CLEVELAND GRAND PRIX After his accident, Carpentier looks forward to race

Patrick Carpentier, injured riding a bicycle, is glad he will be back in his race car.
CLEVELAND (AP) -- Patrick Carpentier is looking forward to being back in his race car, hugging hairpin turns at 150 mph and powering down straight-aways at more than 200 mph.
To Carpentier, it's safer than riding a bicycle.
Carpentier, who will defend his title at this week's CART Cleveland Grand Prix, feels fortunate to still be driving after crashing into a tow truck while riding his bike on June 24.
"I'm so lucky," said Carpentier, who estimated he hit a trailer being pulled by the truck at 35 mph. "I've hit the wall in a car at 200 mph, and this was worse."
Cut off by truck
Carpentier was training with his friend, motorcycle rider Miguel Duhamel, when they were cut off by the truck while racing down an incline on bikes like those used in the Tour de France.
Duhamel was able to see the truck drifting over in time and pulled to the left, narrowly avoiding a collision. Carpentier, however, was drafting behind Duhamel and had his head down when he plowed into the side of the trailer.
"Boom!" Carpentier said, slamming his fist into his hand. "It really shook me up."
Carpentier suffered a hairline fracture in his right arm as well as bumps, bruises and scrapes.
"But nothing to keep me from racing," he said. "It split my glasses in half. I was wearing a helmet, so it could have been a lot worse."
After the near disaster, Carpentier can't wait to race. He's also eager to see the brilliant sparkling colors and hear the deafening roar this holiday weekend.
And he's not talking about fireworks, either.
For the first time in its 22-year history, the Cleveland GP will be held at night on Saturday, giving drivers a new challenge.
"This is going to be a lot of fun," he said. "In the pit stops, flames will be coming out of the exhaust pipes and every time we are braking in the corners, you'll see flames.
"Once in a while, there's a little problem and the car scrapes the track and you see the bright sparks. Being a road course, a lot of times the car touches the ground and the sparks are coming out. At night, everybody can see it. It is going to be very interesting to watch."
And just as interesting to drive.
Cleveland has always been a unique event with its 2.106-mile temporary road course, which is set up on the runways and taxi-ways of Burke Lakefront Airport.
The course
The open course -- just yards from the Lake Erie shoreline -- allows racing fans to see the entire track, and the wide turns permit drivers to be a little riskier in order to move up in the field.
But because the course is flat and devoid of natural landmarks, practice time will be vital as drivers learn the layout so they know where to brake.
At night, that will be even tougher.
"There will be some dark spots, and because we don't have running lights, this will be a challenge," said points leader Paul Tracy, who finished second at Portland last month. "It's going to be a lot fun."
CART raced to rave reviews under the lights earlier this season on a 1-mile oval at Milwaukee, where Michel Jourdain Jr. got his first career CART win.
Carpentier enjoyed his nighttime drive in Wisconsin, finishing third behind Jourdain, and Oriol Servia.
"It was wild," he said. "It was one of the most fun races I have ever been in. I had raced in Milwaukee before in the day and at night it was very different. Of course, here in Cleveland even in the daytime, it's hard for the drivers to see where the corners are all the same. It's going to be a big challenge."