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CART: Broken shifter cable costs Montoya Motorola 220 victory

21 August 2000

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
- Juan Montoya opened up more than a 10-second lead before a broken shifter cable sidelined him after 30 laps. To date, Montoya has been knocked out of contention for a victory while running first or second at seven races this season - while leading at Miami (engine), Motegi (pit incident), Nazareth (punctured tire from debris), Detroit (CV joint), Road America (shifter cable), as well as while running second at Rio (shifter cable) and Chicago (fuel leak).

- Jimmy Vasser earned his fourth top-five finish of the season and his ninth top-10 finish in 14 races this year with a fifth today. The finish is Vasser's best since a second-place at Rio in the third race of the season.

- Memo Gidley earned a career-best finish with a sixth today. It was his third top-10 finish in four starts and his fourth consecutive points-paying finish for Della Penna Motorsports. The former Toyota Atlantic ace has four top-10 finishes on the season in seven races.

- Oriol Servia earned his seventh top-10 finish of the season with a 10th today. Servia has scored championship points in every road course event this season except for one - at Cleveland where he was knocked out of the race after being hit from behind on the opening lap.

- After falling out of the race today with no points-paying finish, Cristiano da Matta dropped to seventh in the FedEx Championship Series points race. Jimmy Vasser jumped up to ninth with his fifth-place finish, while Juan Montoya dropped to 10th.

Quotes

Jim Aust, Toyota vice president of motorsports: "My heart goes out to Juan. With just a little luck this year, he'd have six or seven wins and be running away with the championship. It's good to see Jimmy and Memo pick us up with two great runs for fifth and sixth. I'd especially like to congratulate Memo for his career-best finish. The kid can drive. He's been in the points in every race for us. It really says a lot about the type of drivers that are produced in the Toyota Atlantic Championship."

Manufacturer's Championship: Ford 242; Honda 225; Toyota 200; Mercedes-Benz 57

Text Provided By John Prodica

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