Ganassi Has Knack for Finding Winner

When Alex Zanardi left the champ car series after winning his second consecutive championship last season, the question was who, if anyone, would replace the charismatic little Italian.

Try Juan Montoya. In more ways than one.

Montoya, a 23-year-old Colombian with a European racing background, was car owner Chip Ganassi’s pick to click last fall in the Reynard-Honda vacated by Zanardi.

Few but the most avid race followers knew anything about Montoya, except that he had been a Formula One test driver. But then, few had known anything about Zanardi when he joined Ganassi’s team, except that he had been a Formula One test driver.

Zanardi quickly established himself as a savvy driver with an indomitable will to win and a willingness to take chances. He was penalized and put on probation, but he won races, often under the most remarkable circumstances.

Last year in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, for example, driving a car with a cockeyed steering wheel, he stormed back from 13th place in the last 32 laps, passing Bryan Herta for the victory on the second-last lap.

Sunday in the Long Beach race, it was Montoya’s turn.

His victory, in only his third CART race, wasn’t nearly as dramatic as Zanardi’s in ‘98, but it was impressive just the same. After all, even Zanardi didn’t win his third time out. It took him nine races to find victory circle.

And if Montoya doesn’t have the panache of Zanardi yet, well, he’s young. Who’s to say brashness won’t mellow into something smoother.

He has irked some old-timers in the series, most notably the Andretti family. In practice for last weekend’s race at Motegi, Japan, he carelessly ran into former champion Michael Andretti, exhibited a remarkable lack of remorse for his transgression and was both fined and put on probation by CART. In the race, though, he passed Andretti cleanly and was charging for the lead when he ran out of gas late in the running.

Sunday, he ran as smooth a race as anyone could ask. He stayed cool after inheriting the lead from pole-sitter Tony Kanaan, who crashed, and then held off Scotsman Dario Franchitti, the very driver Zanardi had picked as most likely to succeed him.

He didn’t do doughnuts in victory circle, as Zanardi had after winning here two years ago, but he did share a bear-hug embrace with Ganassi, who said that he wouldn’t compare the drivers. But he had noticed one difference. “Juan is better looking. His nose isn’t so big,” Ganassi said.

Then, seriously, he said, “Whoever was going to drive car No. 4 was going to have big shoes to fill. All these guys are fast out here. It’s nice to have somebody who’s mentally tough. I thought we kind of let Juan down in the first two races. We had some mechanical and mental problems from the team.

“I knew he had the talent for the drive he had today but what I didn’t know was if he had the mental toughness to put those things behind him.”

Montoya, accustomed to victory after winning seven times in two seasons of Formula 3000 competition in Europe--he won the championship last season after having been runner-up in ‘97--was suitably modest, praising his fellow drivers, heaping credit on his crew, thanking his team’s sponsors, even getting a little excited, in the best traditions of Zanardi.

“It was unbelievable,” he said of the crowd of close to 100,000. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

The victory, he said, was neither expected nor surprising, acknowledging that had Kanaan remained in the running, his job would have been much harder.

“Tony was very quick,” he said. “It was very hard to go by him. [Kanaan’s crash just past the midpoint of the 155-mile race] made things easier.”

Racing luck is racing luck.

“[My career] has been, like, in steps and this is my best win,” he said.