CHAMPCAR: EDMONTON DRIVER DIARY – By Timo Glock

Courtesy Heather Haupt

As I headed to Edmonton, my expectations were the same as they would be going into any Champ Car event. Being a rookie, and not having the chance to run in Toyota Atlantics, I have a bit of a disadvantage compared to most of the drivers in this series when starting a race weekend. I have to first learn the track, and then I can get to work with my engineer on finding the right set up for the #8 DHL Global Mail car.

Finning International Speedway is a great track. It is a technical course, with slow and quick combinations, a perfect mix between an airport and street course. The track was challenging, to say the least, mix that in with the bumps and how close the walls were to the track, it is a definitely a great course and terrific addition to the Champ Car World Series schedule.

Being the first time we raced in Edmonton, I was amazed by the support of the Canadian fans during the whole weekend. I could not believe that on Friday there was over 55,000 people that came out to see what our series was all about. It was outstanding to drive in front of these Canadian race fans with the goal to put on a good show for them.

Friday morning started out well. We ran the car for the first time on the track, and it was not feeling too bad. The biggest problem that I seemed to be having with the car was oversteer in the rear when I was going over the bumps.

The afternoon, I was looking forward to more time on the track. I only ran about five laps during the 15-minute practice segment of provisional qualifying because of a red flag. When the green flag waved for the provisional qualifying session, I headed out early to get in some open laps. As our luck goes, a red flag came out. I went back out for a couple of more laps when the track went green again, before changing to the Bridgestone Option Tire for my second run of the session. On my 12th lap out of 15 allotted, I posted my fastest time of the day, which put me fifth on the charts. My last three laps I was caught in traffic, and did not get the chance for another good run. The car seemed good, so I was happy. By the end of the Friday qualifying session, I had dropped a few positions, as there was still time left in the session after I had to come in so a few cars improved their times. Overall, P9 is not a bad start to the weekend, especially knowing that I could have gone faster if I hadn’t run into the traffic during my last laps of the afternoon.

Saturday I was surprised to wake up and see all the rain, and it was really coming down. I had mixed feelings about all this. I enjoy driving in the rain, but at the same time, we are still trying to gain knowledge of this track and the rain throws in another obstacle to the learning process.

As we sat in the pits under tents trying to stay dry and warm, we looked up into the grandstands to see them full of fans awaiting the morning practice. They were all bundled up to stay warm as the winds picked up and trying to stay dry under umbrellas and rain ponchos. Our Team Manager Phil Howard went up into the stands with the fans. My teammate, Ryan (Hunter-Reay), and I followed to interact with our new Canadian fans. We signed autographs and took pictures with many, chatting about the cars, event, rain, etc. It was nice to relate with the fans in that way, especially when they were sticking around to see us drive.

Unfortunately, that morning practice was cancelled, or rather, postponed until the afternoon. So I went back to the garage-tent area and hung out. The Rocketsports team decided to let some fans in from out of the rain and get a closer look at the cars. A few people became many, and it was insane. We had people touring through the inside of the transporter and all over inside the tent. It was a nice jester from the team, letting those people inside to see what was going on up close and getting a chance to talk with the crew members.

Then we headed out for practice and qualifying. The track was really dirty, but mostly dry by the afternoon once the rain stopped. After making some changes on Friday, the car felt pretty neutral. I was still experiencing some understeer, but the car was running a lot softer over the bumps. I was running real well at the beginning, with the track still being slightly wet. I posted quick laps times, ones that saw me in the top three during the beginning of the session.

Qualifying was the same story for us, red flags. I went out for two laps, before a red flag came out due to contact between Mario Dominguez and Alex Tagliani. Then I went out on the Bridgestone Option Tire and only got to run two laps before getting knocked out by Justin Wilson. I do not know what he was doing because there was absolutely no room for him to pass me. It was a stupid mistake on his part, and it ruined my qualifying session.

Since the times did not improve from Friday’s session (as Champ Car takes the combined times from both qualifying session), I remained P9 for the starting grid.

We did everything right in the race on Sunday. It was a clean start for us and I made some good passes in the early laps of the event. Our race strategy was right and things seemed to be going our way. I found myself as high as fourth place, when a yellow came out and bunched up the field again. When we went green, I charged hard to catch Paul Tracy for third. I was closing in on him, but then I made a mistake and brushed the wall. That hurt my car a bit, so I just tried hard to hold on and bring it home with less than ten laps to go in one piece.

I was looking to have my best finish in Edmonton, when my day came to an end, thanks to my friend, Justin Wilson. We were fighting for forth place, when he tried the same thing on me as he did on Saturday in qualifying, and took me out again four laps before the race finished. It was unbelievable, that it happened again.

Overall, it was a great weekend. At the end of the race, we were running up in the top five, which is where I wanted and expect to be. So that was some improvement for us. I look forward to coming back to Edmonton next year, but I hope we get even bigger grand stands for next year because I think even more people will come out since it was such a great sporting event. Now we have some positive momentum to carry onto our next event in San Jose, which will also be a new venue for the series, in two weeks.