Perfect Castroneves tames the streets

Castroneves withstood tremendous pressure over the final stint from Newman-Haas driver Cristiano da Matta, the winner of last month's Mexican season-opener, but crossed the line 0.534s ahead of his countryman.

Reigning CART champion Gil de Ferran completed a Brazilian sweep, as well as a superb result for Marlboro Team Penske by coming home third in round two of the FedEx Series on the classic Californian street circuit.

"It was a tough race from the start, pretty intense," said Castroneves, who celebrated the victory with his now-traditional fence climb. "All the race I had it under control, but I couldn't relax at all. The last 25 laps were like qualifying.

"Sometimes it's good to be the hunter, but I was happy to be in front," he added. "I think I go better under pressure. It was a perfect drive, and the team did a great job in the pits. So it was a perfect weekend ­ pole, lead all laps, and win."

Helio's closest challenger in the early stages was second qualifier Kenny Brack in the Team Rahal Lola-Ford. The Swede's car was quicker on the Shoreline Drive straight, but the Penske Reynard-Honda got through the twisty bits faster. Brack fell from contention after he stalled during the first pit stop.

"We restarted the motor and I left the pits real hard," he said. "But the damage was done ­ the gearbox was gone. It's a tough one because the car was very good today and I thought we had a good chance to win the race."

Jimmy Vasser was the big winner in the first round of stops, coming out in third behind Castroneves and da Matta in his unsponsored Patrick Racing machine. De Ferran remained fourth, now ahead of Tony Kanaan, Team Green duo Dario Franchitti and Paul Tracy, Max Papis and Patrick Carpentier.

Tracy passed his team mate Franchitti on Lap 49, but the order remained the same until Lap 54, when a pair of incidents brought out another full course yellow. Scott Dixon spun his PacWest Reynard-Toyota in Turn 9, and on the other side of the course, Carpentier and Papis got together in Turn 8. Carpentier chipped a bone in his left wrist in the incident and his progress will be monitored in the three weeks leading into the Firestone Firehawk 600 at Texas Motor Speedway.

After another round of yellow flag stops, the order was Castroneves ­ da Matta ­ de Ferran ­ Vasser ­ Tracy ­ Franchitti ­ Kanaan. Tracy passed Vasser for fourth on a Lap 63 restart, but otherwise the order remained the same to the finish.

Da Matta really turned up the heat on Castroneves over the last 25 laps, but he was never able to force his way past.

"The only opportunity I had to pass was in Turn 1, but Helio is a smart guy and he always kept me on the outside," said da Matta. "I couldn't have passed him unless I made a crazy move. He drove defensively, but he drove well. He deserved to win because I had nothing for him."

De Ferran drove a cagey race that proved to be a satisfactory conclusion to a weekend that hadn't started well. The defending champion wasn't a happy man on Friday (when electrical and mechanical glitches restricted his track time) and Saturday (when traffic spoiled his qualifying run).

"I thought I was as fast as they were, and I could stay right with them," he said. "I was hoping for a mistake or that they would get together, but that doesn't happen very often.

"I feel good about where we're at as a team," de Ferran continued. "We're carrying over the way we finished off last year. Everything bodes well, but there are 19 races to go. We'll have a better idea where everyone stands after we've tackled a fast oval at Texas and a short oval at Nazareth. The important thing is to keep our eye on the ball instead of patting ourselves on the back."

Tracy made the biggest improvement on the day by moving from 12th to fourth.

"We had a good car today, but it's tough when you start that far back," he said. "We caught a couple of breaks, and there's nothing wrong with fourth. So we'll take that and go on to Texas."

Kanaan finished seventh, having missed the race warm-up due to an oil leak. But the most disappointed man in Long Beach was Michel Jourdain, who ran strongly in sixth place for the first stint. A slow stop dropped him down to 12th, and a pit lane speed violation knocked him even further back. He ended up just out of the points in 13th place.

The stop-start beginning to the 2001 Champ Car calendar sees round three, on the high-speed 1.5-mile Texas Motor Speedway, take place on April 29.

Click here for the race result.