Saturday, July 10, 1999
Colombia’s Montoya racing
Associated Press
toward CART rookie recordsELKHART LAKE, Wis. -- The CART FedEx Championship Series season reaches the halfway point with tomorrow's Texaco/Havoline 200 and Juan Montoya already is closing in on some impressive records.
Montoya, a 23-year-old Colombian, replaced Alex Zanardi after the two-time PPG Cup champion returned to Formula One this season. Since taking over the seat at Target/Chip Ganassi Racing, "The Great Juan" has been sensational.
He has four poles and four wins in his first nine CART events. That is one victory short of the rookie record of five, set by Nigel Mansell in 1993. Mansell also set the record of seven poles by a first-year driver.
Montoya has led in eight races this season, for a total of 564 laps at the front of the pack. That puts him within easy reach of Zanardi's rookie record, set in 1996, of 610 laps led.
"Records are nice, but I am just trying to be consistent," Montoya said. "If we keep doing things the way we have been, then the records will come. But the championship is most important."
Montoya has the lead in that race, too.
The kid, who was last year's European Formula 3000 champion, holds a 112-87 lead over Gil de Ferran in the series standings. Dario Franchitti is third with 85 points, followed by three-time Road America winner Michael Andretti with 78.
"The championship is still wide open," Andretti said. "There are 11 more races to go, but this is the time to start gathering some points and keep Montoya from building up too big a lead."
The race on the four-mile road course is the first in a stretch of six events in seven weeks, the busiest part of the 20-race CART schedule.
This is another new track for Montoya, but that hasn't stopped him from shining on any of the other road or street circuits he has seen for the first time this season.
Montoya won from the pole on the temporary street circuit in Long Beach, Calif.; he finished second from the pole on the natural terrain road course in Portland, Ore., and he won from the pole two weeks ago on the temporary road course at Cleveland's Burke Lakefront Airport.
Overall, he earned 59 of a possible 66 points in those three events.
"Road racing is what I grew up with," Montoya said. "I like the ovals. They are new and fun, but the road circuits are more familiar and a little easier for me to learn."
He is looking forward to racing at Road America, the longest and fastest of CART's road circuits.
"We tested here and I loved it," Montoya said.
Franchitti, who earned his first CART victory last year at Road America, feels much the same way about the track. His win ignited a run that carried Franchitti to two more victories and moved him from eighth to third in the standings.
"I love Elkhart," Franchitti said. "It's a fun track to drive on. It's long, it's fast and it's interesting. Even if you don't win, it's a great place to race."
Hawaiian Super Prix
