2007 CCWS Rd. 14--Tecate Grand Prix of Mexico.........

[mlittle]

After a season that has seen its' share of ups and downs, the 2007 ChampCar season comes to its' conclusion south of the border at the "big stones"(insert your own word for "stones" here..... ) circuit known as the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. Since 2002, the stars of the ChampCar series have visited this 2.7+ mile track in the high-altitudes of Mexico City. Last year's race was one of the better races in recent memory as soon-to-depart for F1 driver Sebastien Bourdais snuck past the lanky Brit Justin Wilson for the win, the pair beatin'-n-bangin' NASCAR-style on the last lap........wonder what will happen this year?

Past winners at Hermanos Rodriguez....................
2002--Kenny Brack
2003--Paul Tracy
2004--Sebastien Bourdais
2005--Justin Wilson
2006--Sebastien Bourdais
note....CART ran twice here in 1980 and 1981; both races were won by Rick Mears

Event schedule for the weekend........................
Practice Session #1.............11:15 am, 9 November 2007
Practice Session #2..............3 pm, 9 November 2007
Qualifying Session #1...........3:20 pm, 9 November 2007
Practice Session #3..............11:15 am, 10 November 2007
Practice Session #4..............3 pm, 10 November 2007
Qualifying Session #2...........3:20 pm, 10 November 2007
Warmp-Up...........................10 am, 11 November 2007
Race....................................2 pm(ESPN-2), 11 November 2007

[mlittle]

ChampCar officials released a technical bulletin to the teams this week, alerting the teams to a change in the boost for the Cosworth XFE-3 engine......according to series officials, the base horsepower for the Mexico City race will remain at 750hp, but the boost will now increase from 50 to 100 hp w/75 seconds of boost for the Mexico City race instead of the expected 60 seconds of boost

[mlittle]

Bridgestone Entry List...........................
Sebastien Bourdais, #1 McDonald's
(R)Graham Rahal, #2 Medi/Zone
Paul Tracy, #3 Indeck/Monster Energy Drink
Dan Clarke, #4 Ticketmaster/Synapse Power
Will Power, #5 Aussie Vineyards
David Martinez, #7 Indeck/Axtel
Alex Tagliani, #8 Lexington Energy Svcs.
Justin Wilson, #9 CDW
Katherine Legge, #11 AMR/i-Rise
(R)Robert Doornbos, #14 Muermans/OzJet
(R)Simon Pagenaud, #15 Aussie Vineyards
Bruno Junquiera, #19 Sonny's Real Pit BBQ
(R)Neel Jani, #21 Red Bull/Gulfstream
Oriol Servia, #22 Pay-by-Touch
Mario Dominguez, #28 Tecate/Telmex
(R)Alex Figge, #29 Molecule Labs
Nelson Phillipe, #34 Juniper P.D.G.

[mlittle]

Event: Grand Prix of Mexico, round 14 of the 2007 ChampCar season
When: 11 November 2007, 2 pm(ESPN-2)
Where: Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, Mexico City

Race Distance: 1 hr, 45 minute timed race
Track Distance: 2.774 miles

Tire Specifications...................
--tire compounds to be used were previously used at Mexico City in 2006 and at Monterrey in 2006
--each team will receive 13 sets of Bridgestone Potenzas'(7 sets of standard compound dry-tires, 2 sets of alternate-compound dry-tires and 4 sets of wet-weather tires)

[mlittle]

Some items of interest from Hermanos Rodriguez................

~~No brace for Power........Team Australia's Will Power, who injured his wrist in a crash at the last race in Surfes Paradise, has asked for his left wrist to be taped us as Justin Wilson's was in last year's race rather than use a medical brace series officials had planned for him to use

~~Lower boost once again for Mexico City........Due to the high altitude environs of the Mexico City area, Cosworth engineers have reduced the boost on the XFE-3 engines down to 37psi at 750hp and in boost mode, 40psi at 850hp; Cosworth is also in discussions with ChampCar officials on running their 2008-spec XFE-3A engines at 40psi/750hp, allowing them to run at around 46-47psi in boost mode

~~Driver moves for 2008...........a couple of drivers may have 2008 seats finalized over the weekend,most notably Justin Wilson and Bruno Junquiera, who look set to drive for NHL Racing(Wilson) and Dale Coyne Racing(Junquiera)

[mlittle]

Mexico City Practice Session #1 top-5......................

