Tagliani took a token of the fans' best wishes with him into the Long Beach GP. Fans made a donation to CARA Charities to sign their names. (LAT photo) » More Photos

Part of this prevailing sentiment in the paddock last weekend was also out of respect for Alex, who, like Walker, is currently without an entry in the IndyCar Series and who, like Walker, appears to have justification for feeling screwed by the Kalkhoven/Gore romance, despite – yes, like Walker again – agreeing with Kevin’s determination to do the unification deal with Tony George. Having tested for KV Racing in the early months of this year, Tagliani spent a lot of time and money (his own) in the off-season flying to see potential sponsors in Canada. As he got close to a deal with one Wal-Mart Canada-related company, Alex took a KV Racing marketing man with him… only to discover the product he was trying to sell was about to cease operations, killing off the sponsor’s crucial Champ Car races in Toronto and Mont-Tremblant. Nonetheless, Tag felt he was starting to get negotiations reformatted as an IndyCar deal when he discovered KV had no intention of employing him but were instead about to snatch Power and the Australian money away from Walker. Alex was devastated. The music had stopped and he was left without a seat.

While compatriot Paul Tracy’s absence from IndyCar is, for now at least, understandable (Forsythe-Pettit Racing isn’t in the ICS, and no other team has dared touch him until his lawyers and Jerry Forsythe’s lawyers have settled their contractual dispute), Tagliani’s dearth of opportunities is utterly baffling. Ever since an 18-year-old Alexandre sat in the gathering dusk on the Saturday evening at Montreal’s Formula 1 event in 1990, watching the McLaren pit as his hero Ayrton Senna worked late with his engineers and mechanics, he has attempted to emulate the great Brazilian’s attention to detail. I’ve said it and written it before, but it’s worthy of repetition: no driver pours more of his heart and soul into every aspect of being a racecar driver than Alex Tagliani. From poring over and analyzing data with his engineers, through keeping himself in A1 physical condition, to signing autographs and posing for photographs with fans, to bonding with his team and mechanics, to providing journalists with copious amounts of time and great copy – he does it all.

Of course, such a ball of energy can occasionally bounce off in the wrong direction and sometimes needs containment, but hell, at least he cares passionately about what he’s doing and how he does it. Check out David Phillips’ Saturday Long Beach Notebook and see how Walker advised Tag to adapt his driving style to suit a chassis still set up for Power. Then check out the timesheets from the weekend, and note Tagliani in the top three for every significant session. Not only had he been humble enough to remain open to changing the methods that had served him well enough for the previous 35 years, he had made it work. Pretty damn impressive.

In fact, Tagliani ended up being outqualified only by the Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing car of Justin Wilson, and thus started the last ever Champ Car Grand Prix of Long Beach ahead of Power -- which made a lot of people feel justice was being done. Mr. Power shouldn’t take this comment ill: everyone knows he remained loyal to Walker until Derrick, with his team’s future uncertain, set him free with his blessing. Will is a good guy who I believe has reasonable claim to be the fastest driver in North America right now. But last weekend, his former team and former teammate needed to beat him like never before.