Bourdais To Start Second In His Final Champ Car Race
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Nov 11, 2007
NHL Racing
Sebastien Bourdais, No. 1 McDonald’s Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone: “Well, quite simply we had a good day yesterday and a bad day today. It just wasn’t really the way we wanted to have our last qualifying run. But like I said, it’s racing. It can be quite interesting at times. And you’ve got to keep your chin up and go racing. It had nothing to do with the car. We just never got a gap and got traffic. And here, if you want to go against a guy who is going to have two sets and you only have one, you’ll have to get everything your way. We never got a gap. And it was always too close to someone, something. So I tried to keep the tires to have a somewhat fresher set for tomorrow’s race. I guess it might be a little curious from the outside, but if you know you’re not going to get pole anyways, no point in wasting them. ”
· FAST FACTS: Clinched his fourth consecutive title at the previous race in Australia with an insurmountable lead over second place Wilson (333-270)… 46 Front Row Starts in 73 events: (7 of 18 in 2003; 11 of 14 in 2004; 7 of 13 in 2005; 11 of 14 in 2006; 10 of 14 in 2007) …Will be his fifth race here and final Champ Car event. In 2006 he started second and led a total of 24 laps but was in second place on the final lap before he charged past Justin Wilson in Turn 6 of 15 to win. Also set the fastest race lap. In 2005, started third but had a problem with the ECU and had to pit early where he had a troubled stop and later retired in 17th after contact with Cristiano da Matta. Started from pole in 2004, set the fastest race lap and led all 63 laps to win the race and championship but not before he overcame a Lap 41/63 mistake where he spun after having built a 17-second lead. Started fourth in 2003 and finished second…Bourdais made history as no Champ Car driver has ever won four straight championships. Four in a row is very rare in professional sports in fact it has never been done in either NASCAR or NFL and it hasn’t been accomplished in the last twenty years in the NBA, NHL or MLB.
Graham Rahal, No. 2 Medi | Zone Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone: “Unfortunately on our first run Will Power blocked us so we lost a lap there. On the second run I tried to get it a lap too late and didn’t quite manage to put it all together. I’ve still got to be happy with sixth today and starting seventh overall. We’ve got to go forward and move on now. We have to finish ahead of Pagenaud and some of these other guys ahead of us or otherwise it’s going to be tough to finish fifth in the championship. It will be tough but not impossible. ”
FAST FACTS: Will be his first Champ Car race in Mexico City… Is ranked fifth with 220 points…Finished runner-up to the champion in the Atlantic standings in 2006 after the fight went to the Road America finale and he retired in 20th due to an electrical failure after starting third. Also competed in two Formula BMW events here in 2004 and once in Start Mazda in 2005…Finished second in the Champ Car Atlantic championship after a title hunt that concluded in the season finale. Led 129 laps to champion Pagenaud’s 31. He earned a series-high five wins (42 percent), four poles (33 percent) and six podium finishes (50 percent) in the 12 events and at 17 years old was the youngest race winner in series history (Monterrey, Mexico on 5-21-06).
· NHR /NHLR FAST FACTS: In their previous five years of racing here, NHR has earned TWO WINS (Bourdais 2006, 2004), ONE POLE (Bourdais 2004) and FIVE PODIUM finishes (2nd – Junqueira 2004, Bourdais 2003, da Matta 2002). NHLR hopes to add to these numbers.