1st} Justin Wilson, RuSport Racing..................................1:27.018 sec
2nd} Sebastien Bourdais, NHL Racing..............................1:27.136 sec
3rd} Oriol Servia, PKV Racing.........................................1:27.798 sec
4th} Will Power, Team Australia......................................1:27.927 sec
5th}(R)Simon Pagenaud, Team Australia.........................1:27.957 sec

[mlittle]

Mexico City Practice Session #2 top-5........................

1st} Will Power, Team Australia.................................1:26.471 sec
2nd}(R)Simon Pagenaud, Team Australia...................1:27.095 sec
3rd}(R)Neel Jani, PKV Racing....................................1:27.146 sec
4th} Sebastien Bourdais, NHL Racing..........................1:27.540 sec
5th} Paul Tracy, Forsythe Champ. Racing....................1:27.617 sec

[mlittle]

On the final weekend of the 2007 ChampCar season, outgoing 4-time series champion Sebastien Bourdais made the QS-1 session look silly for everyone else, setting the fast lap of the session after less than 6 minutes in, returning to pitlane and watching everyone take shots at it....to no avail; in garnering the provisional pole, Bourdais earned one championship point and the guaranteed starting spot for Sunday's Tecate Grand Prix of Mexico.........

QS-1 top-5......................
1st} Sebastien Bourdais, NHL Racing..............................1:24.698 sec
2nd} Justin Wilson, RuSport Racing.................................1:24.825 sec
3rd} Will Power, Team Australia......................................1:25.199 sec
4th} Oriol Servia, PKV Racing.........................................1:25.436 sec
5th}(R)Simon Pagenaud, Team Australia.........................1:25.952 sec

[mlittle]

Mexico City Practice Session #3 top-5.....................
1st} Sebastien Bourdais, NHL Racing.............................1:24.815 sec
2nd}(R)Neel Jani, PKV Racing.......................................1:24.882 sec
3rd}(R)Robert Doornbos, Minardi Team USA..................1:24.918 sec
4th} Justin Wilson, RuSport Racing................................1:24.943 sec
5th} Will Power, Team Australia....................................1:25.072 sec

[mlittle]

Mexico City Practice Session #4 top-5...................................
1st} Will Power, Team Australia...............................1:25.046 sec
2nd} Sebastien Bourdais, NHL Racing.......................1:25.527 sec
3rd} Justin Wilson, RuSport Racing...........................1:25.585 sec
4th}(R)Simon Pagenaud, Team Australia..................1:25.745 sec
5th}(R)Graham Rahal, NHL Racing...........................1:26.059 sec

[mlittle]

Tecate Grand Prix of Mexico Starting Grid........................

1st} Will Power, #5 Aussie Vineyards...............................1:23.558 sec^
2nd} Sebastien Bourdais, #1 McDonald's..........................1:24.698 sec*

3rd}(R)Robert Doornbos, #14 Muermans/OzJet.................1:24.152 sec
4th} Oriol Servia, #22 Pay-by-Touch................................1:24.324 sec

5th} Justin Wilson, #9 CDW.............................................1:24.365 sec
6th}(R)Simon Pagenaud, #15 Aussie Vineyards.................1:24.394 sec

7th}(R)Graham Rahal, #2 Medi/Zone................................1:24.515 sec
8th} Paul Tracy, #3 Indeck/Monster Energy Drink..............1:24.608 sec

9th} Dan Clarke, #4 Ticketmaster/Synapse Power.............1:24.764 sec
10th} David Martinez, #7 Indeck/Axtel..............................1:24.888 sec

11th}(R)Neel Jani, #21 Red Bull/Gulfstream.......................1:24.929 sec
12th} Bruno Junquiera, #19 Sonny's Real Pit BBQ..............1:25.361 sec

13th} Nelson Phillipe, #34 Juniper P.D.G............................1:25.405 sec
14th} Alex Tagliani, #8 Lexington Energy Svcs...................1:25.446 sec

15th} Mario Dominguez, #28 Tecate/Telmex......................1:25.602 sec
16th} Katherine Legge, #11 AMR/i-Rise.............................1:26.277 sec

17th}(R)Alex Figge, #29 Molecule Labs..............................1:26.586 sec

^--new track record
*--provisional polesitter from QS-1 session

[mlittle]

[Ed]

Congratulations to Sebastien Bourdais on winning the race and his 4th Champ Car title in a row. A feat no one has ever achieved before.

