Well, for the second straight race, rain played a factor in the 
outcome.  This time, however, the Firestone rain tires weren't a factor!  
Confused?  Let me try to explain...

The start was clean, with Zanardi quickly dashing out in front.
Ribeiro got a little squirrelly, almost taking out Blundell or Gugelmin
in the chicane.  Tracy used this opportunity to rocket past him into
4th.

Andretti, having won three of the last four races, was not to repeat
his good fortune, coming in with electrical gremlins on lap two. 
Many teams seemed to be having electrical trouble, probably a result
of the morning warmup, which took place in heavy rain.

Herta, running in seventh, was producing a trail of blue smoke and
probably dropping oil on the track.  Perhaps as a result of this, 
Tracy lost it in a fast corner, sliding just slightly off the track.
It was enough, however, to give him a wild ride in the rain soaked
grass, with Tracy having the presence of mind to pull a 180 just 
before he hit a very deep tire barrier.  The car was driveable, but
he dropped out a few laps later with a broken wishbone.

On the restart, Pruett, who was running in second, took a cue from Tracy 
and spun it in the same corner.  This was to be just the beginning of
an awful day for Scott, who had wrecked his car in practice.

Moore joined the crowd in the pits on lap 11, with a dead car suffering
from electrical troubles.  Up front, the rest of the young guns were
happily in the lead:

Zanardi
Vasser
Ribeiro
de Ferran
Pruett
Unser Jr.

While the cameras stayed on the leaders, Christian, Robby, Parker
and Emmo were having a fine battle for 8th through 11th, all nose
to tail around the course.

de Ferran, meanwhile, was all over Ribeiro, trying to force a mistake.
Slightly further back, Pruett was being hounded by Unser, who was looking
to move closer to Vasser, who he was chasing in the points.

Zanardi, all alone up front, was ripping off fast lap after fast lap, 
pulling out to a ten second lead over his teammate.

Gugelmin started to drop back from 7th, and was quickly picked off
by the battle behind him.  Clearly suffering some sort of problem,
he was in the pits on the next lap.  Everyone closed up, and 7th
through 15th were all in contact at one point!

Salazar, desperately trying to show that his drive at Indy was no
fluke, got in front of the Pruett/Unser Jr. battle.  Never one to let
being a lap down get in the way of a good block, he proceeded to weave
all over the track on the back straight.  Pruett tried to get past on
one side, got blocked, whipped across the track to the other side, 
with Salazar desperately trying to force him into the wall.  Unser,
stunned silly by all of this, eventually tried the other side of
Salazar, but it was clear that he feared getting knocked out of the
race.  Pruett managed to keep Unser behind him (for now).

Lap 31 seemed to be the pivotal lap of the race.  Unser managed to 
get past Pruett, de Ferran blazed past a troubled Vasser, and the
light sprinkle turned into rain.

If its raining, then the Firestone teams must have dropped waaaayyy
back, right?  Well, not really.  All the Firestone teams decided that
slicks were better than rain tires.  

Unser Jr. lead the rain tire crowd, with Emmo, Robby, Blundell, 
Johansson and Fernandez all electing to go with rain tires.  The
downpour really started, providing some entertainingly slow off track
excursions.  de Ferran was the first driver on slicks to test the
grass, but he was quickly joined by Pruett, Christian, Vasser.  Many
others were probably off course, but the cameramen were too busy to
show them all.

Christian Fittipaldi took the lead after the stops, but quickly lost
it while spinning his tires in the grass.

Zanardi was tiptoeing around the track on slicks (and I really mean
slow).   The rain tire crowd were now turning laps more than
twenty seconds faster than the slick group (Zanardi was lapping in the
94-100 seconds range, Unser in the 74-80 second range).

Vasser, deciding to make the points race as exciting as the Portland
race, stalled during his off-course excursion, dropping him a couple of
laps down by the time the busy course workers could get him restarted.

Unser, meanwhile, was using his rain tires to good advantage, making
quick work of Gordon and quickly catching Zanardi.  The rain had stopped
however, so Zanardi was now able to turn laps in the 82 second range,
still six seconds slower than Unser.  On lap 39, Unser got the jump
he needed on the entrance to the pit straight, and pulled into the lead.

