DAY IN THE PITS IS AN EYE-OPENER.

Byline: TIM HADDOCK Motor Sports

LONG BEACH - When Champ Car World Series driver Alex Tagliani was told there would be a sportswriter working in his team's pit for Sunday's Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, one of the first things he said was, ``You better stay on the right side of the wall. I can be pretty dangerous in the pits.''

He obviously has never seen me around a socket wrench.

Lucky for him, I was placed in charge of catching tires during pit stops. Specifically, it was my responsibility to work with Steve Ragan, the right rear tire changer.

Derrick Walker's newly formed Team Australia gave me the rare opportunity to watch and record everything that transpires with the team on race day. It started Sunday morning, when the team provided me with a fire suit and team cap. Soon thereafter, the morning practice session started, and after a crash course in pit-stop duties, tires were flying, air drills were buzzing and wrenches were turning.

Then it occurred to me that rubber would eventually be burning. I would probably need some gloves to go with my fire suit.

As for the drivers, Tagliani and rookie Marcus Marshall, they started the morning practice turning laps near the bottom of pack. Not exactly a good sign.

Of the 19 drivers in the field, Tagliani was 16th-fastest and Marshall was 18th. About midway through the one-hour session, Tagliani came into the pits for a tire change and suspension adjustment. Each team was allotted two sets of the softer compounds for the race and Tagliani's team decided it was a good idea to use the different tires for the second half of the practice.

He immediately went back out on the track and turned the fastest lap of the morning. Excuse me for cheering in the press box, but Woohoo!

Marshall's team was working on tire pressures and fuel loads. This was Marshall's first time at the Grand Prix of Long Beach and Sunday morning was the first time he had driven a Champ Car with a full tank of fuel. That might not seem like a big deal, but the added weight of a full tank of fuel can drastically change the performance of a Champ Car.

Fast times were not as important as handling and maneuvering. Marshall was just happy to make it around the track and keep up with the car in front of him.

Race strategy was pretty straightforward. Both teams started with the soft compound tires and both teams wanted to run a two pit-stop race, each stop no longer than 9.8 seconds.

Everything went as planned except for two things. Well three things, according to Walker.

First, Marshall's water bottle hose got loose at the start of the race and lodged itself in the small of his back.

``I felt it straight away,'' Marshall said. ``I'm usually really comfortable in the car, and every time I changed gears, that just kept getting worse. But everyone's got their story. It just affected my consistency.''

Second, Tagliani had a leaky gear box that took him out of the race with two laps to go. He was all but assured of a ninth-place finish, a most deserving ninth-place finish, but the race ended with the crew telling Tagliani over the radio that he was being black-flagged - and Tagliani not responding.

``It's unfortunate for the whole team,'' Tagliani said. ``Because it would have been nice to finish at least ninth place. It would have been a good result, but a little bit of bad luck.''

Darn right it would have been a good finish. Catching tires, standing in the hot sun for two hours, dodging fire extinguishers and NBC trackside reporters all day. The least Tagliani could have done was finish ninth.

But a leaky gear box was the least of Walker's worries after the race. Fuel mileage was his top concern, and it was something Walker planned to amend as soon as possible.

``The majority of it worked exactly according to plan,'' Walker said. ``With one exception. We needed to get a little better bit fuel mileage and do at least one, maybe two more laps than we were able to.''

After running in the top 10 most of the day, Tagliani finished two laps down and in 15th place. Marshall finished a lap down and in 14th place. On a day when things went about as well as they could, pit stops were efficient and quick, lap times were among the race leaders, contact with other cars, temporary walls and tire barriers was minimal, the best either driver could do was 14th place. It was especially frustrating for Tagliani.

``Disappointing finish, yes, because for sure we had ninth place in the bag,'' Walker said. ``But we have to take it in perspective of what's been done here. How well we came to our first race and how well did getting it seventh on the grid. He ran a good race up until that point. It's out of his control, the gear box.''

Such is racing on the Champ Car World Series.