Good luck next year in the Toro Rosso.

Having followed his career in Champ Cars mlittle, how do you rate his chances in Formula 1 ? Looking at his win/start rate, this guy may surprise many in F1!

[mlittle]

note....from left to right: NHL co-owner Carl Haas, NHL Racing driver Sebastien Bourdais w/daughter Emma, NHL co-owner Paul Newman and NHL Racing co-owner Mike Lanigan

Despite incurring a pre-race penalty for doing practice standing starts in the morning warm-up, outgoing 4-time series champion Sebastien Bourdais closed out one of the more stellar careers in NA open-wheel racing with a win at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez circuit this afternoon, winning today's Tecate Grand Prix of Mexico.

At the drop of the lights(ya' know, I'm starting to like standing starts...... ) polesitter Will Power took the early lead only to lose the lead to Bourdais just before the first round of stops......after that, it was lights out on the field. By race's end, Bourdais held off a late charge by the Aussie to win his 31st career ChampCar win by 1.905 seconds; Bourdais ends his ChampCar career tied for 8th-all time with "Little" Al Unser, Jr. and Paul Tracy, both of whom have 31 wins to their credit.

The emotions flowed freely on the podium as Bourdais broke down in tears as the events of the day and the past five years washed over him; joining him on the podium were Team Australia's Will Power and PKV Racing's Oriol Servia.

Top-10 from the high environs of Mexico City.........................................
1st} #1 Sebastien Bourdais....................................64 laps
2nd} #5 Will Power................................................-1.905 sec
3rd} #22 Oriol Servia............................................-3.364 sec
4th}(R)#2 Graham Rahal.......................................-7.345 sec
5th} #3 Paul Tracy................................................-8.592 sec
6th}(R)#15 Simon Pagenaud..................................-9.637 sec
7th} #19 Bruno Junquiera.......................................-15.827 sec
8th} #28 Mario Dominguez....................................-15.076 sec**
9th}(R)#21 Neel Jani.............................................-16.198 sec
10th} #9 Justin Wilson...........................................-16.953 sec
**---originally finished 7th but was dropped to 8th for a Turn 17 exit line infraction

[mlittle]

Congratulations to Sebastien Bourdais on winning the race and his 4th Champ Car title in a row. A feat no one has ever achieved before.

Good luck next year in the Toro Rosso.

Having followed his career in Champ Cars mlittle, how do you rate his chances in Formula 1 ? Looking at his win/start rate, this guy may surprise many in F1!

Its' one for the ages, Ed.......the only other driver in NA open-wheel racing history(going back to the first Vanderbilt Cup race in 1906) to win three consecutive titles prior to Bourdais' 3rd last year was Ted Horn(1946-1948); both A.J. Foyt and Mario Andretti came close(ironically, both kept the other from winning more than 2 at a time in the mid-to-late 1960s) but Bourdais' 4-year championship is on a par with, dare I say, Michael Schumacher's 5-year WDC in F1?

Having seen him race the past 5 years here in the States', Ed, I'd rate his chances as pretty good; granted, he's going from the top of the NA open-wheel ladder to an F1 backmarker but I won't be surprised if SeaBass runs consistently mid-pack next year; after all, there were times this year where the Toro Rosso did run consistently with the big dogs.

On the other hand, with the somewhat anemic grids ChampCar has had the past few years, its' a wonder SeaBass's win/start percentage isn't higher.......about the only drivers that have given Bourdais any trouble over the past 5 years have been Paul Tracy, Justin Wilson, A.J. Allmendinger, Will Power and Robert Doornbos.......

That said................I really believe, now that he's got his shot in F1, that Bourdais's going to do pretty darn' good next year.......