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Pick
your vantage point - Road
America has plenty of them along it's four miles of tree-lined
racetrack, but from high above turn seven there's plenty to see
as the pavement twists through a series of curves and then down
a long straightaway before disappearing from view. And although
I've been coming to this track for more than 30 years it's been
only recently that this hill has become a favorite.
It
isn't the most popular spectator spot - that's reserved for the
storied tradition of turn five- a tight lefthander which launches
its racers sharply uphill towards the next corner.
And
that's were the cars first come into view from this hilltop perch
- streaming by with little to suggest that it's anything more
than a Sunday drive.
But
on this Sunday it's the final race for Champ
Car's Atlantic series and it's newly crowned champion, Raphael
Matos. He's the latest in a long line of Brazilian drivers
to tackle this natural terrain road course. Names like Emerson
Fittipaldi, Helio Castro-Neves, Gil De Ferran and Cristiano Da
Matta
Matos,
who hails from Belo Horizonte and now calls Miami home, has been
around long enough to know that sometimes performance is a matter
of perspective. It's been a challenging season but through it
all, Matos has made it look deceptively simple.
Just
like the corners below us.
Closer
up though, theses same corners begin to show their real personalities:
Turn six is the slowest of them all - a sharp left which can catch
a driver off guard if he leaves his braking too late. And turn
seven?
Let's
watch Matos for a few laps, trackside. He drives the red and white
number 6 - easy to spot as it leaps down the short straight from
six. Matos sets up for the right-hander from the left side of
the track, downshifts as he flicks the wheel to the right, and
hammers the accelerator through the turn. You can see the rear
wheels slide out to the edge of the pavement - at only a few ticks
shy of a hundred miles an hour. And he does it time after time,
with uncanny precision.
Others
don't fare as well: After a while even the novice eye can see
the difference. That's the beauty of turn seven - in a sport where
fractions of a second can mean the difference between winning
and losing, turn seven can reward you with speed - if you get
it right.
Watch
Raphael Matos and the rest of the Champ Car Atlantic drivers tackle
all 14 of Road America's corners on ESPN2, 5:00 pm EST, Wednesday
August 22nd.
For
the race, Matos will line up ninth - an uncharacteristically low
starting position. But in racing it's not where you start that
counts, and Matos has already been crowned as this year's champion.
He finishes an easy 2nd, less that a second behind the winner.
His teammate - in an identical car - starts and finishes 14th.
Later,
'Raffa' is all smiles as he sits at the 'Big Table' with the rest
of Champ Car's stars: It's an honor afforded to the Atlantics
Champion each year. He's arrived.
And
the champ brings a check - two million dollars to underwrite his
first year with the Champ Car World Series in 2008. "I'm
not sure where I'll be driving next year," he said between
autographs and smiling for pictures with fans. "I'm talking
with several teams and we'll see where it goes. But I can tell
you that I'm looking forward to next year, big time."
That
brought a playful shoulder nudge from the guy sitting next to
him, former Champ Car champion Paul Tracy, who's seen it all in
his 16 years with the popular open-wheeled series: "Might
not be as easy as you think", he grinned.
"We'll,"
Rafffa nudged back. "Let's wait and see!"
But
something tells me waiting is the last thing Raphael Matos wants
to do, and that Tracy might not be smiling as much when they meet
on the track as equals next spring.
You
can learn a lot - watching at turn seven…
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