Da Matta has pick-up problems.

Though his many female fans would hardly believe it Cristiano da Matta had pick up problems on Sunday. It was nothing to do with his chat up lines, however, but more to do with his fuel lines...

Havoline driver Cristiano da Matta settled for a disappointing 11 th place finish in the Miller Lite 250 after running as high as sixth place ahead of eventual third place finisher Max Papis before fuel pressure problems appeared.

After only scoring two points toward the Championship standings, da Matta dropped
from third to fifth in the standings although he stands only 15 points behind first-time leader Michel Jourdain, who now has 42. Despite being disappointed at losing a chance at what could have been a third place finish, da Matta was pleased with the progress the team had made to their short oval set-up.

At the start of the 250-lap race, da Matta was passed by Tony Kanaan but regained seventh place before the second lap after he passed Bruno Junqueira. On lap three, da Matta dropped back to eighth place after Michael Andretti continued his charge to the front from his 13 th place start. He held eighth place until lap 43 when Dario Franchitti's pass dropped him to ninth place, which he held until his first of three mandatory stops. He returned to the race ahead of Franchitti due to a quicker stop but was passed on lap 71 by the Scotsman. He held his position until third place runner Kanaan retyred due to an oil leak, which moved him into eighth place and on into seventh on lap 95 when second place runner Patrick Carpentier pitted and subsequently retyred with electrical failure. Previous fifth place runner Tora Takagi had put his Toyota-powered machine in fifth place before he made contact with the wall, which enabled da Matta to move into sixth place.

Once the pits were opened during Takagi's yellow, the team decided to make a stop although it was not within the "window" of the mandatory stop timeline since it would most likely shorten their next stop. He returned to the race in seventh place but came back in the pits a few laps later as the yellow was immediately brought back out because Andretti spun on cold tyres on the restart.

At the conclusion of his third stop on lap 114 (which included a change of tyres as mandated by new CART rules), da Matta returned to the race and worked his way back into sixth place by the time the race was restarted. He held sixth place until lap 157 when he reported to the Havoline crew that something was wrong with his racecar. After pitting to have the car checked, da Matta returned to the track in 12 th place, two laps down to the leader.

The team deducted that da Matta was experiencing a fuel pressure problem as had occurred previously in the weekend as well as previous races this season. Initially, he was able to regain his pace but was no longer a contender for the victory as he was two laps down. As the race continued however, the problem grew worse. The best case scenario was to keep the fuel tank as full of methanol as possible in order to assist in the transfer of fuel to the engine. In order to do this, da Matta was forced to pit often which ultimately led to him finishing six laps down to the winner Paul Tracy. In total, da Matta made 10 stops before the checkered flag flew and he finished in 11 th place due to gaining one position when Franchitti crashed on lap 188 of 250.

"We have struggled with a fuel pick-up problem since Long Beach," said a disappointed da Matta. Both cars also experienced it earlier this weekend and it happened again to me in the race, which is a shame because a podium finish would have been possible with the way the race played out. A top-five finish would have been a huge improvement for the Havoline team since we struggled on the short oval in Japan. After the problem surfaced, we were able to get back on the pace after a full fill of methanol but the problem got worse as the race went on and the tank became less full and it caused us to lose
power. That's why we had to make so many pit stops. The points would have put us much closer to the front of the standings but we are heading to a couple of tracks (Laguna Seca and Portland) where we are strong so we can hopefully make up some ground there. We were the fastest in every session (of CART's Sneak Preview) at Laguna Seca in February but we need to solve this fuel pick-up problem before the first session next Friday morning."