In the 20+ years that Newman-Haas-Lanigan Racing has been competing in the Champ Car World Series, the team has won 99 races in ChampCar competition with some of the sport's top drivers(Ma. and Mi. Andretti, Nigel Mansell, Cristiano da Matta, Paul Tracy)...........and they got win 100 Sunday afternoon with 3-time series champion Sebastien Bourdais providing the victory...........
As the lights went out on ChampCar's first standing start(.....anyone want any crow; I didn't think they'd actually pull off a standing start......
), however, it wasn't SeaBass who got the drop on the field but RuSport's Justin Wilson who got the lead entering turn 1......a lead that would stretch to about 12 seconds; meanwhile, SeaBass looked like he was human after all, dropping back to 5th following an opportunistic pass by Wilson's "teammate", Rocketsports' Alex Tagliani*......but appearance, as they can say, can be deceiving.
*--technically, Wilson and Tagliani drive for different teams(RuSport and Rocketsports) but their respective teams have merged engineering staffs(collectively named R-Sports), hence they are, technically, teammates.
After the first round of stops, however, the SeaBass that has effectively put a stranglehold on the series returned to form, with the help of his pitcrew, who short-filled Bourdais hoping to jump ahead of Tagliani, Robert Doornbos and Will Power........it worked; once ahead, he set his sights on Wilson and steadily reeled him in, eventually passing him on lap 54 at the Festival Curves......and it was lights out afterwards; Bourdais was never seriously challenged the rest of the day.
Top-10 from Portland......................
1st} #1 Sebastien Bourdais.................................103 laps
2nd} #9 Justin Wilson..........................................-13.537 sec
3rd} (R)#14 Robert Doornbos..............................-35.151 sec
4th} #5 Will Power..............................................-43.338 sec
5th} #8 Alex Tagliani..........................................-1:01.396 sec
6th} #4 Dan Clarke............................................-1:02.044 sec
7th} (R)#22 Tristan Gommendy...........................-1 lap
8th} (R)#15 Simon Pagenaud..............................-1 lap
9th} (R)#2 Graham Rahal...................................-1 lap
10th} #3 Paul Tracy............................................-1 lap
