TORONTO — Danica Patrick and Paul Tracy are two of a kind and what the IndyCar Series needs in these difficult economic times. They attract attention — on the racetrack and off it.
There’s one big difference, though. The 27-year-old Patrick, whose contract with Andretti Green Racing is up after this season, has the luxury of knowing she can drive next year for any team she wants, while the 40-year-old Tracy wonders if he’ll have a regular ride in 2010.
And the current IndyCar Series media guide doesn’t help matters any: Buddy Rice, who hasn’t raced this year, is in it and Tracy, who’s run four races, isn’t.
“I wish I got the same attention from the league as I get from my fans,” said Tracy, who grew up in the West Hill neighborhood of suburban Toronto. “I’m not going to get frustrated. I’m just happy to be in the car.”
Tracy raced for 17 years in the series that began as CART and then became Champ Car. He won the championship in 2003 and his 31 victories are the most of any active driver in the open-wheel sport.
Tracy, who lives in Las Vegas, lost his full-time ride before the start of the 2008 season when team owner Gerald Forsythe decided not to make the transition from Champ Car to the IndyCar Series as part of the long-awaited unification of the American open-wheel series.
It was a harsh blow for a driver many consider among the most colorful and talented in the business.
“It’s been extremely frustrating for him,” said former open-wheel champion Jimmy Vasser, who co-owns KV Racing Technology (KVRT) with Kevin Kalkhoven. “We had the merger and he wasn’t able to be involved. Last year he was tied up with a team that got out at the last minute.”
Sitting and watching from afar has been perhaps the greatest challenge for Tracy, whose 268 career starts rank seventh all-time in open-wheel competition.
“I want to be in a car. The fans want me to be in a car, and I think, for the most part, most teams would like to see me in a car,” he said. “It’s just a question of sponsorship, of money. You have to have that to run.”
KVRT has given Tracy renewed hope, signing him to drive its No. 15 car in four races this year as the team searches for a full-time sponsor.
“We’ve got some pretty good support with GEICO this year, and they’re going to be involved at some level,” Vasser said. “He’s great for sponsors, great for the sport. They’re certainly getting a return on their investment with him.”
There’s a reason Tracy is called the Thrill from West Hill and why his legion of fans across Canada and the United States can aptly be described as rabid — you either love the guy’s aggressive, emotional style or despise it.
Just ask Helio Castroneves. The popular Brazilian driver and “Dancing with the Stars” winner was showered with a cascade of boos on Sunday after he rammed Tracy while both were battling for second in the closing laps of the Honda Indy of Toronto.
Or Frenchman Sebastien Bourdais, who had a long-running feud with Tracy before leaving Champ Car to drive in Formula One.
Or French Canadian driver Alex Tagliani, who has tangled numerous times on track with Tracy.
Tagliani ended up in a shoving match in the pits with Tracy after an accident three years ago at San Jose, later suggesting that maybe Tracy “should wear a straitjacket because that’s the only thing that could keep him under control.”
“People get excited when I drive,” Tracy said.
They have ever since he became the youngest Canadian Formula Ford champion in history when he won the title as a 16-year-old in 1985. Six years later, Tracy made his rookie debut with Dale Coyne Racing at Long Beach and in 1992 signed with Team Penske in midseason to serve as a test driver. He wound up starting 11 races, had three podium finishes, including runner-up efforts at Michigan and Mid-Ohio, and his career took off.
Tracy finished third in the series championship in 1993 and tied champion Nigel Mansell for most victories with five.
When he’s not in driving, Tracy tries to remain physically fit, and he’s also become active on Twitter. And true to his character, his tweets can rankle.
At Watkins Glen he wrote: “There are 19 cars in the race, 20 if you count Milka (Duno).” That was a reference to the fact that the Venezuelan, one of three women competing in the series, was posting laps that were 2 seconds slower than the rest of the field, including Tracy, who had never raced there before in his long career.
“He’s always good for a story, one way or another” said team owner and former Champ Car star Michael Andretti, who had his fair share of run-ins with Tracy on the track. “Anything that can bring attention to the series is good. He always seems to be in the news, good or bad. It’s good to have guys like him.”
In the United States, Tracy is probably best-known for the 2002 Indy 500, when he finished second to Castroneves and lost an appeal that he had passed Castroneves for the win before a caution flag came out on the last lap.
Though his aggressive, no-holds-barred style has probably cost him a championship or two, Canadians still revel in his lone title six years ago. He became the first driver in 32 years to win the first three races of a season, scoring victories in St. Petersburg, Monterey and Long Beach after earning front-row starts in all three. And in Toronto he had perhaps the finest moment of his career, leading all 115 laps in front of his hometown crowd on the tricky street course at Exhibition Place. That prompted the fans to proudly sing the Canadian national anthem after he took the checkered flag.
Tracy’s best finish this year was a ninth at Indianapolis and he hasn’t won since 2007 at Cleveland. Still, Vasser is not alone in seeing a driver with the skill and desire to compete at the sport’s highest level.
“He’s plenty talented, he’s in good shape,” said former open-wheel star Al Unser Jr., now a driver coach for the IndyCar Series. “If he could just do it more often, then he’s in the car all the time, he’s at all the races, he’s racing with the front-runners of the sport and he’d be up front.”
Vasser also has an ulterior motive.
“He’s a legend and he’s not over the hill,” he said. “He’s still got a few good years left in him, and we’re committed to try to get him out there as much as we can next year. With his career, with his record, he deserves to go out the way he wants to go out, and that’s as a winner.”
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