It was to be short-lived, however, as the drying track allowed Zanardi
to quickly repass on lap 40.  Unser was trying to find puddles on the
main straight to keep his tires from cooking, but the track was now
clearly too dry for rain tires.  Zanardi is now back down to the
67 second range.  Everyone on rain tires is back into the pits to
switch to slicks, ending the chances of almost everyone who didn't 
gamble on slicks in the last stop.

P.J. Jones went off track hard, sliding backwards into another cushy
tire barrier.  He was so deep in the barrier that they used a crane to
pull him out.

Ribeiro was the first driver to really get his car running, turning
laps a full two seconds faster than everyone else.

The order now:

Zanardi
de Ferran
Christian Fittipaldi
Rahal
Ribeiro
Unser

Zanardi, having outlasted the challenge by Unser, was now over twenty
seconds out in front, clearly having the fastest car today.

Jourdain, who had been gamely showing the IRL flag at the back of the
pack, seemed to have missed the end of the pit straight, sliding deep
into the gravel trap.   This brought out the first full course caution
of the day on lap 62.  Everyone quickly came into the pits, EXCEPT FOR 
THE LEADER!  He was so far in front that he had to do almost a full
lap before he could get back to the pits.  This really screwed up the
Newman-Haas team, who told Michael to stay out to make up his lap.
By the time they figured out what had happened, the pits were closed
and Michael would be forced to pit under yellow.  Unlike last race,
his radio communications (and sign language) were less polite with
his crew.  Blundell, who had pitted on lap 41 was the only driver
who didn't pit.  The full course yellow lasted for five laps, and 
about eight minutes.

On the restart, Unser quickly got by Blundell, with the battle lining
up like this:

Zanardi
de Ferran
Christian Fittipaldi
Rahal
Unser
Emmo
Ribeiro
Johnstone
Blundell

Spots 2 through 6 were battling, as were the group in 7th through 9th.

Zanardi was still on another plane, pulling out from the field again.

Emerson dropped out with a broken transmission on lap 78, with Blundell
confusing the ABC guys by finally taking his last pit stop of the day.

Unser and Rahal were battling fiercely, with Rahal making a mistake
and getting wide, allowing Unser past on lap 81.

Salazar, trying his best to be brutal, was now two full laps behind
the closest competitor, and five laps down on the field.

Rahal had another moment in the same corner on lap 87, letting Johnstone
move past.  Things stayed pretty static for the last 10 laps, with
the only battles back in the pack between Johansson and Gordon, who 
were a lap down, and Fangio and Vasser.  Fangio managed to hold off
Vasser for many laps, finally making a mistake and letting Vasser by
him with two laps left.

Meanwhile, Andretti, who was nearly 20 seconds back of his lap down 
group, managed to make it up in the final laps, overtaking Fernandez.

Zanardi took the yellow, nearly ten seconds out in front of de Ferran
who was followed by Christian Fittipaldi.

All three made a close pass of the pits, with Zanardi jubilantly waving
his fist in the air over his first victory!

Final order was:

1. Zanardi
2. de Ferran
3. C. Fittipaldi
4. Unser
5. Johstone
6. Rahal
7. Ribeiro
8. Blundell
9. Johansson  -1
10. Gordon    -1 
11. Andretti  -1 
12. Fernandez -1

Fastest laps of the day:

1. Zanardi  62.572 lap 28
2. Emmo!    62.758 lap 28
3. Andretti 62.894 lap 72
4. Blundell 62.937 lap 85
5. Vasser   63.042 lap 29

It was an interesting day, with Zanardi dominating the rest of the field.
The points battle is now very tight, with Vasser finishing out of
the points, and his pursuers de Ferran, Fittipaldi and Unser all
finishing well.  Andretti made the best of a bad day to pick up a pair of
points with his eleventh place finish.

Next week, Cleveland.  You'll recall that last year, Gordon and Villeneuve 
had quite a battle here.  The end of the race had Gordon intentionally
driving his car into the side of Andretti's!  The wide track makes for
some really good battles, so make sure you watch!

My thanks to EDS, by the way, who are now providing real time (sort of)
scoring to beta testers of their Indycar site.  Really adds another 
dimension to the race!  Now if they could just get it to show up on
the same lap as the TV coverage, I'd be slightly less confused!

John
jclarke@nortel.ca