Confetti flew. Engines whined. Fireworks exploded. The race winner was tossed into the air like a toy soldier. And Rambo wore red racing coveralls. Just another Sunday in Cicero.
Big-time auto racing came back for another try at Chicago, even brought Sylvester Stallone with it this time, he making a movie, the racers knocking each other around without leaving lasting scars or producing a winner anyone had heard of.
“Bull Durham meets Grand Prix,” someone explained to me, meaning, I believe, the plot of Stallone’s movie. “Wise old guy helps cocky young guy become a winner.”
And as this explanation is offered, there is, in fact, in real life, veteran Michael Andretti chasing young Cristiano da Matta around the Chicago Motor Speedway, life not imitating art as much as providing a background for it.
Da Matta crosses the finish line 1.69 seconds ahead of Andretti, while only eight others in the starting field of 24 are still racing.
“I’m thinking this is good, this is great, this is very great,” said da Matta, “and I am filled with happiness.”
Good for him. He seems a likable young man. From Brazil. Worked his way through the lower leagues of racing to this point. He weighs about as much as pocket lint. His crew and team owner, also winners for the first time, were able to throw him up in the air in celebration until he almost got lost in the blizzard of red and white confetti. “They are big guys,” he said. “I knew they would catch me.”
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Auto racing wisdom: When in doubt, root for an Andretti.
Nothing against young da Matta, first-time winner of Chicago’s second-time auto race Sunday, but Andretti would have been better for all concerned, the race, the track, the future of auto racing in Chicago.
Just a suggestion, but Target Grand Prix lacks romance or any enduring identification with Chicago. Most races are easily identified by the distance they cover, so a natural name for this would be the Chicago 225, except that the track is 1.029 miles around and at 225 laps this thing would have to be the Chicago 231.525. As you can see, there is work still to be done.
“Next year,” promised Ed Duffy, Chicago Motor Speedway CEO, “it will be a real circus. We have to keep building. We’ll make a festival out of this. Maybe a carnival in the parking lot. Maybe a 10K race. Chicago loves this kind of thing.” Chicago remains curious, I give him that. Some 50,000 folks dropped by, down from last year’s 70,000. Parking was better. Traffic was easier. All that was missing was the right winner.
When this race is older, when it gets a lasting identity, it can begin authenticating rookies. Until then, the race needs all the pedigree it can get. If you can get Tiger Woods to win your golf tournament, you do not settle for the club pro.
“I hung in there,” Andretti said. “You just don’t know how things will turn out.”
No, what this race and this place needed was not a Cinderella story, not “Champs,” the name of Stallone’s film. What it needed is the duel that should have happened between Andretti and Juan Montoya, last year’s winner here and this year’s Indianapolis 500 champion.
It needed Tiger and Sergio Garcia, or Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras. That would have made real memories, not fake ones. And it might have happened because the two most familiar names in open-wheel racing were measuring each other with less than 50 laps to go, first one in front and then the other.
“We were ready for a real shootout,” said Chip Ganassi, owner of Montoya’s car.
But, inexplicably and irreparably, Montoya’s car just died, still always a better situation than the car driver, you know, dying.
Strangely, the crowd cheered Montoya’s failure, which shows that the crowd has as far to go in this town as the auto racing does.
“Juan is a tough racer,” Andretti said, “and he was doing a heck of a job. He got it a bit out of shape and I was able to take advantage of it. And when I had to get off the throttle, he took advantage. That’s what it’s all about. He’s a tough racer; he doesn’t back off. I don’t back off and we have good racing, but we took care of each other.”
Maybe next year the two of them will have the duel they didn’t have Sunday.