash, but he put on a good show at the end

What a corker drive from Moreno though...that would have been a very popular win.

[R]

Originally posted by Crash Test
I don't know if it was that hot... Paul...put on a good show at the end

Well it certainly became hot for him at the end, didn't it!

[Emfa]

Congratulations to Gil, Roger and the entire team.
Well Done!!
Thanks for a great year (so far) of racing.

[jetsetter]

Congratulations to de Ferran on his well deserved Championship & de Matta on winning the race. I felt sorry for Moreno who had been on the pace all weekend & deserved to win the race. Certainly a top weekend, can't wait till next year.