Veteran driver Paul Tracy quickly went from being a possible no-show at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach to, yet again, being a threat to win.
But the four-time winner of the race said the 34th running of the Grand Prix might be the last time he competes in a major open-wheel race, because he doesn’t have a ride after Sunday.
After difficult and sometimes bitter negotiations, Tracy and Forsythe came to an agreement this week that put the driver back in a car for Sunday’s final Champ Car race and also releases him to look for other rides after this event.
“It feels good to be back in a car,” said Tracy, who was a respectable eighth in provisional qualifying on the downtown street circuit. “Today didn’t go as well as I wanted it to, mostly on me. I made a lot of mistakes in qualifying and just couldn’t put the lap together. And, when I did, I made a huge mistake in the second to last corner and lost all the time I had gained.”
“Ifs and buts, we should have been about third quickest. So I’m a little bit frustrated. But it’s nice to be back in the car and kind of mixed emotions. I don’t know where my career is leading me from here.”
“We decided to do this race, it’s the best thing for the fans,” said Tracy, who also won the Champ Car title in 2003 when the series was known as Championship Auto Racing Teams or CART.
“After this race I’m pretty much free to do whatever I want, but I don’t have anything going, so it’s hard to say whether this is going to be my last open-wheel race or not,” Tracy said. “At this point there’s really not a lot available.
“I don’t know how I’m going to feel after the race,” Tracy said. “I guess it could be my last race here as an open-wheel driver. I want to go racing. This isn’t really how I want my career to end.”
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