Moreno win, takes CART series lead

Monday, July 03, 2000

By Chris Dolack, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

CLEVELAND -- In the past three seasons, the winner of the Marconi Grand Prix of Cleveland has captured the Championship Auto Racing Teams crown.

After starting on the pole and dominating the 2.106-mile temporary road course at Burke Lakefront Airport yesterday, Roberto Moreno is in position to continue the trend.

He came to Cleveland with a one-point lead over Gil de Ferran in the season standings. But Moreno, 41, the oldest driver in the series, left with his first- CART victory and a 22-point lead over Michael Andretti.

For Moreno, the win is a culmination of a lifetime of effort. Since returning to CART in 1996 after competing in Europe, he has been known as the 'Super Sub.' After a mediocre campaign in '96, Moreno worked primarily on a fill-in basis for teams when their regular driver was unable to compete.

Pat Patrick gambled on Moreno during the off-season, hiring him on a full-time basis to team with Adrian Fernandez. Moreno made that gamble pay off yesterday with his first career victory in 70 starts.

"Just imagine, just as a comparison, you dream about getting to the moon," said Moreno, who previously won a race in 1988 at Birmingham, England, in the Formula 3000 series. "You study, and people say, 'Are you crazy? How are you going to get to the moon?' But you know, you believe, so you push, you push, you push. You do this, you do that. Eventually, you find a way to get there, and then you make a way, eventually you find a way to get there. That's more or less what happens. And when you get there, that's just a thrill to be in that position."

His position yesterday was never in doubt. He led 91 of the 100 laps, giving up the lead only to pit for tires and fuel. With five laps to go, though, Moreno admitted to thinking about winning his first race a little too soon. Running in second, Team Rahal's Kenny Brack cut Moreno's lead in half.

"Basically, I was celebrating too early," Moreno said. "That's what happened. And with five laps to go I started to think I won the race. You should never do that. This emotion was big. It's like seeing my first daughter being born. It's just amazing."

Brack closed to within .826 seconds of Moreno, but had to hold off Cristiano da Matta for second. Andretti was fourth, followed by Patrick Carpentier and Target/Chip Ganassi's Juan Montoya.

"I was conserving fuel for a lot of the race, and we managed to catch up to Roberto in the end, but we were still running pretty lean," said Brack, a CART rookie. "I tried to push it, but I couldn't get close to him because I had to save fuel."

With Moreno pacing the field at a race-record speed of 112.619 mph, the best battles on the 10-turn course were for second through fifth. And a new starting procedure only added trouble.

CART officials set road cones on the course entering the first turn to force the drivers to stay in order. It didn't work. Bryan Herta, in his second race filling in for injured Tony Kanaan, rammed into da Matta, whose evasive maneuvers led to a seven-car pileup that knocked three cars out of the race.

"After I was tagged at the start, we had to go all the way to the back," said da Matta. "I was very mad, but the guys said, 'Don't worry, there's still 99 laps left.' "

For the three podium finishers, it was a career day. Not only did Moreno win his first race, but Brack's second and da Matta's third were career-best finishes in the series.

Moreno also was the eighth different winner in nine races this season. The CART record, set last year, is 10 different winners.

The race was slowed by cautions four times for 11 laps, but still took only a record 1 hour, 52 minutes to complete.

For Ganassi Racing, which had won the past three races in Cleveland, it was another day of almosts. Jimmy Vasser led six laps, but had to pit for fuel and finished eighth. He is tied for fifth with Paul Tracy in the standings.

Montoya, the defending series champion who won here last year, challenged often but to no avail. He is seventh in points.

"I drove as hard as I could," Montoya said. "We just weren't fast enough. I thought we had a pretty decent race car, but it wasn't enough."

NOTES -- Former Target/Chip Ganassi Racing driver Alex Zanardi, the 1997 and 1998 CART champion, will test Morris Nunn's Mercedes-Reynard in Florida this weekend in preparation to drive the car in the series' next race, July 16 at Toronto. Nunn left Ganassi to form his own team this year after guiding Zanardi and Montoya to the past three CART titles. Nunn's driver, Tony Kanaan, was injured at Detroit and Herta filled in at Portland and Cleveland. Zanardi was competing for Williams in Formula One until this year. "We would like to keep Alex in the family in hopes that we'll run a second car beginning next year," Nunn said. ... Patrick Carpentier, who started 19th and finished fifth earned the Hard Charger Award.